^lOFPRWCf?5^ 
 
 -^ftOGICALSE*^ 
 
 lis 
 
NOTES, 
 
 CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL, 
 
 ON THE BOOKS OF 
 
 JOSHUA AND JUDGES, 
 
 DESIGNED AS A GENERAL HELP TO 
 
 BIBLICAL READING AND INSTRUCTION. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE BUSH, 
 
 PROF. HEB. AND ORIENT. LIT., N.Y, CITY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 E. FRENCH, 146 NASSAU-STREET. 
 
 1838. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Confess, by Eli French, in the 
 .year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, in the 
 Clerk's office of the southern district of New- York. 
 
 Ptinted by W. Molineux, coiner of Chatbana 
 and Roosevelt Streets. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A VERY slight inspection of the pages of the present 
 work will disclose to the reader its general character, and 
 enable him to judge how far it is likely to supply an existing 
 desideratum. Little, therefore, need be said by way of 
 preface. My main object has been to afford facilities for 
 the correct understanding of the sacred text — to aid the 
 student of the Bible in ascertaining with the utmost prac 
 ticable exactness the genuine sense of the original. With 
 such an object in view it was perhaps impossible to avoid 
 giving the work an aspect predominantly critical; and yet 
 unless I have utterly missed my aim, there will be found 
 such a union of the criticcd and the practical, as to adapt 
 the volume somewhat happily to popular use. Should this 
 prove not to be the case, I shall feel that the failure has 
 been rather in the execution, than in the plan ; for I know 
 no reason to suppose that the two departments are intrin- 
 sically incompatible, or that the two-fold function of the 
 exegetical and the ethical expositor may not be united in 
 the same person. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 No one at all conversant with the subject of biblical 
 annotation but must be aware, that there is a large mass of 
 materials accumulated by the critical toil of prior commen- 
 tators, and constituting a kind of common property, of which 
 each successive laborer in the field feels at libery to avail 
 himself. The propriety of this is universally conceded, 
 provided he sets up no special claim to what he finds thus 
 made ready to his hands. Indeed it is quite obvious that the 
 credit of originality in this department cannot be secured, 
 but at the expense of the greatest measure of utility — an 
 expense which I have not seen fit to incur. I have ac- 
 cordingly availed myself freely of all accessible sources of 
 Scripture elucidation that could be made subservient to 
 my plan, and have frequently interwoven with my own re- 
 marks phrases and sentences, and, in some cases, para- 
 graphs, without the formality of express quotation. But 
 however large may be my acknowledgement of indebted- 
 ness on this score, it is but justice to myself to say, that I 
 have generally weighed in my own scales the evidence for 
 or against a particular rendering or interpretation, and 
 that after every abatement, much, very much, will be 
 found in the present volume not to he inet with any where 
 else. Of the intrinsic value of these portions of the work, 
 the estimate, of course, must be left to those for whose 
 benefit it has been prepared. 
 
 It is my purpose, should a favorable Providence per- 
 mit, to go over all the historical books of the Old Testa- 
 ment on the same plan. Other indispensable engagements 
 may make the intervals of publication somewhat wide, but 
 the matter of a similar volume to the present on the book of 
 
PREFACE. * 3 
 
 Genesis is already in a considerable state of forwardness, 
 and will probably be ready for the press in the course of 
 the ensuing year ; to be followed as speedily as possible by 
 a series of volumes on the remaining books of the Penta- 
 teuch. 
 
 G. B. 
 
 New-York, June \st, 1837. 
 
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. — Author and Age. 
 
 This is the first book in the sacred canon called after the name of an 
 individual. Of the books thas distinguished, some bear the name of their 
 authors — as all the books of Prophecy; and others, those of persons who 
 act a con«;picuous part in the transactions recorded — as Ruth, Job, and 
 others. The present book might well be called 'the Book of Joshua' on. 
 the latter ground, as it exclusively relates to the proceedings of that great 
 leader, in fulfillment of the high commission entrusted to him, and ter- 
 minates with his death. If, however, as many critics suppose, Joshua 
 himself was the author of the book, it has a two-fold claim to be distin- 
 guished by his name. But the true authorship and date of the book have 
 never been, and probably never can be, satisfactorily ascertained ; and it 
 would be to little profit to canvass the different hypotheses which hnve 
 been advanced upon the subject. The sum of the matter seems to be, (1.) 
 That the book was either written by Joshua towards the clo^e of his life— 
 the five last verses being added by a properly authorised person after his 
 death — fr, (2.) That it was wholly written after his demise from docu- 
 ments penned by him or under his direction. These are the substantial 
 alternatives; and it cannoi be very material which of them is adopted, as 
 the genuineness and canonical authority of the book is in either case left 
 entirely unaffected. If it were not written by Joshua himself, a com- 
 parison of ch. 15. 63, with 2 Sam. 5. 6 — 8, respecting the capture of a 
 part of Jerusalem, will make it quite evident that it must have been 
 written before the seventh year of David's reign. But it maybe safely 
 admitted, that even on the supposition that the substance of the book was 
 indited by Joshua, there are in addition to the five last verses, several 
 others interspersed which could not have been written by him, but were 
 inserted by a later hand ; and the above for aught that appears, may 
 have been of the number. But passages of this description are few and 
 brief, and do not materially affect the plausibility of the opinion which 
 ascribes the authorship of the book to the personage whose name it bears. 
 This opinion is confirmed, though not established, by the fact, that the 
 general voice of Jewish tradition assigns to the book the same author. 
 
 II, — Contents, Scope and Design. 
 
 The book relates the history of Israel while under the command and 
 government of Joshua ; the entrance of the Hebrews into Canaan ; their 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 conquest of the greater part of the country ; the division of the territory 
 by loi among the several tribes; and ihe provision made for the settle- 
 ment and establishment of the Jewish church in that country. The length 
 of time embraced in this history is variously stated by chronologists, at 
 seventeen, twenty-seven, and thirty years. Between twenty-six and 
 twenty-seven years is the usually received and most probable period. 
 The "leading drift of the writer is to demonstrate the faithfulness ot God 
 in the perfect accomplishment of all his promises to the patriarchs, Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and also to Moses, that the children of 
 Israel should obtain possession of the land of Canaan. Viewed in this 
 light, it is an invaluable appendage to the preceding five books of Moses, 
 and indeed bears to them very much the same relation as does the Acts 
 of the Apostles to the Gospels of the four Evangelists. The inspired 
 historian relates, with all the animation of one who was an actual eye- 
 witness and participator of the scenes described, the successive miracles 
 that favored and secured the conquest of the country, the general zeal, 
 activity, and obedience of Israel in prosecuting their wars, with the oc- 
 casional lapses and transgressions that interrupted the career of their 
 victories. We see the divine power and faithfulness conspicuously dis- 
 played in guiding, cherishing, and defending the chosen people amidst 
 all the trials to which they were exposed; and while the general tenor of 
 the narrative afl^ords a striking emblem of the warfare of the Christian 
 in gaining possession of his heavenly inheritance, it ministers the most 
 abundant encouragement to those who in sincerity and faith throw 
 themselves upon the superintending care of that Being, who keepeth 
 covenant and mercy for ever. 
 
 III. — Commentators. 
 
 Andreje Mash. Josu(b Imperatoris Hisioria illustrata atque 
 explicata. Antverpise, 1574. Fol. 
 
 Masius, though a lawyer and a Catholic, has produced by far the most 
 elaborate work ever published on the book of Joshua, and incomparcbly 
 the most valuable commentary, with the single exception of that of Cal- 
 met, to which the Roman church can lay claim. Considering the age in 
 which it was written, and the limited facilities which the author could 
 have enjoyed for such a performance, it is truly a remarkable work, and 
 it will rather enhance the reader's estimation of its merit to know, that it 
 comes within the list of books prohibited by the Papal see — a fate which 
 we might be certain a priori its excellence would secure to it. Pool, in 
 the preface to his Sj-nopsis, says of Masius, ' Vir longiore vita et immor- 
 tali memoria dignus ; interpres cui parem ingenio, judicio, rerum ac 
 Imguarum peritia, candore et modestia, baud facile reperies.'— yl ?nan 
 ivokhy of a longer life and of an undying celebrity ; an interpreter, whose 
 eqnol'in talent, pidgnicnt, historical knoqcledge, skill in languages, candor 
 and modesty, is not easily to be found. Similar commendation is bestowed 
 by Buddeus, Walchius'and other bibliographers upon the commentary of 
 Masius, and from having it constantly before me in the preparation of 
 the ensuing notes, I feel no hesitation in subscribing to the general justice 
 of these encomiums. The work contains, besides the commentary, the 
 book of Joshua in the original Hebrew, with the Greek of the Septuagint 
 and a three-fold Latin translation, together with a preface containing 
 valuable readings to the Greek, from a manuscript copy in his possession, 
 which since hisdtjath has unfortunately been lost to the learned world. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 Sebast. Schmidii. PrcBfectiones academicce, in octo priora 
 libri Josu(B capita. Hamburgi, 1693. 4to. 
 
 For the character of Schmid as a Scriptural critic, see the list of 
 Commentators prefixed to the book of Judges. His Prelections on Joshua, 
 which were arrested by the death of the author at the eighth chapter, are 
 of similar character and value with those on the succeeding book, 
 
 Victor Strigelii. Liber Josucr argumentis et scholiis illus- 
 tratus. Lips. 1570, 1576. 8vo. 
 
 David CnYXRiEi. PrceJediones in lihrum Josucs. Ros- 
 tochii, 1577. 8vo. 
 
 NicoL. Serarii. Commentarius in Lihrum Josuce. Duob. 
 Tom. Mogunt. 1609. Pans. 1610. Fol. 
 
 Jac. Bonfrerii. Josua, Judices, et Ruth commentario illus- 
 trati. Paris. 1631. Fol. 
 
 H. E. G. Paulus. Blicke in das Buck Josua, als Vorges- 
 chichte der Suffetin und Samuels, in auctoris TheologiscluExege- 
 tischen Conservatorium, P. II. p. 149 et seq. Heidelberg. 1822. 
 
 F. J. V. D. Maurer. Commentar uher das Buck Joshua, 
 Stuttgard, 1831. 8vo. 
 
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA, 
 
 N 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OW after the death of Moses, 
 the servant of the Lord, it 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1. Noio after the death of Moses. 
 Heb. ' And after,' &c. The use of the 
 copulative ' and' brings this book into 
 immediate connection with the fore- 
 going — the last chapter of which is 
 supposed also to have been written 
 by Joshua — and so makes it a regu- 
 lar continuation of the sacred narra- 
 tive begun and carried on by Moses 
 through the five preceding books. 
 The ancient division of the Scrip- 
 tures into sections and books vjzs, less 
 clearly marked than at present, as 
 in those early ages several books 
 were connected together, and fol- 
 lowed each other on the same roll, 
 so that it might not always be per- 
 fectly easy to tell where one ended, 
 and the other began. — The time re- 
 ferred to at the opening of this book, 
 was probably at the conclusion of 
 the thirty days mourning for Moses, 
 spoken of Deut. 34. 8; or it might 
 have been during that period ; in 
 which time also it is the opinion of 
 some commentators that the spies, 
 (chap. 2. 1.) were sent out. If The 
 Lord spake unto Joshua. Of the 
 manner of this communication we 
 are not expressly informed. From 
 the fact that Moses and Joshua, just 
 before the death of the former, were 
 summoned together into the ' taber- 
 nacle of the congregation,' Deut. 
 31. 14, that the dying charge of 
 Moses might be given to his suc- 
 cessor, it seems highly probable that 
 the instructions and encouragements 
 imparted on this occasion were deli- 
 vered from the same place. IT The 
 servant of the Lord. A high and ho- 
 norable "title, applied to Moses, not 
 merely in the sense in which it is ap- 
 plied to pious and good men gener- 
 
 came to pass, that the Lord 
 spake unto Joshua the son of 
 Nun, Moses' "^ minister, saying, 
 
 a Ex. 24. 13. Deut. I. 38. 
 
 ally, who may justly be styled ser- 
 vants of the Most High, inasmuch as 
 it is the grand aim of their lives to 
 serve and obey him; but in this con- 
 nection carrying with it a reference 
 to the peculiar nature of the service 
 in which Moses was employed, viz. 
 that of a minister, mediator, deputy, 
 or vicegerent of God, the honored or- 
 gan through whom he communica- 
 ted his will to his chosen people and 
 managed all their varied interests. It 
 is in this character that he stands so 
 highly commended in the sacred vo- 
 lume, having received the divine tes- 
 timony to his being ' found faithful 
 in all God's house as a servant,'' and 
 being expressly distinguished by this 
 title, not only here, where God him- 
 self is pleased so to denominate him, 
 V. 2, but also in Rev. 15. 3, where it 
 is said of the company standing upon 
 the sea of glass, that they ' sing the 
 song of Moses the servant of God? 
 On the sense of ministerial ruling 
 oftentimes involved in the term ser- 
 vant, see Note Gen. 24. 2. IT Moses' 
 minister. That is, his immediate 
 attendant, one who waited upon his 
 person, and assisted him in business ; 
 one of whose services he availed 
 himself in a variety of ways, as Eli- 
 sha of those of Gehazi. The word 
 is rendered in some copies of the 
 Greek, vnnpyoi, an under-workman, 
 in others, Qepairwv, one that waits, at- 
 tends upon, ministers to. Previous 
 to the death of Moses, Joshua had 
 been specially designated to the of- 
 fice which he is now called to assume, 
 Deut. 1. 38; 31. 3, 6—8; and for 
 which he was peculiarly qualified 
 by his long familiarity with Moses, 
 and by the training which he would 
 naturally receive in the station occu- 
 
10 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 2 ^ Moses my servant is dead ; 
 now therefore arise, go over this 
 Jordan, thou and all this people, 
 unto the land which I do give to 
 
 pied under him. An humble and 
 devoted spirit, a willingness to serve 
 God in the meanest employments, is 
 the best preparative, and often the 
 surest precursor to posts of honor 
 and dignity in the church. Wher- 
 ever this is the case, no previous 
 lowness or obscurity of origin is, 
 in God's sight, an obstacle to advance- 
 ment. Persons of this character are 
 often surprised to look back, and see 
 from what small beginnings they 
 have been raised step by step, under 
 the guidance of Piovidence, to sta- 
 tions of the most extensive influence 
 and usefulness. 
 
 2. Moses my servant is dead. As 
 Joshua was of course aware of the 
 fact of Moses' decease, these words 
 could not be intended merely to an- 
 nounce to him that event. They 
 are equivalent to saying, ' The death 
 of my servant Moses has left the 
 people without a leader and a head 
 to conduct them into the promised 
 land. It is necessary tRat his place 
 should be immediately filled. Thou 
 hast been selected for that office, 
 and the time has now come for 
 thee to enter upon the active dis- 
 charge of its duties. Arise there- 
 fore, and go at once about the work 
 of thy high calling.' Probably Jo- 
 shua's deep sense of his own insuf- 
 ficiency and unworthiness, and of 
 the many dangers and difficulties 
 which encompassed his path, had 
 caused him somewhat to despond 
 aijid waver in spirit, and rendered 
 necessary this direct and rousing 
 siimmons, which, for the same rea- 
 son, God was pleased to accompany 
 with so many encouraging pro- 
 mises. When it is considered that 
 Joshua was now ninety-three years 
 of age, that he had to govern a very 
 perverse and rebellious people, and 
 was going to contend with a warlike 
 and forinidable enemy, it will per- 
 
 them, even to the children of 
 Israel. 
 
 3 " Every place that the sole 
 of your foot shall tread upon, 
 
 c Deul. 11. 21. ch. 14. 9, 
 
 haps appear, that nothing short of 
 the divine assurance he now re- 
 ceived, could have sustained his 
 courage in such an arduous sta- 
 tion. IT Go over this Jordan. This 
 river, which you now have in full 
 view before you, and on the banks of 
 which you are encamped. For a de- 
 scription of the Jordan, see ' Illustra- 
 tions of the Scriptures,' p. 20. It was 
 doubtless a severe trial to Joshua's 
 faith, to be thus called upon to make 
 immediate preparation for crossing 
 a river that was now overflowing its 
 banks, chap. 3. 15, and for getting 
 over which he was totally unprovi- 
 ded with the ordinary means, whe- 
 ther of boats or bridges. But as God 
 had given the command, he must 
 not doubt that he would open a 
 way for his people, though it should 
 be by cleaving the waters and re- 
 peating the miracle witnessed at the 
 Red Sea. It was as certain that 
 they should be conducted over the 
 Jordan, as it was that they should be 
 led i7ito Canaan, and to this the Most 
 High had pledged himself by the 
 most solemn promises, renewed from 
 age toage, from the time of Abraham 
 down to that Moses. With a ' Thus 
 saith the Lord' for our warrant, we 
 may boldly go forth in the face of 
 obstacles that are absolutely insuper- 
 able to human power. IT Unto the 
 land lokich I do give to them. Heb. 
 ' am giving.' That is, the land of 
 which I have long promised them 
 the inheritance, and of which I am 
 now in the very act of putting them 
 in possession. Though the promis- 
 es of God may be slow in fulfilling, 
 yet the accomplishment will come 
 at last ; not one jot or tittle shall fail. 
 Though 'the vision be for an ap- 
 pointed time, yet at the end it shall 
 speak, it shall not lie : though it 
 tarry, wait for it; because it will 
 surely come, it will not tarry,' 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 11 
 
 that have I given unto you, as 
 I said unto Moses. 
 
 4 '^ From the wilderness and 
 this Lebanon even unto the great 
 
 d Gen. 15. 18. Ex. 23- 31. Num 34. 3—12. 
 
 3. Every place that the sole of your 
 foot shall tread upon. That is, ever)'' 
 place within the limits specified in 
 the ensuing verse. The expression 
 in this, as in innumerable other 
 cases, must be qualified by the con- 
 nection. It was not intended to be a 
 grant of universal dominion. IF As 
 I said unto Moses. The words here 
 used are a literal repetition of the 
 promise made Deut. 11. 24. Indeed, 
 nearly every sentence in this address 
 to Joshua, occurs somewhere in the 
 course of the foregoing history, espe- 
 cially in the book of Deuteronomy. 
 
 4. Frovi the loilderness^ &c. God 
 here proceeds, in very brief terms, 
 to mark out and define the bounda- 
 ries of the land of promise. Its ut- 
 most limits should be from the wil- 
 derness of Sin, or the desert of Ara- 
 bia Petrgea on the South, to Lebanon 
 on the North ■; and from the Euphra- 
 tes on the East, to the great sea, or 
 the Mediterranean, on the West. 
 The Israelites did not indeed possess 
 the full extent of this grant till the 
 time of David, but their failure to do 
 so was owing entirely to their own 
 remissness, unbelief and disobedi- 
 ence, as was every reverse with 
 which they met during the whole 
 period of their history. They were 
 not straitened in God, but in them- 
 selves ; and the same remark holds 
 good with regard to his people in all 
 ages. IT This Lebanon. Particu- 
 larised in this manner, because it 
 could doubtless be seen from the spot 
 where Joshua now stood, rearing its 
 lofty summits towards the clouds in 
 the northern extremity of Canaan. 
 For an account of this well-known 
 range of mountains, any of the vari- 
 ous works in sacred geography may 
 be consulted. See also ' Illustrations 
 of the Scriptures,' p. 103. The name 
 ' Lebanon ' comes from the Heb. root 
 1^^ Ladan, white, from its summits' 
 
 river, the river Euphrates, all the 
 land of the Hittites, and unto the 
 great sea toward the going down 
 of the sun, shall be your coast. 
 
 being so constantly covered with 
 snow. IT All the land of the Hittites. 
 This is not the name of a region ly- 
 ing loithoutthelimits above specified, 
 or of a country promised in addition 
 to that which had been so long as- 
 signed, in the divine purpose, to Is- 
 rael, but it was one of the seven na- 
 tions of Canaan, so often alluded to 
 in the books of Moses, and here 
 probably mentioned by synecdoche, 
 a figure of speech by which a part is 
 put for the whole. In like manner, 
 in other instances, the nation of the 
 Amorites stands for the whole of 
 the Canaanitish people. As a rea- 
 son for the particular mention of the 
 Hittites here, rather than any other 
 of the devoted nations, it may be re- 
 marked, that it appears from the tran- 
 saction of Abraham with the sons 
 of Heth, or the Hittites, (Gen. 23,) 
 that they inhabited the southern bor- 
 ders of the land about the region of 
 Beershebaand Hebron, where subse- 
 quently the spies saw the gigan- 
 tic Anakims, who inspired them 
 with so much terror. It was natural, 
 therefore, that they should regard 
 these people as the most formidable 
 enemies whom they would be likely 
 to encounter, and equally natural 
 that God, in assuring them of the 
 complete conquest of all these na- 
 tions, should specify that one which 
 more than all others they dreaded. 
 He would thus banish their fears 
 where they would be most certain to 
 rise, and by promising them a vic- 
 tory, where they might apprehend a 
 defeat, inspire them with unwaver- 
 ing confidence of success in contend- 
 ing with all the rest of their enemies, 
 [f the Goliath of the Philistines' camp 
 be overcome, the routing of the 
 whole host beside would give com- 
 paratively little trouble. IT The great 
 sea. The Mediterranean; so call- 
 ed as being the greatest in the viciH" 
 
12 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 ^ 5 There shall not any man 
 be able to stand before thee all 
 the days of thy life : ^as 1 was 
 with Moses, so si will be with 
 
 e Deut. 7. 24. f Ex. 3. 12. g Deut. 31. 8, 23. t. 9, 
 17. ch. 3. 7. & 6. 27. Is. 43. 2, 5. 
 
 ity of the land of promise, the great- 
 est with which the Israelites were 
 acquainted, and especially so termed 
 in respect to the smaller seas in Ju- 
 dea, such as the sea of Gennesaret 
 or Tiberias, and the Dead Sea, which 
 were comparatively mere lakes. The 
 Hebrews, however, were accustomed 
 to give the name of ^i sea, to every 
 large collection of waters. ^ Shall 
 be your coast. Your border, your 
 boundary, your limits. Such is the 
 import of the word coast, as used by 
 some of the early English winters. 
 5. Able to stand before thee. Able 
 to resist thee, to maintain his ground 
 before thee, to throw any effectual 
 bar in the way of thy success. He 
 is, however, admonished that his 
 sufficiency was not of himself. It 
 was solely in consequence of God's 
 being with him, upholding and pros- 
 pering him, as he did Moses, that he 
 was to be rendered thus invincible. 
 Those that contended with him were 
 contending with omnipotence, and 
 in this unequal contest they must 
 necessarily be worsted. ' If God be 
 for us, who can be against us V What 
 Joshua had himself, on another occa- 
 sion, said to encourage the people, 
 Num. 14. 9, God now says to him. 
 This signal success, moreover, was 
 not only to mark the commencement 
 of his enterprises, but to attend him 
 throughout his whole career. How- 
 ever it might be with Israel when 
 he was gone, yet during his life time 
 he should be favored with a con- 
 stant tide of triumphs. If it be asked 
 how this assurance consists with the 
 fact, that he met with such a serious 
 repulse in one of his earliest expe- 
 ditions, and that so many thousands 
 of Israel were smitten and turned 
 their backs before the men of Ai, the 
 answer is, that they failed in the con^ 
 ditions on which the promises of vie- 
 
 thee : ''I will not fail thee, nor 
 forsake thee. 
 
 6 "Be strong and of a good 
 courage : for unto this people 
 
 h Deut, 31. 6, 8. Heb. 13. 5. i Deut 31. 7, 23. 
 
 tory were suspended. These pro- 
 mises were not absolute. They 
 were made with a proviso. They 
 were to be fulfilled on condition of 
 the implicit faith and obedience of 
 the people, with the perfect under- 
 standing, at the same time, that 
 God's grace was sufficient for them, 
 and that if they sought him sincere- 
 ly, they should never fail to receive 
 an adequate measure of ability to 
 enable them to comply with these 
 conditions. On the occasion alluded 
 to, they had grossly failed in duty, they 
 had sinned and transgressed the cov- 
 enant and were therefore smitten be- 
 fore the enemy, ' because they were 
 accursed,' i. e. laboring under the di- 
 vine displeasure. Josh. 7. 12. IT Iwill 
 not fail thee nor forsake thee. The 
 Heb. term for ' fail ' properly signi- 
 fies to let sink, to let groio slack and. 
 fall doion, being generally spoken of 
 the hands, and implying a loosing 
 or relaxing of one's grasp, and the 
 consequent falling down of the hands, 
 as in Josh. 10. 6, ' Slack not thy hands 
 from thy servants.' It has a mean- 
 ing directly opposite to that of the 
 word for laying a firm hold, taking 
 a vigorous grasp, of any thing. The 
 other is the usual word for leave, for- 
 sake, abandon. The sense clearly is, 
 that God would keep firm hold of his 
 servant, would not let go of him, 
 would not resign him up to the power 
 of his enemies. Moses had before 
 given to Joshua the same assurance, 
 couched almost in the express words 
 of this passage, Deut. 31. 6 — 8; and 
 here God is pleased, in accordance 
 with the character which he else- 
 where gives of himself, Is. 44. 26, 
 to ' confirm the word of his servant,' 
 and engages never to leave or be 
 wanting to Joshua. 
 
 6. Be strong and of a good courage. 
 These terms, though nearly related^ 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 13 
 
 shalt thou divide for an inherit- 
 
 ance the land which I sware 
 
 unto their fathers to give them. 
 
 7 Only be thou strong and 
 
 very courageous, that thou may- 
 est observe to do according to 
 all the law ''which Moses my 
 servant commanded thee : iturn 
 
 k Num. 27. 23. Deut. 31. 7. ch. U. 15. 1 Deut. 5. 
 32. & 28. U. 
 
 are not precisely synonymous with 
 each other. Theyboth occur, though 
 under slightly different forms, Is. 
 35 — 3, ' Strengthen ye the weak 
 hands and confirm the feeble knees,' 
 from which, andfrom other passages, 
 it is inferred that the first, ' be strong,' 
 properly implies that strength which 
 as in the hands for gro.sping and 
 holding firmly any thing, while the 
 latter points primarily to the strength 
 of the knees in steadfastly maintain- 
 ing one's position, and withstand- 
 ing every aggressive assault of the 
 €nemy. From this view of the pri- 
 mary and literal acceptation of the 
 words, we obtain a better idea of 
 iheir import when applied metaphor- 
 ically, as here, to the acts of the mind. 
 IT Unto this people shalt thou divide 
 for an inheritance the land. Heb. 
 ' Thou shalt cause this people to in- 
 herit the land.' "Which supposes 
 the previous entire conquest of the 
 land; and in this respect a higher 
 degree of honor was vouchsafed to 
 Joshua than to Moses, for he was 
 only permitted to conduct Israel 
 through the wilderness, and bring 
 them to the borders of the promised 
 land, while Joshua had the glory of 
 actually taking possession of, and 
 distributing the land to his people 
 as an inheritance. God is pleased, 
 therefore, to make known to him 
 his purposes concerning him, as a 
 reason for his assuming all that 
 strength and courage which he now 
 enjoins, upon him. 
 
 7. 07ily be thou strong and very 
 courageous, that thou mayest observe 
 to do, &c. As Joshua was now upon 
 the point of invading a country 
 filled with formidable enemies, ' na- 
 tions greater and mightier than he,' 
 we might well expect him to receive 
 a charge to ' be strong and very 
 courageous,' as it respected the ad- 
 2* 
 
 versaries whom he was about to en- 
 counter. But it is remarkable that 
 his enemies are here left compara- 
 tively out of sight, and the way ia 
 which his courage and fortitude are 
 mainly to be exercised, is, in adher- ^ 
 ing with inflexible firmness to the 
 law of God. As all his success, how- 
 ever, depended entirely upon God, 
 it was indispensably requisite that 
 he should secure the divine favor. 
 This he could only do by a rigid 
 obedience to God's commands ; and 
 such an obedience would require 
 a stronger principle of courage than 
 the most formidable enemies would 
 give occasion for. From which we 
 may learn, that in nothing is there 
 more scope for the display of the high- 
 est moral heroism, than in daring, in \ 
 all circumstances, to cleave stead- 
 fastly to the word of God as the rule 
 of our conduct. It is in this way 
 chiefly that the fortitude of a Chris- 
 tian soldier is to evince itself. He 
 is to contend with the enemies of his 
 salvation, in obedience to the laws of 
 God. As the soldier of an earthly 
 leader is to act in all things accord- 
 ing to certain rules, laid down in a 
 code drawn up for the purpose, so the 
 Christian soldier has his code drawn 
 up for him by God himself, and re- 
 vealed to him in the oracles of truth. 
 This code he is to study with all dili- 
 gence, and meditate on it day and 
 night, that he may conform himself 
 to it in every particular, and never 
 turn aside to the right hand or the 
 left. However difiicult or self-de- 
 nying its injunctions, he must obey 
 it, and so sacred must it be in his 
 eyes, that he will rather die than de- 
 part from it. This will require all 
 the courage that any man can pos- 
 sess. IT Which Moses my servant 
 commanded thee. The particular 
 commands of Moses here referred 
 
u 
 
 ^iomvA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 if 
 
 not from it to the right hand 
 or to the left, that thou mayest 
 prosper withersoever thou goest. 
 
 to, are to be found in Deut. 5. 32. 
 28. 14, and 31. 7, 8; and though 
 originally delivered to all the con- 
 gregation, yet here they are espe- 
 cially applied to Joshua, who, as 
 leader, stood as the representative 
 of the whole collective body of the 
 people. IT Turn not from it, to the right 
 hand or to the left. Heb., ' Turn not 
 from him,' i. e. from Moses ; where 
 his person stands for his writings. 
 So our Saviour says, ' If they hear 
 not Moses and the prophets,' i. e. the 
 words of Moses. — The metaphor is 
 taken from a man's pursuing a jour- 
 ney, who goes straight forward in 
 the direct road, if he knows it, with- 
 out turning aside into by-paths that 
 lead he knows not whither. IT That 
 thoaimaijest prosper . Or, Heb., ' may- 
 est do wisely, mayest deal or behave 
 xmderstandingly,' The primary and 
 most usual sense of the original is, 
 to direct one's self wisely, to act with 
 prudence and discretion, to be wise, 
 intelligent, and thence secondarily, 
 to prosper, to have good success. 
 These two senses of the word are so 
 intimately connected, that it is often 
 difficult to determine precisely which 
 of them is intended in a given pas- 
 sage. This very uncertainty, how- 
 ever, proves it to be clearly intima- 
 ted, in the native import of the term, 
 that real prosperity and success in the 
 affairs of life, is the result of a wise, 
 discreet, and prudent course of con- 
 duct, and inseparable from it, and 
 that it is vain to look for it from any 
 other source. Those only can rea- 
 sonably expect the blessing of God 
 upon their temporal affairs, who 
 make his word their rule, and con- 
 scientiously walk by it in all circum- 
 stances ; and this is the way of true 
 wisdom. 
 
 8. This book of the law. That is 
 by way of emphasis ' the book of the 
 law,' the law of Moses, to which, as 
 ie well knew, God attached the ut- 1 
 
 8 ™This book of the law shall 
 not depart out of thy mouth ; 
 but "thou shalt meditate therein 
 
 m Deut. 17. IS, 19. n Ps. 1. 2. 
 
 most importance, and of which he 
 speaks as if it were at that moment 
 in Joshua's hand, or at his side, as it 
 continually ought to be. IT Shall 
 not depart out of thy mouth. Thou 
 shalt constantly read and ponder it, \ >' 
 it shall incessantly employ thy lipsi;'^\ 
 thou shalt have thy heart so constant- ' \ 
 ly imbued with its letter and spirit, 
 that thy mouth shall, as it were, 
 overflow with its rich contents, as 
 ' out of the abundance of the heart 
 the mouth speaketh.' The same 
 phrase occurs but once elswhere in 
 the Scriptures, Is. 59. 21, ' As for 
 me, this is my covenant with them, 
 saith the Lord. My spirit that is 
 upon thee and my words which I 
 have put in thy mouth, shall not de- 
 part out of thy mouth, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the 
 Lord, from henceforth and forever j* 
 where it is implied that the cove- 
 nant promise should be deemed sa 
 precious, that it should be a perpet- 
 ual theme of meditation and dis- 
 course, that it should constantly 
 dwell on the tongues of those in- 
 terested in it. It is moreover implied, 
 in this charge to Joshua, that he was 
 not only to make the book of the 
 law the subject of assiduous study 
 for his own personal benefit, but al- 
 so to make it the sole rule and stan- 
 dard of all his public and official pro- 
 ceedings; he was to issue orders and 
 pronounce judgements according to 
 its precepts, and that too without 
 exception or reserve — he must 'do 
 according to aU that is written there- 
 in.' Though appointed to the rank 
 of supreme head and magistrate of 
 the nation, he was not to consider 
 himself elevated in the slightest de- 
 gree above the authority of the di- 
 vine law, or the necessity of con- 
 sulting it ; nor should any Christian 
 magistrate at this day consider him- 
 self at liberty to dispense with the 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 15 
 
 day and night, that thou may- 
 est observe to do according to 
 all that is written therein : for 
 then thou shalt make thy way 
 prosperous, and then thou shalt 
 have good success. 
 
 light which beams from the word of 
 God, in regard to the great matters of 
 his duty. The higher any man is 
 raised in office, the more need has 
 he of an acquaintance with the sa- 
 cred oracles, and the better will he 
 be qualified by the study of them for 
 the discharge of his arduous duties. 
 IT Thou shalt meditate therein day 
 und night. This is the character of 
 the good man as described by the 
 Psalmist, Ps. 1. 2, in words which 
 are almost an exact transcript of those 
 here employed. The Heb. term for 
 ' meditate,' implies that kind of men- 
 tal rumination which is apt to vent 
 itself in an audible sound of the voice. 
 See Comment, on Ps. 1.2. IT Make 
 thy way prosperous — have good 
 success. Two different words are 
 here employed, the latter of which is 
 the same with that remarked upon 
 above, v. 7, and which should proba- 
 bly be rendered here also, ' do wise- 
 ly,' ' conduct understandingly,' as 
 otherwise it is little, if any thing, 
 more than a bare repetition of the 
 preceding phrase. 
 
 9. Have not I commanded thee 7 I, 
 whose authority is paramoimt, 
 whose power is infinite, who am able 
 to carry thee through all difficulties 
 and dangers, and whom thou art 
 hound implicitly to obey. So in the 
 Christian warfare, it is the God of 
 heaven whose battles we fight, and 
 in whose service we are engaged. 
 Were it only an earthly monarch to 
 whom we had devoted ourselves, we 
 ought to serve him with all fidelity : 
 what then should we not do for the 
 King of kings, who has not only 
 chosen us to be his soldiers, but has 
 himself taken the field for our sakes, 
 to subdue our enemies, and to de- 
 liver us from their assaults'? — It 
 should be remarked, that the interro- 
 
 9 °Have not I commanded 
 thee ? Be strong and of a good 
 courage ; pbe not afraid, neither 
 be thou dismayed : for the Lord 
 thy God is with thee whither- 
 soever thou goest. 
 
 o Deut. 31. 7, 8, 23. p Ps. 27. 1. Jer. 1. 8. 
 
 gative form of speech is often used, 
 not as implying any thing doubtful, 
 but as the most emphatic mode of ex- 
 pressing either a negative or affirm- 
 ation, particularly when the speak- 
 er wishes to rouse and excite strong- 
 ly the attention of the hearer. In- 
 stances are innumerable. '{I The Lord 
 thy God is with thee. Here is some- 
 what of a remarkable change in the 
 persons, from the first to the third, 
 but whether with any peculiar sig- 
 nificancy it is not easy to determine. 
 The Chaldee renders it in reference 
 to the Son, ' The Word of the Lord 
 thy God shall be with thee.' Con- 
 sidered as a pledge of the presence 
 and support of the God of heaven 
 with all his faithful people, in their 
 trials and conflicts, the promise is 
 full of precious meaning. He says 
 to us, in efl!ect, what he says to 
 Joshua; and what encouragement 
 can we desire more 1 Imagine a sol- 
 dier with his commander in chief 
 always at his side, cheering and en- 
 couraging him, and how naturally 
 would he thereby be stirred up to 
 deeds of valor which he would not 
 otherwise be able to exhibit 1 Let us 
 knew then as believers that God is 
 ever with us, and with us, not only 
 as a witness, but as a helper, to 
 strengthen us, to uphold us, and to 
 fight our battles for us. If, however, 
 we would secure this blessing, let us 
 give heed that our courage and for- 
 titude be of the right kind. There is 
 an unhallowedboldness which savors 
 of pride and vain glory. Against 
 this we cannot be too much on our 
 guard. In doing valiantly for God, 
 we must not forget the laws of meek- 
 ness. But if we fight in dependence 
 on the Lord's strength, and in con- 
 formity to his commands, we need 
 not doubt of final victory. 
 
16 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 10 IT Then Joshua command- 
 ed the officers of the people 
 saying, 
 
 11 Pass through the host and 
 command the people, saying, 
 Prepare you victuals ; for "J with- 
 in three days ye shall pass over 
 
 q ch. 3. 2. See Deut. 9. 1. & 11. 31. 
 
 10, Commanded the officers of the 
 people. Heb. Q^n^t::!? Shoterim. 
 These were under-ofRcers, subordi- 
 nate to the QitSBD Shophetim or jud- 
 ges, whose duty it was to see to the 
 execution of the orders of the heads 
 of the people, whether Moses, Joshua, 
 or his successors the Judges. Deut. 
 16. 18. 20. 5—9. The original is 
 usually rendered ypaixnareig, scribes, 
 in the Gr. version. 
 
 11. Prepare you victuals. Heb. 
 f1*l22 Tsedah, prey, including perhaps 
 manna, but implying more particu- 
 larly such other kinds of provisions 
 as they had obtained in the conquered 
 countries, as corn, oxen, sheep, &c. 
 as the word properly signifies what 
 is taken in hunting. Although the 
 manna was their main dependence 
 during their sojourn in the wilder- 
 ness, yet they do not appear to have 
 been forbidden to supply themselves 
 with other kinds of food when they 
 had an opportunity, Deut. 2. 6, 28; 
 and at this time, when they had come 
 into a land inhabited, where they 
 could procure such provisions, it is 
 probable that the manna did not fall 
 so plentifully, or they did not gather 
 so much as previously, so that they 
 ■were now commanded to lay in a 
 store of other eatables to supply the 
 deficiency. Certain it is, however, 
 that the manna did not entirely cease 
 falling till they had entered the land 
 of Canaan, and eaten of the old corn 
 
 .of the land, ch. 5. 12. IT Within 
 three days. Or, Heb. ' for yet three 
 days.' The probability is, that the 
 passage over the Jordan was not 
 made iiWafter the lapse of three days, 
 and that it took pla«e on the fourth : 
 the three days, therefore, here men 
 
 this Jordan, to go in to possess 
 the land which the Lord your 
 God giveth you to possess it. 
 
 12 U And to the Reubenites, 
 and to the Gadites, and to half 
 the tribe of Manasseh, spake 
 Joshua, saying, 
 
 of that on which the proclamation 
 was made, ch. 2. 22 ; 3. 1. Or, as the 
 original for ' shall pass,' is literally 
 ' shall be passing,' it may mean 
 simply, that within the space of three 
 days they should have brokenup from 
 their present encampment, and com- 
 menced their march, although the 
 actual passage of the Jordan may 
 not have occurred till a day or two 
 afterwards. The confidence with 
 which Joshua speaks of the event, 
 shows the undoubting character of 
 his own faith in the promise of God. 
 IT Which the Lord your God giveth 
 you. Heb. ' is giving,' i. e. is even 
 now in the act of giving. It would 
 tend greatly to animate the faith and 
 zeal of the people, and to secure 
 their vigorous cooperation, to see 
 God, as it were, girding himself to 
 the work, and actually putting forth 
 his power in the execution of his 
 promises. It would not do for them 
 to be remiss when omnipotence was 
 visibly engaged in their behalf. 
 This language M^ould teach them too 
 that the result was not to be brought 
 about by their own strength, and, con- 
 sequently, that they could not take 
 the glory of it to themselves. ^ To 
 possess it. Heb., ' to inherit it, ' i. e. 
 not merely to occupy it, but so to hold 
 it that it should be transmitted dowa 
 as a hereditary possession to their 
 children after them. 
 
 12. To the Reubenites and ta the 
 Gadites. Heb. ' to the Reubenite and 
 to theGadite,' the collective singular 
 for the plural, a very common idiom 
 of the original , particularly in speak- 
 ing of tribes and nations; as if the 
 whole body, from their intimate 
 union, were regarded as one per- 
 son. 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 17 
 
 13 Remember nhe word which 
 Moses the servant of the Lord 
 commanded you, saying, The 
 Lord your God hath given you 
 rest, and hath given you this 
 land. 
 
 14 Your wives, your little 
 ones, and your cattle shall re- 
 
 r Ninn. 32. 20—28. ch. 22. 2, 3, 4. 
 
 IT Remember the word which Mo- 
 ses, &c. This engagement on the 
 part of the two tribes and a half, is 
 detailed with all the circumstances 
 attending it, Num. 32. 1—42 ; and it 
 was proper here to remind them 
 of it, as, otherwise, having arrived at 
 the place of their settlement, they 
 might be induced to seek their own 
 ease, by remaining with their wives 
 and families in the rich and fertile 
 region of which they had come into 
 possession. If The Lord your God 
 hath given you rest. Rather, accord- 
 ing to the Heb., ' The Lord is giv- 
 ing you rest, and hath given you this 
 land.' These precise words do not 
 occur in the address of Moses to the 
 two tribes and a half, but the sense 
 of them does, and Joshua intended, 
 doubtless, merely to quote the sub- 
 stance of what Moses said. The 
 phrase, * giving you rest,' perhaps 
 merely implies that they were now 
 brought to a place of rest, rather than 
 a positive state of rest, which they 
 could hardly be said to enjoy till they 
 had subdued their enemies. They 
 were at rest, however, in contradis- 
 tinction from journeying, and in this 
 sense the original word is often em- 
 ployed. 
 
 14. Ye shall pass before your breth- 
 ren. That is, as the original implies, 
 ye shall pass or cross over before, or 
 in the presence of, your brethren. It 
 does not appear to signify that they 
 should take the front rank or lead 
 the van, for such an intimation re- 
 specting them is no where else clear- 
 ly given ; but simply that they should 
 not absent themselves, that they 
 should be present with their breth- 
 ren, united with them in the expe- 
 
 main in the land which Moses 
 gave you on this side Jordan ; 
 but ye shall pass before your 
 brethren armed, all the mighty 
 men of valor, and help them ; 
 
 15 Until the Lord have given 
 your brethren rest, as he hath 
 given you, and they also have 
 
 dition. The Heb. phrase is often 
 used in this sense. IT Armed. Heb. 
 ' marshalled by five.' Of the import 
 of this expression, see Note on Ex. 
 13. 18, where it is rendered harnes- 
 sed. IT All the mighty men of valor. 
 Not absolutely all the fighting men 
 of these tribes, but the choice of 
 them, the most active, bold and ener- 
 getic ; for as there were only forty 
 thousand of them that passed over, 
 ch. 4. 13, while the whole number 
 of warriors was far greater, Num. 
 26, it is evident that a large body of 
 them must have remained on the 
 other side of the Jordan, to take care 
 of the women, children, ^and flocks. 
 Probably as many at least as seventy 
 thousand, as the sum total of the men 
 in those tribes able to bear arms was 
 upwards of one hundred and ten 
 thousand. See Num. 26. 7, 18, 37. 
 
 15. Until the Lord have given your 
 brethren rest, as he hath given you. 
 That is, until he hath brought them 
 to their place of rest ; for it could not 
 strictly be said of either company, 
 that the Lord had given them rest, 
 imtil they had so far conquered 
 their enemies as to be in no dan- 
 ger of being henceforth seriously 
 molested by them. But that was, at 
 this time, by no means the case with 
 the two tribes and a half, nor have 
 we reason to suppose, in respect ta 
 the others, that the mere putting them 
 in possession of the promised terri- 
 tory would be ' giving them rest,' as 
 long as their enemies remained in 
 great numbers unsubdued. We are 
 led therefore to understand from this 
 expression, simply the bringing them 
 to,orplantingthemin, a place of rest. 
 The actual enjoyment of the rest 
 
IS 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 possessed the land which the 
 Lord your God giveth them : 
 "then ye shall return unto the 
 land of your possession, and en- 
 joy it, which Moses the Lord's 
 servant gave you on this side 
 Jordan toward the sun-rising. 
 16 IT And they answered 
 Joshua saying, All that thou 
 commandest us, we will do, and 
 
 was a matter of subsequent favor. 
 IT Toward the sun rising. That is, 
 the East, as, toward the going down 
 of the sun, signifies the West. 
 
 16. And they answered Joshua. 
 This, as some conceive, was not 
 the answer of the two tribes and 
 a half only, but the response of 
 the whole host, who thus concur- 
 red heartily with them in their 
 solemn engagements. It is not un- 
 likely that such were the real sen- 
 timents of the entire congregation ; 
 but it seems more natural, from the 
 connection, to understand it of those 
 who were directly addressed. They 
 afterwards received the testimony of 
 Joshua, as having fully complied 
 with ah their stipulations, ch. 22. 
 2 — 4. IF All that thou commandest 
 us we will do, &c. Thus are we re- 
 quired to swear allegiance to Christ, 
 the Captain of our salvation, the 
 christian's Joshua, and to bind our- 
 selves to do what he commands us 
 by his word, and to go wheresoever 
 he sends us by his providence. 
 
 17. According as we hearkened un- 
 to Moses, &c. As we obeyed Moses. 
 Nothing is more common than this 
 sense of the word ' hearken' in the 
 sacred writers. If it be asked, how 
 this language is to be reconciled 
 with the declaration of Moses him- 
 self in regard to their conduct under 
 him, Deut, 9. 24, * Ye have been re- 
 bellious against the Lord from the 
 day that I knew you,' we answer, 
 that neither the words of Moses, nor 
 of the people, are to be understood 
 as holding good universally, and 
 
 whithersoever thou sendest us, 
 we will go. 
 
 17 According as we heark- 
 ened unto Moses in all things, .^ 
 so will we hearken unto thee : | 
 only the Lord thy God the with 
 thee, as he was with Moses. 
 
 18 Whosoever he be that 
 doth rebel against thy com- 
 mandment, and will not hearken 
 
 t ver. 5. 1 Sam. 20. 13. 1 Kings 1. 37. 
 
 without any exception. They were 
 sometimes rebellious, and sometimes 
 obedient. What they mean is, that 
 they would be as obedient to Joshua 
 as they ever were to Moses, when 
 they did obey him, when they were 
 in their best moods ; as obedient, in 
 fact, as they should have been to Moses, 
 and as many of them generally were. 
 The literal rendering of the original 
 is, ' According to all (in) which we 
 hearkened to Moses, so will we hear- 
 ken to thee.' This perhaps limits 
 the point of comparison to those 
 cases in which they were actually 
 obedient, and excludes those in which 
 they rebelled. IT Only the Lord thy 
 God be loith thee, &c. This is not to 
 be understood as a condition, or limi- 
 tation of their promised obedience, 
 as if they should say, ' We will obey 
 thee as far as we perceive the Lord 
 is with thee, but no farther,' but ra- 
 ther as an earnest prayer in behalf 
 of Joshua, that he might constantly 
 enjoy the divine guidance, protec- 
 tion, and blessing ; q. d. ' Do not 
 fear for us. Be assured of our con- 
 stant obedience. Be solicitous main- 
 ly for thyself This is the matter of 
 our anxiety, that the Lord would be 
 with thee, and prosper thee in all 
 things.' To pray feryently for those 
 in authority over us, is the surest 
 way to render them blessings to us 
 and to the communities in which we 
 live. 
 
 18. Rebel against thy command- 
 ment. Heb. ' rebel (against) thy 
 mouth,' i, e. the word or command- 
 ment of thy mouth. Perhaps in this 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 It 
 
 unto thy words in all that thou 
 commandest him, he shall be 
 put to death : only be strong 
 and of a good courage. 
 
 they had an eye to what Moses had 
 said respecting the Lord's raising 
 up a prophet like unto himself, and 
 to whose words they were to heark- 
 en under the severest penalty, Deut. 
 18. 18, 19. They might have sup- 
 posed this prediction to be fulfilled 
 in the appointment of Joshua as 
 Moses' successor, without knowing, 
 at the same time, but that it might 
 still have an ulterior fulfilment at 
 some subsequent period in a yet 
 more illustrious personage. 
 
 CHAPTER. II. 
 
 I. Joshua sent tioo men to spy 
 secretly. Or, Heb. ' had sent.' This 
 sending forth of the spies had very 
 probably taken place sometime pre- 
 vious to the order mentioned above, 
 ch. 1. 10, at which time it is not un- 
 likely they had returned and made 
 their report to Joshua. The order 
 of events in the sacred history can- 
 not always be determined by the or- 
 der of narration. Continual trans- 
 positions of this kind are to be met 
 with in every part of the Scriptures. — 
 Moses sent out twelve spies, because 
 the whole land of Canaan was to be 
 explored; Joshua dispatched but 
 two, as he only sought for informa- 
 tion respecting the posture of the city 
 of Jericho and its immediate vicinity. 
 — Although an express assurance had 
 been given to Joshua, that every place 
 -on which the sole of his foot should 
 tread should come into his posses- 
 sion, and that no man should be able 
 to stand before him, yet as every pru- 
 dent general endeavors to obtain in- 
 formation respecting the state of any 
 fortified city which he is about to be- 
 siege, before he proceeds actually to 
 invest it; so he felt it his duty to 
 send spies to asertain the state of Jer- 
 icho, before he passed over Jordan 
 to attack it. God is pleased to ac- 
 complish his promises by the use of 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 A ND Joshua the son of Nun 
 
 "^ sent "^out of Shittim two 
 
 men to spy secretly, saying, Go 
 
 means ; to neglect the means, there- 
 fore, is to tempt him, rather than to 
 trust in him ; and to expect the end 
 without using the means, is not faith, 
 but presumption. IF Out of Shit- 
 tim. Called elsewhere Abel-Shit- 
 tim, unless the latter were the name 
 of the adjoining valley. The city 
 of Shittim was situated from eight 
 to eleven miles east of the Jordan, 
 in the plains of Moab, and within 
 the boundaries assigned to the tribe 
 of Reuben. It is supposed to have 
 been so named fronrtfre great quan- 
 tity of trees, called Shittim-wood, 
 which grew in its vicinity. IT To 
 spy secretly. Heb. ' silently '. But 
 whether this word has reference to 
 the manner of their being sent, viz, 
 in a secret, silent way, without the 
 privity of the people, or to the mode 
 of discharging their duty, noiselessly, 
 stealthily, it is difiicult to determine. 
 From the relative position of the 
 words the latter seems the most pro- 
 bable. U Vie%o the land, even Jeri- 
 cho. Explore the land or country 
 about Jericho, but more especially 
 the city itself. #They were to ob- 
 serve its site, its various localities, its 
 avenues of approach, its fortifica- 
 tions, the state of its population, 
 every thing, in fine, which would be 
 of service to them in concerting the 
 best mode of attack. This city is sup- 
 posed to have derived its name either 
 from the form of the plain on which 
 it stood, resembling a Tiew moon, 
 or from the sweet smell of the balsam 
 or palm trees, which abounded there 
 in great profusion, Deut. 34. 3 ; Judg. 
 1. 16. It seems not to have been 
 situated immediately upon the river, 
 but at the distance of six or eight 
 miles. The modern Jericho, now 
 called Rihhah, is a miserable village 
 of about fifty dwellings ; but, accord- 
 ing to Buckingham, it does not oc- 
 cupy the site of the ancient city. 
 
80 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 view the land, even Jericho. 
 And they went, and ''came into 
 
 b Heb. II. 31. James 2, 25. 
 
 The latter, according fo him, was 
 situated four miles nearer Jerusalem, 
 at the very foot of the mountains, 
 where he noticed the ruins of a place 
 of consequence. The plain of Jeri- 
 cho extends from the mountains, 
 where the ruins of the old city are to 
 be found, eastward towards Jordan, 
 and is nearly inclosed on all sides 
 by these or similar mountains. 
 IT Arid came into a harlot's house. 
 The character of this woman has 
 been a much disputed point among 
 commentators. As she is commend- 
 ed by the Apostle for her faith, Heb. 
 11, 31, and by her marriage with 
 Salmon, Matt. 1. 5, subsequently 
 came into the line of our Lord's pro- 
 genitors, great anxiety has been 
 evinced to clear her reputation, if 
 possible, from the reproach of an in- 
 famous course of life. On this ac- 
 count, great pains have been taken 
 to show that the original term may 
 be properly rendered ' hostess,' and 
 so does not necessarily convey the 
 idea attached to the English word 
 ' harlot.' But it is beyond all ques- 
 tion, that the legitimate and uniform 
 signification of the Heb. term is that 
 of a ' harlot,' either literal or spiri- 
 tual. Judg. 11. 1. 1 Kings 3. 16. 
 Ezek. 23. 44. So also the word is 
 rendered in the Sept. and this ren- 
 dering is adopted by two apostles, 
 Heb. 11. 31. James 2. 25; though 
 we do not consider the latter circum- 
 stance by any means decisive as to 
 the genuine import of the original ; 
 for as the Sept. was the translation 
 at this time in common use, they 
 adopted the expression as they found 
 it, without claiming thereby to settle 
 its propriety as a version of the ori- 
 ginal. It is moreover to be remem- 
 bered, that Rahab lived in the midst 
 of a people, corrupt, abandoned and 
 profligate to the last degree. Vices 
 of the most enormous and de- 
 basing character were practised 
 without reserve, and received the 
 
 a harlot's house, named <=Rahab, 
 
 and lodged there. 
 
 sanction of every class of people. 
 From repeated intimations in regaf3 
 to the devoted nations, it appears 
 that the divine judgments were 
 kindled against them more on ac- 
 count of the abominations of their 
 lewdness than any thing else, as had 
 been the case with Sodom and Go- 
 morrah of old. As these sins per- 
 vaded all ranks, they would cease to 
 be regarded as infamous, and the 
 term applied to Rahab does not per- 
 haps indicate a character degraded 
 much below the ordinary standard. 
 Suppose her, however, to have been a 
 harlot in the worst sense of the word, 
 the licentiousness of her life, besides 
 being the natural product of the 
 universal laxity of moral sentiment 
 on the subject, may have been pro- 
 moted by the false religion in which 
 she was educated. All this is said, 
 not to excuse or justify her iniqui- 
 tous conduct, but to make it less sur- 
 prising that the spies should have 
 fallen in with a person of her cha- 
 racter, and been entertained by her. 
 As to her being a hostess, or keeping 
 an inn, there is not a particle of evi- 
 dence from the original that such 
 was the case, nor have we any rea- 
 son to suppose, from the known cus- 
 toms of oriental nations, that any 
 such establishments as houses of 
 public entertainment, in our accepta- 
 tion of the phrase, existed among 
 them. Caravanserais or khans are 
 indeed found in most parts of the 
 East, but they are very different from 
 public houses, taverns, or hotels with 
 us. These are the result of a much 
 more advanced state of society than 
 has ever prevailed in the East. The 
 following discription from Volney, 
 will give the reader somewhat of a 
 correct idea of oriental accommoda- 
 tions of this nature. ' There are no 
 i7ins any where ; but the cities, and 
 commonly the villages, have a large 
 building, called a khan or caravan- 
 seraif which serves as an asylum 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 31 
 
 2 And ''it was told the king 
 of Jericho, saying, Behold, there 
 came men in hither to-night of 
 the children of Israel, to search 
 out the country. 
 
 3 And the king of Jericho 
 
 for all travellers. These houses of 
 reception are always built without 
 the precincts of towns, and consist 
 of four wings round a square court, 
 which serves by way of inclosure 
 for the beasts of burden. The lodg- 
 ings are cells, where you find no- 
 thing but bare walls, dust, and some- 
 times scorpions. The keeper of this 
 khan gives the traveler the key and 
 a mat ; and he provides himself the 
 rest. He must therefore carry with 
 him his bed, his kitchen utensils, 
 and even his provisions ; for fre- 
 quently not even bread is to be found 
 in the villages.' That Rahab had 
 charge of such an establishment is 
 in the highest degree improbable. 
 Far more likely is it that she was, or 
 had been, a woman of loose morals, 
 living in a private station, and that 
 the spies came to her house, moved 
 doubtless by a secret impulse from 
 above, because from its appearance, 
 locality, or other causes, which we 
 cannot now ascertain, it seemed to 
 them a stopping place best suited to 
 the purpose in which they were now 
 engaged ; and in countries but little 
 civilized, there is never much cere- 
 mony among travelers in applying 
 for a night's lodging. Hospitality 
 is almost a universal characteristic 
 of such a state of society. But what- 
 ever may have been Rahab's cha- 
 racter previous to the destruction of 
 Jericho, there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that after that event it was other 
 than pious and exemplary, and such 
 as became a true penitent. The op- 
 probrious appellation, it is true, re- 
 mained, and it was not unfitting that 
 her name, in the providence of God, 
 should descend to posterity with 
 something of a stigma attached to 
 it, especially as it is according to 
 scriptural usage, that a person should 
 3 
 
 sent unto Rahab, saying. Bring 
 forth the men that are come to 
 thee, which are entered into thy 
 house : for they be come to 
 search out all the country. 
 4 ^And the woman took the 
 
 e See 2 Sam. 17. 19,20. 
 
 be called by a former denomination 
 even after the grounds of it have 
 ceased. Thus Matthew is called 
 ' Matthew the publican,' Matt. 10. 3. 
 — 9. 9, after he had been chosen an 
 apostle, and Simon is called ' Simon 
 the leper,' Matt. 26. 6, though cleans- 
 ed from his leprosy. But if she had 
 truly repented and reformed, there 
 is no more justice in charging the 
 sins of her former life upon her, 
 than in reproaching Abraham with 
 the sin of idolatry, of which he was 
 doubtless guilty before his call, 
 IT And lodged there. Heb. ' and lay 
 down there.' That is, they went in 
 with the design of lodging there, and 
 probably had actually lain down and 
 composed themselves to rest, when 
 the arrival of the king's messen- 
 gers defeated their purpose, inter- 
 rupted their repose, and made it ne- 
 cessarv for them to save themselves 
 by flight. Thus Gen. 37. 21, ' And 
 Reuben heard it, and he delivered 
 him out of their hands,' i. e. h.e pur- 
 posed to deliver him. 
 
 2. Behold there came men — to 
 search out the country. This could 
 have been only a conjecture, yet 
 they affirm it as a matter of absolute 
 certainty. As they could conceive 
 of no other motive for which they 
 had come, it was perhaps natural 
 that they should confidently assign 
 this as the true one. 
 
 3. For they be come, &c. This 
 seems to have been said by way of 
 answer to anticipated objections on 
 her part, as if it were the height of 
 treachery to her guests thus to deal 
 with them. ' But no, you need 
 have no scruples on this score, for 
 the men are not good men, as you 
 may have supposed ; they have 
 come hither as enemies and spies, 
 whom it will be no breach of the 
 
22 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 two men, and hid them, and said 
 thus, There came men unto me, 
 but I wist not whence they were : 
 5 And it came to pass o.bout 
 the time of shutting of the gate, 
 
 when it was dark, that the men 
 went out : whither the men went 
 I wot not : pursue after them 
 quickly ; for ye shall overtake 
 them. 
 
 laws of hospitality to deliver up to 
 justice. 
 
 4. And the woman took the two 
 men, and hid them. Heb. ' hid him,' 
 i. e. each one of them ; implying 
 probably that she hid them separate- 
 ly, at some distance from each other. 
 The original for ' took,' should pro- 
 bably be rendered ' had taken,' and 
 the whole clause inclosed in a pa- 
 renthesis. She had, in all likelihood, 
 learnt soon after their arrival the 
 object of their errand, and aware of 
 the danger to which they would be ex- 
 posed if discovered, she had, at an ear- 
 ly hour, conveyed them to a place of 
 concealment; not, however, before 
 rumors of their presence began to cir- 
 culate about the city. This is justly 
 celebrated by the apostle as an in- 
 stance of high and heroic faith, Heb. 
 11. 31. So strong was her persua- 
 sion of the truth of what had been an- 
 nounced to her, so fully was she con- 
 vinced, from what she had heard of 
 the wonders wrought for Israel, that 
 their God was the only true God, and 
 consequently that his declared pur- 
 pose in regard to Canaan would 
 surely come to pass, that she ven- 
 tures her life upon her faith. She 
 knew that harboring them was expo- 
 sing herself to the death of a traitor 
 to her country, and yet she runs the 
 risk. ' She contemns her life for the 
 present, that she may save it for the 
 future ; neglected her own king and 
 country, for strangers which she 
 never saw ; and more feared the de- 
 struction of that city before it knew 
 that it had an enemy, than the dis- 
 pleasure and mortal revenge of her 
 king'. Bp. Hall. It was thus that her 
 faith justified itself by works. Had 
 she merely assured the spies, that 
 though she believed that both Jericho 
 and Canaan would fall into their 
 hands, yet in her circumstances she 
 could show them no kindness, her 
 
 faith would have been dead and in- 
 active, and would not have justified 
 her. James 2. 25. But her conduct 
 showed that it was active and lively, 
 and the event proved that it was efli- 
 cacious to her salvation. So unless 
 our faith leads us to incur hazards 
 and make sacrifices for God, it is to 
 be accounted of no avail. IT There 
 came men unto me, hut I icist not 
 u-hcnce they were. Thus far, perhaps, 
 her answer contains no violation of 
 truth. She admits that two men 
 came to her house, but at the trme of 
 their coming, she knew not whence 
 they were. The verb in the original 
 is in the past tense, and should be so 
 rendered — ' I knew not.' 
 
 5. About the time of shutting of 
 the gate. The gate of the city. 
 IT The men went out, &c. This is 
 the part of Rahab's conduct most dif- 
 ficult to be accounted for, consistently 
 with the commendations elsewhere 
 bestowed upon her by the sacred 
 writers. That she deceived the mes- 
 sengers by a falsehood is indubitable. 
 She said the spies had left her house 
 when they were still in it. How is 
 this to be reconciled with the work- 
 ings of a heart made right in the ' 
 sight of God 1 The question is cer- 
 tainly one of no easy solution ; but 
 in forming a judgment of her con- 
 duct, it is fair that Rahab should 
 have the benefit of every extenuating 
 circumstance that can be adduced in 
 her favor ; and such are the follow- 
 ing. (1.) Having been born and 
 brought up among the depraved Ca- 
 naanites, she had probably never 
 been taught the evil of lying, and 
 least of all where an apparently 
 good end was to be answered by it. 
 From the uniform testimony of tra- 
 velers and missionaries, it is evi- 
 dent that among all heathen nations, 
 particularly those of the East, lying 
 ever has been, and still is, a practice 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 6 But ^she had brought them 
 
 f See Ex. 1. 17. 2 Sam. 17. 19. 
 
 of universal prevalence, and of the 
 criminality of which they have 
 scarcely any sense. So weak is the 
 feeling of obligation, as to the obser- 
 vance of strict veracity, that even 
 apparently sincere converts have 
 the greatest difficulty in freeing 
 themselves from the habit of equivo- 
 - cation, and need to be perpetually 
 admonished on that score. (See 
 Read's Cfiristian BrahviU7i.) What 
 wonder then that Rahab, a poor, ig- 
 norant, heathen v/oman, upon whose 
 mind the light of a saving knowl- 
 edge had just begun to dawn, should 
 have prevaricated in the trying cir- 
 cumstances in which she was placedl 
 How much allowance precisely is 
 to be made for her on this ground 
 tee may not know; but God does. To 
 him we may leave it. That it should 
 go somewfiat in abatement of her 
 guilt, if guilty she were, we have no 
 doubt. (2.) Apart from the above- 
 mentioned consideration, it was tru- 
 ly a difficult problem to be solved, 
 how she should, under the circum- 
 stances, act according to her faith. 
 She fully believed that what the 
 spies had told her was true. She 
 says not, ' I fear,' or ' I believe,' but 
 ' / know, that the Lord hath given 
 you the land.' She was satisfied 
 that it was in vain to fight against 
 God, and what could she do 7 If 
 she had either told the truth or re- 
 mained silent, she had betrayed the 
 spies ; but if she believed them sent 
 of God, could she have done this 
 without sin 1 She knew, moreover, 
 very well, that if these two spies were 
 put to death, it would make no diflfer- 
 ence whatever as to the issue of the 
 •contest. The whole city and its in- 
 habitants would at any rate be de- 
 stroyed. To what purpose then 
 would it be to deliver up the spies 1 
 It would not save one single life ; it 
 would only be to continue fighting 
 against God, and to bring on herself 
 and her family that destruction 
 which it was now in her power to 
 avert. By concealing the spies she 
 
 up to the roof of the house, and 
 
 could in fact injure nobody, where* 
 as by giving them up, she would 
 sacrifice not them only, but also 
 herself and her family. Was there 
 then any other conceivable mode 
 by which she could act accords 
 ing to her faith, than by practis- 
 ing an imposition upon the king's 
 officers '? (3.) By the very fact of 
 her exercising a firm faith in the 
 divine testimony, she did virtually 
 throw herself upon the side of Israel, 
 and unite her interests with theirs. 
 Henceforth their enemies were hers. 
 If the Canaanites had no right to de- 
 mand the truth of Israel, they had 
 no right to demand it of her. If it 
 would have been right for the Israel^ 
 ites to have recourse to a stratagem 
 to mislead an enemy in arms, we 
 see not why it was not equally right 
 for her. But that the Israelites often 
 did resort to such expedients in car- 
 rying on their wars is beyond ques- 
 tion, nor do the scriptures absolutely 
 condemn them. They are certainly 
 as lawful as war itself is. No one 
 probably doubts that Elisha was jus- 
 tified in deceiving the Syrian army, 
 and leading them blinded from Do- 
 tham, whither they had come to des- 
 troy him, to Samaria, where they 
 were brought into the power of the 
 king of Israel. Considering Rahab 
 then as really leagued with Israel 
 against her countrymen, why is she 
 not equally to be justified with Elisha 
 in imposing upon her enemies "? If 
 they will suflfer themselves to be de- 
 ceived by her direction to pursue the 
 spies another way, let them be de- 
 ceived. The fidelity that she owed 
 to God was entirely paramount to 
 that which she owed her country, 
 and she was bound to act accordingly. 
 But whether we justify or condemn 
 her conduct, it can afford no prece^ 
 dent to us. Before we can plead her 
 example in justification of treachery 
 or falsehood, we must be circum- 
 stanced as she was. But this it is 
 nearly impossible we ever should be, 
 6, She had brought them up U> the 
 
34 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 hid them with the stalks of flax, 
 which she had laid in order upon 
 the roof. 
 
 7 And the men pursued after 
 them the way to Jordan unto 
 the fords : and as soon as they 
 which pursued after them were 
 gone out, they shut the gate. 
 
 8 H And before they were 
 
 roof of ike house. This verse is also 
 parenthetical, and designed to ex- 
 plain more particularly the circum- 
 stances of the concealment men- 
 tioned, V. 4. The roofs of houses 
 were then, as they still are in that 
 country, flat, and being furnished 
 with such battlements or parapets, 
 as were commanded to the Jews, 
 Dent. 22. 8, were made use of for 
 walking or sleeping upon, or for de- 
 positing any kind of goods or chat- 
 tels which could not be convenient- 
 ly bestowed elsewhere. See ' Illus- 
 trations of the Scriptures,' p. 159, 
 414, 461. IT Hid them with the stalks 
 ofjiax, &c. This was probably laid 
 upon the roof, in order to dry in the 
 sun, preparatory to beating and 
 dressing it for the wheel on which it 
 was to be spun. Had she kept a 
 public-house, as some have supposed, 
 she would have been less likely to 
 have had her roof spread over with 
 such an article. The original is ex- 
 plicit in saying that the flax had 
 been spread out or laid in order ' for 
 herself,' as if for her own use ; from 
 which the inference is, we think, not 
 inaptly drawn , that she possessed one 
 at least of the characters of the vir- 
 tuous woman, viz. that ' she sought 
 wool and flax, and wrought willing- 
 ly with her hands,' Prov. 31. 13, and 
 perhaps, at this time, supported her- 
 self in a way of honest industry. 
 
 7. Unto the fords. Or, Heb."' pas- 
 sages, crossing-places,' whether by 
 boats, bridges, or fording. Probably 
 there were several such places, and 
 the pursuers may have divided them- 
 selves into different companies, and 
 directed their course to each of them. 
 
 lain down, she came up unto 
 them upon the roof; 
 
 9 And she said unto the men, 
 I know that the Lord hath given 
 you the land, and that &your 
 terror is fallen upon us, and that 
 all the inhabitants of the land 
 faint because of you. 
 
 10 For we have heard how 
 
 g Gen. 35. 5. Ex. 23. 27. Deut. 2. 25. & 11. 25. 
 
 IT Shut the gate. Doubtless with es- 
 pecial care, and perhaps setting an 
 extra guard, both to bar out enemies 
 that might be lurking in the neigh- 
 borhood, and to prevent the escape 
 of the spies, if perchance they still 
 remained in the city. 
 
 9. 1 knoui that the Lord hath given, 
 &c. I know and am assured ; I am 
 perfectly satisfied ; I have not a doubt. 
 An emphatic declaration implying- 
 much more than a shrewd conjec- 
 ture or strong suspicion from exist- 
 ing circumstances that such would 
 be the result. The words are ex- 
 pressive of the strength of her faith, 
 IT Your terror. The dread of you. 
 See Ex. 23. 27.-34. 24. Deut. 11. 
 25.-28. 7. IT All the inhabitants of 
 the land faint. Heb. 'are melted, 
 dissolved, liquefied.' Precisely the 
 same expression is used, Ex. 15. 15, 
 in reference to this very event : ' all 
 the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt 
 away.'' It expresses, in the strong- 
 est manner, the effect of the general 
 consternation which had seized upon 
 the devoted nations, in Yi^sy of con- 
 tending with such a powerful foe — 
 one which was under the special con- 
 duct and protection of an almighty 
 arm. Their very hearts quailed 
 before the approach of Israel, in a cer- 
 tain fearful looking for of judgment 
 and vengeance at their hands. It was 
 probably somethingmore than a mere 
 natural dread of a formidable ene- 
 my ; it was a supernatural panic sent 
 upon their spirits by the immediate 
 power of God, a fearful presage of 
 the destruction that awaited them. 
 
 10. For we have heard^ &c. The 
 first of these events, th^ drying up 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 25 
 
 the Lord ''dried up the water 
 of the Red Sea for you, when 
 ye came out of Egypt ; and 
 iwhat ye did unto the two kings 
 of the Amorites that were on 
 the other side Jordan, Sihon and 
 Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 
 11 And as soon as we had 
 Jf heard these things, lour hearts 
 
 h Ex. 14. 21. ch. 4. 23. i Nu«. 21. 24,34,35. 
 k Ex. 15. 14, 15. 1 ch. 5. 1. & 7. 5. Is. 13. 7. 
 
 of the Red Sea, had happened forty 
 years before, and though it had pro- 
 duced a deep impression at the time, 
 on all the surrounding nations, yet in 
 the lapse of that long interval, which 
 was a season granted them for repen- 
 tance, it is not unlikely that their 
 alarm had in great measure died 
 away, till now it was revived again 
 by their nearer approach, and by the 
 recent overthrow of the two Amor- 
 itish kings. The convictions of sin- 
 ners are apt to come and go with 
 the alarming or afflictiv^e dispensa- 
 tions of God's providence. So it is 
 said of Israel of old, Ps. 78. 34—37, 
 ' when he slew them, then they sought 
 him: and they returned (changed 
 their mind> and inquired early after 
 God. Nevertheless they did flatter 
 him with their mouth, and they lied 
 unto him with their tongues ; for their 
 heart was not right with him, neither 
 were they steadfast in his covenant.' 
 11. And as soon as loe heard our 
 hearts did melt. Heb. 'and we 
 heard, and our heart did melt,' spo- 
 ken as if the whole nation were one 
 person, having one heart. The ori- 
 ginal word for 'melt,' though not 
 precisely the same with that in v. 
 9, is yet of kindred import, the meta- 
 phor being taken from the melting 
 of metals before the fire. IF Neither 
 did there remain any more courage 
 in any man. Heb. ' neither any 
 more stood there up spirit in any 
 man,' i. e. no man's spirit was erect 
 within him; every one's courage 
 failed, and he became cowering and 
 faint-hearted. IT Because of you, 
 Heb. * from before you,' i. e. by rea- 
 3* 
 
 did melt, neither did there re- 
 main any more courage in any 
 man, because of you : for °>the 
 Lord your God, he is God in 
 heaven above, and in earth be- 
 neath. 
 
 12 Now therefore, I pray 
 you, "swear unto me by the 
 Lord, since I have showed you 
 
 n, Peut. 4. 39. n See I Sam 20. 14, 15, 17. 
 
 son of your presence. '^ He is God 
 I in heaven above, and in earth beneath. 
 As much as to say, ' The Lord your 
 God is both omnipotent and omni- 
 present;' a remarkable confession 
 considering the previous ignorance 
 and darkness of her mind. It was at 
 once an acknowledgment of the true 
 God, and a condemnation of the false 
 gods and idolatrous worship of her 
 countrymen, and showed a superna- 
 tural influence of God upon her soul. 
 He can cause the rays of truth to pe- 
 netrate the thickest shades of that mo- 
 ral midnight which broods over the 
 minds of the unenlightened heathen, 
 though we have no evidence that he 
 ever does this, except in connection 
 with some kind of external instru- 
 mentality. 
 
 12. Sivear unto me by the Lord. 
 This proposal still further displays 
 the sincerity and the strength of her 
 faith. While the people of Israel, 
 with the miracles of the divine pow- 
 er constantly before their eyes, were 
 incessantly prone to stagger at the 
 promises and give way to unbelief, 
 she, upon the mere hearsay report 
 of these wonders, is so firmly persua- 
 ded of their truth, that she desires to 
 enter covenant with the spies for her 
 own preservation and that of her fam- 
 ily. Though they were now in per- 
 ilous circumstances, shut up within 
 the walls of Jericho, and surrounded 
 by enemies, yet she treats with them 
 as if they had already stormed the 
 city and had the power of life and 
 death in their hands. So earnest is 
 she in this matter, that she would have 
 them ratify by an oath their agree- 
 
26 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 kindness, that ye will also show 
 kindness unto °my father's house, 
 and pgive me a true token : 
 
 13 And that ye will save alive 
 my father, and my mother, and 
 my brethren, and my sisters, 
 and all that they have, and de- 
 liver our lives from death. 
 
 14 And the men answered her. 
 Our life for yours, if ye utter 
 not this our business. And it 
 
 o See 1 Tim. 5. 8. p ver. 13. 
 
 shall be, when the Lord hath 
 given us the land, that "^vve will 
 deal kindly and truly with thee. 
 
 15 Then she --let them down 
 by a cord through the window : 
 for her house was upon the town- 
 wall, and she dwelt upon the 
 wall. 
 
 16 And slie said unto them. 
 Get you to the mountain, lest 
 the pursuers meet you ; and 
 
 q Judg. 1. 24. Matl. 5. 7. r Acts 9. 25. 
 
 ment to save her. In like manner, a 
 deep-rooted conviction of the danger 
 hanging over the head of the sinner 
 from the curse of a violated law, will 
 prompt him to give all diligence lo 
 flee from the wrath to come and lay 
 hold on eternal life, by joining him- 
 self to God and his people. % Showed 
 youkindness. Heb. ' doneyoukind- 
 ness.' IT Give me a true token. Heb. 
 * a token, or sign of truth, or certain- 
 ty.' That is, a token which shall 
 not deceive me; one which I may 
 produce as a witness of this agree- 
 ment ; one on the sight of which the 
 Israelites shall forbear to hurt either 
 me or mine. 
 
 13. That ye will so.ve alive my fa- 
 ther and my mother, &c. The same 
 feelings which warn us to flee the 
 coming wrath and make our own 
 peace with God, will also incite us 
 to do all in our power to promote the 
 salvation of our families and kindred, 
 by bringing them also within the 
 bonds of the covenant. We shall 
 feel that our work is but half done 
 when onr own souls are safe. 
 
 14. Our life for yours. That is, 
 we pawn and pledge our lives for 
 the security of yours ; may our lives 
 be destroyed, if we suffer yours to be 
 injured. The exact rendering of the 
 Heb. is, ' Let our soul be to die in- 
 stead of you.' IT If ye idler not this 
 our Ini sine ss. That is, if neither thou 
 nor any of thy kindred ('ye') betray 
 us when we are gone, or divulge this 
 agreement, so that others may avail 
 themselves of its conditions. ' * They 
 
 that will be conscientious in keeping 
 their promises, will be cautious in 
 making them, and may perhaps in- 
 sert conditions which others will 
 think frivolous.' Henry. IT And 
 it shall be, &c. Rather, "' that it shall 
 \)e.' The words should be read in im- 
 mediate connection with the forego- 
 ing, of v.-hich they are a continua- 
 tion, containing the promise which 
 they make provided she will adhere 
 to the conditions above stated. The 
 present rnode of punctuation gives a 
 wrong, or at least an inadequate, view 
 of the precise scope of the passage. 
 
 15. Then f^he let them dovm, &c. 
 That is, by the help of her friends or 
 domestics. In like manner Paul 
 made his escape from Damascus, 2 
 Cor. 11. 33. The conversation men- 
 tioned in the succeeding verses ap- 
 pears to have taken place previous 
 to their being let down from the win- 
 dow ; for which reason Adam Clarke 
 remarks, that the natural place of 
 this verse is immediately after the 
 first clause of V. 21. It is very un- 
 likely that she would dismiss 'them 
 before the above-mentioned condi- 
 tions were agreed upon ; or that she 
 would discourse with them of mat- 
 ters of so much moment after they 
 were let down, and were standing 
 under the window, where others 
 might overhear them ; or that she 
 Avould commence speaking to thera 
 in her chamber, and not finish till 
 they had left the house. 
 
 l(i. Get you to the mountain. That 
 is, to the mountainous region in the 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 27 
 
 hide yourselves there three days, 
 until the pursuers be returned : 
 and afterward may ye go your 
 way. 
 
 17 And the men said unto her, 
 We will be ^blameless of this 
 thine oath which thou hast made 
 us swear. 
 
 18 tBehold, when we come 
 into the land, thou shalt bind 
 this line of scarlet thread in the 
 window which thou didst let us 
 down by : "and thou shalt bring 
 thy father, and thy mother, 
 and thy brethren, and all thy 
 
 vicinity ; not to any particular moun- 
 tain. Jericho, as we have seen, was 
 encompassed by a range of high hills. 
 In some of the caves of these they 
 might conceal themselves for the 
 time specified. 
 
 17. We ivill be blameless of this 
 thine oath. It shall not be our fault 
 if the said oath be not kept, provided 
 the annexed conditions be punctu- 
 ally observed on thy part. We will 
 be free from the reproach of be- 
 ing unfaithful to our engagements. 
 These conditions they go on to state 
 in the next verse. 
 
 18. This line of scarlet thread. 
 Rather ' this cord,' i. e. a line or cord, 
 consisting ofsuch a number of threads 
 or braids, that when twisted together, 
 they should be capable of sustaining 
 the weight of a man's body ; for it 
 seems to have been the very same 
 cord with which they were let down 
 from the window. This was to be a 
 mark upon the house, of which the 
 spies Avould inform the camp of 
 Israel, so that no soldier, however 
 fierce and eager he might be in the 
 work of destruction, should offer any 
 violence to the place thus distin- 
 guished. It answered, therefore, the 
 same purpose with the blood sprink- 
 led upon the door-posts in Egypt, 
 which secured the first-born from the 
 destroying angel. IF Thou shall bring 
 
 father's household home unto 
 thee. 
 
 ly And it shall be, that who- 
 soever shall go out of the doors 
 of thy house into the street, his 
 blood shall he upon his head, and 
 we loill he guiltless : and who- 
 soever shall be with thee in the 
 house, '^his blood shall he on our 
 head, \^ any hand be upon him. 
 
 20 And if thou utter this our 
 business, then we will be quit 
 of thine oath which thou hast 
 made us to swear. 
 
 21 And she said, According 
 
 thy father and thy mother, &c. Heb. 
 ' shalt gather.' In no other way could 
 Rahab's kindred be distinguish- 
 ed from those who were to be de- 
 voted to the sword. If they would 
 not ' perish with them that believed 
 not,' they must convey themselves 
 to the only place of safety. If any 
 of them had been met in the streets 
 by the slaughtering Israelites, it 
 would have availed them nothing to 
 say, ' We belong to the house of Ra- 
 hab.' The answer would be, ' If you 
 belong to the house, why are you not 
 in the house'? We know you not.' 
 So those who professedly belong to 
 the church of Christ, if they would 
 be saved, must keep close to the so- 
 ciety of the faithful. If they are 
 found mingled Avith the world in spi- 
 rit and pursuit, they have reason to 
 fear being overwhelmed in its de- 
 struction. 
 
 19. His blood shall be upon his head. 
 The guilt of his blood-shedding shall 
 rest wholly iipon himself He shall 
 have no one else to blame. He has 
 failed to perform the conditions of 
 the covenant, and so must suffer for 
 it. IT If any hand be upon him. 
 That is, so as to slay him. See a 
 like phraseology, Deut. 17. 7, Est. 
 6. 2. Job 1. 12. 
 
 21. According to your words so be 
 it. I readily agree to the terms; 
 
28 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 unto your words, so he it. And 
 she sent them away, and they 
 departed : and she bound the 
 scarlet line in the window. 
 
 22 And they went, and came 
 unto the mountain, and abode 
 there three days, until the pur- 
 suers were returned : and the 
 pursuers sought them throughout 
 all the way, but found them not. 
 
 23 IT So the two men returned, 
 and descended from the moun- 
 tain, and passed over, and came 
 to Joshua the son of Nun, and 
 told him all things that befel 
 them : 
 
 they are reasonable, and I have no- 
 thing to say against them. IT And 
 she bound the scarlet line in the loin- 
 dow. Probably not immediately, for 
 fear of exciting suspicion, but in 
 season, to avail herself of the benefit 
 of it. 
 
 22. Abode there three days. Not 
 three entire days, but one whole 
 day and part of two others. They 
 were sent out on the sixth day of the 
 month Nisan, and escaped from Jeri- 
 cho the same night. The seventh 
 day they spent in the mountains. 
 On the eighth they returned to the 
 camp. These three days are reck- 
 oned in the same manner as the 
 three days of our Lord's burial. 
 Matt. 27. 64. 
 
 23. Passed over. Over Jordan. 
 IT Told him all things that befel 
 them. Heb. 'all things that found 
 them.' They probably made their 
 report to Joshua alone, or to him in 
 company with the elders, without 
 whose concurrence no matter of im- 
 portance seems to have been con- 
 certed or undertaken. 
 
 24. Do faint because of us. Heb. 
 • are melted before our faces.' From 
 this they drew the assured conclu- 
 sion, that God was about to deliver 
 the country into their hands. Those 
 
 24 And they said unto Joshua, 
 Truly ythe Lord hath deliver- 
 ed into our hands all the land ; 
 for even all the inhabitants of 
 the country do faint because of 
 us. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 A ND Joshua rose early in 
 ■^^ the morning ; and they re- 
 moved ^from Shittim, and came 
 to Jordan, he and all the children 
 of Israel, and lodged there beforo 
 they passed over. 
 
 2 And it came to pass ^ after 
 three days, that the officers 
 went through the host : 
 
 r Ex. 23. 31. ch. 6. 2. & 21. 44. 
 ch. 1. 10, 11. 
 
 K ch. 2. I. 
 
 that were then deprived of their cour- 
 age, would soon be deprived of their 
 possessions. ' Sinners' frights are 
 sometimes sure presages of their 
 fall.' Henry. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I. Joshua rose early in the morn- 
 ing. That is, on the morning of 
 the third or fourth day after the 
 proclamation mentioned, ch. 1. 11, 
 Whether the spies had at this time 
 returned or not is uncertain, though 
 most probable that they had. IT Lodg- 
 ed there before they passed over. 
 That is, for one night. It would be 
 more convenient for the congrega- 
 tion to pass over in the day-time ; the 
 miracle to be wrought would be 
 more conspicuous ; and a greater ter- 
 ror would be struck into the minds 
 of the Canaanites. There is no evi- 
 dence that the Israelites were in- 
 formed of the manner in which they 
 were to cross the river, yet they went 
 forward in faith, being assured that 
 they should pass it, ch. 1. 11. Duty 
 often calls us to take one step with- 
 out knowing how we shall take the 
 next ; but if brought thus far by the 
 leadings of Providence, and while 
 engaged in his service, we may safe- 
 ly leave the event to him. He will 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 29 
 
 3 And they commanded the 
 people, saying, ^When ye see 
 the ark of the covenant of the 
 Lord your God, '^and the priests 
 the Levites bearing it, then ye 
 shall remove from your place, 
 and go after it. 
 
 4 'Yet there shall be a space 
 between you and it, about two 
 
 c See Num. 10. 33. d Deuf. 31. 9, 25. e Ex. 19. 12. 
 
 cleave the flood or the rock rather 
 than that the way of his servants 
 should be obstructed. 
 
 2. It came to pass after three days. 
 In exact fulfilment of Joshua's de- 
 claration, ch. 1. 10, 11.- 
 
 3. Commanded the people, &c. In 
 the name and by the authority of 
 Joshua, not of their own motion. 
 IT The priests the Levites bearing it. 
 The priests who are Levites, who 
 belong to the tribe of Levi. Al- 
 though it was ordinarily the duty of 
 the sons of Kohath, who were merely 
 Levites and not priests, to bear the 
 ark, Num. 4. 15, yet it appears that on 
 solemn occasions this arrangement 
 -might be departed from, and the of- 
 fice performed by the priests. Josh. 
 6. 6. IF Remove from your place. 
 That is, break up from your encamp- 
 ment, leave your tents, commence 
 your march, v. 14. IT Go after it. 
 Follow it. Go in the rear of it. 
 Hitherto, under the conduct of Moses, 
 the ark had held a different position. 
 It was stationed in the centre while 
 the host was encamped, and borne in 
 the middle of the immense proces- 
 sion when it set forward. But they 
 then had the pillar of cloud by day 
 and of fire by night to precede them. 
 Now the cloud is removed, and the 
 ark is transferred to the vanguard 
 of the army, to go before. 
 
 4. There shall be a space — about 
 tivo thousand civbits. Two thousand 
 cubits amounted to about one thou- 
 sand yards, or three quarters of a 
 mile, and this space was to intervene 
 between them and the ark, in order 
 that they might be impressed with a 
 
 thousand cubits by measure : 
 come not near unto it, that yo 
 may know the way by which 
 ye must go ; for ye have not 
 passed tills wav heretofore. 
 
 5 And Joshua said unto the 
 people, '"Sanctify yourselves : 
 for to-morrow the Lord will do 
 wonders among you. 
 
 f Ex. 19. 10, H, 15. Lev. 2n. 7. Num. 11. 18. ch. 
 7. 13. 1 Sam. 16. 5. Joel 2. 16. 
 
 becoming awe and reverence of the 
 symbol of the diAanepresence. They 
 would see too, by this means, that in- 
 stead of their protecting it, they owed 
 all their protection to it. Another 
 reason is expressed in the words im- 
 mediately following. IT That ye 
 may knoio the icay by which ye must 
 go. The ark was to be their pilot 
 across the waters, and by being ad- 
 vanced so far ahead of them, would 
 be more conspicuous than if the peo- 
 ple had gathered and pressed close 
 around it. As it was put at such a 
 distance before them, they would all 
 have the satisfaction of seeing it, and 
 would be animated by the sight. 
 This was the more necessary, as the 
 passage of the Jordan was an un- 
 trodden way to them. IT Ye have 
 not passed this way heretofore. Heb. 
 ' Since yesterday and the third day ;' 
 i. e. never hitherto. The same form 
 of expression occurs, Gen. 31.2. It 
 is perhaps intimated, moreover, that 
 they were now to cross the river, not 
 at any usual fording place, but at 
 some point entirely new, by a passage 
 which should miraculously open be- 
 fore them as the priests and the ark 
 advanced. 
 
 5. And Joshua said unto the people, 
 Sanctify yourselves. Rather, ' had 
 said, ' for as he speaks of ' to-mor- 
 row,' the charge was probably ^iven 
 on the day previous to the one now 
 current, on which they were passing 
 over Jordan. The command now 
 given was undoubtedly of the same 
 import with that given by Moses, on 
 the eve of the deliver)^ of the law 
 upon mount Sinai, Ex. 19. 10 — 14, 
 
30 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 6 And Joshua spake unto the 
 priests, saying, ^Take up the 
 ark of the covenant, and pass 
 over before the people. And 
 they took up the ark of the cov- 
 enant, and went before the 
 people. 
 
 7 IT And the Lord said unto 
 Joshua, This day will I begin to 
 •^magnify thee in the sight of 
 
 They were to wash their persons and 
 their garments, and to abstain from 
 every thing that might indispose 
 their minds to a serious and devout 
 atfention to the miracle about to be 
 wrought in their behalf. A similar 
 command was generally given on 
 great and solemn occasions. Lev. 
 20. 7, a Num. 11. 18. 1 Sam. 16. 
 5. Joel 2- 16. The special manifest- 
 ations of God's presence should be 
 awaited by his people in a posture 
 of deep humiliation, penitence, and" 
 prayer, and by diligent efforts to 
 'cleanse themselves from all filthi- 
 ncss of flesh and spirit.' 
 
 6. Take up the ark of the covenant, 
 &c, Joshua in giving this command 
 is not to be considered as acting on 
 his own absolute authority, for it 
 would have been too much for him 
 to assume the responsibility ofchang- 
 ing the usual order of march, without 
 a divine direction. He was merely 
 the organ of announcing the will of 
 God in respect to this matter. He 
 obeyed the commands of Heaven as 
 the priests did his, IT Tkey took up 
 the ark of the covenant, and went be- 
 fore the people. Heb. ' bore up, ' i. e. 
 upon their shoulders, according to 
 the direction, Num. 7. 9. 'A noble 
 defiance of the enemies of Israel was 
 thus given ; who were challenged to 
 attack the unarmed priests, or to at- 
 tempt to seize the unattended ark.' 
 Scott. 
 
 7. This day will I begin to magni- 
 fy thee, &c. To make thee great, to 
 raise thee in the estimation of thy peo- 
 ple, to confirm thine authority, and 
 
 all Israel, that they may know 
 that ias I was with Moses, so I 
 will be with thee. 
 
 8 And thou shalt command 
 ''the priests that bear the ark 
 of the covenant, saying. When 
 ye are come to the brink of the 
 water of Jordan, lye shall stand 
 still in Jordan. 
 
 9 IT And Joshua said unto 
 
 i ch. 1. 5. k ver. 3. 1 -rer. 17. 
 
 to clothe thee with honor, God had 
 before put distinguished honor upon. 
 Joshua on several occasions, Ex. 24. 
 13. Deut. 31. 7, but it had not been 
 in so public and solemn a manner f 
 now he designs to magnify him as 
 the successor of Moses in the gov- 
 ernment. He was to be the visible 
 instrument of working a mighty mir- 
 acle in the eyes of the nation ; and 
 from his circumstantially foretelling^ 
 how the waters should be cut off, as 
 soon as the feet of the priests should 
 touch them, v. 13, it was demonstra- 
 ted that the secret of the Lord was 
 with him. True greatness belongs 
 to those with whom God is, who-m he 
 employs in his service, and upon 
 whom his blessing rests. The honor 
 that comes from man may surround 
 one with a temporary eclat, but let 
 those that aspire to lasting and solid 
 distinction seek it in the favor of God. 
 
 8. Ye shall stand still in Jordan. 
 They were first required to pause on 
 the brink of the stream, till the chan- 
 nel was laid dry, and then they seem 
 to have advanced and took their sta- 
 tion in the midst of it, till all the 
 people had passed over. As the en- 
 tire bed of the river below the resting 
 point of the ark would become dry- 
 by the waters running off towards 
 the Dead Sea, the congregation might 
 pass over in that direction, having 
 the ark on their right, and keeping 
 at the prescribed distance of 2000 cu- 
 bits. 
 
 9. Come hither. Draw nigh to- 
 Avards me, as many as can comei 
 within hearing. 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 31 
 
 the children of Israel, Come 
 hither, and hear the words of 
 the Lord your God. 
 
 10 And Joshua said, Hereby 
 ye shall know that "'the living 
 God is among you, and that he 
 will without fail "drive out from 
 before you the Canaan ites, and 
 the Hittites, and the Hivites, 
 and the Perizzites, and the 
 Girgashites, and the Amorites, 
 and the Jebusites. 
 
 11 Behold, the ark of the cove- 
 nant of °the Lord of all the 
 earth passeth over before you 
 into Jordan. 
 
 12 Now therefore Ptake you 
 twelve men out of the tribes of 
 
 m Deut. 5. 26. 1 Sam. 17. 26. 2 King» 19. 4. Hot. 
 1. 10. Mutl. 16. 16. 1 Tiiess. 1. 9. n Ex. 33. 2. 
 Deul. 7. 1. J's. 44. 2. o »er. 13. Mic. 4. 13. 
 Zech. 4. 14. & 6. 5. p ch. 4. 2. 
 
 10. That the living God is among 
 you. Not a dull, senseless, lifeless, 
 inactive deity, like ihe gods of the 
 heathen, but a God of life, power, and 
 energy, able to work for you, and to 
 put to confusion all your enemies. 
 
 11. The ark of the covenant of the 
 Lord of all the earth. The original 
 will adfmit of being rendered, ' The 
 ark of the covenant, even the Lord 
 of all the earth ;' and it is contended, 
 by many critics, that the ark of the 
 covenant is called ' Lord,' or ' the 
 Lord,' in repeated instances, partic- 
 ularly Ex. 16. 33. Num. 10. 35, 36. 
 1 Sam. 4. 7. This would seem to be 
 confirmed by 2 Sam. 6. 2, ' And Da- 
 vid arose and went with all the peo- 
 ple that were with him, from Baale 
 of Judah, to bring up from thence 
 the ark of God, lohose name is called 
 by the navie of the Lord of hosts.' 
 Such a title, however, could only be 
 applied on the ground of its being 
 the visible symbol of the divine pres- 
 ence, and of the close connection 
 subsisting between the sign and the 
 thing signified. 
 
 12. Take ye iioelve men out of the 
 
 Israel, out of every tribe a man. 
 
 13 And it shall come to pass, 
 "Jas soon as the soles of the feet 
 of the priests that bear the ark 
 of the Lord, nhe Lord of all 
 the earth, shall rest in the waters 
 of Jordan, that the waters of 
 Jordan shall be cut off from the 
 waters that come down from 
 above ; and they *shall stand 
 upon a heap. 
 
 14 IT And it came to pass, 
 when the people removed from 
 their tents to pass over Jordan, 
 and the priests bearing the 'ark 
 of the covenant before the peo- 
 ple ; 
 
 15 And as they that bare the 
 
 q rer. 15, 13. r vfr. 11. s P». 78. 13. i 114. 8. 
 t Act* 7. 45. 
 
 tribes of Israel. The object of this 
 selection is afterwards explained, ch. 
 4. 4, 5. They were now to be cho- 
 sen, and to stand ready at a moment's 
 warning, for the service to which 
 they were set apart. 
 
 13. The waters of Jordan shall be 
 cut off from the waters that come down 
 from above. More correctly render- 
 ed, ' the waters of Jordan shall be 
 cut off, even the waters that descend 
 from above ;' but whether he speaks 
 in these words of the mass of waters 
 remaining above the ark, that they 
 were to be cut off from those below, 
 which would be speedily drained off, 
 and leave the channel bare ; or whe- 
 ther the ' waters that come dowa 
 from above,' mean those that flowed 
 downwards from the point where 
 the ark stood above, while the rest 
 stood as a heap, it is difficult to de- 
 termine. Comparing this, however, 
 with V. 16, the first interpretation 
 we think the most probable. This 
 seems to have been the first intima- 
 tion given to the people as to the 
 manner in which they were to cross 
 the river. 
 
32 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 ark were come unto Jordan, and 
 " the feet of the priests that bare 
 the ark were dipped in the brim 
 of the water, (for -^Jordan over- 
 floweth all his banks >all the 
 time of harvest,) 
 
 16 That the waters which 
 came down from above stood 
 and rose up upon a heap very 
 far from the city Adam, that is 
 beside =^Zaretan ; and those that 
 came down ^toward the sea of 
 the plain, even ''the salt sea, 
 failed and were cut off: and 
 
 « yer. 13. i 1 Chr. 12. 15. Jer. 12. 5. 4 49. 19. 
 y cb. 4. 18. &. 5. 10, 12. z 1 KiiigK 4. 12. 6i 1. 46 
 
 b Gen. 14. 3. Num. 34. 3. 
 
 a Deui. 3. 17. 
 
 15. Jordan overjloweth all hisbanks 
 all the time of harvest. That is, the 
 time of the barley harvest ; which be- 
 gan in that country in our March or 
 April. 1 Chron. 12. 15. This inun- 
 dation arose from the melting of the 
 snows upon Mount Lebanon, in 
 which the Jordan takes its rise. It 
 probably took place on this occasion 
 just before Israel was to pass over, 
 and served to render the miracle far 
 more stupendous and unquestion- 
 able. Indeed we may suppose that 
 this season was chosen expressly, in 
 order that God might have the better 
 opportunity to .convince his people 
 of his almighty power ; that they 
 were under his immediate care and 
 protection ; and that they might 
 never cease to confide in him in 
 view of the most appalling dangers. 
 ' Though the opposition given to 
 the salvation of God's people have 
 all imaginable advantages, yet God 
 can and will conquer it.' Henry. 
 
 16. Stood and rose up upon a heap. 
 Being checked in their course they 
 continued to accumulate and swell 
 higher and higher, till they filled up 
 the channel to a great distance to- 
 wards the source of the river. Prob- 
 ably another miracle was wrought 
 in restraining the waters thus piled 
 up from deluging the adjacent coun- 
 
 the people passed over right 
 against Jericho. 
 
 17 And the priests that bare 
 the ark of the covenant of the 
 Lord stood firm on dry ground 
 in the midst of Jordan, <^and all 
 the Israelites passed over on dry 
 ground, until all the people were 
 passed clean over Jordan. 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A ND it came to pass, when all 
 -^ the people were clean pass- 
 ed =^over Jordan, that the Lord 
 spake unto Joshua, saying, 
 
 G See Ei. 14. 29. a Deui. 27. 2. cli. 3. 17. 
 
 try. IF From the city Adam that 
 is beside Zaretan. The position of 
 these cities is not easily ascertained. 
 As to the first, nothing is known ; 
 and perhaps it was even then so ob- 
 scure as to be described by its near- 
 ness to Zaretan, a place of more no- 
 toriety. This we learn from 1 Kings 
 4. 12, was situated below Jezreel, 
 near Beth-shean or Scythopolis, and 
 not far from Succoth ; but Succoth, 
 as appears from Gen. 33. 17. Josh. 
 13. 27, lay on the east of Jordan, not 
 far from the lake of Gennesaret, and 
 somewhere in this immediate vici- 
 nity, doubtless, was Adam situated. 
 IT Passed over right against Jericho. 
 It is probable that the people crossed 
 the river at what was afterwards 
 called Beth-abara, or house of pas- 
 sage, which seems to have derived its 
 name from this very circumstance. 
 It was here that John baptised, John 
 1. 28, and that Jesus, as well as Josh- 
 ua, began to be magnified. 
 
 17. And the priests — stood firm on 
 the dry ground. Stood fixedly and 
 immovable in the same place and 
 posture, neither pressed upon by the 
 waters, nor sinking in the mire, nor 
 shifting their position. It is proba- 
 ble, too, that they continued bearing 
 the ark on their shoulders during 
 the whole lime of their standing. 
 
A. C. 145L] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 33 
 
 '2 ''Take you twelve men out 
 of the people, out of every tribe 
 a man. 
 
 3 And command ye them, 
 saying, Take you hence out of 
 the midst of Jordan, out of the 
 place where nhe priests' feet 
 stood firm, twelve stones, and 
 ye shall carry them over with 
 you, and leave them in ''the 
 lodging.place where ye shall 
 Jodge this night. 
 
 4 Then Joshua called the 
 
 d ver. 19. 20. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 2. Thke you twelve men, &c. Heb. 
 * take ye for yourselves,' pi. though 
 addressed to Joshua ; an usage of 
 speech founded upon the union be- 
 tween a leader or ruler, and his peo- 
 ple. Nothing would appear from 
 the phraseology itself to intimate 
 that any such command had been 
 before given, but as we know there 
 had, ch. 3. 12, the twelve men here 
 spoken of are to be understood of 
 those already ch.05e.Ti to this service. 
 
 3. Command ije them. Another 
 instance of the phraseology noticed 
 above. Joshua is addressed con- 
 jointly with the people, and required 
 to give the annexed order. If Leave 
 them ill the lodging-place where ye 
 shall lodge this night. This was 
 Gilgal, as appears from v. 19, 20, a 
 place somewhat more than six miles 
 from the river Jordan. 
 
 4. Whom he had prepared. Whom 
 he had before chosen and appointed 
 to that work, with a command that 
 they should hold themselves in read- 
 iness for it. The stones were prob- 
 ably each of them as large as one 
 man could conveniently carry. 
 
 5. Pass over before the ark. These 
 twelve men had probably hitherto re- 
 mained, from motives of reverence, 
 somewhat behind the ark, perhaps 
 near to the eastern bank of the river. 
 They are now commanded to ad- 
 vance, and picking up the stones near 
 
 4 
 
 twelve men, whom he had pre- 
 pared of the children of Israel, 
 out of every tribe a man : 
 
 6 And Joshua said unto them, 
 Pass over before the ark of the 
 Lord your God into the midst 
 of Jordan, and take you up 
 every man of you a stone upon 
 his shoulder, according unto the 
 number of the tribes of the chil- 
 dren of Israel : 
 
 6 That this may be a sign 
 among you, that «when your 
 
 e ver 21. Ex. 12. 26. & 13. H. 
 44. I. & 78. 3, 4, 5, 6. 
 
 Deal. 6. 20. Ps. 
 
 the place where the priests stood, to 
 ' pass over before the ark,' and thus 
 emerge from the bed of Jordan, and 
 when arrived to deposit the stones in 
 the place commanded. Otherwise 
 the words must be understood to im- 
 ply, that after passing over with the 
 congregation, the twelve men were 
 to pass back again to the place where 
 the ark stood, and thence transport 
 the stones ; which we cannot but re- 
 gard as a violent construction, 
 
 6. That this may be a sign among 
 you. A sign that shall permanently 
 remain among you ; a monument or 
 memorial ; a conspicuous object, 
 which shall be a standing witness of 
 the wonderful event that has this day 
 happened. Heaps, or pillars of stone, 
 in commemoration of great events, 
 such as covenants, victories, &c., 
 have been common among all nations 
 from the earliest ages. See Gen. 
 31. 46. Ex. 24. 4. In the present case, 
 though there was no inscription on 
 the stones, yet from the number of 
 them, and from the place where they 
 stood, it would be evident that they 
 pointed to some memorable transac- 
 tion, and of this it was to be the duty 
 of each generation to keep its suc- 
 cessors informed. It would likewise 
 serve as a standing proof in corrob- 
 oration of the matter of fact to those 
 who might, in after ages, question 
 the truth of the written history. The 
 record of this great event might in- 
 
34 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 children ask their fathers in 
 time to come, saying, What 
 mean ye by these stones ? 
 
 7 Then ye shall answer them, 
 That *"the waters of Jordan 
 were cut off before the ark of 
 the covenant of the Lord ; when 
 it passed over Jordan, the waters 
 of Jordan were cut off: and 
 these stones shall be for &a 
 memorial unto the children of 
 Israel for ever. 
 
 fch. 3. 13, 16. g Ex. 12.14. Num. 16. 40. 
 
 deed be read in the sacred writings, 
 but God, who knows the frame of his 
 creatures, and how much they are 
 influenced by the objects of sense, 
 kindly ordered an expedient for keep- 
 ing it in more lively remembrance 
 from age to age. So he has provi- 
 ded the sacrament of the Lord's sup- 
 per to aid our understandings and 
 affect our hearts by sensible symbols, 
 though the same great truths which 
 they represent are plainly delivered 
 in words in the inspired oracles. 
 IT When your children ask. Heb. 
 ' when your sons ask •,' i. e. your de- 
 scendants ; not little children merely, 
 but your posterity of whatever age. 
 . IT In time to covie. Heb. ' to-morrow ;' 
 often used in the original to signify 
 indefinitely all future time. Gen. 30. 
 33. In like manner ' yesterday ' is 
 used in a general sense for all past 
 time, as Heb. 13. 8, ' Jesus Christ, the 
 same yesterday, and to-day, and for- 
 ever.' IT What mean ye by these stones ? 
 Heb. • what these stones to you V 
 
 7. Then shall ye answer them, 
 That the waters, &c. This clause, 
 as appears from the original, requires 
 to be supplied thus, ' Then shall ye 
 answer, These stones are designed 
 to commemorate the fact that the wa- 
 ters,' &c. Such is undoubtedly the 
 true grammatical dependence of the 
 conjunction that. H Cut off before the 
 ark. As it were, at the sight of it, 
 at its first approach. The clause res- 
 pecting the cutting off of the waters 
 of Jordan occurs again in the same 
 
 8 And the children of Israel 
 did so as Joshua commanded, 
 and took up twelve stones out 
 of the mid.st of Jordan, as the 
 Lord spake unto Joshua, accord- 
 ing to the number of the tribes 
 of the children of Israel, and car- 
 ried them over with them unto 
 the place where they lodged, 
 and laid them down there. 
 
 9 And Joshua set up twelve 
 stones in the midst of Jordan, in 
 
 words towards the end of the verse, 
 to intimate, perhaps, the wonderful 
 character of the miracle, and that a 
 fact of such a stupendous nature 
 should be repeated again and again 
 in the hearing of those who were to 
 be instructed. IF A memorial unto 
 the children of Israel. To them par- 
 ticularly and primarily, but not ex- 
 clusively ; for the monument was 
 calculated to be a witness and a 
 standing reproof also to the heathen 
 nations around. IT For ever. For 
 an indefinite period of time ; as long 
 as the nation should endure. 
 
 8. The children of Israel did so. 
 That is, the twelve men, who acted 
 as the representatives of the whole 
 body of the children of Israel and 
 therefore bear their name. A com- 
 pany or community is often said in 
 the Scriptures to do that which is 
 done by their constituted agents. 
 
 9. Joshua set up ticelve stones in the 
 midst of Jordan. Two sets of stones 
 therefore were erected in memory of 
 this miraculous passage, one at Gil- 
 gal, the other in the bed of Jordan. 
 Should it be asked how the latter 
 could serve as a monument, placed as 
 they were in the middleof the stream, 
 and liable to be concealed below the 
 surface, we answer, that as nothing is 
 said of their being each of them, like 
 the others, of a size suitable for one 
 man to carry, they might have been 
 vastly larger, and so based upon a 
 lower heap as to be generally visible, 
 and thus indicate the very spot where 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 35 
 
 the place where the feet of the 
 priests which bare the ark of the 
 covenant stood : and they are 
 there unto this day. 
 
 10 IT For the priests which 
 bare" the ark stood in the midst 
 of Jordan, until every thing was 
 finished that the Lord com- 
 manded Joshua to speak unto 
 the people, according to all that 
 Moses commanded Joshua : and 
 
 the priests stood with the ark ; for it 
 is to be remarked, that the Jordan, at 
 its ordinary stages, is not a deep river, 
 and that its waters are remarkably 
 clear and transparent, so that an ob- 
 ject like this might probably always 
 be seen except in the time of a high 
 freshet. From the native force of 
 the Heb. term for ' set up,' which is 
 properly to ' rear up,' ' to erect,' i. e. 
 to raise to a considerable height, it 
 may be reasonably inferred that they 
 were placed so as to be ordinarily 
 visible. IT In the place where the feet 
 of ike priests — stood. Heb. ' under 
 the standing-place of the feet of the 
 priests.' It was here that the heap of 
 stones was to be erected, but from 
 w^hence they were taken is not said. 
 Prom aught that appears in the text 
 they might have been gathered in 
 sthe adjacent fields, as some commen- 
 tators have imagined. IT And they 
 are there unto this day. Either the 
 words of Joshua, who wrote this his- 
 tory near the close of his life, and 
 about twenty years after the event 
 occurred, or added at a subsequent 
 period by Samuel or Ezra, or some 
 other inspired man or men by whom 
 the sacred canon was revised. 
 
 10. According to all that Moses 
 £onima7ided Joshua. It does not ap- 
 pear that Moses any where gave 
 Joshua a charge respecting this pas- 
 sage of Israel over the Jordan. The 
 words therefore are to be understood 
 of the general instructions given him 
 by Moses, requiring him to follow 
 the divine conduct in all particulars, 
 
 the people hasted and passed 
 over. 
 
 11 And it came to pass, when 
 all the people were clean passed 
 over, that the ark of the Lord 
 passed over, and the priests in 
 the presence of the people. 
 
 12 And ''the children of 
 R-euben, and the children of Gad, 
 and half the tribe of Manasseh, 
 passed over armed before the 
 
 h Num. 32. 20, 27, 
 
 as made known to him through the 
 agency of Eleazar the High Priest. 
 Num. 27. 21—23. So he did on the 
 present occasion. IF The people 
 hasted and passed over. Perhaps 
 under some apprehensions that the 
 standing mass of waters on their 
 right, might be suffered to give way 
 while they were crossing. Even 
 where the general acting of faith is 
 strong, the weakness of nature some- 
 times causes the spirit to waver.-This 
 passage of the Israelites through the 
 Jordan, is not improperly considered 
 as an emblem of the christian's trans- 
 ition from the dreary wilderness of 
 this world to the Canaan that is above. 
 When the time is arrived for passing 
 by that unknown, untrodden path, 
 we are apt to fear lest we should sink 
 in the deep waters, and never attain 
 the wished for end. But God has 
 promised to be with us, to make 'the 
 depths of the sea a way for the ran- 
 somed to pass over,' and to bring us 
 in safety to the land that floweth with 
 milk and honey. The ark of his cov- 
 enant will go before, both for our 
 guidance and protection, and under 
 its conduct, we may cheerfully bid 
 adieu to the friends who stand weep- 
 ing on the bank. 
 
 11. In the presence of the people. 
 Who stood upon the bank beholding 
 with admiration and awe the last act 
 of this great miracle. 
 
 12. Passed over armed before the 
 children of Israel. The original 
 phrase heire is precisely the same 
 with that rendered in the preceding 
 
36 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 145li 
 
 children of Israel, as Moses 
 spake unto them : 
 
 13 About forty thousand pre- 
 pared for war, passed over be- 
 fore the Lord unto battle, to the 
 plains of Jericho. 
 
 14 IF On that day the Lord 
 imagnified Joshua in the sight of 
 all Israel, and they feared him 
 as they feared Moses, all the 
 days of his life. 
 
 15 And the Lord spake unto 
 Joshua, saying, 
 
 16 Command the priests that 
 bear ^the ark of the testimony, 
 that they come up out of Jordan. 
 
 i ch. 3. 7. k Ex. 25. 16, 22. 
 
 verse, in ' the presence of;' and, as we 
 conceive, does not clearly intimate 
 that they led the van, for the order 
 <5f marching of the different tribes 
 had been expressly prescribed in the 
 wilderness, Num. 10; and it is not 
 probable that it was departed from 
 on this occasion. According to this 
 order the tribe of Judab had th-e 
 precedence. What is affirmed of 
 the two tribes and a half here, we 
 suppose is, that in pursuance of their 
 promises, ch. 1. 16 — 18, they passed 
 over ' in the presence' of their breth- 
 ren, who were thus all witnesses to 
 their fidelity. 
 
 13. Passed over before the Lord. 
 That is, probably, before the ark of 
 the Lord, the symbol of the divine 
 presence. Otherwise it may imply 
 • as in the sight of the Lord,' ' reli- 
 giously,' ' conscientiously.' 
 
 14. Magnified Joshua. Caused 
 him to stand high in the esteem and 
 respect of the people, so that they 
 henceforth yielded to him the same 
 reverential fear and ready obedience 
 which they had done to Moses. God 
 now fully confirmed his authority, 
 and showed that He was with him. 
 That honor is ever most to be desired 
 which is the result of a strict, con- 
 scientious, and uniform observance 
 of all the divine precepts. 
 
 17 Joshua therefore com- 
 manded the priests, sayings 
 Come ye up out of Jordan. 
 
 18 And it came to pass, whert 
 the priests that bare the ark of 
 the covenant of ihe Lord were 
 come up out of the midst of Jor- 
 dan, and the soles of the priests'" 
 feet were lifted up unto the dry 
 land, that the waters of Jordan 
 returned unto their place, 'and 
 flowed over all his banks, as 
 they did before. 
 
 19 H And the people came up 
 out of Jordan on the tenth day 
 of the first month, and encamped 
 
 15. The Lord spake unto Joshua 
 saying. This may be rendered ' had 
 spoken,' and the whole paragraph, 
 V. 15 — 19, be considered as a detail- 
 ed account of what is stated more 
 generally, v. 11. These verses seem 
 designed to acquaint us with the 
 main ground or reason, to which, 
 under God, it was owing that Jos-Kua 
 was so signally magnified on that oc- 
 casion. ' The priests did not quit their 
 station till Joshua,, who had com- 
 manded them thither, ordered them 
 thence ; nor did he thus order them 
 till the Lord commanded him : so 
 obedient were all parties to.the word 
 of God.' Scott. 
 
 18. The soles of the priests' feet 
 were lifted up mito the dry land. 
 Heb. 'were plucked up.' As upon 
 the entrance into the river, the stream 
 was cut off as soon as the soles of 
 the priests' feet touched the water, 
 ch. 3. 15, so now as soon as they 
 touched the dryland it again resumes 
 its natural course. This would 
 make it evident that the arrest of the 
 river was the effect solely of divine 
 power, and not owing to any secret 
 natural cause. IT Flowed over all 
 his banks as they did before. Heb. 
 * went as yesterday and the third 
 (day) on all his banks.' 
 
 i9. Qfi the tenth day of the first 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 •"in Gilgal, in the east border 
 of Jericho. 
 
 20 And "those twelve stones 
 which they took out of Jordan, 
 did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. 
 
 21 And he spake unto the 
 children of Israel, saying, 
 "When your children shall ask 
 their fathers in time to come, 
 saying, What mean these stones ? 
 
 22 Then ye shall let your 
 
 m ch. 5. 9. n ver. 3. o ver. 6. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 37 
 
 month. That is, of the month Nisan, 
 just forty years, lacking five days, 
 after their departure out of Egypt. 
 This was four days before the an- 
 nual feast of the Passover, and on 
 the very day when the paschal Lamb 
 was to be set apart for this purpose, 
 Ex. 12. 3 ; God having so ordered it 
 in his providence, that their entrance 
 into the promised land should coin- 
 cide with the period of that festival. 
 ^ And encamped in Gilgal. In 
 the place afterwards called Gilgal, 
 ch. 5. 9, for here the name is given 
 it by anticipation. It is doubtful 
 whether there was either city or 
 town in that place before the arrival 
 of the Israelites, 
 
 20. Did Joshua 'pitch in Gilgal. 
 Heb. ' erect, rear up.' A foundation 
 of stone-work or a mound of earth, 
 was probably first laid, of consider- 
 able height, and then the twelve stones 
 placed on the top of it; for twelve 
 such stones as a man could carry six 
 miles on his shoulder, could scarcely 
 have made any observable pile or pil- 
 lar of memorial ; but erected on such 
 a base as we have supposed, they 
 would be very conspicuous, and 
 strikingly answer the purpose for 
 which they were designed. 
 
 21. Shall ask — in time to come. 
 Heb. 'to-morrow.' Seev. 6, 7. From 
 their number, size, position, &c., and 
 from there not being any others near 
 them of the same kind, they would 
 naturally excite inquiries, ' How 
 came these stones herel What is 
 
 4* 
 
 children know, saying, pJsrael 
 came over this Jordan on dry 
 land. 
 
 23 For the Lord your God 
 dried up the waters of Jordan 
 from before you, until ye were 
 passed over, as the Lord your 
 God did to the Red sea, iwhich 
 he dried up from before us, until 
 we were gone over : 
 
 24 -^That all the people of 
 
 p ch. 3. 17. q Ex. 14. 21. r 1 Kings 8. 42, 43. 
 2 Kings 19. 19. Ps. 106. 8. 
 
 meant by them V This would afford 
 to parents an excellent opportunity 
 to turn to account the inquisitiveness 
 of their children, to make them early 
 acquainted with the wonderful works 
 of God, and to train them up in his 
 fear. We should encourage young 
 people to seek instruction, and should 
 be glad of every thing that may af- 
 ford us an occasion of making known 
 to them the wonders of redeeming 
 love. 
 
 22. Israel came over this Jordan on 
 dry land. In commemoration of 
 which remarkable fact, these stones 
 are placed here. 
 
 23. For the Lord your God dried 
 up the waters of Jordan from before 
 you. The parents are still supposed 
 to be speaking to their children. It 
 is remarkable that they address them 
 as if they were living and present at 
 the miraculous passage of the Jor- 
 dan, w^hereas they then existed only 
 in the loins of their fathers. But it is 
 not uncommon for the sacred writers 
 to speak of the nation of Israel, 
 through every period of its existence, 
 as if they were but of one generation, 
 so that what really happened to those 
 that lived at one age, is said to have 
 happened to those that lived at ano- 
 ther, perhaps far remote. This gives 
 us a very impressive idea of the light 
 in which God viewed that people, 
 viz. as morally one, as one great col- 
 lective person continually subsisting. 
 Thus Ps. 66. 6, the writer speaks as 
 if he and his contemporaries were 
 
38 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 the earth might know the hand 
 of the Lord, that it is ^mighty : 
 that ye might tfear the Lord 
 your God for ever. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AND it came to pass, when 
 all the kings of the Amorites 
 
 s Ex. 15. 16. 1 Chr. 29. 12. Ps. 89. 13. t Ex. 
 
 14. 31. Deut. 6. 2. Pe. 89. 7. Jer. 10. 7. 
 
 personally present at the passage of 
 the Red Sea, ' He turned the sea into 
 dry land: they went through the 
 flood on foot ; there did we rejoice in 
 him' though this happened ages be- 
 fore their dme. So also our Savior 
 speaks as if the Jews of his day were 
 living in the days of Moses, John 6. 
 32, * Verily I say unto you, Moses 
 gave 3/tfi<. not that bread from heaven.' 
 On the same principle Joshua speaks 
 here. IT The Red Sea, which he 
 dried up from before us. This is 
 another instance of the usage just 
 adverted to. He speaks of the Red 
 Sea's being dried up from before the 
 people whom he then addressed, 
 whereas none of that generation 
 were now living except himself and 
 Caleb, the rest of them having per- 
 ished in the wilderness through unbe- 
 lief and rebellion. 
 
 CHAPTER. V. 
 
 1, And it came to pass, &c. As this 
 verse is much more intimately rela- 
 ted to what goes before than to what 
 follows, it would probably have been 
 belter to have joined it to the prece- 
 ding chapter. The present would 
 then have commenced with an en- 
 tirely new subject. IT All the kings 
 of the Amorites — and of the Canaan- 
 ites. As the whole land of Canaan 
 was of comparatively small extent, 
 the several nations as they are called, 
 which inhabited it, must have been 
 mere clans or hordes, and what are 
 termed their kings nothing more than 
 petty chieftains, ruling over territo- 
 ries scarcely larger than the coun- 
 ties in many of the states of the 
 American union. The term king^ 
 
 which were on the side of Jordan 
 westward, and all the kings of 
 the Canaanites '^which were by 
 the sea, ''heard that the Lord 
 had dried up the waters of Jor- 
 dan from before the children of 
 Israel, until we were passed over, 
 that their heart melted ; <^nei- 
 
 a Num. 13. 29. b Ex. 15. 14, 15. cb. 2. 9, 10, 11. 
 Pb. 48. 6. iizek. 21.7. c 1 Kings 10. 5. 
 
 in modern usage, conveys the idea 
 of a power and dominion alto- 
 gether more extensive than was 
 possessed by these petty potentates. 
 The Amorites and the Canaanites 
 here mentioned probably stand for 
 the whole of the devoted nations, 
 they being specified on account 
 of their superiority to the rest 
 in numbers, power, and courage. 
 The nation of the Amorites occu- 
 pied both sides of the Jordan ; two 
 of their kings, Sihon and Og, had 
 already been slain on the eastern 
 side. Deut. 4. 46, 47. "fT Which 
 were by the sea. The Mediterranean 
 sea ; along the coasts of which the 
 Canaanitish tribes,properly so called, 
 were spread. This region was after- 
 wards known by the name oi PhcE- 
 nicia, of which Tyre and Sidon 
 were the principal cities. On this 
 account the same person who is 
 called 'a woman of Canaan' by 
 Matthew, 15. 22, is called by Luke, 
 7. 26, ' a Syro-Phoenician.' ^ Had 
 dried up the waters of Jordan. 
 Which they regarded as the natu- 
 ral bulwark of their country, one too 
 strong for the enemy to break through , 
 especially during the season of its 
 annual overflow. It should seem 
 that the Canaanites, if they had acted 
 according to the rules of war, would 
 have opposed the Israelites in their 
 passage. But the destruction of Pha- 
 raoh at theRed Sea, some time before, 
 and the recent victories over Sihon 
 and Og, had spread such a panic 
 through the land, that they did not 
 dare to avail themselves of any sup- 
 posed advantage, lest they should 
 perish after their example. The 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ther was there spirit in them 
 any more, because of the chil- 
 dren of Israel. 
 
 event, indeed, shows how vain any at- 
 tempt on their part would have been. 
 It shows too that when the measure of 
 any people's iniquities is full, they 
 shall in no wise escape the vengeance 
 of God. Whatever obstacles may ap- 
 pear to lie in the way, and whatever 
 barrier an ungodly world may have, 
 or think they have, for their defence, 
 God will surely make a way for his 
 indignation. Opposing myriads shall 
 be only as the stubble before the fire of 
 his wrath. IT Until we were passed 
 over. These words intimate the wri- 
 ter to have been one of the company, 
 IT Their heart melted. In modern 
 language we read of the heart melt- 
 ing with pity and being dissolved 
 "with grief. The sacred writers, on 
 this and similar occasions, apply the 
 same metaphor, with equal truth and 
 beauty, to the operation of fear and 
 terror. IT Neither was there spirit 
 in them any more. The special prov- 
 idence of God is to be recognized in 
 the panic which fell upon these na- 
 tions at this particular juncture. It 
 gave the Israelites just the opportu- 
 nity they required, to ad minister the 
 rite of circumcision, and to keep the 
 Passover securely and without dis- 
 turbance. Had it been other-wise, 
 and had the Canaanites attacked 
 ihem, as Simeon and Le\i did the 
 ShechemiteswAeri t^ey were sore, they 
 would have taken them at every dis- 
 advantage. 
 
 2. At that time. As if in allusion to 
 the remarkable circumstances by 
 which they were now surrounded ; 
 encamped in the midst of an enemy's 
 country, and yet that enemy provi- 
 dentially restrained from harming 
 them, so that they wereeommanded, 
 as if in their very sight and presence, 
 to reduce themselves to a condition 
 of comparative weakness and help- 
 lessness. ' This formed a very great 
 trial of their faith, and their prompt 
 and universal obedience in such crit- 
 
 2 IT At that time the Lord 
 said unto Joshua, Make thee 
 ''sharp knives, and circumcise 
 
 ical circumstances, manifested a con- 
 fidence in the Lord's protection, and 
 a submission to his will, which con- 
 firm the sentiment that this was the 
 best of all the generations of Israel.' 
 Scott. IT Make thee sharp knives. 
 Heb. ' prepare, make ready, knives 
 of rock, stone, or flint,' Of such ma- 
 terials were the edge-tools of all na- 
 tions made before the use of iron 
 became common. At this day, 
 among most of the savage tribes in- 
 habiting the islands of the sea, or 
 other barbarous climes, the same 
 custom prevails. Their knives, and 
 also their arrows and spear-heads, are 
 made of stone ; and similar relics of 
 the aborigines of our own country 
 are often turned up by the plough. 
 It is not probable that the Israelites 
 were altogether strangers to the use 
 of iron, or were unfurnished with 
 various metallic tools, as their difier- 
 ent fabrications in the wilderness 
 force upon us the belief that they 
 must have employed both iron and 
 steel •, but from the case of Zipporah, 
 Ex. 4. 25, it appears to have been un- 
 lawful to use any kind of metal in 
 this religious rite, and this opinion 
 is confirmed by the practice of a tribe 
 in Ethiopia at this day, who, profess- 
 ing to follow the Mosaic institution, 
 perform the rite of circumcision, ac- 
 cording to Ludolf, loith knives of 
 sto7ie. It is supposed too that such 
 instruments were not so liable to 
 cause inflammation, as knives or 
 razors of metal, IT And circumcise 
 again the children of Israel the second 
 tiine. Heb. 'return (and) circum- 
 cise.' This is not to be understood as 
 a command to repeat circumcision on 
 those individuals who had already 
 received it. This would have been 
 at once unnecessary and impractica- 
 ble. It merely implies that they 
 were to renew the observance of a 
 rite which had been neglected in 
 their travels in the desert. The 
 
40 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 again the children of Israel the 
 second time. 
 
 3 And Joshua made him sharp 
 knives, and circumcised the chil- 
 
 command -was given now, at this 
 early period after their entrance into 
 the promised land, (1) That the re- 
 proach of Egypt might be rolled 
 away ; (2) That they might be duly 
 prepared to celebrate the Passover, 
 of which none might eat who were 
 uncircumcised, Ex. 12. 48 ; and (3) 
 As a trial of their faith under the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were now 
 placed, surrounded by enemies in- 
 tent upon their destruction, and who 
 could desire no greater advantage 
 than such a crippled state of their 
 invaders would give them. ' There 
 is a general circumcision now of the 
 people, as there had been at their 
 coming out of Egypt ; and as God 
 then closed the Egyptians in three 
 day's darkness that they could not 
 stir, so now he striketh the Canaan- 
 ites with terror, that they dare not 
 stir to hurt the people while they 
 "were sore. Circumcision sealed the 
 lease of the land of Canaan ; and 
 therefore as soon as they set foot on 
 it they must be circumcised.' Light- 
 foot. Had Joshua acted on the prin- 
 ciples common to all other generals, 
 when invading an enemy's country, 
 he would either have prosecuted his 
 advantages instantly, while his ene- 
 mies were filled with terror, and 
 crushed them before they had time 
 to prepare for their defence ; or he 
 would have fortified his own camp 
 to prevent surprise, and to be in con- 
 stant readiness for any emergency 
 that might arise. But instead of 
 adopting any military plans what- 
 ever, the very day after he had in- 
 vaded the country, without waiting 
 to know what effect the invasion 
 ■would have, he appoints nearly every 
 male in the congregation to "be cir- 
 cumcised ! Thus by one act disa- 
 bling the greater part of his whole 
 army from even standing in their 
 own defence ! What but a principle 
 
 dren of Israel at the hill of the 
 
 foreskins. 
 
 4 And this is the cause why 
 Joshua did circumcise : *A11 the 
 
 e Num. 14. 29. & 26. 64, 65. Deut. 2. 16. 
 
 of the most triumphant faith could 
 have brought them to submit to such 
 an injunction as this 1 
 
 3. And Joshua made him sharp 
 knives. That is, he caused them to 
 be made, they were made by his or- 
 der. IT Circumcised the children of 
 Israel. Meaning those of them who 
 had not been already circumcised, 
 those who had been born in the wil- 
 derness and were under forty years 
 of age. This he did by means of his 
 agents. As the number to whom the 
 rite was to be administered was im- 
 mensely large, and the time allotted 
 for it short, a great many hands must 
 necessarily have been engaged in it. 
 Probably any one who was him- 
 self circumcised, was authorised to 
 perform it. In ordinary circum- 
 stances it is proper to stand upon in- 
 stituted observances with great ex- 
 actness, and to have religious rites 
 performed by appropriate ofiicers, 
 but when peculiar emergencies arise, 
 such scrupulousness must sometimes 
 be waived, and rituals .give way to 
 essentials. God will have mercy ra- 
 ther than sacrifice, when only one 
 can be rendered him. IF At the hill 
 of the foreskins. So called from the 
 hillock of foreskins, the result of the 
 transaction. 
 
 4. A7id this is the cause, &c. The 
 omission in this case was probably 
 with the divine connivance, as the 
 people knew not the precise times 
 when they were to march, and a re- 
 moval immediately after the opera- 
 tion might have been dangerous to 
 tender infants. Moreover, as one 
 design of this rite was to distinguish 
 the Israelites from all other people, 
 it was not so necessary to be admin- 
 istered while they were secluded 
 from the world, for forty years in the 
 wilderness. This instance, however, 
 is not to be pleaded as authorising 
 the neglect or postponement of any 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 41 
 
 people that came out of Egypt, 
 that were males, even all the men 
 of war died in the wilderness by 
 the way, after they cume out 
 of Egypt. 
 
 5 Now all the people that 
 came out were circumcised ; 
 but all the people thatwerehoYn 
 in the wilderness by the way 
 as they came forth out of Egypt, 
 them they had not circumcised. 
 
 6 For the children of Israel 
 walked '■forty years in the wil- 
 derness, till all the people that 
 were men of war which came 
 out of Egypt were consumed, 
 because they obeyed not the 
 voice of the Lord: unto whom 
 the Lord sware that she would 
 
 f Num. 14 33. Deut. 1. 3. & 2. 7, 14. Ps. 95. 10. 
 g^u^l. 14. 23. Ps. 95. 11. Heb. 3. 11. 
 
 divine ordinance in common cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 6. Walked forty years. Led for 
 that time a wandering, unsettled life. 
 U Woiold not show them. Heb. ' cause 
 to see,' i. «. would not permit them to 
 enjoy. Thus Eccles. 2. 24, ' There 
 is nothing better for a man, than that 
 he should eat and drink, and that he 
 should make his soul e^ijoy (Heb. 
 cause his soul to see,) good in his la- 
 bor.' Ps. 4. 6, ' Who will show us 
 any good' '? (Heb. who will cause us 
 to see, i. e. to enjoy, to have the fru- 
 ition of.) 
 
 7. Their children whom he raised 
 %p in their stead. Or, Heb. ' caused 
 to stand, made to survive, preserved.' 
 The writer's design seems to be, to 
 state a contrast in the lot of the fa- 
 thers and the children, using the term 
 ' raised up/ in opposition to ' con- 
 sumed' in the preceding verse. The 
 one he destroyed for their rebellion, 
 the other he graciously preserved 
 alive, established^ caused to subsist. 
 See note on Ex. 9. 16, where tbis 
 sense of tjje term is amply cooiirmed. 
 
 not show them the land which 
 the Lord sware unto their fa- 
 thers that he would give us, ^a 
 land that floweth with milk and 
 honey. 
 
 7 And 'their children, who7}i 
 he raised up in their stead, them 
 Joshua circumcised : for they 
 were iincircumcised, because 
 they had not circumcised them 
 by the way. 
 
 8 And it came to pass when 
 they had done circumcising all 
 the people, that they abode in 
 their places in the camp, ''till 
 they were whole. 
 
 9 And the Lord said unto 
 Joshua, This day have I rolled 
 away Uhe reproach of Egypt 
 
 hEx. 3. 8. i Num. 14. 31. Deut. 1.39. k See 
 Gen. 34. 25. 1 Gen. 34. 14. 1 Smih. 14. 6. Sea 
 Lev. 18. 3. ch. 24. 14. Ezeu 20. 7. & 23. 3, 8. 
 
 The words contain a fulfilment of 
 the promise given in connection with 
 the threatening, Num. 14. 29—31. 
 
 8. Till they toe re whole. Till they 
 were healed. Heb. ' until they lived.' 
 The original is, in repeated instances, 
 used to signify being restored to health. 
 Thus Num. 21. 8, 'Everyone that 
 is bitten, when he looketh upon it, 
 shall live,' i .e. be recovered. 2 Kings 
 8. 8, ' Shall I recover of this disease V 
 Heb. ' shall I live.' Is. 38. 21, ' Lay 
 it for a plaister on the boil, and he 
 shall recover ;' Heb. ' shall live.' 
 The particle ' till' does not imply 
 that they abode in their tents no longer 
 than during the time of their recovery; 
 for they remained there while keep- 
 ing the Passover. The same remark 
 is to be made of the import of this 
 word in numerous other instances. 
 
 9, This day have I rolled aicay the 
 reproach of Egypt. It has been much 
 disputed by commentators what is 
 meant by the ' reproach of Egypt.' 
 We take the expression, in a very 
 full sense, to mean the reproach con^, 
 nected with Egypt, in whatever way, 
 
42 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 from off you : Wherefore the 
 name of the place is called 
 "'Gilgal unto this day. 
 
 whether activel)'- or passively. (1) 
 Actively ; inasmuch as the Israelites 
 themselves, while in the wilderness, 
 did virtually reproach the Most High 
 in respect to the land of Egypt, griev- 
 ing that they had left It, wishing 
 that they had died there, charging 
 him with leading them out thence 
 lo slay them in the desert, and pro- 
 posing to appoint a leader and to re- 
 turn thither. The 14th ch. of Num- 
 bers details these murmuring com- 
 plaints, and shows that God was ex- 
 ceedingly angry with the people on 
 this account, and would have de- 
 stroyed them but for the intercession 
 of Moses. But now the guilt of that 
 conduct was to be rolled away or 
 pardoned, they were no longer on 
 account of it to be kept out of pos- 
 session of the promised land ; and 
 not only so, they should never have 
 any more the least occasion or in- 
 ducement to vent such groundless re- 
 proaches. By being brought into 
 Canaan in so gracious and glorious 
 a manner, and having every prom- 
 ise fulfilled to them, all occasion of 
 complaint was forever cut off. (2) 
 Passively ; their bondage in Egypt 
 was, in a sense, a reproach and a 
 disgrace to them ; it would be so ac- 
 counted by other nations while it 
 continued, and they would be dispar- 
 aged by reason of it. It is probable 
 also that the Egyptians themselves, 
 seeing them wander so long in the 
 wilderness, reproached and taunted 
 them, as if brought there to be de- 
 stroyed; but now, having entered 
 Canaan in triumph, and being put in 
 possession of all the covenanted bles- 
 sings promised to the seed of Abra- 
 ham, of which circumcision was the 
 seal, this reproach was henceforth 
 done away. Both the disgrace of 
 their bondage and the contemptuous 
 aspersions of their oppressors, should 
 cease from this time forward forever. 
 TT l^^erefore the name of the place is 
 
 10 IT And the children of Is- 
 rael encamped in Gilgal, and 
 kept the passover °on the four- 
 
 Ex. 12. 6. Num. 9. 5. 
 
 called Gilgal unto this day. That 
 is, ' rolling,' ' rolling away.' Gilgal 
 was situated between Jericho and 
 the river Jordan, about one mile and 
 a half, or two miles, from the former, 
 and six from the latter. Nothing of 
 this city now remains ; but travelers 
 are shown a pile of stones denomin- 
 ated Galgala, which, though at a 
 considerable distance from the site 
 of the ancient Gilgal, is supposed by 
 some to be the monument erected by 
 Joshua. The clause ' unto this day/ 
 sufficiently indicates that the events 
 related in the book of Joshua, or at 
 least in this part of it, were not con- 
 signed to writing immediately upon 
 their occurrence, but after the lapse 
 of some considerable time. 
 
 10. And kept the Passover. Heb. 
 ' and made the passover.' The third 
 from its institution. The first was 
 observed in Egj'pt on the eve of their 
 departure, the second at Sinai on the 
 following year. Num. 9. 1, "2, \v\n\e 
 during the long interval down to the 
 present time it had been wholly sus- 
 pended. Amos, 5.25. IT On the 
 fonrteenth day of the month. That 
 IS, the fourteenth day of the first 
 month, or Nisan. — ^From this re- 
 markable portion of the sacred nar- 
 rative we may learn, (1) That in. 
 whatever circumstances we are pla- 
 ced, religion should be our first con- 
 cern. If ever there were circum- 
 stances which would seem to justify 
 the postponement of religious du- 
 ties, one would think they were those 
 of Joshua on this occasion, when he 
 had but just set foot on the land where 
 great and powerful nations were 
 prepared to combat for their very ex- 
 istence. We know how common it 
 is for military and naval command- 
 ers to act as if they thought they 
 had a dispensation to neglect the or- 
 dinances of religion, on account of 
 the urgency and importance of their 
 occupations. And the same idea 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPITER V. 
 
 43 
 
 teenth day of the month at even, 
 in the plains of Jericho. 
 
 prevails throughout almost all orders 
 of society. Every one is ready to 
 plead his temporal engagements as 
 an excuse for neglecting the con- 
 cerns of his soul. The statesman is 
 too much engaged in politics ; the 
 merchant in his business ; the phil- 
 osopher in his researches ; the stu- 
 dent in his books ; and the profes- 
 sional man in the duties of his call- 
 ing, to find time for the one thing 
 needful. But if Joshua, under his 
 peculiar circumstances, sought first 
 to serve and honor God, who then 
 can plead an exemption 1 Compared 
 with the divine favor is there an ob- 
 ject under heaven worthy of a 
 thought 1 (2) That in whatever cir- 
 cumstances we are placed, we should 
 place the most implicit confidence in 
 God. Suppose we were in the pre- 
 sence of Joshua while these religious 
 ceremonies were going on, we might 
 be disposed to ask, ' are you not in an 
 enemy's landl and have you not many 
 conflicts to maintain ere you can get 
 a quiet possession of it 7 yet you seem 
 as much at your ease as if the whole 
 land were already subdued before 
 you.' What reply may we suppose 
 Joshua would make to observations 
 like these 1 ' True,' he would say, 
 * you behold me in a state of as much 
 quietness and confidence as if I had 
 not an enemy to contend with. But 
 whose battles am I fighting 1 In 
 whose service am I engaged 1 Is 
 there any device or power that can 
 succeed against God '? In him I trust ; 
 and he it is that keeps my mind in 
 perfect peace.' Now in our spiritu- 
 al warfare we stand upon virtually 
 the same ground that Joshua did. 
 We are called to it as he was ; and 
 it is the way appointed for our get- 
 ting possession of our destined inher- 
 itance. We also have our enemies at 
 hand,withwhom,in our own strength, 
 it would be impossible for us to cope. 
 But our God is for us, and confiding 
 in him, we may bid a calm defiance 
 to the most malignant powers of dark- 
 
 11 And they did eat of the 
 old corn of the land on the mor- 
 
 ness. In our temporal trials also, en- 
 countered in the way of duty, we are 
 required to exercise the same cheer- 
 ful trust, for he Avho has called us to 
 them, will sustain us in them. 
 
 11. And they did eat of the old corn 
 of the land. Of the old ^raiTi of what- 
 ever kind it were. This they prob- 
 ably found in abundance in the de- 
 serted granaries of the inhabitants 
 who-had fled away, and betaken them- 
 selves for safety to the defenced city 
 of Jericho. The original phrase 
 however may be rendered simply, 
 ' They did eat o1i the product ox yield- 
 ing of the earth,' in contradistinction 
 from the manna which came from 
 heaven. ^ Andparchedcorn. That 
 is, the new corn of the present year, 
 which they found standing in the 
 fields. The new or green corn was 
 parched to enable them more easily 
 to grind it for food. This would not 
 be necessary in respect to old corn. 
 IT On the morroio after the Passover. 
 Meaning, probably, on the sixteenth 
 day of the month ; for the paschal 
 lamb was killed and roasted on the 
 fourteenth, and the feast began that 
 nightjWhich, according to their reck- 
 oning, formed a part of the fifteenth 
 day, through the wholeof which the 
 feast continued, so that the sixteenth 
 day was the morroto after the Pass- 
 over, when they were required by the 
 Law (Lev. 23. 10, 11.) to offer to God 
 the wave-sheaf of the first fruits, and 
 then were allowed to eat the rest. 
 IT In the self-same day. Perhaps im- 
 porting the very great eagerness of 
 the people to feast upon the fruits of 
 the land as soon as they might law- 
 fully do it. Having previously re- 
 newed their covenant with God and 
 partaken of its seals, circumcision 
 and the passover, they wished at once 
 to enter upon the enjoyment of all 
 the rights and privileges thereby con- 
 firmed to them. 
 
 12. And the manna ceased on the 
 morrow. Because it was now no 
 longer necessary. God Avould not 
 
44 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451'. 
 
 row after the passover, unleav- 
 ened cakes and parched corn in 
 the self.same day. 
 
 12 H And °the manna ceased 
 on the morrow after they had 
 eaten of the old corn of the land ; 
 neither had the children of Is- 
 rael manna any more ; but they 
 
 have us expect extraordinary or mi- 
 raculous supplies when they may be 
 procured by ordinary means. The 
 sudden cessation of the manna would 
 teach the people also very impres- 
 sively that it was not an ordinary 
 production of nature, that it had not 
 fallen for so long a time by chance, 
 or, like the dew, in consequence of 
 fixed laws, but tliat it was a special 
 and preternatural gift of the divine 
 goodness. We are prone to look 
 upon our common mercies as mat- 
 ters of course, and God sometimes 
 , withdraws them to teach us our de- 
 pendence more effectually. — ' The 
 word and ordinances of God are spir- 
 itual manna, with which God nour- 
 ishes his people in this wilderness, 
 but when we come to the heavenly 
 Canaan, this manna will cease, for 
 we shall then no longer have need 
 of it.' Henry. 
 
 13. When Joshua was by Jericho. 
 Heb. ' in Jericho;' i. e. in "the plains 
 of Jericho, in the country or terri- 
 tory immediately adjoining Jericho, 
 and called by the same name, prob- 
 ably at some distance from the camp, 
 whither he may have repaired for 
 the purpose of observing in person 
 the position of the city and the most 
 favorable point of attack. The 
 sixth chapter ought certainly to have 
 commenced here, as the subject now 
 entered upon is entirely new, and 
 the present arrangement most unnat- 
 urally divides the communication 
 which Joshua had with the angel, 
 and which is continued to ch. 6. 5. 
 IF There stood a man,. One in the 
 appearance of a man^ one whom 
 Joshua at first took for a man. That 
 
 did eat of the fruit of the land of 
 Canaan that year. 
 
 13 IT And it came to pass 
 when Joshua was by Jericho, 
 that he lifted up his eyes and 
 looked, and behold, there stood 
 Pa man over against him "^wUh 
 his sword drawn in his hand : 
 
 p Gen. 18. 2. & 32. 2». Ex. 23. 23. Zecli. 1. 8, 
 AclE. 1. 10. q Num. 22. 23. 
 
 he was a super-human being, how- 
 ever, is evident from what follows ; 
 and there seems no good reason to 
 dissent from the established opinion 
 of both ancient and modern exposi- 
 tors that this was no other than the 
 Son of God, the Eternal Word, ap- 
 pearing in that form which he was 
 afterwards to assume for the redemp- 
 tion of men. The reasons for this 
 opinion are, (1) The title which he 
 here gives himself, ' Captain of the 
 host of the Lord,' which is but ano- 
 ther form of the name ' Lord of hosts,' 
 implying the ruler of all the hea- 
 venly hosts, and which is evidently 
 the appropriate title of Jehovah- Je- 
 sus. (2) His acceptance of the wor- 
 ship or adoration which Joshua here 
 pays him. This an angel or any 
 created being would undoubtedly 
 have refused. Comp. Rev. 19. 10. 
 22. 9. Judg. 13. 16. Here, however, 
 instead of reproving Joshua for do- 
 ing him too much honor, he com- 
 mands him to do still more, by ' loos- 
 ing his shoes from off his feet;' thus 
 insisting upon the highest acknowl- 
 edgement of the divine presence 
 which was in use among the eastern 
 nations. (3) From the place being 
 made holy by his presence, which 
 was the special prerogative of God,. 
 Ex. 3. 5 ; and (4) From his being ex- 
 pressly called 'Jehovah,' ch. 6. 2, 
 which passage undoubtedly forms 
 a part of the present narrative, 
 as otherwise he must have appear- 
 ed without any ostensible object, 
 neither delivering any message, 
 making any promise, nor uttering 
 any command, except merely that 
 Joshua should loose his shoes from 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 and Joshua went unto him, and 
 said unto him, Art thou for us, 
 or for our adversaries ? 
 
 14 And he said, Nay; but 
 as captain of the host of the 
 Lord am I now come. And 
 Joshua '■fell on his face to the 
 earth, and did worship, and said 
 
 r Gen. 17. 3. 
 
 his feet.- VOver against Kim. As if 
 with a hostile intent, in somewhat of 
 a threatening^ attitude. The same 
 phrase in the original occurs Dan. 
 10. 13, 'Theprince of the kingdom of 
 Persia /ri^/i5ioo(Zme(Heb. 'stood over 
 against me.)' IT With his drawn sword 
 in his hand. As a symbol of the char- 
 acter in which he was now to mani- 
 fest himself in behalf of Joshua and 
 Israel. So he is elsewhere termed, 
 'A man of war,' Ex. 15. 3. His ap- 
 pearing in this form would serve also 
 not only to justify the war in which 
 Joshua was now engaged, to show 
 him that it was of God, who had given 
 him his commission to kill and slay, 
 but to encourage him to prosecute it 
 with vigor. If God was for him, 
 who could be against him 1 He had 
 indeed previously received many 
 promises of success, but God is often 
 graciously pleased to confirm and 
 follow up his promises, by signal 
 manifestations of his presence and 
 favor : ' Thou meetest him that re- 
 joiceth and worketh righteousness, 
 those that remember thee in thy 
 ways.'' IT And Joshua icent unto 
 him. Displaying herein a remark- 
 able courage and intrepidity. In- 
 stead of turning away from the for- 
 midable personage before him, and 
 seeking hastily to regain the camp, 
 he walks boldly up, and demands of 
 him whether he be a friend or a foe. 
 This undaunted bearing was the fruit 
 of his strong confidence in God. No 
 face of clay will intimidate him who 
 looks upon God as his friend and 
 protector, and who is found in the 
 ■way of duty. It is the disobedient, 
 the obstinate, the rebellious spirit, in 
 
 unto him, What saith my lord 
 unto his servant T 
 
 15 And the captain of the 
 Lord's host said unto Joshua, 
 "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, 
 for the place whereon thou 
 standest is holy : and Joshua 
 did so, 
 
 s Ex. 3. 5. Acts 7. 33. 
 
 which cowardice dwells. The good 
 man is ever the true hero. 
 
 14. And he said, Nay,- but as cap- 
 tain of the host of the Lord am I now 
 come. ' I am neither Israelite nor 
 Canaanite, neither friend nor foe in 
 your sense of the words, for I am not 
 a mortal man, but as prince and 
 leader of the Lord's host, of the an- 
 gels in heaven, and even of that very 
 power of which you are commander, 
 have I now come, to instruct and aid 
 thee in the great undertaking in 
 which thou art engaged.' He prob- 
 ably at the same moment put forth 
 some visible demonstration of his 
 true character, which at once satis- 
 fied Joshua, and filled him with an 
 overwhelming sense of his majesty 
 and glory, so that he instinctively 
 fell on his face to the earth, and of- 
 fered him those tokens of worship 
 which a mortal is bound to pay ta 
 his Creator. IT What saith my 
 Lord unto his servant? With the 
 profoundest reverence I acknowl- 
 edge thee as my Lord and leader^ 
 I subject myself to thy sovereign will, 
 and humbly wait for the orders it 
 may seem good to thee lo issue. 
 
 15. Loose thy shoe from off thy foot. 
 This was a token of respect and" rev- 
 erence usual in the east, and equiv- 
 alent to uncovering the head with 
 us. (See Illustrations of the Scrip- 
 tures, p. 129.) The.se are the same 
 words which the angel of the burn- 
 ing bush spake to Moses, Ex. 3. 5, 
 from which , and other circumstances, 
 it is probable that it was the same 
 person who appeared in both places. 
 That great and glorious Being, who 
 knows fully his own infinite perfec* 
 
46 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 N 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OW Jericho was strait! y 
 shut up, because of the 
 
 tions, which we are very inadequate 
 
 to comprehend, knows what external i 
 manifestations of respect they justly \ 
 claim of his creatures. ' Outward ' 
 expressionsof inward reverence, and ; 
 a religious awe of God, well become 
 us, and are required of us, whenever 
 we approach to him in solemn ordi- 
 nances.' Henry. U The place v: he re- 
 on thou standesl is holy. Heb. ' is 
 holiness.' It was for the time made 
 holy, or consecrated by the divine 
 presence. As soon as ihat was with- 
 drawn, its peculiar sacredness also 
 forsook it, and it was no more holy 
 than an)^ other place. Yet with the 
 pious heart there will naturally be, 
 from the laws of association, a feel- 
 ing of reverence for any place where 
 God has been pleased to vouchsafe 
 the special manifestations of himself. 
 Such a sentiment, however, should 
 be guarded from degenerating into 
 superstition. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 We fully assent to the remark of 
 Dr. Adam Clarke, that there is 
 scarcely a more unfortunate division 
 of chapters in the whole Bible than 
 here. According to the present ar- 
 rangement, the reader is greatly at a 
 loss to know what is intended by this 
 extraordinary appearance of the Son 
 of God, as it would seem that the 
 whole account of his visit is closed 
 with the foregoing chapter, where- 
 as in fact it is continued in the pre- 
 sent. The first verse of ch. 6, is a 
 mere parenthesis, relating the state 
 of Jericho at the time that Joshua 
 was favored by this encouraging vis- 
 ion. The thread of the narrative re- 
 specting this divine personage, com- 
 menced in the preceding chapter, is 
 then resumed, and continued to v. 5. 
 1. Noio Jericho was siraitly shut 
 up. Strictly, closely shut up. Heb. 
 * did shut up and was shut up,' or 
 ^closing and was closed.' The ori- 
 ginal expression is peculiar and em- 
 
 child ren of Israel: none went 
 out, and none came in. 
 
 2 And the Lord said unto 
 
 phatic, and was doubtless designed 
 to imply the extreme care and vigi- 
 lance with which the gates had been 
 closed and were watched, not only 
 by night, as when the spies came, 
 ch. 2. 5, but also by day. Accord- 
 ingly the Chal. renders it, ' And Jer- 
 icho was shut up with iron doors and 
 fortified with brazen bolts, so that 
 none came out either to combat or to 
 make offers of peace.' The lan- 
 guage also intimates, that the city 
 was not only effectually shut up and 
 made secure from within, but was 
 also so closely blockaded by the Is- 
 raelites from without, that there was 
 no going out or coming in even to 
 its own citizens. ^ Because of the 
 children of Israel. Heb. 'before the 
 children of Israel.' ' Meihinks I see 
 how they called their council of war, 
 debatedof all means of defence, gath- 
 ered their forces, trained their sol- 
 diers, set strong guards to the gates 
 and walls ; and now would persuade 
 one another that unless Israel could 
 fly into their city, the siege was vain. 
 (So) vain worldlings think their 
 ramparts and barricadoes can keep 
 out the vengeance of God; their 
 blindness suffers them to look no fur- 
 ther than the means ; the supreme 
 hand of the Almighty comes not 
 within the compass of their fears. 
 Every carnal heart is a Jericho shut 
 up ; God sets down before it, and dis- 
 plays mercy and judgment in sight 
 of the walls thereof: it hardens itself 
 in a wilful security, and saith, •' Aha, 
 I shall never be rnoved." Bp. Hall. 
 2. A7id the Lord said unto Joshua. 
 That is, after Joshua had loosed his 
 shoes from off" his feet, as command- 
 ed above, ch. 5. 15. He who was be- 
 fore called the ' Captain of the Lord's 
 host,' is here called * Lord ' or ' Jeho- 
 vah,' thus clearly proving that it was 
 a divine personage; for who else 
 could promise and perform what fol- 
 lows *? IT / have given into thy 
 hand Jericho. Not only I will do it, 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 47 
 
 Joshua, See, ^I have given into 
 thy hand Jericho, and the '^king 
 thereof, and the mighty men of 
 valor. 
 
 3 And ye shall compass the 
 city, all ?/e men of war, and go 
 
 a Ch 2. 9, 24 & &. 1. b Deut. 7. 24. 
 
 but I have done it; it is all thine 
 own, as surely as if it were even no\v 
 in thy possession. IT And the mighti/ 
 men of valor. The copulative ' and ' 
 does not occur here in the Hebrew. 
 The proper rendering is, ' I have 
 given into thy hand Jericho and the 
 king thereof, (who are, or, although 
 they are) mighty men of valor,' i. e. 
 experienced and powerful warriors, 
 men with vrhoni, if you were to con- 
 tend on ordinary terms, you would 
 be unable to cope, but whom, through 
 my assistance, you shall utterly over- 
 throw. A city, in Scripture slyle, is 
 often taken, not for a collection of 
 houses and icalls, but for the iahabit- 
 nnts^ an assemblage of people dwell- 
 ing together in a corporate capacity. 
 The same distinction holds between 
 the Latin nrbs and civitas. By Jeri- 
 cho and its king, is here meant the 
 inhabitants and their king, and they 
 are spoken of collectively as ' mighty 
 men'of valor.' 
 
 3. And go round about the city once, 
 Heb. ' by going round about the city 
 i)nce/ IT Thus shalt thou do six 
 days. The address is here made to 
 Joshua in the singular number, as 
 the commander and representative 
 iif the people. In the preceding 
 clause the plural is used. Such 
 changes of person are frequent, and 
 always worthy of attention^ as show- 
 ing the constructive unity of people 
 and their leaders.— -It seemed good to 
 infinite wisdom to appoint this 
 method of besieging the city, (1) To 
 magnify his power, to show in a con- 
 vincing manner, both to the Canaan- 
 ites and to Israel, that Om.nipotence 
 alone had achieved the work, that 
 he was inftniteiy above the need of 
 ihe ordinary means of obtaining a 
 yjletorj, and to rejxder those of his en- 
 
 rourd about the city once : thus 
 shalt thou do six days. 
 
 4 And seven priests shall bear 
 before the ark seven 'trumpets 
 of rams' horns : and the seventh 
 day ye shall compass the city 
 
 c See Jiidg. 7. 16, 22. 
 
 emies entirely inexcusable who 
 should presume to withstand his re- 
 sistless arm. (2) To try the faith and 
 obedience of Joshua and his people, 
 by prescribing a course of conduct 
 that seemed to human wisdom the 
 height of folly and absurdity, and 
 also to secure a profound respect to 
 all his subsequent institutions, how- 
 ever simple or contemptible they 
 might seem to the eye of carnal rea- 
 son. (3) To put honor upon the ark 
 as the appointed token of his pre- 
 sence, and to confirm still more fully 
 that veneration and aM^e, with which 
 they had always been taught to re- 
 gard it. 
 
 4. Seven trumpets of rams'' horns, 
 Heb. Q'^^iiTi m^iCld trumpets of the 
 jubilee, i. e. such trumpets as used 
 to be blown in the year of jubilee, 
 impiying, perhaps, that the entrance 
 of Israel into Canaan was a kind of 
 jubilee to them, an occasion that 
 called rather for the sound of the 
 trumpet of joy, than the dreadful 
 notes of the trumpet of war. No 
 other scriptural instance is adduced^ 
 in which the word b-i"' J^obel is 
 translated ram, though it be true that 
 the Chaldee paraphrase favors that 
 rendering. But its single authority 
 on the point is not conclusive. The 
 like phrase in v. 5, is, in the original 
 bsT^ "Pp /i^r??, of jubilee, and proves 
 only that horns were used, without 
 restricting the meaning to rams* 
 korns. Si ill the sense ofravis^ horns, 
 as a traditionary sense, seems for 
 ages to have connected itself with 
 the phrase, grounded, we presume, on 
 the fact, that the trumpets in question 
 were made in the shape of the horns 
 of this animal, and the appellation 
 ^ horn of jubilee* may be used figu^ 
 ratively for trumpet of jubilee, ju§t 
 
48 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 lA. C. 1451. 
 
 seven times, and ''the priests 
 shall blow with the trumpets. 
 
 5 And it shall come to pass, 
 that when they make a long 
 blast with the ram's horn, and 
 when ye hear the sound of the 
 trumpet, all the people shall 
 shout with a great shout : and 
 the wall of the city shall fall 
 down flat, and the people shall 
 ascend up every man straight 
 before him. 
 
 6 IT And Joshua the son of 
 
 as with us a well known musical in- 
 strument of brass is called 'a horn' 
 from its form, and another called ' a 
 serpent ' for the same reason. IT The 
 seventh day ye shall compass the city 
 seven times. The time was thus 
 lengthened out, both to afford a con- 
 tinued exercise of the faith and pa- 
 tience of the people, and that the be- 
 sieged and besiegers might be the 
 more deeply impressed with that 
 supernatural power by which the 
 result was to be accomplished. Men 
 are usually prone to precipitate 
 measures. God moves deliberate- 
 ly, and he would have his people 
 wait his time. ' He that believeth 
 shall not make haste.' ' It is the 
 pleasure of God to hold us both in 
 work and in expectation, and though 
 he require our continual endeavors 
 for the subduing of our corruptions, 
 during the six days of our life, yet 
 we shall never find it perfectly effec- 
 ted till the very evening of our last 
 day.' Bp. Hall. The repeated men- 
 tion of the number seven in this con- 
 nection is worthy of notice. It has 
 been suggested fhat it might have a 
 latent reference to the creation of 
 the world in six days, and God's 
 resting on the seventh, which com- 
 pleted the first week, and, in the pre- 
 sent case, that it may convey an allu- 
 sion to the preaching of the gospel 
 for a limited period of time, at the 
 close of which, perhaps, early in the 
 seyemh thousand years, all Satan's 
 
 Nun called the priests, and said 
 unto them, Take up the ark of 
 the covenant, and let seven 
 priests bear seven trumpets of 
 rams' horns before the ark of the 
 Lord. 
 
 7 And he said unto the peo- 
 ple, Pass on, and compass the 
 city, and let him that is armed 
 pass on before the ark of the 
 LoitD. 
 
 8 IT And it came to pass, 
 when Joshua had spoken unto 
 
 remaining bulwarks shall fall to the 
 ground, and the kingdoms of this 
 world become the kingdoms of the 
 Lord and of his Christ, 
 
 5. The wall of the city shall fall 
 down flat. Not absolutely all the 
 wall in the whole extent of its com- 
 pass, since that would have involved 
 the house of Rahab in the destruc- 
 tion, which, it is plain, was not in- 
 tended, nor did it happen, v. 22. As 
 the city was completely surrounded 
 by the Israelites, the falling of the 
 walls would give the inhabitants no 
 opportunity of escape. They could 
 not break through the array of armed 
 men that hemmed them in. The 
 original for ' fall down flat' is ' fall 
 down under itself,' or ' in its place,* 
 which appears to mean simply, that 
 the wall should fall down to its very 
 foundations. IT Ascend up every 
 
 man straight before him. The ob- 
 struction of the wall being removed, 
 nothing stood in the way of the peo- 
 ple's advancing in a direct line, as if 
 from the circumference to the centre 
 of a circle, and meeting in the heart 
 of the city. This is called ' going 
 up' or ' ascending,' from the necessity 
 there was of climbing over the ruins 
 of the walls on their way. Besides 
 which it is common, in nearly all lan- 
 guages, to describe the approach to a 
 city as a * going up' to it. After giv- 
 ing these directions, the Angel-Jeho- 
 vah no doubt departed. 
 
 8 Passed on before the Lord. That 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 49 
 
 the people, that the seven priests 
 bearing the seven trumpets of 
 rams' horns passed on before 
 the Lord, and blew with the 
 trumpets : and the ark of the 
 covenant of the Lord followed 
 them. 
 
 9 1[ And the armed men went 
 before the priests that blew with 
 the trumpets, •'and the rere-ward 
 came after the ark, the priests 
 
 is, as we suppose, before the ark of 
 the Lord, v. 4 and ch. 3. 11. IT The 
 ark of the covenant. The ark in 
 which were deposited the two ta- 
 bles whereon the covenant was writ- 
 ten. 
 
 9. And the armed men. Heb, ' the 
 armed man,' i. e. each armed man 
 collect sin^. for plur. IT The 
 rereward. The hinder part. The or- 
 iginal DOJ^IO massaph, comes from 
 tlDS^ cisaph, .to collect^ to gather up, 
 and is equivalent to our military 
 phrase bringing up the rear, and 
 not improperly rendered in the mar- 
 
 fin, ' gathering host,' It implies a 
 ind and protecting care towards 
 those who are its objects. The same 
 phraseology occurs, Is, 52. 12, * The 
 Lord will go before you, and the 
 God of Israel will be your rereward, 
 (Heb. your gatherer,)' Ps. 27. 10. 
 " When my father and my mother 
 forsake me, then the the Lord will 
 take me up. (Heb. will gather me.)' 
 A rereward therefore is that portion 
 of an army which, moving behind 
 the main body, gathers up all the 
 stragglers, takes care of any that 
 may faint and fall by the way, sees 
 that neither cattle nor baggage are 
 missing, and protects or covers the 
 rear of the host from the assault of 
 enemies. The Jews think the di- 
 vision of Dan is meant, which al- 
 ways brought up the rear. Num. 10. 
 
 10. Nor make any noise with your 
 voice. Heb. ' nor cause your voice to 
 be heard.' They were not only re- 
 quired to abstain from shouting, but 
 
 5* 
 
 going on, and blowing with the 
 trumpets. 
 
 10 And Joshua had com- 
 manded the people, saying, Ye 
 shall not shout, nor make any 
 noise with your voice, neither 
 shall any word proceed out of 
 your mouth, until the day I bid 
 you shout, then shall ye shout. 
 11 So the ark of the Lord 
 compassed the city, going about 
 
 to observe a profound silence in eve- 
 ry respect. This would be expressive 
 of a reverent awe in anticipation of 
 the event ; and would preclude all 
 danger of mistake as to the precise 
 time when they were required to 
 shout. If noise of any kind had been 
 allowed, they might have taken it for 
 the signal of a general acclamation. 
 This would not only have been in- 
 effectual before the appointed time, 
 but would have rendered them the 
 derision of their enemies. 
 
 1 1 . S**? the ark of the Lord compass- 
 ed the city. Or, 'so he caused the 
 ark of the Lord to compass the city.' 
 The original will admit of either ren- 
 dering. The procession imdoubtedly 
 moved at a sufficient distance to be oiit 
 of the reach of the enemy's arrows 
 and out of the hea ring of their scoffs. 
 They must have looked with a very 
 contemptuous eye upon such an un- 
 warlike mode of assault, and when 
 day after day passed and no effect fol- 
 lowed, would naturally become hard- 
 ened in security, and think the whole 
 the mere mockery of a siege, a sense- 
 less and childish parade. Thus they 
 would cry ' peace and safety,' while 
 sudden destruction was coming upon 
 them. ' There was never so strange a 
 siege as this of Jericho: here was no 
 mount raised, no sword drawn, no 
 engine planted, no pioneers under- 
 mining ; here were trumpets sound- 
 ed, but no enemy seen ; here were 
 armed men, but no stroke given; 
 they must walk, and not fight ; sev- 
 en several days must they pace about 
 
60 
 
 JOSHtJA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 it once : and they came into 
 tlje camp, and lodged in the 
 camp. 
 
 12 If And Joshua rose early 
 in the morning, ^and the priests 
 took up the ark of the Lord. 
 
 13 And seven priests bearing 
 seven trumpets of rams' horns 
 before the ark ofthe Lord went 
 on continually, and blew with 
 the trumpets : and the armed 
 men wont before them ; but the 
 re re- ward came after the ark 
 of the Lord, the priests going 
 on, and blowing with the trum- 
 pets. 
 
 14 And the second day they 
 
 f Deut, 31. 25. 
 
 the walls, which they may not once 
 look over to see what was within. 
 Doubtless these inhabitants of Jeri- 
 cho made themselves merry with 
 this sight. When they had stood 
 six days on their walls, and beheld 
 nothing but a walking enemy, 
 ' What,' say they, ' could Israel find 
 no walk to breathe them with, but 
 p.bout our walls 1 Have they not 
 traveled enough in their forty years' 
 pilgrimage, but they must stretch 
 their limbs in this circle 1 We see 
 they are good footmen, but when 
 shall we try their hands 1 Do these 
 vain men think Jericho will be won 
 by looking af? Or do they only 
 come to count how many paces it is 
 about our city 1 If this be their man- 
 ner of siege, we shall have no great 
 cause to fear the sword of Israel. 
 Wicked men think God in jest when 
 he is preparing for their judgment.' 
 Bp. Hall. 
 
 15. The seventh day — theij rose ear- 
 ly. Because on this day they had to 
 encompass the city seven times; a 
 proof that the city could not have 
 been very large, and also that the 
 vholc Israelitish host could not have 
 b-en employed in going round it ; 
 for as the fighting men alone 
 amounted to 600,000, independent- 
 
 compassed the city once, and 
 returned into the camp. So 
 they did six days. 
 
 15 And it came to pass on the 
 seventh day, that they rose early 
 about the dawning of the day, 
 and compassed the city after the 
 same manner seven time s: only 
 on that day they compassed the 
 city seven times. 
 
 16 And it came to pass at the 
 seventh time, when the priests 
 blew with the trumpets, Joshua 
 said unto the people. Shout ; 
 for the Lord hath given you 
 the city. 
 
 17 "f And the city shall be ac- 
 
 ly of the mass of the people, who 
 made a total of at least two millions 
 more, the thing is utterly inconceiv- 
 able. A select number, sufficient 
 for the occasion, was doubtless all 
 that were employed. It is evident 
 that in the course of these seven days 
 there must have been a sabbath. This 
 the Jewish writers say was the last, 
 the day on which the city was taken ; 
 but this is not certain. It is not ma- 
 terial, however, which day it was. 
 That God, who commanded the sab- 
 bath to be set apart for rest and reli- 
 gious purposes, has a right to sus- 
 pend or alter the usual modes of its 
 observance when he sees fit, and 
 his command is sufiicient to make 
 any action lawful at any time. 
 
 16. Shoxit.^Jor the Lord hath given 
 you the city. As before it does not 
 appear that the people were inform- 
 ed how they were to cross the Jor^ 
 dan till they came to the river's brink, 
 so on this occasion Joshua seems to 
 have forborne telling them how they 
 were to become masters of the city, 
 till they had compassed it six times. 
 Their implicit obedience in this, as 
 in the former instance, strikingly 
 evinced their faith, which is com- 
 mended by the apostle, Heb. 11. 30. 
 * By faith the walls of Jericho fell 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTEI^ VL 
 
 •51 
 
 cursed, even it, and all that are 
 therein, to the Lord : only 
 Rahab the harlot shall live, 
 she and all that are with her in 
 the house, because ^she hid the 
 messengers that we sent. 
 
 18 And ye, •^in any wise 
 keep yourselves from the accur- 
 sed thing, lest ye nnake yourselves 
 
 g Ch. 2. 4. 
 12. 
 
 Deut.7. 2G. & 13. 17. ch. 7. 1, 11, 
 
 dowTi after they were compassed 
 about seven days.' 
 
 17. And Ike city shall be accursed. 
 Heb. ' shall be a curse, an anathema ;' 
 i. e. devoted to utter destruction ; no 
 spoils were to be taken, no lives to 
 be spared, except those of Rahab 
 and her family. All was to be, if 
 we may so say, consecrated to a cnrse. 
 For an account of the cherem or 
 ayiathema, see on Lev. 27. 21,28, 29. 
 It is plain from 1 Kings, 16. 34, that 
 Joshua spake this by divine direc- 
 tion ; and though to human view it 
 may carry the aspect of undue se- 
 verity, yet considered as the enact- 
 ment of Him whose judgments are 
 righteous altogether, we cannot 
 question its perfect equity, Jericho 
 belonged to a nation which had filled 
 up the measure of its iniquities, and 
 its guilt was peculiarly enhanced 
 by reason of the amazing display of 
 divine power which it had recent- 
 ly witnessed and against which it 
 had hardened itself. It was just, 
 therefore, that the vengeance taken 
 should be in proportion to the light 
 resisted. The severe judgment upon 
 Jericho, moreover, would tend to 
 strike terror into the hearts of the 
 rest of the devoted nations, and make 
 them an easier conquest. IT Oiily 
 Rahab shall live, &c. The Most 
 High never forgets his people. 
 When he maketh inquisition for 
 "blood, he remembereth them, who- 
 ever else may be overlooked. IT 
 Because she hid. The original has 
 an extraordinary and emphatic form, 
 implying that she carefully and dil- 
 igently hid them. 
 
 accursed, when ye take of the 
 accursed thing, and make the 
 camp of Israel a curse, iand 
 trouble it. 
 
 19 But all the silver, and gold, 
 and vessels of brass and iron, 
 are consecrated unto the Lord : 
 they shall come into the trea- 
 sury of the Lord, 
 
 i Ch. 7 25. 1 Kings la 17, 18. Jonah 1. 12. 
 
 18. In any wise keep yourselves. 
 That is, by all means, most carefully, 
 studiously, vigilantly. This city 
 was, as it were, the first fruits of Ca- 
 naan- and as such wholly devoted to 
 the Lord. The spoil of other cities, 
 subsequently taken, was allowed to 
 be divided among the captors, but 
 this was to be an exception to the 
 general rule. IT And make the 
 camp of Israel a curse. Heb. ' put, or 
 place the camp a curse.' The Heb. 
 word for ' put' has often the signifi- 
 cation of ' make, constitute, render.' 
 The meaning is, that they would 
 thereby render themselres obnoxious 
 to the curse denounced upon the city. 
 IT And trouble it. Bring distress up- 
 on it by provoking the divine dis- 
 pleasure, and interrupting the pros- 
 perous course of your victories, 
 Heb. Dn"i55> acha.rtem, from '^^jj 
 achar, to trouble. See note on Gen, 
 34. 30, 31. This is spoken as if in 
 foresight of the sin of Achan, to 
 whom Joshua afterwards said, ch. 7. 
 25, ' Why hast thou troubled us 1 
 The Lord shall <ro7^Ze thee this day.* 
 From hence he is called Achar, trou- 
 ble. 1 Chron. 2. 7. 
 
 19. All the silver and gold. Ex- 
 cept those portions of these metals 
 which were formed into idols or their 
 appendages, in respect to which the 
 law was express, Deut, 7. 25, ' The 
 graven images of their gods shall ye 
 burn with fire : thou shalt not desire 
 the silver or gold that is on them, 
 nor take it unto thee, lest thou be 
 snared therein : for it is an abomi- 
 nation to the Lord thy God.' Comp. 
 
 1 1 Chron. 14. 12. ^ Consecrated 
 
53 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 20 So the people shouted 
 when the priests blew with the 
 trumpets : and it canrie to pass, 
 when tb.e people heard the sound 
 of tlie trumpet, and the people 
 shouted with a great shout, that 
 
 unto the Lord. Heb. ' holiness to the 
 Lord,' i. e. dedicated exclusively to 
 him ; being first legally purified by 
 passing through the fire, according 
 to the ordinance. Num. 32. 21 — 23, 
 TT Shall come into the treasury of the 
 Lord. To be employed wholly for 
 the service of the sanctuary, and 
 not to be appropriated in any man- 
 ner to the use of any private person 
 or priest. The place of deposit was 
 the tabernacle of the congregation, 
 where the spoils of the Midianites 
 Were laid up. Num. 31. 54. 
 
 20. So the people shouted, &€. More 
 literally rendered from the Heb., ' So 
 the people shouted and blew with the 
 trumpets (i. e. the priests blew in the 
 name of the people,) and it came to 
 pass when the people heard the sound 
 of the trumpets, that the people 
 shouted with a great shout, and the 
 wall fell down flat, and the people 
 went up,' &c. The latter clause is 
 merely a more detailed and exact ac- 
 eount of w^hat is contained in the 
 first. Probably great numbers were 
 killed by the falling of the wall. 
 We are not warranted, perhaps, to 
 ipeak of this event as typical. Never- 
 theless it was doubtless intended to 
 convey most important instruction 
 to all succeeding ages. It was pecu- 
 liarly calculated to show how easily 
 God can make a way for the accom- 
 plishment of his own purposes, and 
 for the salvation of his people. If it 
 did not typify, it certainly well illus- 
 trates, the victories which the gospel 
 was to obtain over all the principal- 
 ities and powers of earth and hell. 
 No human force was to be used. 
 Nothing but the simple announce- 
 ment of the truth, and that by the in- 
 strumentality of Aveak and sinful 
 men — men unlearned, unskilled in 
 logic, and unfurnished with elo- 
 
 •^the wall fell down flat, so that 
 the people went up into the city, 
 every man straight before him^ 
 and they took the city. 
 
 21 And they (utterly de- 
 stroyed all that was in the city, 
 
 k Ver. 5. Heb. 11. 30 1 Dnit 7. 2. 
 
 quence — was the means chosen for 
 the destruction of idolatry, and the 
 establishment of the Redeemer's king' 
 dom over the earth. Yet how might- 
 ily has the bare sound of the gospel 
 trumpet prevailed for the overthrow 
 of Satan's empire in the world !' 
 
 21, A7id they utterly destroyed, 
 Heb. ' made a curse, devoted to de- 
 struction.' IT Both man and wo- 
 man, young and old, &c. In all this 
 the Israelites acted strictly according 
 to their orders, Deut. 20. 16, 17, so 
 that whatever charge of cruelty or 
 barbarity may be brought against 
 them in view of their conduct on this 
 occasion, it strikes directly at the 
 rectitude of the divine judgments. 
 That the Canaanites were a nation 
 of incorrigible idolaters, whose mor- 
 als, from the most remote periods, 
 w' ere polluted to the utmost degree^ 
 we have the highest authority for as- 
 serting. Had Jehovah, after bearing 
 with such a people for no less than 
 four centuries, sent upon them at 
 last a famine or a pestilence, and cut 
 them off' from the face of the earthy 
 who could deny that he had acted 
 with perfect justice 1 Had he again 
 caused tire to fall upon them from 
 heaven, or overw^helmed them by 
 the waters of a flood, the same ad- 
 mission must have been made. Why 
 then should it be urged that he acted 
 in opposition to any one of his know-n 
 attributes, because he let loose ano- 
 ther of his judgments upon them, 
 namely war 1 For such, as far as 
 they were affected, was really the 
 case. The Israelites were towards 
 them neither more nor less than in- 
 struments of punishment in the hands 
 of the great Ruler of the universe, 
 who chose to slay them by the edge 
 of the sword, rather than by earth- 
 quakes, famine, or plague. Towards 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 53 
 
 both man and woman, young 
 and old, and ox, and sheep, and 
 ass, with the edge of the sword. 
 
 22 But Joshua had said unto 
 the two men that had spied out 
 the country. Go into the harlot's 
 house, and bring out thence the 
 woman, and all that she hath, 
 "'as ye sware unto her. 
 
 23 And the young men that 
 were spies went in, and brought 
 out Rahab, "and her father, and 
 her mother, and her brethren^ 
 and all that she had ; and they 
 
 in Ch. 2. 14. Heb. 11. 31. n Ch. 3 13. 
 
 the Canaanites themselves, we must 
 admit that there was great severity 
 in the order for their extermination. 
 But there was goodness in it, yea 
 great goodness, towards the world 
 at large ; for it has shown the dan- 
 ger of unbelief and impenitence in 
 such awful colors, thai the proudest 
 and most obdurate must tremble. If 
 it be urged that to subject women and 
 unoffending children to the horrors 
 of war, is inconsistent with our ideas 
 of divine justice, we reply, that the 
 very same observation mightbe made 
 in the case of a plague or a deluge. 
 In all public calamities infants are 
 involved, and tens of thousands die 
 in great agony every year. If God is 
 the agent in these calamities, they 
 must consist with the most perfect 
 justice and goodness, and on the same 
 ground is the present order, fearful 
 as it was, to be vindicated. 
 
 22. Go into the kar lot's i^use. 
 Which had been miraculously pre- 
 served in the general overthrow. 
 
 23. The young meii. These per- 
 sons have all along hitherto been 
 called simply ' men,' and no inti- 
 mation given of their having been 
 young. For an explanation of the 
 Scriptural import of the phrase 
 'young men,' see on Gen. 14, 24. 
 'i All her Kindred. Heb. ' all her fami- 
 lies. ' ^ And left them without the camp. 
 Heb. ' made Iheixi to stay or abide/ 
 
 brought out all her kindred, and 
 left them without the camp of 
 Israel. 
 
 24 And they burnt the city 
 with fire, and all that was there- 
 in : °only the silver, and the 
 gold, and the vessels of brasa 
 and of iron, they put into the 
 treasury of the house of the 
 Lord. 
 
 25 And Joshua saved Rahab 
 the harlot alive, and her father's 
 household, and all that she had ; 
 and Pshe dwelleth in Israel even 
 
 o T. 19. p See Matt. 1. 5. 
 
 Till they were cleansed from the im- 
 purities of their gentile superstition, 
 and prepared, by suitable instruction, 
 for admission as proselytes into the 
 Israelitish church. 
 
 25. Saved alive. Heb. ' vivified, 
 made to live.' The usage of the ori- 
 ginal is peculiar. It seems to imply 
 that Rahab and her kindred were as 
 good as dead, that they had virtually 
 perished in the general destruction, 
 but bv being preserved through it, 
 had had, as it were, their lives restor- 
 ed to them. See the note on Pha- 
 raoh's being preserved, Ex. 9. 14 — 16L 
 11 Dwelleth in Israel even unto this 
 day. Heb. ' in the midst of Israel,* 
 i. e. as a communicant and partaker 
 of all the distinguishing privileges 
 of the chosen seed. She afterwards 
 married Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 
 a prince of the tribe of Judah, and 
 thus became one of the ancestors of 
 David and of Christ. Matt. 1. 5. 
 IT Unto this day. A strong proof 
 that the book was written in or near 
 the time to which it refers, and in 
 all probability by Joshua himself 
 % Because she hid the messengers. 
 This is repeated, as if the spirit of 
 inspiration delighted to dwell on the 
 act which redounded so signally to 
 her credit and to her salvation. God 
 takes pleasure in reciting the good 
 deeds of his people. From the vari- 
 ous part.icuJars recorded in the sa^ 
 
54 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 unto this day ; because she hid 
 the messengers wliich Joshua 
 sent to spy out Jericho. 
 
 26 H And Joshua adjured 
 
 cred narrative respecting Rahab, 
 "we may learn, (1) That there is no 
 person so vile but that he may become 
 an eminent saint. Would that all 
 abandoned women in the world 
 might hear of the mercy shown to- 
 wards this harlot of Jericho ! Des- 
 pised and outcast as they are by 
 their fellow-creatures, would that 
 they knew what compassion for them 
 exists in the bosom of God ! They 
 usually persist in their wickedness, 
 through an utter despair of obtaining 
 the mercy and grace which they need. 
 But here they might see that there 
 was hope for the vilest of the vile. 
 (2) Faiih, if genuine, will uniformly 
 produce good works. (3) Whatever 
 we do for God or for his people, be- 
 cause they are his people, shall most 
 assuredly be richly rewarded. 
 
 26. Joshua adjured them. Made 
 them to swear, caused them to bind 
 themselves by a solemn oath, con- 
 firmed by an imprecation upon them- 
 selves and their posterity, if they 
 broke it, that they would never re- 
 build the city. This he did, not on his 
 own responsibility , but by a divine im- 
 pulse, 1 Kings 16. 34. "From the re- 
 markable manner in which Jericho 
 was taken and destroyed, it appears 
 to have been the design of God to 
 preserve such a memorial of the 
 event, as would teach to the latest 
 posterity, his detestation of idolatry 
 and the vices that grow out of it. 
 Accordingly Joshua here adjures 
 the people by a solemn oath, and 
 binds it upon them and their poster- 
 ity, to leave the ruins of the city as 
 a perpetual warning to after ages 
 against the commission of those 
 crimes. It would thus serve also as 
 a precaution to Israel to abstain from 
 worshiping the idol deities of the sur- 
 rounding nations, IT Cursed be 
 the man before the Lord. That is, 
 from God's presence and by his sen' 
 
 them at that time, saying ^Curs- 
 ed be the man before the Lord, 
 that riseth up and buildeth this 
 city Jericho : he shall lay the 
 
 q I Kings 16. M. 
 
 tence. Thus Joshua is said, ch, 18. 
 8, to have ' cast lots before the Lord/ 
 i.e. as under his sanction and ex- 
 pecting the decision from him. This 
 was what gave its terror to the pen- 
 alty. As to what is implied in the 
 curse of God, see on Gen. 3. 14. 
 IT That riseth up and btcildeth. That 
 is, that attempts to build, that enters 
 upon the work of building, that en- 
 gages in it. This is often the sense 
 of ' rise ' in the sacred writers. The 
 denunciation is here limited to the 
 builder, and extends not to those who 
 should inhabit the city after it was 
 built, for that it was subsequently re- 
 built and inhabited is evident. See 
 below. U Shall lay the foundation 
 thereof in hisflrst-born, &c. That is, 
 shall "lose all his children in the in- 
 terval between laying the foundation 
 and completing the Avails; he shall, 
 as it were, lay the first stone on the 
 dead body of his eldest son, and the 
 last oh that of his youngest. This 
 is said to have been fulfilled in Hiel, 
 the Bethelite, 1 Kings, 16. 34, v/ho 
 rebuilt Jericho in the reign of Ahaz, 
 and ' laid the foundation thereof in 
 Abiram his first-born, and set up the 
 gates thereof in his youngest son 
 Segub.' This was 550 years atler the> 
 utterance of the curse. The city 
 does not appear, however, to have 
 lain in ruins during the whole pe- 
 riod from Joshua to Hiel, at least if 
 the • city of palm trees/ mentioned 
 Deut. 34. 3, be, as is generally suppo^ 
 sed, the same with Jericho, for we 
 find this an inhabited place in the be-, 
 ginning of Judges, ch, 1. 10, a short 
 lime after the death of Joshua, anci 
 the same city appears to have been 
 t.iken from "the Israelites by Eglon, 
 king of Moab, Judg. 3. 13. More, 
 over, the ambassadors of David, who 
 v/ere maltreated by Hanan, king of 
 the Ammonites, were commanded to 
 tarrj^ at Jericho till their beards were 
 
A, C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 55 
 
 foundation thereof in bis first- 
 born, and in his youngest son 
 shall he set up the gates of it. 
 
 27 ■'Sothe Lord was with Josh- 
 ua ; and =his fame was noised 
 throughout all the country. 
 
 grown, 2 Sam. 10. 4, 5. It appears) 
 therefore, thai there was a city which 
 went under this name long before 
 the time of Hiel, unless it be suppo- 
 sed that the ' city of palm trees ' was 
 a different place from the ancient 
 Jericho, though standing in its neigh- 
 borhood, and sometimes called by its 
 name, which we think not improba- 
 ble, especially as Josephus speaks of 
 the site of the old city of Jericho, as 
 if to distinguish it from a more mod- 
 ern one. 
 
 27. The Lord teas vnth Joshua, &c. 
 That is, by his powerful aid, giv'ing 
 him miraculous assistance, magni- 
 fying him and raising his reputation, 
 making him acceptable to Israel, and 
 formidable to the Canaanites. ' No- 
 thing can more raise a man's repu- 
 tation, nor make him appear more 
 truly great, than to have the evidence 
 of God's presence with him.' Henry. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 1. Committed a trespass. Heb. 
 'prevaricated a prevarication.' The 
 sin of an individual is imputed to 
 the whole people. This is on the 
 ground of the constituted oneness of 
 social and eclesiastical bodies. See 
 note on ch. 1. 12. In like manner. 
 Mat. 26. 8, it is said, that 'the disci- 
 ples had indignation, saying. To 
 what purpose is this waste 1' Where- 
 as from John, 12. 4, 5, it appears 
 that it was Judas only who made 
 this remark. — No man, in sinning, 
 can be sure that the consequences 
 will stop with himself. For aught 
 he knows, they may affect the whole 
 extent of his relations ; and this 
 ought to make us watchful both over 
 ourselves and others, that we neither 
 commit nor countenance deeds that 
 may spread desolation over thebosom 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 "OUT the children of Israel 
 -^^ committed a trespass in the 
 accursed thing : for ^Achan, the 
 son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, 
 the son of Zerah, of the tribe of 
 
 of a whole community. ' So venom- 
 ous is sin, especially when it lights 
 among God's people, that one dram 
 of it is able to infect the whole mass 
 of Israel.' Bp. Hall. M In the ac- 
 cursed thing. In respect to the ac- 
 cursed thing ; in taking a portion of 
 the spoils of the city, the whole of 
 which God had commanded to be 
 either destroyed or dedicated to the 
 sanctuary. IT Achan, the son of 
 
 Carmi. This Achan is elsewhere 
 called Achar, trouble or the troublery 
 undoubtedly in allusion to the effect 
 of his conduct on this occasion. See 
 on V. 25 and ch. 6. 18. In like man- 
 ner Bethel, house of God, is called 
 Bethaven, house of vanity, Hos. 4. 
 15, on accoimt of the idolatry prac- 
 tised there. Nothing is more com- 
 mon in the Scriptures, than for the 
 names of persons and places to be 
 changed in consequence of, and in 
 allusion to, certain remarkable 
 events by which they may have been 
 distinguished. if So7i of Zabdi. 
 Called also Zimri, 1 Chron. 2. 6. 
 The line of his parentage is thus 
 recited, among other reasons, that 
 the discredit of such a foul deed 
 may be reflected back upon those 
 of his ancestors who, by being remiss 
 in their duties as parents, had been, 
 in one sense, the procuring cause of 
 his sin. This is not an uncommon 
 occurrence in the sacred writings. 
 It seems to have been with a similar 
 design, that the genealogy of Zimri is 
 given. Num. 25. 14. In like manner 
 the praise of the excellence of a son 
 redounds to the honor of the line 
 from which he springs. A warn- 
 ing is hereby administered to parents, 
 to give the most diligent heed in 
 training their offspring in the fear 
 of God, lest they be a reproach to 
 
5a 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 JuJahjtook ofthe accursed thing : 
 and the angerofthe Lord was kin- 
 dled against the children of Israel. 
 2 And Joshua sent men from 
 Jericho to Ai, which is beside 
 Bethaven, on the east side of 
 Beth-el, and spake unto them, 
 
 their memories when they them- 
 selves are no more. 
 
 2. Sent men from Jericho U Ai. 
 Called also Hai, Gen. 12, 8, and Aija, 
 Keh, 11. 31, a city near the north- 
 ern limit of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 about ten miles north of Jerusalem, 
 and nearly two east of Bethel. After 
 its destruction by Joshua, it was again 
 rebuilt by the Benjaminites and in- 
 habited by them till the captivity. 
 Sennacherib at length destroyed it, 
 but though it was rebuilt after the 
 Babylonish captivity, there is no ves- 
 tige of il to be found at the present 
 time. Even in the fourth century, 
 the ruins of this city were scarcely 
 visible. The spies sent on this occa- 
 sion were not to go into the city, but 
 merely into its vicinity, for the pur- 
 pose of reconnoitring. IT Beside 
 Beth-aven. This was a city of Ben- 
 jamin, about three miles north of Ai, 
 and nearly six miles east of Bethel, 
 which gave name to the wilderness 
 adjoining, ch. 18. 12. It was not the 
 place called Beth-aven, Hos. 10. 5. 
 See on V. 1. ^ Go up and view the 
 country. Heb. ' go up and foot the 
 country.' So afterwards, ' and view- 
 ed,' Heb. ' and footed.' 
 
 3. Let not all the people go up, &c. 
 The easy conquest of Jericho had 
 probably rendered the people pre- 
 sumptuous. They concluded that 
 God would of course interpose for 
 them just as he had done before. The 
 counsel here given was based, as it 
 would seem, upon a culpable assu- 
 rance of success in the neglect of the 
 proper means. To confide in God 
 was right ; but to expect his aid while 
 they neglected to use their own en- 
 deavors, was nothing short of down- 
 right presumption. So prone is hu- 
 saan nature to extremes. The first 
 
 saying. Go up and view the 
 country. And the men went up 
 and viewed Ai. 
 
 3 And they returned to Joshua, 
 and said unto him, Let not all 
 the people go up ; but let about 
 two or three thousand men go 
 
 spies that were sent out by Moses 
 brought back the most disheartening 
 report. The Canaanites were invin- 
 cible, and they would surely fall be- 
 fore them. Those sent to Ai were 
 as much on the other extreme. Their 
 enemies are contemptible, and they 
 can easily carry all before them. 
 Even Joshua himself seems to have 
 formed his measures without taking 
 the usual precaution of consulting 
 God as to his duty. The result 
 showed that they should at least have 
 had some intimation from heaven, 
 that a part of the force was to be dis- 
 pensed with in this instance. But 
 the truth is, they were now under the 
 divine displeasure: sin unrepented 
 had interrupted the communications 
 of God's will, and where that is the 
 case with a people or an individual, 
 all goes vjrong. No one can have se- 
 curity that he is planning or acting 
 right, while the light of the Lord's 
 countenance is hidden by sin. The 
 pledge ofthe divine blessing is want- 
 ing, and he is not to be surprised if 
 all his counsels are carried headlong. 
 IT Make not all the people to labor 
 thither. That is, to labor and fatigue 
 themselves by going thither ; an ad- 
 vice by which they obviously consult- 
 ed the ease rather than the safety or 
 glory of the people. It is perhaps in 
 allusiontothis incident, that Solomon 
 says, Eccles. 10. 15, ' The labor ofthe 
 foolish laearieth every one of them, 
 because he knoweth not how to go to 
 the city.' IT F'or they are but few. 
 On which Henry well remarks, that 
 ' few as they were, they were too 
 many for them.' It appears from 
 ch. 8, 25, that Joshua slew in one 
 day, twelve thousand ofthe citizens 
 of Ai, and yet the spies reported the 
 place meanly garrisoned, and pro- 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 57 
 
 up and smite Ai : and make not 
 ail the people to labor thither ; 
 for they are but few. 
 
 4 So there went up thither of 
 the people about three thousand 
 men : ^and they fled before the 
 men of Ai. 
 
 5 And the men of Ai smote 
 
 b Lev. 26. 17. 
 
 of them about thirty and six men, 
 for they chased them from before 
 the gate even unto Shebarim, 
 and smote them in the going 
 down : wherefore Hhe hearts of 
 the people melted, and became 
 as water. 
 
 6 IT And Joshua "^rent his 
 
 c Ch. 2. 
 9,31 
 
 11. Lev. 26. 36. Ps. 22. 14. d Gen. 37. 
 
 posed to send against it only a de- 
 tachment of two or three thousand ! 
 5. Chased them — even unto She- 
 barim. Heb. ' to the breaches, break- 
 ings, or shiverings ;' so called prob- 
 ably from the event, because the 
 ranks of the Israelites were utterly 
 broken and the people, panic-struck, 
 fled in the utmost confusion. II 
 Smote them in the going down. That 
 is, in the descent or declivity of the 
 hill on which the town stood. The 
 effect of this defeat would naturally 
 be (1) To serve as an evidence of 
 God's displeasure, and a solemn call 
 upon them to humble themselves un- 
 der his mighty hand, and institute a 
 rigid self-examination to discover if 
 possible the cause of so sad a reverse. 
 (2) To harden the Canaanites and 
 make them more secure than ever in 
 their sins, prompting them to say of 
 Israel, as the enemies of David said 
 of him,Ps. 71. 11,' God hath forsak- 
 en him; persecute and take him, for 
 there is none to deliver him.' Thus 
 their ruin, when it came, wouldbe the 
 more dreadful. The Christian may 
 derive some profitable hints from this 
 narrative as to the conduct of the war- 
 fare in which he is engaged. Notwith- 
 standing the Canaan which he seeks 
 is the gift of God, yet it must be ob- 
 tained by a manly and continued 
 conflict with our spiritual enemies. 
 He must not despise any as too weak, 
 nor fear any as too strong. As to 
 the weak especially, he should re- 
 member that there is none so weak 
 but he will be able to overcome us if 
 we indulge a careless habit, or con- 
 fide in an arm of flesh. IT The 
 hearts of the people 'melted and became 
 6 
 
 as vjater. That is, were utterly dis- 
 couraged. Thus the very effect which 
 was threatened to be produced on the 
 devoted nations by the approach of 
 the Israelites, was now in the right- 
 eous judgment of God wrought in 
 the hearts of his own sinning people. 
 See on Ex. 15. 15. Josh. 2. 9, 11. 
 
 6. Joshua rent his clothes. A usual 
 mode, among the ancients, of ex- 
 pressing the highest degree of sor- 
 row or grief.- See Illustration of the 
 Scriptures, p. 156. It was not so much 
 the defeat itself as the undoubted 
 though unknown guilty cause of it 
 that distressed Joshua. It showed 
 evidently that for some reason or 
 other, the Lord's hand was turned 
 against them, as otherwise it would 
 not have been possible for the ene- 
 my to have prevailed. IT Until even 
 tide. Thus spending the whole day 
 in fasting and prayer. We cannot 
 but highly applaud the conduct of 
 Joshua on this occasion. The con- 
 cern he expressed for the loss of so 
 many lives evinced a heart full of 
 tender and generous sympathies. 
 Common generals would have ac- 
 counted the loss of thirty-six men as 
 nothing ; but the blood of Israel was 
 precious in the sight of Joshua. 
 We might have expected too that he 
 would have blamed the spies for de- 
 ceiving him in relation to the 
 strength of the city ; and have pun- 
 ished the soldiers for cowardice ; 
 but he viewed the hand of God, rath- 
 er than of man in this disaster ; and 
 this led to what all must admire, his 
 deep humiliation before God. But 
 his tender regard for the honor of 
 I the divine name was that which em- 
 
58 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 145U 
 
 clothes, and fell to the earth 
 upon his face before the ark of 
 the Lord until the even-tide, he 
 and the elders of Israel, and 
 *put dust upon their heads. 
 
 7 And Joshua said, Alas ! 
 O Lord God, '"wherefore hast 
 
 c 1 Sam. 4. 12. .2 Sam. 1. 2. & X3. 19. Neh. 9. 1. 
 Job 2. 12. fEx. 5. 22. 2 Kings 3. 10. 
 
 inently distinguished him on this oc- 
 casion, ' O Lord,' what wilt thou do 
 unto thy great namel' This was the 
 plea which Moses had often used, 
 and to which God had paid especial 
 regard ; and the man that feels it in 
 his soul, and urges it In sincerity and 
 truth can never be ultimately foiled. 
 IT Put dust iipo7i their heads. Rend- 
 ing the clothes, beating the breast, 
 tearing the hair, putting dust on the 
 head, and falling down prostrate, 
 have always been among Eastern 
 nations the usual marks of deep 
 affliction and distress. 
 
 7. Wherefore hast thou brought this 
 people, &LC. Heb. 'passing caused to 
 pass;' i. e. by a most stupendous mir- 
 acle. This prayer of Joshua ap- 
 pears at first view to have been 
 prompted by a murmuring complain- 
 ing spirit very much akin to that 
 manifested by the children of Israel 
 on several occasions, in the wilder- 
 ness. Ex. 14. 11, 12—16. 3. Num. 
 14. 3, Taken according to the letter 
 it has an air of bold and rather irrev- 
 erent remonstrance, which would not 
 have been expected from the pious 
 Captain of Israel, especially in a sea- 
 son of fasting and prayer, when he 
 appears to have been most profound- 
 ly humbled. But much of this, un- 
 doubtedly, arises from the difficulty 
 of transfusing the precise import of 
 the original into Eiiglish. The ex- 
 pressions ' to deliver, ' ' to destroy, ' 
 according to a very common idiom, 
 imply not the design, but simply the 
 event. Joshua would not intimate 
 that God had led the people into Ca- 
 naan with the express intention of de- 
 livering them into the hands of their 
 enemies, but he humbly enquires 
 why he had permitted an occurrence 
 
 thou at all brought this people 
 over Jordan, to deliver us into 
 the hand of the Amorites, to 
 destroy us? would to God we 
 had been content, and dwelt on 
 the other side Jordan ! 
 
 8 Lord, what shall I say 
 
 that seemed likely to issue in such 
 an event, one entirely foreign to the 
 original purpose. Before the phrase 
 ' would to God, &c.' the word ' and' 
 occurs in the Hebrew, which is to- 
 tally disregarded by our translators, 
 requiring the sentence to be filled 
 out by some such addition as this : — 
 ' to destroy us, and (to cause us to 
 say,) would to God we had been 
 content, &c.' It is as if he should 
 say ; — ' Should thy promises, O Lord 
 God, now fail of accomplishment on 
 account of our sin, the great miracle 
 thou hast wrought in bringing us 
 over Jordan would seem to be una- 
 vailing, and all thy past mercies 
 abortive. To all human view it 
 would have been better for us to have 
 remained on the other side of Jordan, 
 and we shall be strongly prompted 
 to wish that that had been the case, 
 for it will be inferred from the event, 
 that thy sole purpose in bringing us 
 hither, was to deliver us into the 
 hands of the Amorites for our de- 
 struction, rather than to deliver them 
 into our hands.' This we have no 
 doubt is the real drift of Joshua's ex- 
 postulation, and as nothing in the an- 
 swer which God makes to him car- 
 ries the air of reprehension or re- 
 buke, we see no reason to think that 
 any thing of the kind was merited. 
 His words were evidently prompted 
 by the most commendable feelings. 
 He felt for the thousands of Israel 
 whom he considered as abandoned 
 to destruction. He felt too for the 
 glory of God, for he knew that should 
 Israel be destroyed, God's great name 
 would be blasphemed among the hea- 
 then. He therefore uses an argu- 
 ment based perhaps on the very 
 words of God himself, Deut. 32. 27, 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 59 
 
 when Israel turneth their backs 
 before their enemies ! 
 
 9 For the Canaanites, and all 
 the inhabitants of the land shall 
 hear of it^ and shall environ us 
 round, and ^cut off our name 
 from the earth : and '^what wilt 
 thou do unto thy great name ? 
 
 g Pf. 83. 4. h See Ex 
 
 12. Num. 14. 13. 
 
 * Were it not that I feared the wrath 
 of the enemy, lest their adversaries 
 should behave themselves strangely, 
 and lest they should say, «&c.' 
 
 8. miat shall I say, &c. Heb. 
 ' what shall I say after (i. e. since, 
 or seeing that) Israel hath turned the 
 neck before his enemies.' What 
 ■construction shall I put upon it, or 
 iiow shall I answer the reproaches 
 and taunts of thine enemies, when 
 Israel, thine own people, for whom 
 thou hast done such great things, 
 and to whom thou hast made such 
 glorious promises, when they turn 
 their backs in ignoble flight before 
 their enemies ! He speaks as one 
 at a loss what to think of the unhap- 
 py events that had just occurred; 
 as if nothing more strange or mar- 
 vellous could have happened than 
 the defeat of the chosen people. IT 
 What ivilt thou do to thy great name 7 
 i. e. What wait thou do in respect to 
 thy great name 7 How wilt thou 
 preserve its glory unstained when 
 such a flood of obloquy shall be 
 poured upon it by the scoffing hea- 
 then '? The cutting off of our name, 
 though that would vastly disparage 
 thy power and faithfulness, yet that 
 is a matter of less consequence ; 
 but, O Lord, how wilt thou con- 
 sult the honor of thine own blessed 
 and glorious name, were such an ad- 
 vantage to be given to the adversa- 
 ry 1 Comp. Ex. 32. 12. Num. 14. 13. 
 Joel 2. 27. 
 
 10. Get thee up. Heb. * rise or stand 
 up for thyself IT Wh.e.refore liest 
 thouthus upon thy face ? H eb. ' where- 
 fore this, (that) thou art falling down 
 upon thy face !' i. e. continuing to fall, 
 doing it again and again. Not the 
 
 10 IT And the Lord said unto 
 Joshua, Get thee up ; wherefore 
 liest thou thus upon thy face ? 
 
 11 'Israel hath sinned, and 
 they have also transgressed my 
 covenant which I commanded 
 them : i^for they have even taken 
 of the accursed thing, and have 
 
 language of rebuke, as though Grod 
 were displeased with Joshua for pros- 
 trating himself in this humble pos- 
 ture, and bemoaning in bitterness of 
 soul the disaster that had befallen 
 Israel; but merely implying that it 
 was now enough ; that God would 
 not have him any longer continue 
 thai mournful posture ; that he had 
 other work to do than to spend time 
 in grieving and afflicting himself in 
 view of wliat was past ; that he must 
 arise and set about discovering the 
 accursed thing, and casting it out; in 
 a word that he must lay aside his 
 mourning weeds and enter upon 
 that which was especially and pre- 
 eminently at present incumbent 
 upon him. ' For every thing there 
 is a season, and it behoves us to see 
 that the time is not spent in empty 
 lamentation which God would have 
 devoted to vigorous action in reform- 
 ing what is amiss.' Henry. 
 
 11. Israel hath sinned. For a view 
 of the reason why this is spoken of 
 as the act of the whole body of Is- 
 rael, see note on v. 1. IT Have also 
 transg ressed my covenant. That is, 
 have'broken the conditions of the 
 covenant or agreement of general 
 obedience into which they had before 
 entered, Ex. 19. 8—24. 7; or, have 
 transgressed the particular precept 
 relative to the accursed thing, ch. 6. 
 19. Covenant, in the Scriptures, often 
 has the sense of command, precept, 
 ordinance, yi Have also stolen. Have 
 sacrilegiously taken and appropriat- 
 ed to their own use the portion which 
 I had reserved to myself, and or- 
 dered to be broughtinto the treasury, 
 IT And dissembled also. Have cover- 
 ed the deed with deep dissimulation ; 
 
60 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 also stolen, and idissembled also, 
 and they have put it even among 
 their own stuff. 
 
 12 ^Therefore the children 
 of Israel could not stand before 
 their enemies, but turned their 
 backs before their enemies, be- 
 cause " they were accursed : 
 neither will 1 be with you any 
 more, except ye destroy the ac- 
 cursed from among you. 
 
 13 Up, "sanctify the people, 
 and say pSanctify yourselves 
 against to-morrow : for thus 
 
 1 See Acts 5. 1, 2. rn See Num. 14. 45. Judg. 2. 14- 
 n Deux. 7. 26. ch. 6. 18. o Ex. 19. 10. p ch. 3. 5. 
 
 instead of ingenuously confessing 
 the sin and imploring pardon, have 
 studiously endeavored lo hide it, as if 
 by concealing it from their brethren 
 they had concealed it also from me. 
 The crime is recited with the utmost 
 particularity, in order that its various 
 aggravations may be more impres- 
 sively set forth. fT Have put it even 
 among their own stuff. Among their 
 own goods. 
 
 12. Because they were accursed. In 
 exact accordance with the threaten- 
 ing before denounced against them, 
 ch. 6. 18. Joshua was thus informed 
 that this, and nothing else, was the 
 ground of the controversy which God 
 now had with his people. They had, 
 by their iniquity, put themselves out 
 of the range of his protection and 
 blessing, and unless summary pun- 
 ishment was executed upon the of- 
 fender, they would transfer upon 
 themselves the very curse denoun- 
 ced against their adversaries. IT Ex- 
 cept ye destroy the accursed. The ac- 
 cursed person with all that pertains 
 to him, V. 24. 
 
 13. Up, sanctify the people. That 
 is, command and see that they sancti- 
 fy themselves. Cause them to purify 
 their persons by legal washings, but 
 more especially to put themselves 
 into a suitable frame of mind to ap- 
 pear before God, and submit to the 
 
 saith the Lord God of Israel, 
 There is an accursed thing in 
 the midst of thee, O Israel : thou 
 canst not stand before thine ene- 
 mies, until ye take away the ac- 
 cursed thing from among you. 
 
 14 In the morning therefore 
 ye shall be brought according to^ 
 your tribes : and it shall be, that 
 the tribe which^ the Lord taketh 
 shall come according to the fam- 
 ilies thereof; and the family 
 which the Lord shall take shall 
 come by households : and the 
 
 q Prov. 16. 33. 
 
 divine scrutiny. Although the act 
 of Achan had been perpetrated with 
 so much caution that it was unper- 
 ceived by any human being, yet the 
 eye of God had been upon it, and he 
 declared to Joshua the true reasou of 
 his displeasure, and of Israel's defeat. 
 But, though he revealed the fact, he 
 did not name the person that had com- 
 mitted it, but left that to be discover- 
 ed in a w^ay more impressive to the 
 nation, and more merciful to the of- 
 fender, inasmuch as it gave him time 
 for repentance and voluntary ac- 
 knowledgment. IT There is an 
 accursed thing, &c. The crime of 
 sacrilege has been committed in the 
 midst of thee, O Israel. 
 
 14. Ye shall be brought. Heb. ' ye 
 shall come near;' i. e. to the taber- 
 nacle, or to the ark, w^herever that 
 might now be deposited. IT The 
 tribe which the Lord taketh. That is, 
 the tribe which shall be discovered 
 or declared guilty by the lot. The 
 tribe thus indicated is said to be 
 'taken by the Lord,' because the lot 
 was disposed of by him, according to 
 Prov. 16. 33 ; the transaction was 
 specially overruled by him in his 
 mysterious providence for the de- 
 tection of the guilty. Of the sacred 
 use of lots, see 1 Sam. 10. 20, 21.— 
 14. 41,42. Acts 1.24,26. The origi- 
 nal for ' take' has the import of ar- 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 61 
 
 household which the Lord shall 
 take shall come man by man. 
 
 15 --And it shall be, that he 
 that is taken with the accursed 
 thing shall be burnt with fire, 
 he and all that he hath : because 
 he hath transgressed the cove- 
 nant of the Lord, and because 
 he thath wrought folly in Israel. 
 
 16 IF So Joshua rose up early 
 
 r Ses 1 Sam. 14. 38, 39. b v. 11. i Gen. 34. 7. 
 Judg '^0. 6. 
 
 resting, seizing, being the appropri- 
 ate term for the apprehension of 
 criminals. 
 
 15. He that is taken with the accurs- 
 ed thing. Heb. 'in the accursed 
 thing.' That is, he that is divinely 
 pointed out as being involved in the 
 guilt of the accursed thing. IT Shall 
 be burnt with fire. The doom ex- 
 pressly appointed for persons or 
 things accursed, Deut. 13. 15, 16. In 
 addition to this, and previously to it, 
 the culprit, as appears from v. 25, 
 was to be stoned to death at the hands 
 of the congregation. This was the 
 punishment ordained for blasphem- 
 ers and presumptuous offenders. 
 Num. 15. 30, 35. We do not read 
 that Achan verbally blasphemed, but 
 all high-handed, deliberate trans- 
 gression is virtual blasphemy and is 
 so regarded in the judgment of hea- 
 ven. If He and all that he hath. 
 His sons, daughters, cattle and goods, 
 &c., all being, in the divine estima- 
 tion, in consequence of their connec- 
 tion with him, considered as infected 
 with the taint of his guilt, and there- 
 fore exposed to share with him in 
 his condemnation. This may appear 
 to human view a severe, if not an 
 unjust, sentence, but we can only say 
 it is in strict accordance with the 
 general analogy of God's providence 
 in this world, and as such is to be un- 
 hesitatingly acknowledged as bear- 
 ing the impress of perfect equity and 
 justice. IT Hath wrought folly in 
 Israel. That is, a base, foolish and 
 sinful deed, such as every wise and 
 well principled man would utterly 
 
 in the morning, and brought Is- 
 rael by their tribes; and the 
 tribe of Judah was taken : 
 
 17 And he brought the family 
 of Judah ; and he took the fam- 
 ily of the Zarhites : and he 
 brought the family of the Zar- 
 hites man by man ; and Zabdi 
 was taken : 
 
 18 And he brought his house- 
 
 condemn. In this sense the term 
 ' folly ' frequently occurs. See Gen. 
 34. 7. Deut. 32. 21. 2 Sam. 13. 12. It 
 was a conduct that brought shame 
 and disgrace upon a nation, sustain- 
 ing the reputation of a wise and un- 
 derstanding people. 
 
 17. And he brought the family of 
 Judah. That is, the several families, 
 the collection of families, collect, 
 sing, for plur. ^{ He brought the 
 family of the Zarhites, man by man. 
 It was ordered v. 14, that all Israel 
 should come near by tribes, and one 
 tribe was to be fixed on ; then that 
 tribe came by its families, and one 
 family was fixed on ; then came that 
 family by its households, and one 
 household was fixed on ; and finally 
 that household coming man by man, 
 one man was fixed on. In the pre- 
 sent passage there appears to be some 
 confusion in this prescribed order of 
 selection. In speaking of Zarhi the 
 phrase ' by households' is left out, 
 and 'man by man' expressed twice. ' 
 The probability is that a slight error 
 has crept into the original text; in- 
 stead of C'^ID^b ^^^■'^ ^y 'mcin, V. 17, 
 the true word is undoubtedly Q^ijnisb 
 by households, and this reading, ac- 
 cording to Kennicott, is preserved in 
 six Hebrew copies, and in the Syriac 
 version. — ' We may well imagine 
 how Achan's countenance changed, 
 and what horror and confusion seiz- 
 ed him, when he was singled out as 
 the delinquent, when the eyes of all 
 Israel were fastened upon him, and 
 every one was ready to say, ' Have 
 we found thee, O our enemy !' Henry. 
 
62 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 hold man by man ; and Achan 
 the son of Carmi, the son of Zab- 
 di, the son of Zerah, of the tribe 
 of Judah, "was taken. 
 
 19 And Joshua said unto 
 * Achan, My son, ^give, I pray 
 
 X See 1 Sam. 6. 5. Jer. 13. 16. 
 
 19. And Joshua said unto Achan, 
 My son. Adopting this affectionate 
 style of address to show that the pre- 
 sent severe proceedings against him 
 were not prompted by any personal ill 
 will, or an angry spirit of revenge. 
 Though he was obliged to a.ct as a 
 magistrate, yet he was willing Ac- 
 han should know that he felt as a fa- 
 ther, and in so doing proposed a 
 noble example to all who have the ad- 
 ministration of justice, ' not to insult 
 over those who are in misery, though 
 they may have brought themselves 
 into it by their own wickedness, but 
 to treat even offenders with the spirit 
 of meekness, not knowing what we 
 ourselves should have done, if God 
 had put us into the hand of our own 
 counsels.' Henry. ^[ Give glory to 
 the Lord God of Israel. Heb. ' put, 
 appoint, ordain, glor}' to the Lord 
 God.' That is, by confessing the 
 truth, by honestly pleading guilty to 
 the charge, by ingenuously acknow- 
 ledging the sin and the justice of the 
 punishment which it incurred. By 
 so doing he would not only ascribe 
 to God the glory of his omniscience, 
 from which no secrets are hid, in de- 
 tecting and exposing the crime, but 
 also of his justice in punishing it. 
 He would in fact thereby most eifec- 
 tually give him the praise of all his 
 perfections, and consult the best in- 
 terests of his soul in the world to 
 come. It appears from a similar 
 usage in several other instances, that 
 God regards the confession of the truth 
 as very intimately connected with 
 giving him glory. Thus, Luke 23. 
 47, ' Now when the centurion saw 
 what was done, he glorified God (i. e. 
 gave him glory), saying, certainly 
 this was a righteous man.' John 9. 
 24, ' Then again called they the man 
 
 thee, glory to the Lord God of 
 Israel, >and make confession un- 
 to him ; and Hell me now what 
 thou hast done, hide it not from 
 me. 
 
 20 And Achan answered Jo- 
 
 y Num 5. 6, 7- 2 Chr. 30. 22. Ps. 51. 3. Dan. 
 9. 4 z 1 Sam. 14 43. 
 
 that was blind, and said unto him, 
 Give God the praise ; we know that 
 this man is a sinner ;' on which pas- 
 sage Mr. Barnes remarks, ' The 
 meaning here is not, ' give God the 
 praise for healing you,' but confess 
 that you have declared to us a 
 falsehood ; and that you have endea- 
 vored to impose on us ; and by thus 
 confessing your sin give praise and 
 honor to God, who condemns all im- 
 posture and falsehood ; and whom 
 you will thus acknowledge to be right 
 in your condemnation.' Isothing 
 should be more deeply impressed up- 
 on the mind of the sinner, than that 
 the humble and penitent confession 
 of guilt tends directly to the glory of 
 God, and that withholding confes- 
 sion is robbing him of his right, as 
 well as incurring his displeasure. 
 IT Tellmenowu-hatthouhast clone. The 
 testimony of God would have been 
 sufficient, who could neither deceive 
 nor be deceived. Joshua also, who 
 was now knowing to his crime, might 
 have declared it, but he could not 
 prove it ; and as it was intended that 
 the offender should be made a public 
 monument of justice, and be held up 
 as a warning to the whole nation, it 
 was desirable that the most indispu- 
 table evidence of his guilt should be 
 adduced. He is made therefore him- 
 self to supply a testimony which 
 none could controvert or doubt ; even 
 to bear witness against himself. 
 Joshua requires this confession to be 
 made to him, because he stood, both 
 to Achan and to the people, in God's 
 stead. It was in effect the same, 
 therefore, as making it to God him- 
 self. 
 
 20. Indeed I have sinned, &ic. The 
 confession, though not made till it 
 was extorted, was finally made with 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 63 
 
 shua, and said, Indeed I have 
 sinned against the Lord God of 
 Israel, and thus and thus have I 
 done. 
 
 21 When I saw among the 
 spoils a goodly Babylonish gar- 
 ment, and two hundred shekels 
 of silver, and a wedge of gold of 
 fifty shekels weight then I cov- 
 eted them, and took them, and 
 
 great frankness and ingenuousness. 
 He recites the circumstances of the 
 act in all their particulars and with 
 all their aggravations; attempts no 
 excuse or extenuation ; complains 
 not of the severity of the sentence, 
 nor seeks to prevent or delay its ex- 
 ecution; from which we may iji- 
 dulge the hope however feeble, that 
 the poor culprit found mercy for his 
 soul. 
 
 21. A goodly Babylonish garment. 
 Heb. ' a splendid or costly robe of 
 Shinar,' rendered 'Babylonish gar- 
 ment,' because Babylon or Babel 
 was situated in the plain of Shinar. 
 Bochart and Calmet have shown at 
 large that Babylonish robes were 
 very splendid and in high repute. 
 Ezek. 23. 15. Josephus calls it 'a 
 royal garment woven entirely of 
 gold.' The word signifies such a 
 robe or mantle as princes wore when 
 they appeared in state, Jon. 3. 6 and 
 this probably belonged to the king of 
 Jericho. IT Tuio hundred shekels 
 
 of silver. In weight, not in coin. Its 
 value in our currency was a little 
 upwards of one hundred dollars. 
 IT A wedge of gold. Heb. 'a tongue 
 of gold,' i. e. what we understand by 
 an ingot of gold, a corruption, ac- 
 cording to A. Clarke, of the word 
 lingotsignifymgalittletongue. IT I 
 coveted them and took them. The 
 three words occurring in this narra- 
 tive, ' I saw — I coveted — I took,' 
 strikingly express the rise, progress, 
 and consummation of crime. The 
 whole process is here laid open. 
 The inward corruption of the heart 
 is first drawn forth by some enticing 
 
 behold, they are hid in the earth 
 in the midst of my tent, and the 
 silver under it. 
 
 22 IF So Joshua sent messen- 
 gers, and they ran unto the tent, 
 and behold, it was hid in his 
 tent, and the silver under it. 
 
 23 And they took them out 
 of the midst of the tent, and 
 brought them unto Joshua and 
 
 object. The desire of gratification 
 is then formed, and the determina- 
 tion to attain it fixed. Then comes 
 the act itself, followed by its bitter 
 and fearful consequences. In this 
 instance the temptation entered by 
 the eye ; he saw those fine things as 
 Eve saw the forbidden fruit ; and he 
 allowed his eyes to gaze and feast 
 upon the interdicted objects. The 
 sight inflamed his desire; and he 
 coveted them. The next step was to 
 carry out the feeling into act; the 
 desire prompted him to take them, as 
 he actually did, and thus accom- 
 plished the fearful deed. So natu- 
 rally does lust, when it hath concei- 
 ved, bring forth sin, and sin when 
 finished bringeth forth death. The 
 only way to avoid sin in action is to 
 quench its incipient workings in the 
 heart, to mortify sinful desires, espe- 
 cially the desire of worldly wealth, 
 the source of such untold evils in the 
 world. IF And the silver under it. 
 That is, under the Babylonish gar- 
 ment; covered with it, or wrapped 
 up in it. 
 
 22. So Joshita sent messengers. To 
 put to the test the truth of his confes- 
 sion. IT And. they ranunto the tent. 
 Ran, not only to show their alacrity 
 in oi)eying Joshua's orders, but to 
 show also how uneasy they were till 
 the camp was cleared of the accursed 
 thing, and the divine favor regained. 
 IT It loas hid. That is, the parcel of 
 things mentioned v. 21, 24. 
 
 23. LoAd them out before the Lord. 
 Heb. 'poured them out before the 
 Lord.' That is, before the ark of 
 the covenant, the hallowed sign ot 
 
64 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 unto all the children of Israel, 
 and laid them out before the 
 Lord. 
 
 24 And Joshua and all Israel 
 with him, took Achan the son 
 of Zerah, and the silver, and the 
 garment, and the wedge of gold, 
 and his sons, and his daughters, 
 
 the Lord's presence, where Joshua 
 and the elders were awaiting the is- 
 sue of the transaction. 
 
 24. Afid his sons and his daughters. 
 As no intimation is given that 
 Achan's sons or any of his family 
 were accessary to his crime, we are 
 not warranted perhaps in supposing 
 that they were now condemned to 
 suffer on that account; although it 
 may be admitted that he could not ve- 
 ry easily have concealed the articles 
 in the midst of the tent without some 
 of its inmates being privy to it. But 
 the supposition of their guilt we do 
 not deem necessary to vindicate the 
 equity and justice of the sentence. 
 As all lives are really forfeited by 
 sin ; as the ungodly deserve worse 
 punishment than temporal death, 
 and as God, the supreme arbiter of 
 life and death, may exact the debt 
 which all owe in any way or time 
 that seemeth to him good, we know 
 not who can question the righteous- 
 ness of his judgment on this occasion. 
 If evil, no injustice would be done 
 them, and if good, they would the 
 sooner be taken to their reward; 
 and we can easily conceive that the 
 death of a few persons at this par- 
 ticular juncture and under the sol- 
 emn circumstances in which they 
 now stood, might be attended with the 
 happiest results. They were now 
 in the commencement of their na- 
 tional existence in Canaan. It was 
 necessary that the people should 
 know, by a fresh demonstration, 
 "what a God they had to do with. 
 Whilst they learned from his mer- 
 cies how greatly he was to be loved, 
 they needed also to learn from his 
 
 and his oxen,, and his asses, and 
 his sheep, and his tent, and all 
 that he had : and they brought 
 them unto *the valley of Achor. 
 25 And Joshua said, ^^Why 
 hast thou troubled us ? the Lord 
 shall trouble thee this day. "^And 
 all Israel stoned him with stones, 
 
 a V. 26. ch. 15. 7. b ch. 6. 13. 1 Chro. 2. 7. Gal. 
 5. 12. c De.it. 17. 5. 
 
 judgments how greatly he was to be 
 feared. This lesson would be effec- 
 tually taught them by the present act 
 of severity, and the death of a sin- 
 gle individual might, by its admon- 
 itory influence, be the means of af- 
 terwards preventing the death of 
 many thousands. II His oxen, and 
 his asses, and his sheep. Brute beasts 
 are of course incapable of sin and so 
 of punishment, properly so called, 
 but as they are made for man's use, 
 and are daily killed for food, there 
 seems no impropriety in taking 
 away their lives for moral purposes, 
 to show us more impressively the 
 destructive and detestable nature of 
 sin. The truth is, the animal world 
 being orignally formed for the ser- 
 vice of man. is to be considered 
 as a kind of appendage to him and 
 so is made to share in his lot, 
 whether of weal or woe. On this 
 principle the earth with its vari- 
 ous tribes felt the effects of the curse 
 when Adam sinned, and the whole 
 creation has groaned in bondage ever 
 since. Occurrences like that men- 
 tioned in the text are merely illus- 
 trations of this general law. ^ And 
 they brought them unto the valley of 
 Achor. Heb. ' brought them up, 
 made them go up or ascend.' Per- 
 sons are generally said to descend to 
 a valley, but the phraseology here is 
 probably founded on the relative sit? 
 nation of the valley and the camp. 
 In going to it they may have been 
 obliged to travel some distance over 
 the hilly country towards the inte- 
 rior. This would be ascen ding from 
 the Jordan, and that such was the 
 fact is to be inferred from ch. 15. 7. 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 65 
 
 and burned them with fire, after 
 
 they had stoned them with stones. 
 
 26 And they ^raised over him 
 
 d Ch. 8. 29. 2 Sam. 18. 17. Lam. ?. 53. 
 
 The valley is called Achor by anti- 
 cipation. It was so named from the 
 event. 
 
 25, l\^y hast thou troiMed ns 7 
 the Lord shall trovMe thee this day. 
 This is said in allusion to the words 
 of the warning ch. 4. 18, ' Lest ye 
 make the camp of Israel a cnrse and 
 trouble it.' From this circumstance 
 his name Achan seems to have been 
 changed to Achar^ tro'uhle, i. e. troub- 
 les 1 Chron. 2. 7. See on ch. 6. 
 18. How strikingly did Achan's 
 conduct verify the saying of Solo- 
 mon, Prov. 15. 27, ' He that is 
 greedy of gain troubleth his own 
 house;' and how clear from this in- 
 stance, is it that sin is a very trouble- 
 some, as well as a very wicked thing, 
 and that not only to the sinner him- 
 self, but to all around him. IT And 
 all Israel stoned him with stones. 
 The burning therefore commanded 
 V. 15, must have had reference to the 
 dead body. He was first stoned, 
 and his carcase then consigned to 
 the flames, himself and all his shar- 
 ing the same fate. ' He perished 
 not alone in his iniquity.' The pun- 
 ishment is said to have been execu- 
 ted by ' all Israel,' not because every 
 individual without exception had a 
 hand in it, but because all were pre- 
 sent as spectators, all were consent- 
 ing to the act, and as many as could 
 be were active agents in it in the 
 name of the rest. This showed the 
 universal detestation of the deed and 
 their anxiety to avert from them the 
 divine displeasure. 
 
 26. Raised over him a great heap of 
 stones. As a monument to perpetu- 
 ate the memory of this transaction, 
 and to serve as a warning to all fu- 
 ture generations to beware of pre- 
 sumptuous sin. The burying place 
 of Absalom was distinguished by a 
 similar erection, as a monument of 
 his disgrace to future ages. 2 Sam. 
 18. 17. IF Unto this day. That is, 
 
 a great heap of stones unto this 
 day. So nhe Lord turned from 
 the fierceness of his anger : 
 
 eDcui. 13. 17. 2 Sam. 21. 14. 
 
 that remaineth unto this day. In a 
 parallel passage, ch. 8. 29, the sup- 
 plementary words ' that remaineth' 
 are inserted in the text. IT Was 
 called the valley of Achor. Or, Heb. 
 ' the valley of trouble' from the 
 event. In Hos. 2. 15, the valley of 
 Achor is said to be given to Israel 
 as a ' door of hope,' in allusion to the 
 transaction that now occurred here, 
 and implying, perhaps, that when 
 they had repented and put away the 
 accursed thing, then there would be- 
 gin to be a door of hope concerning 
 them, and that the very places, which 
 had before been the scenes of trouble- 
 some judgments and the memorials 
 of wrath, should henceforth become 
 only the mementos of the most sig- 
 nal mercies. Compare Ezra 10. 2. 
 Where sin is seen and lamented, and 
 decisive steps taken towards refor- 
 mation, there are tokens for good, 
 and even gross offenders may receive 
 encouragement. God is always 
 pleased to have the monuments of 
 his displeasure converted, by the 
 conversion of sinners, into the re- 
 membrancers of kindness. — From 
 the foregoing narrative we may 
 learn, (1) The deceitfulness of sin. 
 Achan, at first, had in mind only the 
 satisfaction he should feel in possess- 
 ing the Babylonish garment and the 
 wedge and shekels of gold and silver. 
 The ideas of shame and remorse and 
 misery were hid from him. But ah \ 
 with what different thoughts did he 
 contemplate his gains, when inquisi- 
 tion was made to discover the offen- 
 der ! How would he begin to tremble 
 when he saw that his own tribe was 
 selected as containing the guilty per- 
 son ! How would his terror be in- 
 creased when he saw his own family^ 
 pointed out I and what dread would 
 seize upon him when the lot fell 
 upon his household ! What a paleness 
 would be spread over his cheeks, and 
 what a trembling would take hold of 
 
JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 wherefore the name of that place 
 was called, ^The valley of 
 Achor, unto this day. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 A ND the Lord said unto Josh- 
 
 "^ua, "Fear not, neither be 
 
 f V. 24 li. §5 10 Hos. 2 15. a Deul, 1. 21. & 
 ? 18. 4 31. 8. eh. 1. 9. 
 
 his limbs! What now becomes of all 
 his expected enjoyments'? What 
 beauty does he now see in the splen- 
 did garment, or what value in the 
 shining metals'? Ahi could he but 
 recall the act, which has thus brought 
 him to shame and ruin ! But it is too 
 late. The deed is done, and the 
 sense of guilt, as with the fangs of 
 a serpent, has fastened itself upon 
 iis inmost spirit ! Thus too with the 
 transgressor of every name. The 
 thief, the adulterer, the seducer, in 
 the commission of crime, thinks only 
 of the pleasure the gratification of 
 his lusts will afford. But he has no 
 sooner attained his object than his 
 before blinded eyes are opened, and 
 the enormity of his sin stares him 
 full in the face. Then he finds that 
 it stings like a serpent and bites like 
 an adder. (2) The certainty of its ex- 
 posure. Achan took great precau- 
 tions to conceal his iniquity, but it 
 was unavailing. Men may hide 
 their wickedness from their fellow 
 men, but not from God. His provi- 
 dence will sooner or later bring the 
 hidden iniquity to the light, and for 
 the most part in this world. But cer- 
 tainly in the great day of the revela- 
 tion of all things. To every sinner 
 therefore may the solemn warning 
 be addressed, ' Be sure your sin will 
 find you out.' (3) The awfulness of 
 its reward. Who does not shudder 
 at the thought of that vengeance 
 •which was executed on Achan and 
 his family'? Who does not see how 
 fierce the indignation of God against 
 sin was, when the sin of one single 
 person prevailed more to provoke 
 him against the whole nation, than 
 the innocence of the whole did to pa- 
 
 thou dismayed : take all the peo- 
 ple, of war with thee, and arise, 
 go up to Ai : see, ^I have given 
 into thy hand the king of Ai, 
 and his people, and his city, 
 and his land : 
 
 2 And thou shalt do to Ai and 
 
 cify his wrath against the individ" 
 ual '? When in fact nothing but the 
 most signal punishment of the indi- 
 vidual could reconcile him to the na- 
 tion to which he belonged'? Yet was 
 all this but a faint shadow of the in- 
 dignation which he will manifest in 
 a future world. We should profit 
 from such a history as this. We 
 should learn to dread the displeasure 
 of the Almighty, and to glorify him 
 now by an ingenuous confession, 
 that he may not be glorified hereafter 
 in our eternal condemnation, 
 
 CHAPTER Vni, 
 
 1. Fear not, neither be thou dis^ 
 mayed. The sin of Achan and its 
 consequences had probably weighed 
 deeply on the spirits of Joshua, griev- 
 ing and discouraging him, so as to 
 render this renewed exhortation pe- 
 culiarly seasonable at this time. 
 When we have faithfully put away 
 the sin that separated between God 
 and us, we may confidently expect 
 the light of his countenance to be re- 
 stored to us, and that he will animate 
 us with such encouragements as 
 shall banish the fear of our most 
 formidable enemies. IT Take all 
 the people of war with thee. This 
 can hardly be understood of the whole 
 number of men of war in the congre- 
 gation, which amounted to upwards 
 of six hundred thousand. It is more 
 probable that by ' all the people of 
 war' is to be understood the thirty 
 thousand men mentioned v. 3, the 
 choicest part, the flower of the host, 
 those who were most experienced in 
 warlike affairs. The main body of 
 the soldiery remained in the camp 
 at Gilgal. IT J have given. I have 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 67 
 
 her king, as thou didst unto 
 'Jericho and her king ; only 
 ^the spoil thereof, and the cattle 
 thereof, shall ye take for a prey 
 unto yourselves : lay thee an 
 ambush for the city behind it. 
 
 purposed to give. The event is cer- 
 tain, that they shall be delivered in- 
 to your power. IT And his land. 
 That is, the territory immediately 
 adjoining the city, and under the ju- 
 risdiction of the king. 
 
 2. Thou shalt do to Ai and her 
 king as thou didst unto Jericho and 
 her king. That is, in general, in 
 the main, not in every particular. 
 Ai was to be overcome and destroy- 
 ed, and in this respect its fate was to 
 resemble that of Jericho. But the 
 precise manner of its destruction 
 was not the same ; the king of Ai 
 was not to be put to death by the 
 sword, as the king of Jericho had 
 been, nor was a curse denounced 
 against him that should rebuild Ai, 
 as was the case in regard to Jericho. 
 IT Only the spoil thereof — shall ye 
 take to yourselves. This was the 
 grand point of difference in the pre- 
 scribed manner of treating the two 
 cities. In the one case, the spoil 
 was granted to the people ; in the 
 other not. There was, therefore, no 
 danger of their committing the same 
 trespass here that they had there. 
 • Observe how Achan, who catched at 
 forbidden spoil, lost that, and life, 
 and all, but the rest of the people, 
 who had conscientiously refrained 
 from the accursed thing were quick- 
 ly recompensed for their obedience 
 with the spoil of Ai. The way to 
 have the comfort of what God allows, 
 is, to forbear what he forbids us. No 
 man shall lose by his selfdenial.' 
 Henry. IT Lay thee an ambush 
 
 for the city behind it. That is, on 
 the west side of the city, as the Isra- 
 elites, at the time of receiving this 
 command were on the east side of it, 
 and the orientals in designating the 
 relative position of places, were al- 
 ways supposed to face the east. This 
 
 3 IT So Joshua arose, and all 
 the people of war, to go up 
 against Ai : and Joshua chose 
 out thirty thousand n>ighty men 
 of valour, and sent them by night. 
 
 4 And he commanded them 
 
 stratagem is to be justified on the 
 ground that God commanded it, 
 and it is obvious that if it was 
 right for them to overpower their 
 enemies, it was equally right to out- 
 wit them, if they could do it. ' No 
 treaties were violated, no oaths bro- 
 ken, no falsehoods mtered ; and it 
 cannot be requisite to inform our 
 enemies of our intentions and pur- 
 poses, however they may be deceived 
 by appearances. But perjuries, lies, 
 and infractions of treaties cannot, in 
 any war or in any case, be allowa- 
 ble or excusable.' Scott. 
 
 3. So Joshua arose to go up against 
 Ai. That is, set about the business 
 of going up, took measures prepar- 
 atory to it, consulted and laid the plan 
 of operations. It does not express 
 the fact of their actually marching 
 towards Ai, for this is inconsistent 
 with what follows, but according to 
 a familiar idiom of the Hebrew, on 
 which we have remarked before, ch. 
 6. 25, merely implies their entering 
 upon the preliminary measures. ' To 
 arise' in innumerable instances in 
 the scriptures means nothing more 
 than to address one^s self to a particu- 
 lar business., to set about it, to engage 
 in it. IT Chose out thirty thousand 
 mighty men. The whole number of 
 men to be employed on this occasion. 
 IT And se7it them away by night. That 
 is, as we suppose, not the whole of 
 the thirty thousand, but the party of 
 five thousand expressly mentioned v. 
 12. The next verse, as well as v. 9, 
 seems to limit it to those who were 
 'to lie in wait,' and these were un- 
 questionably the five thousand, and 
 not the whole detachment specified 
 above, who could not well have exe- 
 cuted such a design without being 
 discovered. It is true that according 
 to this interpretation we must suppose 
 
JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 saying, Behold, ^ye shall lie in 
 wait against the city, even be- 
 hind the city : go not very far 
 from the city, but be ye all 
 ready : 
 
 5 And I, and all the people 
 that are with me, will approach 
 unto the city : and it shall come 
 to pass when they come out 
 against us, as at the first, that 
 fwe will flee before them, 
 
 6 (For they will come out af- 
 ter us) till we have drawn them 
 from the city : for they will say. 
 They flee before us, as at the 
 first : therefore we will flee be- 
 fore them. 
 
 7 Then ye shall rise up from 
 
 eJudf. 20. 29. f Judg. 20. 32. 
 
 the ambush, and seize upon the 
 city : for the Lord your God 
 will deliver it into your hand. 
 
 8 And it shall be when ye 
 have taken the city that ye shall 
 set the city on fire : according 
 to the commandment of the 
 Lord shall ye do. &See, I 
 have commanded you. 
 
 9 ^ Joshua therefore sent 
 them forth ; and they went to 
 lie in ambush, and abode between 
 Beth. el and Ai, on the west side 
 of Ai : but Joshua lodged that 
 night among the people. 
 
 10 And Joshua rose up early 
 in the morning, and numbered 
 the people, and went up, he and 
 
 g2.Sam. 13.28. 
 
 the pronoun ' them' to be put before 
 its antecedent, which is left to be in- 
 ferred from the tenor of the ensuing 
 narrative, but this is no unusual 
 thing with the sacred writers. See 
 Ex. 14. 19. Ps. 87. 1.— 105. 19. Prov. 
 7. 8. On any other mode of construc- 
 tion it is extremely difficult to make 
 out a consistent narration of the facts. 
 The reasons for sending an ambus- 
 cade by 'flight are too obvious to re- 
 quire remark. 
 
 4. And he commanded them. That 
 is, the party of 5,000 just spoken of 
 as sent away by night. 
 
 5. All the people that are tvith me. 
 That is, the 25,000 remaining after 
 the 5,000 were sent away, and whom 
 he kept for a lure to draw out the in- 
 habitants of Ai from the city. IT As 
 at the first. As on the former ex- 
 pedition when Israel was so sadly 
 worsted. 
 
 6. Till we have drawn them. Heb. 
 ' till we have pulled, or plucked 
 them.' 
 
 7. Then shall ye rise up from the 
 ambush. Upon the signal given, 
 v. 18. 
 
 8. Ye shall setthe city on fire. Pro- 
 bably this means no^ more than that 
 
 they should kindle a fire in the city, 
 the smoke of which should be an in- 
 dication that they had taken it. Had 
 they set fire to the whole city, the 
 spoils which were to be divided 
 among the people, would have been 
 all consumed. It appears moreover 
 from V. 28, that the city was not burnt 
 till afterwards. 
 
 9. Joshua therefore sent them forth. 
 That is, the detachment of five thou- 
 sand spoken of above, and designa- 
 ted by the pronoun 'them,' v. 3. 
 IT Joshua lodged that night among 
 the people. That is, the people of 
 war, as they are called, v. 11, or in 
 other words ihe 25,000. Others sup- 
 pose the night was spent at the camp 
 at Gilgal with the main body of the 
 people. But this is less likely. 
 
 10. Numbered the people. Or, Heb. 
 ' visited, inspected, mustered, set in 
 order.' This again probably means 
 the band of 25,000 whom he care- 
 fully reviewed to see that they were 
 in perfect readiness, and that none 
 had withdrawn themselves during 
 the darkness of the night preceed- 
 ing. It would thus also appear more 
 clearly when the work was done, 
 that it was effected without any loss 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 the elders of Israel, before the 
 people to Ai. 
 
 11 i^Ancl all the people, even 
 the 'people of war that were with 
 him, went up, and drew riigh, and 
 canne before the city, and pitch- 
 ed on the north side of Ai : 
 now there teas a valley between 
 them and Ai. 
 
 12 And he took about five 
 thousand men, and set them to 
 lie in ambush between Beth-el 
 and Ai, on the west side of the 
 city. 
 
 of men, whereby a new ground of 
 encouragement and confidence in 
 God would be afforded. IF He 
 and the elders of Israel. As a kind 
 of council of war, to give more 
 weight and solemnity to the proceed- 
 ing, and to see to the just and equal 
 distribution of the spoil. The elders 
 were usually associated with the 
 leader in every important measure 
 that concerned the interests of the 
 people. 
 
 12. And he took about jive thousand 
 men. Rather, ' he had taken.' The 
 verse is apparently thrown in as a 
 parenthesis with a view to give a 
 more particular explanation of what 
 is said, in a general way, v, 3, 9. In- 
 cidents omitted in their proper place 
 are often brought in, in this manner, 
 in order to prevent the interruption 
 of the previous narrative. 
 
 13. Their Hers in wait. Heb. 
 'their lying in wait, their ambus- 
 cade,' abst. for concrete. Or it 
 may be rendered ' their heel,' i. e. the 
 hinder part of the army, referring to 
 the party that lay in ambush. 
 IT Went that night into the midst of 
 the v-alley. Thai, is, as is most 
 likely, very early in the morning, 
 when it was yet dark, as John, 20. 1. 
 It seems hardly probable, that when 
 every thing was ready they should 
 have remained inactive during a 
 whole day. We prefer the opinion 
 
 13 And when they had set 
 the people, even all the host that 
 was on the north of the city, and 
 their liers in wait on the west 
 of the city, Joshua went that 
 night into the midst of the val- 
 ley. 
 
 14 IF And it came to pass 
 when the king of Ai saw it, that 
 they hasted and rose up early, 
 and the men of the city went 
 out against Israel to battle, he 
 and all his people, at a time ap- 
 pointed, before the plain : but he 
 
 that Joshua, having sent away the 
 five thousand in the evening of the 
 previous day, and having taken a 
 few hours sleep with the 25,000 rose 
 at a very early hour, perhaps a 
 little after midnight, and had them 
 inspected, which might be speedily 
 done by the aid of the officers, and 
 then went, at so early an hour that 
 it might still be called night, into 
 the valley, perhaps alone, to suppli- 
 cate God for a blessing on t he en- 
 terprise in which he was now enga- 
 ged, and which had come so near 
 to its crisis ; or, if may imply that 
 at this time he led the army through 
 the valley^ and when the day dawned 
 appeared in full view of the city, 
 from whence the king and people 
 immediately sallied out in pursuit. 
 
 14. When the king of Ai savj it, 
 they hasted and rose up early. That 
 is, when the king u-as informed of 
 it, by the city guards, an alarm was 
 immediately given, and the citizens 
 who had not yet risen hurried from 
 their beds, and soon commenced the 
 pursuit. ' To see,' in scripture us- 
 age, often has the sense of to know, 
 to learn, to understand. II He and 
 all his people. That is, all the men 
 of war ; for the rest, the old men, 
 the women, and children remained 
 in the city, as appears, v. 24. IT 
 At a time appointed, or, Heb. ' at a 
 concerted sign or signal.' 
 
70 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 145L 
 
 iwist not that there ivere liers 
 in ambush against him behind 
 the city. 
 
 15 And Joshua and all Israel 
 Mnade as if they were beaten be- 
 fore them, and fled by the way 
 of the wilderness. 
 
 16 And all the people that 
 were in Ai were called together 
 to pursue after them ; and they 
 pursued after Joshua, and v/ere 
 drawn away from the city. 
 
 17 And there was not a man 
 left in Ai, or Beth-el, that went 
 not out after Israel : and they 
 left the city open, and pursued 
 after Israel. 
 
 18 And the Lord said unto 
 Joshua, Stretch out the spear 
 that is in thy hand toward Ai ; 
 
 i Judg. 20. 34. Eccles. 9. 12. k Jud-. 20. 36, &c. 
 
 15. Made as if they vere beaten. 
 Turned their backs. Heb. ' were 
 beaten or smitten,' but rightly un- 
 derstood as here rendered, of appar- 
 ently suffering themselves to be beat- 
 en, to make a show or pretence of be- 
 ing beaten. See a like phraseology 
 ^^^en.42. 7. 2 Sa«L, 13. 5. IT Medlnj 
 ""^^^Wtiiia!/ of'tlic vilderness. Lying be- 
 tween'Ai and Jericho or Gilgal. 
 
 \Q And all the people that v:ere in 
 Ai. That is, all who had not sallied 
 out before, all the men able to bear 
 arms who remained behind when 
 the first body of pursuers issued forth 
 from the city. Some portion of the 
 population, however, was still left, 
 who were afterwards slain, v. 24. 
 
 17. Was not a man left i nAi. Not 
 a man that was able to bear arms, 
 not one fit for military service. IT Or 
 Bethel. This city, situated at three 
 miles distance from Ai, was proba- 
 bly confederate with it and aiding it 
 with forces on the present occasion. 
 
 18. Stretch out the spear that is in 
 thine hand. That is, hold extended 
 or stretched out, continue it in that 
 
 for I will give it into thy hand. 
 And Joshua stretched out the 
 spear that he had in his hand to- 
 ward the city. 
 
 19 And the ambush arose 
 quickly out of their place, and 
 they ran as soon as he liad stretch- 
 ed out his hand : and they en- 
 tered into the city, and took it, 
 and hasted, and set the city on 
 fire. 
 
 20 And when the men of Ai 
 looked behind them, they saw, 
 and behold, the smoke of the city 
 ascended up to heaven, and they 
 had no power to flee this way 
 or that way : and the people 
 that fled to the wilderness turn- 
 ed back upon the pursuers. 
 
 21 And when Joshua and all 
 
 position. Comp. v. 26. This was 
 probably agreed upon as the signal 
 to be given by Joshua to the men in 
 ambush, to notify them of the precise 
 moment when to issue forth from 
 their retreat and rush into the city. 
 If, as some commentators suppose, 
 a flag or a burnished shield were fix- 
 ed to the end of a long spear, pike, or 
 lance, making it conspicuous from 
 a distance, it would still better an- 
 swer the purpose intended. Con- 
 joined with this there might have 
 been, as far as we can see, another 
 object in thus elevating the spear on 
 this occasion; viz. that it should 
 serve like the lifting up of Moses' 
 hands in the battle with Amalek, as 
 a token of the divine presence and 
 assistance, a pledge of the secret efii- 
 cacy of the almighty arm in securing 
 them the victory. This seems high- 
 ly probable from v. 26. IT Set the 
 city on fire. See on v. 8. 
 
 20. Had no poioer to flee. Heb. 
 ' no hand,' i. e. no place, no quarter, 
 no direction to which to flee, being 
 hemmed in every side. Most of the 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 71 
 
 Israel saw that the ambush had 
 taken the cify, and that the 
 smoke of the city ascended, then 
 they turned again, and slew the 
 men of Ai. 
 
 22 And the other issued out 
 of the city against them ; so they 
 were in the midst of Israel, some 
 on this side, and some on that 
 side : and they smote them so, 
 that they det none of them re- 
 main or escape. 
 
 23 And the king of Ai they 
 took alive, and brought him to 
 Joshua. 
 
 24 And it came to pass 
 
 ancient versions, however, render 
 with ours ' power, ability, strength,' 
 in which sense it is certain that ' hand' 
 is sometimes used. ^ Pursuers. 
 Heb. ' pursuer,' collect, sing. 
 
 21. When all Israel sato. That is, 
 all the Israelites then present, all 
 that were employed in this service. 
 Such general expressions are often 
 to be limited by the tenor of the nar- 
 rative. 
 
 22. And the other. Heb. 'and 
 these,' i. e. those who had formed the 
 ambush. IT So that they let none 
 af them remain or escape. Heb. 'so 
 that there remained not to them a 
 survivor (i. e. one taken alive) or 
 one that escaped.' They were all in- 
 discriminately put to the sword, with 
 the single exception mentioned in 
 the next verse, 
 
 23. The king of Ai they took alive. 
 He was reserved for a more exem- 
 plary and ignominious death, as a 
 warning to other kings who, like 
 him, might be disposed to defy the 
 power of Israel. 
 
 24. Smote it with the edge of the 
 sword. Heb. ' with the mouth of the 
 sword.' That is, the old men, women, 
 and children who remained in the 
 city, who h?d not joined in the pur- 
 suit, V. 16, 17. 
 
 25. Both of men and %D omen, Heb, 
 
 when Israel had made an end of 
 slaying all the inhabitants of 
 Ai in the field, in the wilderness 
 wherein they chased them, and 
 when they were all fallen on 
 the edge of the sword, until 
 they were consumed, that all 
 the Israelites returned unto Ai, 
 and smote it with the edge of the 
 sword. 
 
 25 And so it was, that all 
 that fell that day, both of men 
 and women, were twelve thou- 
 sand, even all the men of Ai. 
 
 26 For Joshua drew not his 
 hand back wherewith he stretch- 
 
 'from the man to the woman.' 
 IT Twelve thousand, even all the men 
 of Ai. It seems scarcely credible 
 that this number should have inclu- 
 ded all that were slain on this occa- 
 sion, as it would leave the fighting 
 men not more than two or three thou- 
 sand, and yet this mere handful dar- 
 ing to go forth against a force of be- 
 tween twenty and thirty thousand! 
 Can we believe them so infatuated, 
 doomed though they were to destruc- 
 tion'? We are constrained therefore 
 to understand the twelve thousand of 
 the effective men of arms, the sense 
 in which the phrase ' men of Ai' oc- 
 curs in V. 20, 21, as also the sing, 
 ' man ' v. 17. The assertion of the 
 verse we suppose to be, that the num- 
 ber of the men of war who perished, 
 together wath their whole families, 
 old men, women, and children, was 
 twelve thousand. The latter are not 
 expressly but implicitly included in 
 the enumeration, and the propor- 
 tion which they bore to the fighting 
 men is a mere matter of inference. 
 They were probably at least thrice 
 as many. 
 
 26. For Joshiia drew not his hand 
 back, &c. The ob'ect of these words 
 seems to be to assign the re^ison of 
 the utter and unsparing destruc- 
 tion of the people of Ai. The move- 
 
72 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 ed out the spear, until he had ut- 
 terly destroyed all the inhabit- 
 ants of Ai. 
 
 27 '"Only the cattle and the 
 spoil of that city Israel took for 
 a prey unto themselves, accord- 
 ing unto the word of the Lord 
 which he "commanded Joshua. 
 
 28 And Joshua burnt Ai, 
 
 m Num. 31. 22, 26. n v. 2. 
 
 ments of Israel were directed by the 
 uplifted spear- of Joshua. As long 
 as that continued stretched out they 
 were to persist in the work of slaugh- 
 ter. When it was let down they 
 were to cease. This shows that the 
 stretching out of the spear was not 
 designed vierely as a signal to the 
 men in ambush, for in this case the 
 continuance of the act would have 
 been unnecessary. It was doubtless 
 intended to answer the same end as 
 the uplifted hands of Moses on the 
 occasion before referred to, that is, 
 as a visible sign of the presence and 
 agency of Omnipotence in behalf of 
 his people as long as it continued to 
 be extended. To the judgment of 
 sense there was perhaps little con- 
 nection between Joshua's holding 
 forth his spear and the success of the 
 combatants at a distance, and it 
 might have appeared that he would 
 have been better emploj^ed at the 
 head of the army, animating and di- 
 recting them. But he knew who 
 alone could give the victory, and 
 that a compliance with God's com- 
 mands was the surest means of ob- 
 taining help from him. Hence with- 
 out any apprehensions as to the issue, 
 he maintained his stand before God, 
 and held forth his spear till all his en- 
 emies were destroyed. Such is the 
 confidence and perseverance which 
 the Christian is to evince in his con- 
 flicts with sin and Satan, notwith- 
 standing the apparently little connec- 
 tion between his poor efforts and the 
 destruction of such mighty foes. It 
 is perhaps in allusion to this circum- 
 stance that the phrase ' stretching out 
 
 and made it °a heap for ever, 
 even a desolation unto this day. 
 29 pAnd the king of Ai he 
 hanged on a tree until even-tide : 
 •Jand as soon as the sun was 
 down, Joshua commanded that 
 they should take his carcass 
 down from the tree, and cast it 
 at the entering of the gate of the 
 
 o Deul. 13. IG. p ch. 10. 26. Ps. 107. 40. & 110. 5. 
 q Deut. 21. 23. ch. 10.27. 
 
 the hand against' is employed by the 
 prophets as equivalent to contending 
 vnth, or fighting against. Thus Is. 
 5. 25. ' Therefore is the anger of 
 the Lord kindled against his people, 
 and he hath stretched forth his hand 
 agamst them, and hath smitten them : 
 and the hills did tremble and their 
 carcases are torn in the midst of the 
 streets. For all this his anger is not 
 turned away, but his handis stretched 
 out still,' i. e. his judgments slill con- 
 tinue as did the slaughter of the 
 Aiites while Joshua's outstretched 
 spear was not withdrawn, IT Until 
 he had utterly destroyed. Heb. ' had 
 devoted to a curse.' 
 
 28. Made it an heap for ever. Heb. 
 ' put it an heap of eternity,' i. e. an 
 everlasting heap, a perpetual pile of 
 ruins. The meaning is, it was^made 
 such for a long time, through a long 
 tract of ages ; a frequent sense of 
 the phrase ' for ever.' It seems to 
 have been rebuilt about a thousand 
 years afterwards, by the Benjamin- 
 ites, Neh. 11. 31, under the name of 
 Aija or Aiya. IT Unto this day. 
 Near the close of Joshua's life. 
 
 29. Theking of Ai he hanged. The 
 kings of the devoted nations were 
 dealt with with more exemplary se- 
 verity than the common people, be- 
 cause they were more deeply crimi- 
 nal, both in having formerly by their 
 connivance encouraged the abomi- 
 nations of their subjects, and in now 
 instigating them to resistance, when 
 they might and should have known 
 that resistance was vain. In the pre- 
 sent case, though the king of Ai was 
 taken alive and brought to Joshuaj. 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 73 
 
 city, and Taisc thereon a great 
 heap of stones, that remaineth 
 unto this day. 
 
 30 IT Then Joshua built an al- 
 tar unto the Lord God of Israel 
 •in mount Ebal, 
 
 r ( h. 7. 26. & 10. 27. s Deut. 27. 4, 5. 
 
 yet it is not certain that he was not 
 first put to death in some other way, 
 and his body hung upon a tree after 
 his execution as a mark of the utmost 
 disgrace and detestation. Upon con- 
 sulting the following passages, this 
 opinion will appear far more plau.s- 
 ible than the one which maintains 
 that he was first hung, a mode of ca- 
 pital punishment that does not ap- 
 pear to have been customary in those 
 early days, ch. 10. 26. 2 Sam. 4. 12. 
 1 Sam. 31. 8— 10. ^ As soon as t/ie 
 sun was down. This was according 
 to the law, Deut. 21. 22, 23, ' If a 
 man have committed a sin worthy of 
 death, and he be to be put to death, 
 and thou hang him on a tree ; his 
 body shall not remain upon the tree, 
 but thou shalt in any wise bury him 
 that day.' IT Cast it at the entering 
 of the gate. The gates of cities were 
 usually the places of judgment, of the 
 transaction of the most important 
 public business, and of general re- 
 sort and rendezvous. We know of 
 no other reason for casting the dead 
 body of the king of Ai in this place, 
 than that it was the most public place 
 that could be chosen, one that would 
 stamp the act with the utmost possible 
 notoriety. 
 
 30. Joshua built an altar — inmount 
 Ebal. This was in obedience to the 
 command given Deut. 27. 42 — 8, on 
 which see notes. Mount Ebal, as 
 well as mount Gerizim, was situated 
 near Shechem in what was after- 
 wards the tribe of Ephraim, and 
 not far from the ancient Samaria. 
 It was at considerable distance 
 from the camp at Gilgal|yet as it 
 was a ceremony that had been ex- 
 pressly commanded, and the perfor- 
 mance of which was not to be delay- 
 ed any longer than was absolutely 
 7* 
 
 31 As Moses the servant of 
 the Lord commanded the chil- 
 flren of Israel, as it is written in 
 the tbook of the law of Moses, 
 An altar of whole stones, over 
 which no man hath lifted up any 
 
 t Ex. 20.25. Deut. 27. 5,6. 
 
 necessary after they had entered Ca- 
 naan, Deut. 27. 2, they seem to have 
 penetrated in a body through the 
 mountainous regions that interven- 
 ed, till they came to the appointed 
 place, although no details of the 
 journey thither are given. Viewed 
 in connection with their then present 
 circumstances the incident was a 
 very remarkable one. While enga- 
 ged in the mid career of conquest, the 
 business of the war is suddenly sus- 
 pended, and instead of pushing their 
 victories on every side, after master- 
 ing the frontier towns, they com- 
 mence a peaceful march into the 
 heart of the country to attend upon a 
 religious solemnity ! But God had 
 ordered it, and they cheerfully obey- 
 ed. Whatsoever else stands still, 
 the service of God must go forward. 
 Whatever other interest may suffer, 
 our spiritual concerns must receive 
 attention. But in truth there is no 
 danger that our worldly interests rcill 
 suffer in consequence of a paramount 
 regard to the one thing needful. God 
 will take them into his own hand, 
 and see that we are no losers by any 
 thing done for him. In the present 
 instance, we see that his providential 
 care was wonderfully exercised to- 
 wards his faithful servants. Though 
 in the midst of an enemy's country, as 
 yet unconquered, yet they passed on 
 unharmed, the terror of God having 
 fallen upon the cities round about, as 
 when Jacob some ages before had 
 passed through this very region on 
 his way to Bethel, Gen. '35. 5. The 
 way of duty is the way of safety^ — . 
 The object of erecting the altar was 
 to offer the sacrifices spoken of in the 
 next verse. It was a federal trans- 
 action in which they were now en- 
 gaged. The covenant was now to be 
 
74 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 iron : and "they offered thereon 
 burnt-offenngs unto the Lord, 
 and sacrificed peace-offerings. 
 
 32 IT And ^he wrote there 
 upon the stones a copy of the 
 law of Moses, which he wrote 
 in the presence of the children 
 of Israel. 
 
 33 And all Israel, and their 
 elders, and officers, and their 
 judges, stood on this side the ark 
 and on that side before the 
 priests the Levites, ^which bare 
 the ark of the covenant of the 
 
 u Ex. 20. 24. X Deut. 27. 2, 8. y Deui. 31. 9, 25. 
 
 renewed upon their taking posses- 
 sion of the land of promise, and a for- 
 mal profession made of their subjec- 
 tion to the law, and of their depen- 
 danee for success in all their enter- 
 prises upon the blessing of the Most 
 High. AH this it was proper should 
 be ratified by sacrificial offerings. 
 
 '61. Over which no man hath lift 
 lip any iron. Rather ' had lift up.' 
 The writer does not Intend to quote 
 the precise words of the law, but 
 merely to say that Joshua construc- 
 ted an altar in accordance with the 
 precept of Moses, Ex. 20. 25. Deut. 
 27. 5. viz., one over which no man 
 had lifted up an iron tool. 
 
 32. Wrote there upon the stones. 
 Upcncomparing this with the injunc- 
 tion Deut. 27. 2 — 7. it appears quite 
 obvious that in addition to the altar 
 they were required also to erect a 
 number of stone pillars, and that the 
 writing Avas to be done upon the pil- 
 lars, instead of upon the altar, for 
 which purpose they were previously 
 to be plastered over. IT A copij of the 
 law. Heb. 'a repetition, a duplicate 
 of the law.' That is, a copy of the 
 blessings and curses commanded by 
 Moses ; not a copy of the decalogue, 
 as some imagine'; nor of the book 
 of Deuteronomy, as others think ; 
 much less of the whole Pentateuch ; 
 but simply that part of the law which 
 
 Lord, as well nhe stranger, as 
 he that was born among them ; 
 half of them over against mount 
 Gerizim, and half of them over 
 against mount Ebal ; ^as Moses 
 the servant of the Lord had 
 commanded before, that they 
 should bless the people of Israel. 
 
 34 And afterward ^he read 
 all the words of the law, nhe 
 blessings and cursings, accor- 
 ding to all that is written in the 
 book of the law. 
 
 35 There was not a word of 
 
 z Deut. 31. 12. a Deut. 11. 29. & 27. 12. b Deut. 
 31. U. Neh. 8. 3. c Deu< US. 2, IS, 45. 4 29. 20, 21. 
 & 30. 19. 
 
 contained the blessings and curses, 
 and which was to be read on this 
 solemn occasion. See note on Deut. 
 27. 8. 
 
 33. Before the priests, the Levites. 
 That is, in view of the priests, the 
 Levites; not that the elders, officers, 
 and judges stood nearer the ark than 
 the priests, but that they so surround- 
 ed the ark that the priests who were 
 carrying it had a full view of them. 
 In like manner it might be said that 
 a great crowd in a funeral were be- 
 fore the bearers and pall-bearers, if 
 they stood full in their view. IT Over 
 uiiainst mount Gerizim and over 
 against mount Ebal. For an ac- 
 count of these mountains see on 
 Deut. 11. 29. The two divisions seem 
 not to have stood upon the summit 
 of the mountains, but were ranged 
 along their base and some way up 
 their sides, that they might be nearer 
 the ark, which occupied the valley 
 I between, and more conveniently hear 
 j the reading of the law. '^ That they 
 should bless the people. And curse 
 1 also, though the last is not expressly 
 ' mentioned ; it is however plainly to 
 be inferred, both from the original 
 j command of Moses, Deut. 27. 13, and 
 ' from the phraseology of the next 
 ! verse. 
 
 j 34. Aoid afterward he read. That 
 I is, he commanded the priests, or Le- 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 75 
 
 all that Moses commanded 
 which Joshua read not before 
 all the congregation of Israel, 
 ''with the women, and the little 
 ones, and nhe strangers that 
 were conversant anions them. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A ND it came to pass, when all 
 
 "^ ihf kings which were on this 
 
 side Jc^rdan, in the hills, and in 
 
 d Ueiit. 31. 12. ev. 33. 
 
 vites to read, as is evident from Deut. 
 27. 14. In innumerable instances in 
 the Scriptures, a person is said to do 
 that, which he orders or procures to 
 be done. IT The words of the law. 
 the blessings and cursings. All the 
 sanctions of the law ; from which 
 and from v. 35, it would seem that 
 much more was read on this occasion 
 than was written on the stones. 
 
 35. With the women and little ones. 
 It was a word that concerned all, and 
 all of all sexes and ages were pre- 
 sent, giving a solemn and heedful 
 attention to what was read. Child- 
 ren would be deeply impressed by 
 the solemnities of the scene, and a 
 salutary fear of offending God would 
 sink into their tender hearts. IT The 
 strangers that were conversant among 
 them." Heb. ' the strangers that walk- 
 ed among them.' Proselytes. No 
 other strangers can well be supposed 
 to have been present at this time. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1. On this side Jordan. The west 
 side; where the children of Israel 
 now were, and where the writer was 
 at the time of penning this narrative. 
 IT Heard thereof. That is, of the re- 
 markable events which hadtranspir- 
 edsince the Israelites hadentered Ca- 
 naan ; of the sacking of Jericho and 
 Ai, and of their being now assembled 
 together at mount Ebal. 
 
 2. They gathered themselves to- 
 gether to fight. Entered into a league, 
 agreed to form a confederacy. It 
 does not appear that they actually 
 
 the valleys, and in all the coasts 
 of ''the great sea over against 
 Lebar)on, ''the Hittite, and the 
 Amorite, the Canaanite, the Per- 
 izzite, the Ilivite, and the Jebu- 
 site heard thereof; 
 
 2 That they "^gathered them- 
 selves together, to fight with 
 Joshua and with Israel, with one 
 accord. 
 
 3 IT And when the inhabit- 
 
 a Num. 34. 6. b Ex. 3. 17. & 23. 'iS. c Ps. 83. 3, 5. 
 
 united their forces at this time, but 
 they now consulted together and 
 agreed to do it. Subsequent events, 
 however, seem to have deranged 
 their plans and prevented a combin- 
 ed attack till some lime afierw^ards. — 
 In this conduct we see, as in a gla.ss, 
 the strange infatuation of the wrick- 
 ed ! Though seeing and feeling that 
 the hand of God is unquestionably 
 against them, yet, instead of repent- 
 ing and humbling themselves before 
 him, these devoted kings, who like 
 Ahaz, ' in their distress trespassed 
 yet more against the Lord,' madly 
 seek by power and policy to counter- 
 act and defeat his designs ! ' Thou 
 hast stricken them, but they have not 
 grieved; thou hast consumed them, 
 but they have refused to receive cor- 
 rection ; they have made their faces 
 harder than a rock.' U With one 
 accord. Heb. ' with one mouth ;' ex- 
 pressive of their entire unanimity in 
 the measure. Though of different 
 clans, having different interests, and 
 doubtless heretofore often at variance 
 with one another, yet they are ready 
 to make common cause against the 
 people of God, showing that the ha- 
 tred of the righteous is one of the 
 strongest boncls of union between 
 wicked men. ' And the same day 
 Pilate and Herod were made friends 
 together ; for before they were at en- 
 mity between themselves.' What an 
 adrnonition to Christians to cease 
 from dissension, to give up their 
 petty feuds and animosities, to sacri- 
 fice party interests to the public wel- 
 
76 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 ants of dGibeon ^heard what 
 Joshua had done unto Jericho 
 and to Ai, 
 
 (ICh. 10.2. 2Sam. 21. 1,2. e ch. 6. 27. 
 
 fare, and cordially unite against the 
 common enemies of God's kingdom 
 among men. 
 
 3. The inhabitants of Gibeon. Gi- 
 beon was a city of the Hivites, pro- 
 bably its capital. In the division of 
 the land it fell to the tribe of Benja- 
 min, and was situated on a hill about 
 six mifes north of Jerusalem. At the 
 present time, a small village called 
 Geeb, occupies the site of the ancient 
 city. The inhabitants of this place 
 declined entering into the alliance 
 oflfensive and defensive above men- 
 tioned. This might have been ow- 
 ing to their form of government, 
 which left more scope for the good 
 sense of the people. Had they had 
 a king, of which we nowhere read, 
 he would probably have been induc- 
 ed, in the pride of his heart, to join 
 the confederacy; but this city with 
 the three others mentioned ver. 17, 
 seem to have been governed by elders 
 orsenators, v. 11, who consulted the 
 common safety more than their own 
 personal dignity. In this case of the 
 Gibeonites, we may see a striking 
 instance of the different effects pro- 
 duced by the same tidings upon dif- 
 ferent minds. The news of the vic- 
 torious progress of Israel excites the 
 several kings to resistance, but moves 
 the Gibeonites to think of making 
 peace with their invaders. In the 
 same manner the Gospel message is 
 a savor of life to some, and of death 
 to others. Some it irritates and pro- 
 vokes to deadly and self-destructive 
 opposition, others it softens, melts, 
 persuades to surrender, and brings to 
 saving repentance. In such a differ- 
 ence divine sovereignty must be ac- 
 knowledged, though the obslinately 
 impenitent are left without excuse. 
 
 4. They did work v:ilily. Heb. 
 * they also did work wilily,' i. e. cun- 
 ningly, shrewdly, craftily. The term 
 *also,' which is omitted in our trans- 
 lation but occurs in the original, 
 
 4 They did work wilily, and 
 went and made as if they had 
 been ambassadors, and took old 
 
 carries in it a reference to the course 
 adopted by the Canaaniiish kings. 
 They adopted the measures which 
 seemed to them the wisest and most 
 politic, under the circumstances. In 
 like manner the Gibeonites also de- 
 termined to exercise their ingenuity 
 in the present emergency, but they 
 had recourse to a sub:le stratagem, 
 entirely different from the more open, 
 straight forward, but ruinous course 
 pursued by their neighbors. As to the 
 moral character of this device of the 
 Gibeonites, we can only say of it, as 
 our Saviour said of the unjust stew- 
 ard, ' they acted wisely in their gene- 
 ration;' they did what the common 
 maxims of mere worldly prudence 
 dictated under the circumstances, and 
 yet their fraud and prevarication can- 
 not be justified, nor have we any rea- 
 son to think they fared so well by em- 
 ploying it, as they would have done 
 without it. A more simple and up- 
 right course would undoubtedly have 
 secured to them far greater advan- 
 tages. Some correct notions of the 
 God of Israelthey had certainly form- 
 ed, V. 9, 10. and these should have 
 prompted some o:her expedient than 
 that oflying and deceit. They should 
 have followed up the little light they 
 had, and inquired into the procuring 
 causes of God's severity against 
 them. They should have acknow- 
 ledged that it was their heinous sins 
 which were at the bottom of all their 
 troubles ; and having humbled them- 
 selves in deep repentance, and trust- 
 ing to providence for the issue, 
 should have come to the Israelites, 
 and simply submitted themselves 
 without opposition or fraud, and 
 there is every reason to believe they 
 would have been spared, as Rahab 
 and her relaiions had been. Lying 
 and hypocrisy always defeat them- 
 selves in the long run ; their success 
 is only temporaiy, while truth and 
 honesty will always ultimately re- 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 77 
 
 sacks upon their asses, and 
 wine-bottles, old, and rent, and 
 bound up ; 
 
 5 And old shoes and clouted 
 upon their feet, and old garments 
 
 doimd to the safety, prosperity, and 
 happiness of those who adhere to 
 them. IF As if they hadbeen ambassa- 
 dors. The root of the original word 
 *1'i^, ambassador, properly denotes 
 a hinge ; because an ambassador is a 
 person upon whom the business of 
 his embassy turns as upon a hinge. 
 So the Latin Cardinalis, cardinal, 
 from Cardo, a hinge, was the title of 
 the prime minister of the emperor 
 Theodosius ; but it is now applied 
 only to the Pope's electors and coun- 
 sellors, though the original reason 
 probably holds with equal force here 
 too. They are the hinges upon which 
 the vast and complicated interests 
 of the Papacy turn. IF Took old 
 sacks — and wine bottles, old, &c. Pre- 
 tending to have come from a very 
 ■distant country, and that their sacks 
 and the skins that served them 
 for carrying their wine and water 
 were worn out by the length of the 
 journey. Sir John Chardin informs 
 US, that the Arabs, and all those who 
 lead a wandering life, keep their wa- 
 ter, milk, and other liquors in leath- 
 ern bottles. They keep more fresh 
 in them, than in any other Avay. 
 These leathern bottles are made of 
 goat skins. When the animal is kill- 
 ed they cut of its feet and its head, and 
 then draw it out of the skin, which 
 is thus left nearly whole. They 
 afterwards sew up the places where 
 the legs and the tail were cut ofT, 
 and when it is filled they tie it about 
 the neck. These nations and the 
 country people of Persia never go 
 a journey without a small leathern 
 bottle of water hanging by their side 
 like a scrip. These bottles are fre- 
 quently rent, when old and much 
 used; but they are capable of being 
 repaired. This they do sometimes 
 by putting in a piece, sometimes by 
 gathering up the wounded place in 
 
 upon them ; and all the bread 
 of their provision was dry and 
 mouldy. 
 
 6 And they went to Joshua 
 funto the camp at Giigal, and 
 
 f ' h. 5. 10. 
 
 the manner of a purse ; sometimes 
 they put in a round flat piece of 
 wood, and by these means stop the 
 hole. Similar bottles are still used 
 in Spain, and are called borrachas. 
 See Burdefs Orient. Cust. vol. 1. 
 p. 54. 
 
 5. Old shoes and clouted. This 
 latter epithet, in the time of Shak- 
 speare, when applied to shoes, meant 
 such as had nails driven into the 
 soles to strengthen them. (Cymb. 
 Act. IV. Sc. 2.) In this sense it may 
 be derived from the French word 
 clou, a nail. But this does not seem 
 to correspond well with the original, 
 which is a derivative from a root 
 signifymg to spot, to patch, to spot 
 icith patches. For this reason it is 
 supposed by Adam Clarke, with 
 much plau.sibility, to come from the 
 old Saxon chU, a clout, rag, or small 
 piece of cloth, used for piecing or 
 patching. This makes our present 
 version to express very precisely the 
 spirit of the original. As their shoes 
 or sandals were made of skins in 
 those early ages, it means that those 
 they now wore were in a miserable 
 tattered condition, having been often 
 patched, pieced or mended. 
 
 6. And to the men of Israel. Heb. 
 ' b^'iTZ;'^ 'C^^ ^he man or manhood of 
 Israel;'' collect, sing, for plur. Not 
 to the whole body of the people, but 
 to the heads, elders, or princes of the 
 congregation, v. 15 — 21, who in all 
 important matters acted in the name 
 of the rest. In this sense, as a term 
 of eminence or dignity, the original 
 ^'nj^ ish, man, is often used. IT Make 
 ye a leagnce with lis. Heb. * cut a 
 covenant with us;' on which see 
 notes on Gen. 15. 10. The assertion 
 that they came from a far country^ 
 is made as a reason for the Israelites 
 complying with their request. From 
 V. 24 it appears that they were well 
 
78 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 said unto him, and to the men of 
 Israel, We be come from a llir 
 country: now therefore make 
 ye a league with us. 
 
 7 And the men of Israel said 
 unto the sHivites, Perad venture 
 ye dwell among us; and ^how 
 shall we make a league with 
 you ? 
 
 8 And they said unto Joshua, 
 iWe ore thy servants. And Josh- 
 ua said unto them, Who are ye? 
 and from whence come ye ? 
 
 .9 And they said unto him, 
 
 g Ch U. 19. h Ex. 23. 32. Dent. 7. 2. & 20. 16 
 Judg. 2. -2. i DeiK. 20. II. 2 Kinss 10. 5. 
 
 acquainted with the divine mandate 
 in regard to the destruction of the 
 devoted nations, and they may have 
 heard of the exception mentioned 
 Deut. 20. 15 in favor of the cities 
 which were ' very far off, and which 
 were not of the cities of these na- 
 tions.' Of this exception they in- 
 tended to take advantage. 
 
 7. And the men of Israel. Heb. 
 *and the man of Israel;' i. e. the el- 
 ders or princes, as above. IT Said 
 unto the Hivites. Heb. 'theHivite.' 
 This is the first intimation of the 
 particular nation to which the Gibe- 
 onites belonged. In Josh. 11. 19 it is 
 stated still more expressly. IT Per- 
 adventure ye dioell among us.' Heb. 
 * dwell in my midst.' They speak, 
 in the confidence of faith, as if they 
 were already actual possessors and 
 occupants, old settled inhabitants, of 
 the region which God had covenan- 
 ted to give them. IT And hoio shall 
 we make a league loilh you 7 Seeing 
 God has expressly forbidden our 
 forming any such alliance, Ex. 23. 
 31-31.-34.12. Deut. 7.2. They 
 speak as acting entirely according 
 to orders, and as having no discre- 
 tion in the case ; and by putting 
 their answer into the form of a ques- 
 tion do virtually appeal to the con- 
 sciences, the innate sense of right, 
 of these heathen people, for the pro- 
 priety of their conduct in refusing. 
 
 ''From a very far country thy 
 servants are come, because of 
 the name of the Lord thy God : 
 for we have 'heard the fame of 
 him, and all that he did in 
 Egypt, 
 
 10 And '"all that he did to 
 the two kings of the Araoriles, 
 that were beyond Jordan, to Si- 
 hon king of Heshbon.and to Og 
 king of Bashan, which was at 
 Ashtaroth. 
 
 11 Wherefore our elders, 
 and all the inhabitants of our 
 
 1 Ex. 15. 14. Josh. 2. 10. 
 
 k Deut. 20. 15. 
 ni iNiim. VI. 24, 33. 
 
 A contrary course even the Gibeon- 
 ites themselves knew was not even 
 to be thought of Some duties are 
 so obvious that we may unhesita- 
 tingly take it for granted that the 
 consciences of the worst of men do 
 really side with us in regard to them. 
 
 8. We are thy servants. We are 
 willing to make any concessions ; do 
 but grant our request, and we will 
 submit to any terms you may see fit to 
 propose. Fix your own conditions, 
 even should they require us to be- 
 come your tributaries and bond-men 
 for life. IT Jl^oareye? and from 
 whence come ye ? Prob:.bly this very 
 intimation of such unconditional 
 submission tended to excite the sus- 
 picions of Joshua especially as they 
 were so backward to name the coun- 
 try from whence they came. 
 
 9. Because of the name of the Lord 
 thy God. Because of what we have 
 heard of that name; because of the 
 reverence with which it has inspired 
 us; and because we are convinced 
 that it is above every name. They 
 pretend to have been moved mainly 
 by religious motives in taking this 
 journey, which was in part doubtless 
 true, but it was truth mixed with 
 both falsehood and hypocrisy. This 
 pretence however was one well cal- 
 culated to prevail with the Israelites, 
 for those who are guileless them- 
 selves are least suspicious of guile 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 79 
 
 country spake to us, saying, 
 Take victuals with you for the 
 journey, and go to meet them, 
 and say unto them, We are your 
 servants : therefore now make 
 ye a leafjue with us : 
 
 12 This our bread we took 
 hot ybr our provision out of our 
 houses on the day wo came forth 
 
 in others, and nothing wins more 
 upon the simple-heartedness of good 
 men than the appearance of piety 
 and devotion where it was little or 
 not at all expected. IT All that he 
 did in Egypt. They artfully con- 
 fine themselves to the mention of 
 events that happened a long time ago, 
 avoiding any allusion to those of 
 more recent occurrence, such as the 
 dividing of Jordan and the destruc- 
 tion of Jericho and Ai, as if willing 
 to have it believed tbat they lived so 
 far otf that the tidings of them had 
 not yet reached their ears. 
 
 1 1 . Wherefore our elders, — spake to 
 us. Another evidence that they did 
 not live under a kingly but a popular 
 form of government. IT Go to meet 
 them. Had they deferred till the Is- 
 raelites came to the gates of their 
 cities, it would have been too late ; 
 their yielding themselves up would 
 have been of no avail. So the way 
 to avoid a judgment is to meet it by 
 repentance. Sinners should imitate 
 the example of these Gibeonites, and 
 while God, who is coming to make 
 war against them, ' is yet a great way 
 off, should send an ambassage and 
 desire conditions of peace.' We have 
 as clear evidence of God's determi- 
 nation to destroy all the ungodly, as 
 the Gibeonites had of his purpose to 
 root out the Canaanites. Let us learn 
 then of these heathens ; learn to come 
 to Jesus ere it be too late. Let us not 
 stay till besieged by sickness and 
 death. Nor let us come covering our 
 design with falsehoods, but confes- 
 sing the whole truth. In the old and 
 tattered garments of our native vile- 
 ness we may come. Christ the true 
 Joshua, will receive us and make 
 
 to go unto you ; but now, be- 
 hold, it is dry, and it is mouldy : 
 
 13 And these bottles of wine 
 which we filled, 2oere new, and 
 behold they be rent : and these 
 our garments and our shoes are 
 become old by reason of the 
 very long journey. 
 
 14 And the men took of their 
 
 with us a league of life and peace; 
 but let us come saying at first as they 
 did after their imposture was discov- 
 ered ; ' Behold, we are in thine hand : 
 as it seemeth good and right unto 
 thee to do unto us, do.' 
 
 14. And the men took of their vict- 
 uals. By the ' men ' are meant those 
 who are elsewhere termed the prin- 
 ces of the congregation, v. 18. 19. 
 They took the victuals into their 
 hands to satisfy themselves of the 
 truth of their statement. Some sup- 
 pose the meaning to be that thay ate 
 together with the Gibeonites in token 
 of friendship, as is still common in 
 the East, but this is less likely, espe- 
 cially as the words maybe rendered, 
 'they received the men by reason of 
 their victuals.' ^ And asked not 
 counsel at the month of the Lord. 
 That is, instead of asking as they 
 ought to have done at the lips of the 
 high priest, whose duty it was to en- 
 quire through the medium of the 
 Urim and Thummim, Ex. 28. 30. 
 Num. 27. 21. 1 Sam. 30. 7, 8. It is 
 by no means certain, if they had 
 sought the divine direction, that they 
 would have been commanded to re- 
 ject the suit of the Gibeonites and 
 show them no mercy. The proba- 
 bility is, that upon any of the devoted 
 nations, voluntarily coming forward, 
 professing repentance, renouncing 
 idolatry, and embracing the true re- 
 ligion, the Israelites would have been 
 authorized by God to spare their lives. 
 See on ch. 11. 19. But the circum- 
 stance is mentioned here as a severe 
 reflection upon the princes of Israel 
 for neglect of duty, for rashness, cre- 
 dulity, and impolicy. They rushed 
 precipitately into an alliance which 
 
80 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 victuals, "and asked not counsel 
 at the mouth of the Lord. 
 
 15 And Joshua °made peace 
 with them, and made a league 
 with them, to let them live ; and 
 the princes of the congregation 
 sware unto them. 
 
 n Num. 27 21. Is. 30. 1, 2. ?ep Judg. 1. I. 1 Sam. 
 22. 10. & 2J. 10, 1!. & 3U. 8. 2 Sam. 2. 1. & 5. 19 
 o ch 11. 19. 2 Sam. 21. 2. 
 
 ihey had no right to form without the 
 express sanction of Jehovah, and 
 their ' lips becaine a snare to their 
 souls.' In like manner how often do 
 men now involve themselves in dan- 
 gers and difficulties, and hedge up 
 their own way with troubles, because 
 they ask not counsel at the mouth of 
 the Lord. They listen with a yield- 
 ing ear to plausible representations, 
 hurry forward in their chosen 
 schemes, and enter heedlessly into 
 doubtful connections without weigh- 
 ing the consequences. But sooner 
 or later we shall find that no business 
 or interest truly prospers in which 
 we engage without the counsel and 
 approbation of heaven, and with 
 shame and sorrow shall seek to him 
 to retrieve the evils which our rash- 
 ness has procured. Let it then be 
 engraven upon the tablets of our 
 hearts, that no proposed course of con- 
 duct can be so clear to a Christian as 
 to excuse him from the duty of seeking 
 direction from above. 
 
 15. Joshua made peace with thevi^ 
 &.C. Agreed to receive them into 
 a friendly connection with the Isra- 
 elites, and to respect their lives and 
 property. It has been doubted by 
 some whether the Israelites were 
 bound by an oath that had been ob- 
 tained from them by means of a gross 
 imposition. But it is plain that the?/ 
 thought themselves solemnly bound 
 by it, and were apprehensive that 
 the wrath of God would fall upon 
 them ifthey broke it. That they were 
 right in this, and that their adherence 
 to their oath was acceptable to God, 
 is to be inferred. (1.) From his ex- 
 pressing no displeasure at the time, 
 and from the subsequent tenor of his | 
 
 16 IT And it came to pass at 
 the end of three days after they 
 had made a league with them, 
 that they heard that they were 
 their neighbors, and that they 
 dwelt among them. 
 
 17 And the children of Israel 
 
 dealings towards them, which was 
 kind, and favorable, not implying re- 
 bake nor savoring of disapprobation. 
 (2.) From the fact that he long after- 
 wards severely avenged the wrong 
 done by Saul to the Gibeonites in 
 violation of this treaty. Let us learn 
 from this the binding nature of an 
 oath. It lays a bond upon the soul 
 from which we cannot be released. 
 Even when an oath has been taken 
 which it is unlawful to keep, still we 
 are not to consider that it is a light 
 matter to dispense with it or that we 
 stand in the sight of God just where 
 we did before it was taken. We 
 have in fact laid upon ourselves a 
 load of obligation which he only can 
 take off. It is he only who in view 
 of our unfeigned repentance for hav- 
 ing taken it can relieve the con- 
 science of the awful burden which 
 rests upon it. How much more then 
 ought we to feel the force of those 
 compacts and promises which are 
 wholly lawful and right! How 
 religiously and scrupulously should 
 every promise be performed ! 
 
 16. That they dwelt among them. 
 Heb. ' dwelt in his midst,' collect, 
 sing, the very thing which Joshua 
 feared, and of which he hinted his 
 suspicion, v. 7. ' They that suffer 
 themselves to be deceived by the 
 wiles of Satan, will soon be unde- 
 ceived to their confu.sion, and will 
 find that to be near, even at the door, 
 which they imagined was very far 
 off.' Henry. 
 
 17. And the children of Israel jour- 
 nicd and came unto their cities, &c. 
 This might better be rendered, ' For 
 when the children of Israel journey- 
 ed, they came unto their cities.' Ac- 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 journeyed, and came unto their 
 cities on the third day. Now 
 their cities were pGibeon, and 
 Chephirah, and Beeroth, and 
 Kirjath-jearim. 
 
 18 And the children of Israel 
 smote them not, '^because the 
 princes of the congregation had 
 sworn unto them by the Lord 
 God of Israel. And all the con- 
 gregation murmured against the 
 princes. 
 
 q Eccles. 5. 2. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 81 
 
 cording to the present translation 
 they learnt the fraud practised upon 
 them some days before they arrived 
 at their cities. The contrary suppo- 
 sition seems the most probable, and 
 we presume the 17th verse is in- 
 tended to inform us how they became 
 possessed of the information men- 
 tioned in the 16th. 
 
 18. The congregation murmured. 
 Principally, no doubt, because they 
 were deprived of the spoils of the 
 Gibeonites. Though they did sub- 
 mit to the restraints laid upon them 
 by this league, yet it was with an ill 
 grace ; they were vexed to have their 
 hands thus tied by their rulers, and 
 vented their disatfection in the most 
 unequivocal manner. Some of them, 
 however, might have honestly re- 
 sented what they deemed a flagrant 
 breach of the divine commandment. 
 There is often, nay generally, more 
 conscience and principle among the 
 common mass of the people, than 
 among those placed in authority over 
 them, although this remark is not to 
 be construed to the disparagement 
 of Joshua. 
 
 19. We have sworn unto them. 
 They plead neither the lawfulness 
 nor the prudence of the oath, but 
 only its obligation when taken. Al- 
 though they had been deceived in the 
 business, and the covenant had been 
 made on a supposition which was 
 afterwards proved to be false, yet 
 having sworn by Jehovah, they did 
 
 19 But all the princes said 
 unto all the congregation, We 
 have sworn unto them by the 
 Lord God of Israel : now there- 
 fore we may not touch them. 
 
 20 This we will do to them ; 
 we will even let them live, lest 
 •" wrath be upon us, because of 
 the oath which we sware unto 
 them. 
 
 21 And the princes said unto 
 them, Let them live; but let 
 
 r See 2 Sam. 21. 1, 2,6. 
 Zcch. 5. 3,4. Mai. 3. 5. 
 
 Ezek. 17. 13, 15, 
 
 not feel at liberty to break their 
 compact. It has been suggested that 
 Joshua might have taken advantage 
 of their own words to annul the 
 treaty, and said to them; ' Ye are 
 come, according to your own state- 
 ment, from a far country ; but these 
 cities are near at hand ; their inhab- 
 itants therefore are not the people 
 with whom we have covenanted, and 
 ye have nothing to do to interfere 
 with or prevent their destruction.' 
 But he would not resort to any shifts 
 or quibbles to elude the oath. Like 
 the good man of the Psalmist, though 
 he had sworn to his own hurt, he 
 would not change. Having made a 
 solemn compact he would abide by it 
 at all events. If he had now broken 
 his covenant the whole people of Ca- 
 naan would have represented him as 
 a violator of his engagements ; it was 
 theiefore better to fulfil his agree- 
 ment, however hasty and ill advi- 
 sed, than by departing from it to give 
 occasion to the enemies of God to 
 blaspheme. His answer lakes it for 
 granted that the sentiments of the 
 people accorded with his own as to 
 the solemn obligations now resting 
 upon them. IT May not touch them. 
 May not hurt or injure them. For 
 this sense of the word see Gen. 26. 
 11. Ruth 2. 9. Job 1. 11. Ps. 105. 
 15. Zech. 2. 8. 
 
 21 . And the princes said unto tJiem. 
 Rather ' said concerning them,' as 
 the original for ' unto' often signi- 
 
82 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451* 
 
 them be "hewers of wood, and 
 drawers of water unto all the 
 congregation ; as the princes 
 had t promised them. 
 
 22 ^ And Joshua called for 
 them, and he spake unto them 
 saying. Wherefore have ye be- 
 gulled us, saying, "We are very 
 
 s Deut. 29. II. t V. 15. u v. 6, 9. 
 
 fies. See on Gen. 20. 2. IT Let 
 them be hev:ers of wood and drawers 
 of water unto all the congregation. 
 Let them be taken at their own word, 
 V. 8, and made public servants, to be 
 employed in the most menial offices 
 and drudgeries which the service of 
 the sanctuary might require. The 
 expression is proverbial for the low- 
 est and most servile employments of 
 ■whatever kind, Deut. 29. 11. IT Un- 
 to all the congregation. To all the 
 congregation considered as one 
 great worshipping body, whose reli- 
 gious rites were concentrated at one 
 place, and not to all the several fam- 
 ilies in their private capacity, as re- 
 siding in their tents. They' were to 
 be made public and not private ser- 
 rants. IT According as the princes 
 had promised them. Rather, Heb. 
 ' had purposed, ordained, fixed upon 
 concerning them ;' that is in a previ- 
 ous consultation. The whole verse, 
 however, as it stands in the original 
 is exceedingly intricate, and com- 
 mentators are very much divided as 
 to its true construction. It would 
 seem from the next verse that noth- 
 ing had as yet been said directly to 
 the Gibeonites. 
 
 22. Wherefore have ye beguiled us 7 
 The mode of their treatment having 
 been previously resolved upon in a 
 council of the elders or princes of 
 the nation, Joshua now summons 
 them into his presence and acquaints 
 them with the result. ' He does not 
 load them with ill names, does not 
 give them any harsh provoking lan- 
 guage, does not call them, as they de- 
 served to be called, base liars, but 
 only asks them, ' Why have ye be- 
 guiled us V Under the greatest pro- 
 
 far from you ; when ^ye dwell 
 among us 1 
 
 23 Now therefore ye are 
 ^cursed, and there shall none of 
 you be freed from being bond- 
 men, and 'hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water for the house 
 of my God. 
 
 T V. )6. yGen. 9. 25. It. 21. 27. 
 
 vocations it is our wisdom and duty 
 to keep our temper and to bridle our 
 passion ; a just cause needs not an- 
 ger to defend it, and a bad one is 
 made never the better by it.' Henry. 
 23. Noio therefore ye are cursed. 
 Ye shall be subjected to a severe ca- 
 lamity. Ye shall pay a bitter pen- 
 alty for your deception. Ye shall 
 subject yourselves and your children 
 to the curse of a degrading bondage, 
 and thereby shall the ancient denun- 
 ciation against your ancestor be ful- 
 filled; — 'Cursed be Canaan, a ser- 
 vant of servants shall he be.' Had 
 they dealt fairly and ingenuously 
 with Israel their lives would no 
 doubt have been spared on more fa- 
 vorable and honorable terms. As it 
 was, however, it cannot be doubted 
 that their punishment was overruled 
 and turned to a signal blessing to 
 them. They were hereby brought 
 into a situation where they would na- 
 turally acquire the know^ledge of the 
 true God and of his revealed will, 
 were made to dwell in the courts of 
 the Lord's house, w^ere honored with 
 near access to him in the services of 
 the sanctuary, and thus placed in cir- 
 cumstances "eminently favorable to 
 their spiritual and eternal interests. 
 If David could say. ' I had rather be 
 a door-keeper in the house of my 
 God, than to dwell in the tents of 
 wickedness,' surely these poor be- 
 nighted heathen may well have es- 
 teemed their lot a blessing, hard and 
 toilsome and humble as it was. They 
 are supposed to have been afterw^ardfs 
 called Ncthinim., i. e. "persons given ^ 
 dedicated, consecrated to the service 
 of the sanctuary and the assistance 
 of the Levitesv See v. 27. 1 Chron. 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 24 Atid they answered Jrsh- 
 ua, and said, Because it was cer- 
 tainly told thy servants, how 
 that the Lord thy God ^com- 
 manded liis servant Moses to 
 give you all the land, and to de- 
 stroy all the inhabitants of the 
 land from before you, therefore 
 ^vve were sore afraid of our lives 
 because of you, and have done 
 this thing. 
 
 a Ex. 23. 32. Deut. 7. 1, 2. b Ex. 15. 14. 
 
 *9. 2. IT There shall none of you be 
 freed from being bondmen. Heb. 
 ' there shall not be cut off from you a 
 servant;' i. e. the line of servitude 
 shall be kept up ; a sentence by which 
 the bondage imposed upon them 
 should be entailed upon their poster- 
 ity. Mr. Harmer undertakes to 
 shew from Shaw and other travel- 
 lers, that these were the employ- 
 ments of females in the East, and that 
 consequently the bitterness of their 
 doom consisted not so much in being 
 subjected to a laborious service, as in 
 being degraded from the character- 
 istic employments of men to those of 
 women. There may be some force 
 in this remark as applied to domes- 
 tic civil life, but here the case is 
 different; it is certain that these me- 
 nial services, if they had not been 
 perfoi'med by the Gibeonites, would 
 have devolved upon the Israelites, 
 iind that too upon the men, and not th« 
 ■women of the congregation, for only 
 males were employed about the sanc- 
 tuary. '^ For the house of my God. 
 Spoken primarily of the tabernacle 
 which was at that time the seat of 
 worship, but with an ulterior refer- 
 ence to the temple which should be 
 afterwards erected. 
 
 24. And they ansuiered, &c. The 
 words in which they make reply are 
 well weighed. It is a delicate and 
 very cogent appeal to the human- 
 ity and piety of Israel. They offer 
 the best excuse for themselves which 
 their conduct would admit. They 
 attempt not to justify their prevarica- 
 
 25 And now, behold, we are 
 <=in thy hand : as it seemeth good 
 and right unto thee to do unto 
 us, do. 
 
 20 And so did he unto them, 
 and dehvered them out of the 
 hand of the children of Israel, 
 that they slew them not. 
 
 27 And Joshua made them 
 that day ^hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water for the con- 
 
 tion, but in effect beg pardon for it ; 
 pleading that it was purely to save 
 their lives that they had recourse to 
 it. No one who feels the force of 
 the law of self-preservation but must 
 make great allowances for them, es- 
 pecially as they were not prompted 
 by the fear of man, but of God him- 
 self, whom nothing can resist. 
 
 25. We are in thine hand. In thy 
 power, at thy disposal, having noth- 
 ing more to say for ourselves. IT Asit 
 seemeth good and right unto thee — do. 
 Whatever justice and mercy dictate 
 to thee to do unto us, that perform. 
 They ex'^Qci justice because they de- 
 ceived the Israelites; yet they hope 
 for mercy because they were driven 
 to this expedient for fear of losing 
 their lives. This willing submis- 
 sion of the Gibeonites may be impro- 
 ved by us. They accounted it no 
 great matter to cede their cities, and 
 to spend their days in servitude, see- 
 ing God had spared their lives. And 
 shall we think much of sacrificing 
 any temporal interests, or of perform- 
 ing any self-denying duties, when we 
 have reason to think that God has 
 spared the life of our souls *? If we 
 look for mercy at the hands of Jesus, 
 all that we have and are must be the 
 Lord's. We must be willing to be 
 any thing and do any thing that he 
 appoints for us. 
 
 26. And so did he unto them. That 
 is, he dealt with them according to 
 justice and mercy ; he delivered them 
 out of the hands of the people, who 
 would fain have slain them, and yet 
 
84 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 gregation and for the altar of 
 the Lord, even unto this day 
 «m the place which he should 
 choose. 
 
 he doomed them to servitude as a 
 just retribution for their otfence. 
 
 27. A?id Joshua made them &c., 
 Heb. o^ri'^ yittenam, gave them. 
 whence the epithet q^^Ti^ nethviim 
 given, Lat. deditiior deodatija^^Vi^ed 
 to them Ezra 2. 43, 58.-8. 20. Neh. 
 3. 26. See on v. 21. ^ In the place 
 which he should choose. That is, the 
 place which he should choose for his 
 sanctuary, whether it were the taber- 
 nacle or temple ; for here were their 
 services more especially, though not 
 exclusively, to be bestowed. They 
 were not to keep possession of their 
 cities, for we afterwards find that 
 three of them fell to the lot of Benja- 
 min, and one to that of Judah ; nor 
 were they to be at their own disposal, 
 but were most of them probably dis- 
 persed through the cities of the 
 priests and Levites, and came up 
 with them in their courses to serve at 
 the altar, out of the revenues of which 
 they were doubtless maintained. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1. Adoni-zedek. This name, sig- 
 nifying lord of righteousness, is very 
 nearly akin to that of Melchizedek 
 ki7ig of righteousness, who reigned 
 at the same place upwards of 400 
 years before. He might have been 
 a descendant as well as successor of 
 this distinguished personage, or the 
 name, in one form or the other, may 
 have been common, like Pharaoh in 
 Egypt, or Abiraelech in Gerar, to the 
 royal line. How the epithet righte- 
 ous came to be connected with the 
 title of the kings of this remarkable 
 city it is not possible now to deter- 
 mine. Viewed in connection with 
 its subsequent history, it must be re- 
 garded as not a little remarkable, 
 though from the case of this individ- 
 ual it does not appear to have been 
 always a true index of the character 
 of him who bore it. IT King of Je~ 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 IVrOW it came to pass, when 
 -^ Adoni-zedek king of Jerusa- 
 lem had heard how Joshua had 
 
 rusalem. The name Jerusalem here 
 occurs for the first time in the scrip- 
 tures. The original designation of 
 the city seems to have been Salem, 
 Gen. 14. 18. Ps. 76. 2, as it was called 
 in the time of Melchizedek, though 
 whether he were its founder is alto- 
 gether uncertain. It was afterwards 
 called D-'jrTl'^ yerushalaijim, Jeru- 
 salem, a name supposed to be com- 
 pounded of ^J^-|'^ yiru (from nitl ^o 
 see) and tj^'j^r shalam, peace, and signi- 
 iymg-vision of peace, or more literally, 
 they shall see peace, in prophetic al- 
 lusion to the gospel of peace which 
 was afterwards to issiie from thence. 
 Reland, Schultens and others, it is 
 true, derive it from ^rii-i'i yerush and 
 tD Vij shalam, possession of peace, but 
 we prefer the former, and are not un- 
 willing to believe, with Masius, that 
 the name carries in it a latent refer- 
 ence to the incident mentioned, and 
 the words employed Gen. 22. 14, 
 ' And Abraham called the name of 
 that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is 
 said to this day. In the mount of the 
 Lordit shall be seen.' The Hebrew 
 nJSl'^ yi'f^h or ji7-eh seems to hare 
 been affixed to the ancient denomina- 
 tion Salem, and thus to have formed 
 the word Jerusalem, mystically point- 
 ing to the vision of peace which Abra- 
 ham saw in the future sacrifice that 
 was to be offered up in the latter day 
 on that same memorable mount or in 
 its immediate vicinity. Moriah, one 
 of the mountains of Jerusalem, s\g- 
 n ify ing r f 51 07K>/Go^, is derived from 
 the same root, and was probably so 
 called for the same reason. After 
 coming into the possession of the Jeb- 
 usites it was occasionally called Je- 
 bus, Josh. 18. 28. Judg. 19. 10, 11. 
 from the inhabitants, but it seems 
 never to have been familiarly known 
 by that appellation among the Israel- 
 ites. It was doub'.less overruled in 
 providence that a name should be be- 
 
A. C. 1451.] CHAPTER X. 
 
 taken Ai, and had utterly de- 
 stroyed it ; ''as he had done to 
 Jericho and her king, so he had 
 done to ''Ai and her king ; and 
 'how the inhabitants of Gibeon 
 had nnade peace with Israel, and 
 were among them ; 
 
 2 That they ''feared greatly, 
 because Gibeon was a great 
 city, as one of the royal cities, 
 and because it was greater than 
 Ai, and all the men thereof t^*ere 
 mighty. 
 
 a r-h. 6. 21. b ch. 8. 22, 26, 28. c ch. 9. 15. d Ex. 
 Ij. 14,15, 16, Dciit. !l. 25. ^ 
 
 Stowed on the place preintimating 
 the nature of the glorious events by 
 which it was afterwards to be distin- 
 guished. IF Had utterhj destroyed. 
 Heb. ' had made a curse, had dev^o- 
 ted.' IT Were among them. Had 
 made alliance with them, had come 
 over to their interest, had put them- 
 selves under their protection, and so 
 were entitled henceforth to dwell to- 
 gether with them in the country with- 
 out being exterminated or disturbed. 
 
 2. That they feared greatly. He 
 and his people ; from which it ap- 
 pears that under the term ' king ' in 
 the preceding verse we are to under- 
 stand also the people whom he rep- 
 resented. IT As one of the royal 
 cities. Heb. ' as one of the cities of 
 the kingdom.' Not that it was actu- 
 ally a royal city, the seat of a king, 
 but it was like one, being a capital 
 city and having others subordinate 
 to it, ch. 9. 7. It was great, well in- 
 habited, and well fortified, after the 
 manner of those cities which served 
 for royal residences. But they were 
 undoubtedly a small but powerful re- 
 public, governed by elders, as we 
 hear nothing here or elsewhere of 
 their having a king. See on ch. 9. 3. 
 
 3. Wherefore Adoni-zedek. sent. 
 Because he was most exposed to dan- 
 ger, Jerusalem being only six miles 
 from Gibeon, and midway between 
 that and the camp at Gilgal, and be- 
 cause also he might have possessed 
 
 8* 
 
 85 
 
 3 Wherefore Adoni-zedek 
 king of Jerusalem sent unto Ho- 
 ham king of Hebron, and unto 
 Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto 
 Japhia king of Lachish, and unto 
 Debir king of Eglon, saying, 
 
 4 Come up unto me, and help 
 me, that we may smite Gibeon : 
 ^for it hath made peace with Jo- 
 shua and with the children of Is- 
 rael. 
 
 5 Therefore the five kings of 
 the Amorites, the king of Jeru- 
 
 some degree of precedency over the 
 other kings mentioned. 
 
 4. That we may smite Gibeon. 
 That is, the Gibeonites. It is very 
 conceivable that Adoni-zedek and 
 his associates may have been glad of 
 a plausible pretext for attacking the 
 Gibeonites, as ^Aeir more liberal form 
 of government was a standing rebuke 
 of the despotism thatprevailedamong 
 themselves. But their avoived mo- 
 tive undoubtedly was to punish the 
 citizens of Gibeon for making peace 
 with Joshua, as if they had thereby 
 acted the part of traitors to the coun- 
 try and greatly strengthened the com- 
 mon enemy. In this incident we see 
 what usually takes place when any 
 of the enemies of Christ submit them- 
 selves to him. Their former friends 
 and companions consider them as de- 
 serters from their standard, and are 
 often bitterly exasperated against 
 them. ' He that departeth from evil 
 maketh himself a prey.' Or if their 
 opposition does not amount to actual 
 enmity, it will at least show itself in 
 a way of contempt and ridicule. Sa- 
 tan too is indignant at losing one of 
 his vassals ; and not only stimulates 
 his subjects to commence hostilities 
 against them, but labors by all possi- 
 ble wiles and devices to bring them 
 back again to their former bondage. 
 There is the same enmity existing 
 against the cause of Christ now as 
 ever. Earth and hell will still coia- 
 
86 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 salem, the king of Hebron, the 
 king of Jarmuth, the king of 
 Lachish, the king of Eglon, 
 '■gathered themselves together, 
 and went up, they and all their 
 hosts, and encamped before Gib- 
 eon, and made war against it. 
 
 6 IT And the men of Gibeon 
 sent unto Joshua ^to the camp 
 
 fCh. 9. 2. g ch. 5. 10. & 9. 6. 
 
 bine against his church, and every 
 one that enters into covenant with 
 him will like the Gibeonites, have a 
 powerful confederacy to contend 
 with. 
 
 5. The Jive kings of the Amorites. 
 The name of this people is often ta- 
 ken in a large sense for that of the 
 Canaanites generally, or any one of 
 them, doubtless from their being the 
 most powerful of the distinct tribes 
 that inhabited the country. Strictly 
 speaking the people of Hebron were 
 Hittites, ch. 11. 19 and those of Jeru- 
 salem, Jebtisites, ch. 15. 63 ; and in 
 one place, 2 Sam. 21. 2, the Gibeon- 
 ites themselves though generally 
 termed Hivites, are said to be ' of the 
 remnant of the Amorites.' Theprob- 
 ability is, that the Amorites, being a 
 numerous and powerful people in 
 the Moabitish territory sent out col- 
 onies to these several places, which 
 having subdued the original inhab- 
 itants communicated their own name 
 very extensively over the country. 
 IT Made loar against it. Put them- 
 selves in a warlike attitude, made 
 ready for an assault, were on the eve 
 of attacking them. 
 
 6. Sent unto Joshua. They trusted 
 to the compassion, the nobleness, 
 the generosity, if not the justice of 
 their new ally. They doubted not 
 that he would consider himself 
 bound in honor and conscience to 
 succor r.nd defend them, although 
 it may not have been expressly stip- 
 lilatedforin the articles of the treaty. 
 It was because of their confidence in 
 Israel and their having thrown them- 
 selves entirely upon their protection 
 that they were now marked out as 
 
 to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy 
 hand from thy servants come up 
 to us quickly ; and save us, and 
 help us : for all the kings of the 
 Amorites that dwell in the moun- 
 tains are gathered together 
 against us. 
 
 7 So Joshua ascended from 
 Gilgal, he, and *>all the people 
 
 objects of the vengeance of their en- 
 emies, and to whom should they go 
 in their extremity but to these their 
 natural defenders'? So when the 
 powers of darkness, like mighty Am- 
 orites, assail the children of God, to 
 whom shall they betake themselves 
 but to Christ, their true Joshua 1 It 
 is when we are encompassed with 
 evils that w^e feel the value of that 
 covenant into which we have entered 
 with him. If we attempt to resist 
 our enemies in our own strength, we 
 shall infallibly be vanquished ; but 
 if we betake ourselves to the Captain 
 of our salvation by fervent prayer, 
 we cannot but succeed, ^ Slack 
 not thy hand from thy servants. Do 
 not leave them to the fate which 
 threatens them, put forth vigorous ef- 
 forts for their deliverance, relax not 
 the hold which thou hast by covenant 
 taken of them. See on ch. 1. 5. 
 IF That dwell in the mountains. 
 Heb. ' dwellers or inhabitants of the 
 mountain;' i.e. of the mountainous 
 regions. The allusion is to the tract 
 lying to the southwest of Jerusalem 
 called 'the hill country,' Luke 1. 39, 
 65, in which were situated the four 
 cities mentioned above, v. 3. 
 
 7. Aiid oil the mighty men of valor. 
 Rather, ' even all the mighty men of 
 valor;' so the particle translated 
 ' and ' is used in thousands of instan- 
 ces, and it is not easy to suppose that 
 ' all the people of war,' and ' all the 
 mighty men of valor' constituted two 
 separate portions of the host. The 
 meaning is simply that he went up 
 with an army of picked men, men of 
 approved valor, and tried skill, to de- 
 fend the Gibeonites, their new allies, 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 87 
 
 of war with him, and all the 
 mighty men of valor. 
 
 8 1i And the Lord said unto 
 Joshua, iFear them not: for I 
 have delivered them into thy 
 hand ; ^there shall not a man 
 of them stand before thee. 
 
 9 Joshua therefore came un- 
 
 i Ch. 11. 6. Judg. 4. 14. k ch. 1. 5. 
 
 against their invaders. A sufficient 
 force would of course be left to guard 
 the camp at Gilgal. Instead of 
 taking any advantage of the mere let- 
 ter of their compact, and saying that 
 they never promised to run the haz- 
 ard of their own lives to save theirs, 
 he nobly acts on its spirit, and re- 
 solves that they shall be no losers by 
 the confidence they have reposed in 
 him; that they shall not suffer by 
 any calamity which he can avert. 
 ' To a good mind the strongest obli- 
 gation is another's trust ; and even 
 permission in those things we may 
 remedy, makes us no less actors, 
 than consent. We are guilty of all 
 the evil we might have hindered.' 
 Bp. Hall. 
 
 8. And the Lord said unto Joshua. 
 More correctly ' for the Lord had 
 said ; ' as we cannot suppose that Josh- 
 ua undertook this expedition before 
 he had sought counsel of God, and 
 received the encourage.Tient con- 
 tained in the ensuing words. With- 
 out some such encouragement as 
 this, Joshua might have thought that 
 this formidable host was sent against 
 him and his new allies as a judgment 
 upon him for negotiating an unlawful 
 treaty. The verse properly falls into 
 a parenthesis. IT / have delivered 
 them into thy hand. The usual form 
 of speech to express the absolute cer- 
 tainty of a future event. 
 
 9. Went up from Gilgal all night. 
 The distance from Gilgal to Gibeon 
 was about twenty-six miles. By a 
 forced march this distance might 
 have been accomplished in one night ; 
 but the words do not necessarily re- 
 strict us to this period of time. They 
 
 to them suddenly, and went up 
 from Gilgal all night. 
 
 10 And the Lord idiscom- 
 fited them before Israel, and 
 slew them with a great slaugh- 
 ter at Gibeon, and chased them 
 alouCT the way that goeth up 
 ™to Beth-horon, and smote them 
 
 1 Judg. 4. r5. 1 Sam 7. 10, 12. Ps. 18. 14. Is. 28. 
 21. m ch. 16. 3, 5. 
 
 imply only that he travelled all night, 
 to which, if we please, we may add, 
 part of the preceding or of the follow- 
 ing day. The clause quoted reads 
 somewhat awkwardly as it now 
 stands, from its seeming to put the 
 march after the arrival. By omit- 
 ting the word ' and ' which does not 
 occur in the original, and inclosing 
 the remainder in a parenthesis, ('he 
 had gone up from Gilgal all night,') 
 every thing is made plain. Though 
 he had received the positive assu- 
 rance of a victory, yet he neglects 
 no prudent means of effecting it, and 
 therefore adopting a military strata- 
 gem, comes upon them by surprize, 
 ' God's promises are not intended to 
 slacken or supersede, but to quicken 
 and encourage our own endeavors.' 
 Henry. 
 
 10. The Lord discomfited them. 
 Or, Heb. ' struck with dismay, con- 
 founded.' It is the word employed 
 Ex. 23. 27 in describing the effect 
 that should be produced by divine 
 power upon the enemies of Israel, 
 thoughthere rendered less accurately 
 ' destroy.' It occurs also Ps. 144. 6. 
 2 Chron. 15. 6. IT And slew them 
 with a great slaughter. Or, ' he slew 
 them,' i. e. Israel slew them. In con- 
 sequence of the panic into which the 
 Lord had thrown them, his people 
 were enabled to effect a great slaugh- 
 ter. The direct work of God on the 
 occasion appears to be described, 
 V. 11. ^ At Gibeon. Heb. 'in 
 Gibeon ;' not in the city, but in the 
 adjoining territory or domain called 
 by the same name, as Joshua is said, 
 ch. 5. 13, to be in Jericho, when he 
 was merely in the immediate vicin- 
 
JOSHUA. 
 
 unto Mak 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 to "Azekah, and 
 kedah. 
 
 11 And it came to pass as 
 they fled from before Israel, and 
 
 n Ch. 13. 35. 
 
 ity. IT Beth-horon. The tribe of 
 Ephraim contained two places of this 
 name, the upper and lower. The 
 latter is here probably referred to, 
 which lay twelve or fifteen miles to 
 the northwest of Jerusalem, and 
 where Dr. Clarke says there is now 
 an Arab village called Bethoor. 
 IT Azekah. Acity of Judah, situated 
 about twelve miles west from Jeru- 
 salem. Eusebius and Je rome inform 
 us that there was a town in their time 
 about this place named Ezeca, which 
 was probably the same with the an- 
 cient Azekah here mentioned. IT 
 Makkcdah. This place was also in 
 the tribe of Judah, about fourteen 
 Diiles southwest of Jerusalem. 
 
 1 1 . The Lo rd cast dozen great stones 
 from heaven upon them. That is, hail- 
 stones of an extraordinary size, and 
 capable of doing dreadful execution 
 in their fall from heaven. Some 
 have indeed contended that stones, in 
 the common acceptation of the word, 
 or rather meteoric stones, are inten- 
 ded, and that such stones have 
 actually fallen from the clouds or 
 from a greater height is an incontes- 
 tible fact. But there is no good rea- 
 son to suppose that any such pheno- 
 menon is alluded to here, for it is im- 
 mediately added, as if to preclude any 
 ground of mistake, that ' they were 
 more which died with hailstones than 
 they whom the children of Israel slew 
 with the sword.' The Sept. in 
 both places translates it by \id<>s yaXa- 
 ^rji hailstones ; Josephus calls it ' a 
 violent tempest of hailstones of pro- 
 digious size;' and the author of 
 Ecclesiasticus, ch. 46. 6, thus speaks 
 of the event: 'With hailstones of 
 mighty power he made the battle to 
 fall violently upon the nations, and 
 in the descent of Bethhoron he de- 
 stroyed them that resisted.' That 
 God has, on other occasions, made 
 use of hailstones to destroy both men 
 
 were in the goino: down to Beth- 
 horon, °that the Lord cast down 
 great stones from heaven upon 
 them unto Azekah, and they 
 
 o Ps. 18. 13, 14. &77. 17. Js 30. 30. Rev. 16. 21. 
 
 and cattle, is clear from the instance 
 of the plague of hail in Egj'pt Ex. 9. 
 18, and in the predictions of Ezekiel 
 against Gog, ch. 33. 22, the Most 
 High is introduced as threatening 
 that " he would plead against him 
 with pestilence, and with blood, with 
 an overflowing rain, and great hail- 
 sto7ies,fiTe and brimstone." God him- 
 self, moreover, speaks to Job, ch. 38. 
 22, 23 of treasures or magazines of 
 snow and hail, which he has reserv- 
 ed for the day of battle and war. But 
 although we have no doubt that a 
 shower of hailstones is here intend- 
 ed, yet we are equally convinced 
 that this shower, though natural in 
 itself, was supernatiirally employed 
 on this occasion. They probably 
 far exceeded the usual size, and it 
 certainly indicates a miraculous in- 
 terposition of Providence that they 
 should have fallen at the very crisis 
 when God promised to assist his peo- 
 ple against their enemies, and that 
 while in fallinglheyslewmultitudes 
 of the fugitive Canaanites, they 
 should not have harmed one of their 
 pursiiers ! The following account 
 of a similar phenomenon happening 
 in our own times is graphically de- 
 scribed by one of our own country- 
 men, who was something more than 
 an eye witness of its effects. The 
 letter is dated Constantinople, Aug. 
 1831. " We had got perhaps a mile 
 and a half on our way, when a 
 cloud rising in the west, gave indi- 
 cations of an approaching rain. In 
 a few minutes we discovered some- 
 thing falling from the heavens with 
 a heavy splash, and of a whitish ap- 
 pearance. Tcottld not conceive what 
 it was, but observing some gulls near, 
 I supposed it to be them darting for 
 fish ; but soon after discovered that 
 they were large balls of ice falling. 
 Immediately we heard a sound like 
 rumbling thunder, or ten thousand 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 died : iliey were more which died 
 with hail-stones than they whom 
 
 carriages rolling furiously over the 
 pavement. The whole Bosphorus 
 was in a foam, as though heaven's 
 artillery had been discharged upon 
 us and our frail machine. Our fate 
 seemed inevitable, our um.brellas 
 were raised to protect us ; the lumps 
 of ice stripped them into ribands. 
 "We fortunately had a bullocks hide 
 in the boat, under which we crawled 
 and saved ourselves from farther in- 
 jury. One man, of the three oars- 
 men, had his hand literally smashed ; 
 another much injured in" the shoul- 
 der; Mr. H. received a severe blow 
 in the leg; my right hand was some- 
 what disabled, and all more or less 
 injured. A smaller kaick accom- 
 panied with my two servants. They 
 were both disabled, and are now in 
 bed with their wounds ; the kaick 
 was terribly bruised. It was the 
 most awful and terrific scene that I 
 ever witnessed, and God forbid that 
 I should be ever exposed to such an- 
 other. Balls of ice, as large as my 
 two fists, fell into the boat, and some 
 of them came with such violence as 
 certainly to have broken an arm or 
 leg had they struck us in those parts. 
 One of them struck the blade of an 
 oar and split it. The scene lasted, 
 perhaps, five minutes; but it was five 
 minutes of the most awful feeling 
 that I ever experienced. When it 
 passed over, we found the surround- 
 ing hills covered with masses of ice, 
 I cannot call it hail ; the trees stripped 
 of their leaves and limbs, and every 
 thing looking desolate. We pro- 
 ceeded on our course, however, and 
 arrived at our destination, drenched 
 and awe-struck. The ruin had not 
 extended so far as Candalie, and it 
 was difhcult to make them compre- 
 hend the cause of the nervous and 
 agitated condition in which we ar- 
 rived ; the Reis Effendi asked me if 
 I was ever so agitated when in ac- 
 tion % I answered no, for then I had 
 something to excite me, and human 
 means only to oppose. He asked the 
 minister if he ever was so affected 
 
 the children of Israel slew with 
 the sword. 
 
 in a gale of Avind at seal He an- 
 swered no, for then he col^ld exer- 
 cise his skill to disarm or render 
 harmless the elements. He asked 
 him why he should be affected now *? 
 He replied, ' From the awful idea of 
 being crushed to death by the hand 
 of God with stones from heaven, 
 when resistance would be vain, and 
 where it would be impious to be 
 brave.' He clasped his hands, raised 
 his eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, 
 ' God is great !' Up to this hour, 
 late in the afternoon, I have not re- 
 covered my composure ; my nerves 
 are so affected as scarcely to be able 
 to hold my pen, or communicate my 
 ideas. The scene was awful beyond 
 all description. I have witnessed re- 
 peated earthquakes; the lightning 
 has played, as it were, about my 
 head ; the wind roared, and the 
 waves have at one moment thrown 
 me to the sky, and the next have sunk 
 me into a deep abyss. I have been 
 in action , and seen death and destruc- 
 tion around me in every shape of 
 horror; but I never before had the 
 feeling of awe which seized upon me 
 on this occasion, and still haunts, and 
 I feel will ever haunt me. I return- 
 ed to the beautiful village of Buyuc- 
 dere. The sun was out in all its 
 splendor, at a distance all looked 
 smiling and charming, but a nearer 
 approach discovered roofs covered 
 with workmen repairing the broken, 
 tiles, desolated vineyards, and shat- 
 tered windows. My porter, the bold- 
 est of my family, who had ventured 
 an instant from the door, had been 
 knocked down by a hailstone, and had 
 they not dragged him in by the heels, 
 would have heen battered to death. 
 Of a flock of geese in front of our 
 house, six were killed, and the rest 
 dreadfully mangled. Two boatmen 
 were killed in the upper part of the 
 village, and I have heard of broken 
 bones in abundance. Many of the 
 thick brick tiles, with which my roof 
 is covered, are smashed to atoms, 
 and my house was inundated by the 
 
90 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 12 IT Then spake Joshua to 
 the Lord in the day when the 
 
 rain that succeeded this visitation. It 
 is impossible to convey an idea of 
 what it was. Imagine' to yourself, 
 however, the heavens suddenly froze 
 over, and as suddenly broken to 
 
 Eieces in irregular masses, of from 
 alf a pound to a pound weight, and 
 precipitated to the earth. My own 
 servants weighed several pieces of 
 three quarters of a pound ; and ma- 
 ny were found by others of upwards 
 of a pound. There were many which 
 fell around the boat in which I was, 
 that appeared to me to be as large as 
 the swell of a large sized water de- 
 canter. You may think this ro- 
 mance. I refer to the bearer of this 
 letter, who was with me, aiid witnes- 
 sed the scene, for the truth of every 
 word it contains." Com. Porter's 
 Leiters from Constantinople and its 
 Environs ; Vol.1, p. M. 
 
 1 2. Then spake Joshua te the Lord. 
 That is, before, in the presence of, 
 having a reference to. There is no- 
 thing said of a direct address to Je- 
 hovah, though we cannot doubt that 
 such an one was madeon the occasion, 
 but the address here mentioned was 
 to the sun and moon. The phrase- 
 ology in the original is not that 
 which is usually employed to intim- 
 ate a direct address whether in prayer 
 or otherwise from one person to an- 
 other. Instead of niu'^ "^^lo Jehovah, 
 it is nin'^b properly hnpor ting before 
 Jehevak or in reference to him. It is 
 a similar mode of expression to that 
 employed by Paul, 1 Cor. 14. 2, 'He 
 that speaketh in an anknown tongue 
 speaketh not unto men but unto God,-' 
 i. e. not directly to God but so that 
 Godunderstands him, God takes cog- 
 nizauce of what he says. 2 Cor. 5. 13, 
 * For whether we be beside ourselves 
 it is lo God,' i. e. in reference to God, 
 he is the ultimate object of it. So 
 here Joshua's speaking was not 
 directly to God, but there was a uni- 
 son between his spirit and the spirit 
 of God in his speaking and he had 
 all along a believing reference to God, 
 See on v. 14. Seeing the day far 
 
 Lord delivered up the Amor- 
 ites before the children of Is. 
 
 spent, Joshua feared that he might 
 not have time to complete the victo- 
 ry which he had so auspiciously be- 
 gun, and being suddenly prornpted 
 from above, and inspired "with divine 
 confidence, he commanded, in the 
 name of Jehovah, the occurrence of 
 a stupendous miracle in order to pro- 
 long the day till the destruction of 
 his enemies was completely effect- 
 ed! ^ He said in the sight of Israel^ 
 Sun, stand thou still, &c. Or, Heb. 
 ' he said, In the sight of Israel, Sun, 
 be thou silent in Gibeon.' The verb 
 in the original, generally rendered 
 cease, rest, be still, keep silence, pro- 
 perly implies cessation from actionv 
 or noise, rather than from motion, 
 and is perhaps most frequently used 
 metaphorically to signify a silent 
 submissive frame of spirit, a subdued^ 
 patient, expectant ottilude of soul, 
 like that of the Psalmist when he 
 says, Ps. 62. 1, using this very word, 
 ' Truly my soul n-aiteth upon (Heb, 
 is silent \o) God.' See also Sam. 14. 
 9. Ps. 4. 4.-37. 7. Is. 23. 2. It is 
 usually spoken of an intelligent 
 agent, 'and as the import of the Heb. 
 word for sun, is servant or minister^ 
 it is used with great propriety here 
 as expressive of the command of a 
 master to a servant Xo pause, to rest^ 
 in his routine of service, and to as- 
 sume a still, quiet, patient posture 
 indicative of the most entire subjec- 
 tion, and as if waiting for further or- 
 ders. Such is the genuine force of 
 the original, which cannot perhaps 
 be fully expressed in any version. — 
 The phrase ' in Gibeon' means in this 
 connection over Gibeon, implying- 
 that Joshua looked off to a distance 
 and saw the sun apfarcnthj standing- 
 over the city or cities of Gibeon. — 
 As to the nature of the miracle itself, 
 on which much has been written, it 
 maybe remarked, (1) That the scrip- 
 tures generally speak in ^Jo^^i/Z^zr and 
 not in scientific language ; that they 
 describe the things of' the natural 
 world, not according to strict philo- 
 sophic truth, but according to ap- 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 91 
 
 rael, and he said in the sight 
 of Israel, pSi^i, stand thou still 
 
 pis. 23 21. Hub ?. n. 
 
 pearance and common apprehension. 
 Thus they speak of the sun's rising 
 and setting, of the ends of the earth, 
 of passing from one f??i(^ of heaven to 
 another, &c. Indeed, it was only in 
 this way that Joshua could have 
 conveyed any clear idea to the peo- 
 ple of what he intended to express 
 by the command. Had he uttered 
 the words, ' Earth, stand thou still 
 \ipon thine axis ;' they would have 
 thought him absolutely distracted. 
 He spake therefore in the common 
 popular style adopted by philosophers 
 themselves in ordinary discourse, 
 and every one can see that this was 
 obviously the proper mode. Nor can 
 any one object to this diction in the 
 sacred writers w^ithout virtually en- 
 tering his protest against the every 
 day language of all enlightened 
 countries on the earth. Whether, 
 therefore, the sun or the globe be 
 supposed to have been arrested in 
 its career on this occasion, is imma- 
 terial to the truth of the narrative, 
 as the appearance, in eacb case, 
 would be the same, and it is the 
 appearaiice and not the reality. 
 which is described. (2) Of the 
 precise mode in which the miracle 
 took place, two solutions may be 
 given, though it must necessarily 
 ever be impossible to determine posi- 
 tively which of them is the true one. 
 The effect may have been owing to 
 the actual cessation of the earth's mo- 
 tion round the sun. This, however, 
 without an equally miraculous in- 
 terference of the Almighty would 
 have produced the most tremendous 
 effects not only upon the globe itself, 
 but perhaps upon the entire solar sys- 
 tem and the equilibrium of the whole 
 material universe. The natural con- 
 .sequence of such a sudden check in 
 the course of the earth would have 
 been, by means of the atmosphere, 
 to crush at once all animal and ve- 
 getable existence, to level with the 
 ground the most lofty and massive 
 structures, and in fact to sweep the 
 
 upon Gibeon, and thou Moon, in 
 the valley of ^'Ajalon. 
 
 q Judg. Vi. 12. 
 
 whole surface of the globe as with 
 the besom of destruction. Yet the 
 same power which was competent to 
 stay the globe in its diurnal revolu- 
 tion, was equally competent to guard 
 against any destructive consequen- 
 ces arising from it, and the miracle 
 may have been wrought in the way 
 now described. But the more pro- 
 bable explanation in our opinion is, 
 that the phenomenon related was 
 merely optical ; that the rotatory 
 motion of the earth was not disturb- 
 ed; but that instead of this the light 
 of the sun and moon was supernatu- 
 rally prolonged by the operation of 
 the same laws of refraction and re- 
 flection that ordinarily cause the sun 
 to appear above the horizon when he 
 is in reality beloio it. He who creat- 
 ed the heavenly luminaries and es- 
 tablished the laws which regulate 
 the transmission of light, may at this 
 time have so influenced the medium 
 through which the sun's rays passed, 
 as to render the sun's disk still visi- 
 ble long after the time when in or- 
 dinary circumstances it would have 
 disappeared. This would of course 
 have had all the visible effect of ac- 
 tually bringing the earth to a pause 
 in its revolution round its axis, and 
 as this answers all the demands of 
 the text, we are not solicitous to seek 
 any more satisfactory solution ofthe 
 difficulty. IT Thou moon in the valley 
 of Ajalo'ii: That is over the valley 
 of Ajalon. A city of Benjamin in 
 the near neighborhood of Gibeon, so 
 near in fact, that what is here termed 
 the valley of Ajalon seems in Is. 28. 
 24, in allusion to this event to be call- 
 ed the valley of Gibeon. Junius and 
 Temellius, ifor the most part extreme- 
 ly judicious commentators, under- 
 stand the import ofthe command to 
 be, that the sun should stay itself 
 from setting over Gibeon and the 
 moon from rising or advancing over 
 Ajalon, because the appearance of 
 the moon is the signal for the coming 
 on of night, which Joshua would no^ 
 
92 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 13 And the sun stood still, 
 and the moon stayed, until the 
 people had avenged themselves 
 upon their enemies. ""Is not 
 this written in the book of Jash- 
 
 r 2 Sain. I. 18. 
 
 have to be delayed. Certain it is, 
 that the light of the moon, even when 
 seen, is of very little service while 
 the sun is above the horizon, and as 
 we suppose the sun itself to have 
 been at this time near the horizon 
 we take this command to the moon 
 to be introduced merely as a poetic 
 ornament to make out the paralle- 
 lism so common to the poetical style 
 of the Hebrews. It is in fact doubt- 
 ful whether the whole passage be not 
 a quotation from the book of Jasher 
 mentioned below, and whether that 
 book were not a collection of nation- 
 al songs or lyric poems composed in 
 praise of Joshua and other distin- 
 guished heroes and champions of 
 Israel. 
 
 13. Written iu the book of Jasher. 
 Or, Heb. ' the book of the upright;' 
 i. e. perhaps, of eminently good and 
 upright men, men distinguished at 
 once for moral worth and military 
 prowess. As this book is generally 
 supposed to have long since perished, 
 though affirmed by some of the Jews 
 to be still in existence, it is impossi- 
 ble to determine with certainty what 
 it ^vas. Mention of it occurs again 
 2 Sam. 1. 18, where David's lamen- 
 tation over Saul is said to be extract- 
 ed from it. It was probably a col- 
 lection of poems, or national ballads 
 celebrating the chief events of the 
 wars of Israel and the praises of their 
 most distinguished heroes. IT In 
 the midst of heaven. Heb. ' in the di- 
 vision, or the half of the heavens ;' 
 i. e. above the horizon, where the up- 
 per is divided from the lower hemi- 
 sphere of heaven. Some have sup- 
 posed it to mean the same as ' in the 
 meridian of heaven,' but at that hour 
 of the day how could the moon be 
 visible, or how did Joshua know but 
 he should have ample time, before 
 sunset, to complete the victory '? The 
 
 er ? So the sun stood still in the 
 midst of heaven, a^d hasted not 
 to go down about a whole day. 
 14 And there was 'no day 
 like that before it or after it, 
 
 sSee Is. 3S. 8. 
 
 Other view is, therefore, we think, 
 to be preferred. IT Hasted not to 
 go down about a lohole day. Heb, 
 ' hasted not to go down ^^)2r\ DT^^ 
 as at the perfect day ; i. e. as it nat- 
 urally does when the day is finished, 
 when the ordinary space of a day 
 has elapsed. This we conceive to be 
 the true force of the original, though 
 aware that it requires one to be ac- 
 quainted with the Hebrew in order 
 to feel the force of the evidence in 
 favor of such a rendering. Such a 
 one, however, upon turning to the 
 original of Ex. 31. 18. Deut. 16. 6. 
 —•24. 13. Ps. 73. 19, will find, if we 
 mistake not, ample proof of the cor- 
 rectness of this interpretation. The 
 meaning, as we understand it, is not, 
 that the day was miraculously length- 
 ened out to the extent of twelve hours, 
 or another whole day, but simply that 
 when the ordinary duration of a day 
 was completed, the sun still delayed 
 his setting, but for how long a time 
 we are not informed : long enough, 
 however, we may presume, for fully 
 accomplishing the objects for which 
 the miracle was granted. 
 
 14. That the Lord hearkened unto 
 the voice of a man. That is, for 
 such a purpose. Not that this was 
 the first time that the prayers of a 
 mortal had power with God, for those 
 of Moses had often prevailed with 
 him, but he had never before heark- 
 ened to the voice of man to alter so 
 signally the course of nature, or to 
 grant such an illustrious display of 
 his power in behalf of his people. 
 The passage imports that the com- 
 mand of Joshua was i7i effect, though 
 not in form, a prayer to Jehovah for 
 the performance of the miracle. In 
 like manner that which seems to 
 have been uttered by Elijah, 1 Kings 
 17. 1, as a prophecy, is spoken of by 
 James ch. 5. 17. as a prayer. Prob^ 
 
A. C. 145L] CHAPTER X. 
 
 that the Lord hearkened unto 
 the voice of a man : for Uhe 
 Lord fought for Israel. 
 
 15 IF "And Joshua returned, 
 and all Israel with him, unto the 
 camp to Gilgol. 
 
 16 But these five kings fled, 
 and hid themselves in a cave at 
 Makkedah. 
 
 t Deut. 1. 30. V 42 & ch. 23 3. u v, 43. 
 
 ably no miracles were brought by the 
 ancient prophets or servants of God 
 but in connection with the most fer- 
 vent ' in-wrought' prayer. It is on- 
 ly by earnest prayer that we take 
 hold of the strength of God. IT 
 For ike Lord fought for Israel. This 
 seems to be added as if in answer to 
 the natural inquiry; 'Why was 
 such a miracle wrought on this occa- 
 sion 1 To what was it owing that 
 Israel was so favored V Because, 
 says the writer, the Lord fought for 
 them. He was engaged on their 
 side ; and it was in consequence of 
 his purpose and his promise to be- 
 friend them V. 8, 12, that he gra- 
 ciously heard the prayer of Joshua. 
 15. And Joshua returned to Gilgal. 
 The occurrence of this verse in this 
 place has occasioned great perplex- 
 ity to commentators. As it is verba- 
 tim the same as the last verse of this 
 chapter, and is wanting in some of the 
 ancient versions, many have thought 
 that it was inserted here by the 
 error of some transcriber, and that 
 the only way to obtain a correct view 
 of the thread of the narrative is to 
 neglect it altogether. It cannot, it 
 is said, be supposed that Joshua 
 should have broken off in the mid- 
 career of his victory and just after 
 the above mentioned miracle, march- 
 ed his army twenty or thirty miles to 
 Gilgal, and then have immediately re- 
 turned again to the scene of action 
 to complete the work of conquest. 
 What could be the object of such a 
 strange diversion of his forces at 
 such a crisis '? But we are inclined 
 to consider It as inserted here mere- 
 9 
 
 17 And it was told Joshua, 
 saying. The five kings are found 
 hid in a cave at Makkedah. 
 
 18 And Joshua said. Roll 
 great stones upon the mouth of 
 the cave, and set men by it for 
 to keep them : 
 
 19 And stay ye not, hut pur- 
 sue after your enemies, and 
 
 ly by anticipation. The writer's 
 drift is apparently to close the gen- 
 eral account of the engagement de- 
 scribed above by saying that when it 
 was ended Joshua and the Israelites 
 returned to the camp ; not however 
 that this took place immediately ; 
 there were some additional incidents 
 that occurred prior to that return, 
 which were too important to bs over- 
 looked in the history, and which he 
 here takes occasion to relate. This 
 he does in the ensuing verses v. 
 16 — 42, after which he inserts again, 
 in its proper place, the account of 
 Joshua's return to the camp. The 
 repetition of the words at the end of 
 the chapter seems designed to cor- 
 rect the misapprehension that might 
 arise, on reading them in iheir first 
 connection, as to the precise time 
 to which they refer. This we re- 
 gard as a safer solution of the diffi- 
 culty than to suppose an error in the 
 copyist, which in this instance seems 
 to us improbable. 
 
 16. In a cave at Makkedah. Heb. 
 ' in Makkedah ;' that is, in the vi- 
 cinity of Makkedah, in the region 
 adjoining the city, not in the city it- 
 self See what is said above of the 
 phrase ' in Jericho,' ch. 5. 13, and ' in 
 Gibeon,' ch. 10. 10. Compare too 
 with this what is said Am. 9. 2 — 4 
 of the vain attempts of God's enemies 
 to conceal themselves from his pre- 
 sence. 
 
 18. Set men by it. Heb. 'give men 
 charge over it.' 
 
 19. Smite the hindmost of them. 
 Heb. * cut off the tail,' as the rear- 
 guard of an army is called. The 
 
94 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 145L 
 
 amite the hindmost of them ; 
 suffer them not to enter into 
 their cities: for the Lord your 
 God hath delivered them into 
 your hand. 
 
 20 And it came to pass, when 
 Joshua and the children of Is- 
 rael had made an end of slaying 
 them with a very grea^t slaugh- 
 ter, till they were consumed, 
 that the rest 7cliich remainfid of 
 them entered into fenced cities. 
 
 21 And all the people re- 
 turned to the camp to Joshua 
 
 original term occurs only once else- 
 where, Deut. 25. 1. 18, ' Servants, 
 dependants, or courtiers, in the East, 
 always/oZ^ow their superiors. Should 
 one of them cease to serve or follow 
 his master or patron, having gained 
 his end, another on seeing this, asks, 
 "Where is your taiH"— " The tail 
 has been long in my way, I have cut 
 it off.'" Roberts. IT Suffer them 
 not to enter into their cities. Where 
 they would recover strength and re- 
 new the war. It seems however from 
 the next verse that a few stragglers 
 succeeded in getting refuge in these 
 defenced cities, but they were soon 
 followed thither and destroyed. 
 
 20. When Joshua and the children 
 of Israel. That is, Joshua by the 
 children of Israel, by their agency. 
 It is evident from v. 21 that Joshua 
 did not accompany them in person, 
 but awaited their return at Makke- 
 dah. Itis, however, entirely accord- 
 ing to scripture analogy to speak of 
 that as done by a commander, which 
 was done by the soldiers under his 
 authority and control. The phrase 
 may also be rendered, ' Joshua, even 
 the children of Israel.' 
 
 21. All the people returned to the 
 camp at Makkedah. That is, the 
 whole detachment which Joshua had 
 sent out to scour the country and cut 
 off the remaining straggling Canaan- 
 ites. Probably a temporary encamp- 
 
 at Makkedah in peace : ^none 
 moved his tongue against any 
 of the children of Israel. 
 
 ..2 Then said Joshua, Open 
 the mouth of the cave, and bring 
 out those five kings unto me 
 out of the cave. 
 
 2*3 And they did so, and 
 brought forth those five kings 
 unto him out of the cave, the 
 king of Jerusalem, the king of 
 Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, 
 the king of Lachish, and the 
 king of Eglon. 
 
 ment had been formed here for the 
 accommodation of the array after the 
 victory, in consequence of the kings 
 being imprisoned in a cave near it. 
 IT In peace. Safe and sound. See 
 Gen. 28. 21. Judg. 8. 9. _ IT ^one 
 moved his tongue. That is, none of 
 the Canaanites. They were struck 
 dumb with astonishment ; they were 
 so utterly confounded by the display 
 of supernatural power put forth in 
 behalf of Israel, that they presumed 
 not to breathe a whisper of insult or 
 reproach. As the Israelites marched 
 in triumph through their towns and 
 villages, so far from venturing to 
 lift a hand against them, they did not 
 even open their lips. It is a prover- 
 bial expression, intimating a free- 
 dom from any kind of insult or mo- 
 lestation. ' When a person speaks 
 of the fear to which his enemy is re- 
 duced, he says, " Ah ! he dares not 
 now to shake his tongue against me." 
 " He hurt you ! the fellow will not 
 shake h is tongue against you." ' Ro- 
 berts. See a similar mode of speech 
 Ex. 11. 7. The Chal. renders it, 
 ' There was no hurt or Joss to Israel, 
 for which any man should afflict his 
 soul.' Whether or no this be the 
 sense of the words, such was no doubt 
 the fact. When the army came to 
 be reviewed after the battle, there 
 was none slain, none wounded, none 
 missing, not one Israelite had occa- 
 
A. C. 
 
 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 95 
 
 24 And it came to pass, when 
 they brought out those kings 
 unto Josliua, that Joshua called 
 for all the men of Israel, and 
 said unto the captains of the 
 men of war which went with 
 him. Come near, yput your feet 
 upon the necks of these kings. 
 And they came near, and put 
 their feet upon the necks of 
 them. 
 
 25 And Joshua said unto them 
 *Fear not, nor be dismayed, be 
 strong and of good courage : 
 
 y Ps. 107 -JO & 110 5. ft 141. 8 9. U 
 4- 3. 7. Lfeui. 31. 6, 1;. cli. 1. 9. 
 
 for *thus shall the Lord do to 
 all your enemies against whom 
 ye fi^ht. 
 
 26 And afterward Joshua 
 smote them, and blew them, and 
 hanged them on five trees : and 
 they ^were hanging upon the 
 trees until the eve.iing. 
 
 27 And it came to pass at the 
 timH of the going down of the 
 sun, that Joshua commanded, 
 and they "^took them down ofT 
 the trees, and cast them into the 
 cave wherein they had been hid. 
 
 a Den*. 3. 21. & 7. 
 23. ch. 8 29. 
 
 bch. 8. 29. c Deut. U. 
 
 sion to lament the loss of a friend or 
 the loss of a limb. The original is 
 very express that?io^ one single Isra- 
 elite was harmed either by word or 
 weapon. So complete, so superhu- 
 man, so s^lorious was the victory. 
 
 24, All the vien of Israel. Heb. 
 * all the man or manhood of Israel.' 
 i. e. all the men of war, the flower 
 and prime of the army by whom the 
 recent victory had been obtained. 
 Seeonch.9.6. ^ Put your feet %tpon 
 the necks of these kings. Not as a 
 personal insult to the kings, but sym- 
 oolically, in token not only of the 
 present complete victory, but of the 
 absolute subjection to which all their 
 adversaries would finally be reduced, 
 as Joshua himself explains it in the 
 next verse. ' This in the East is a 
 favorite way of triumphing over a 
 fallen foe. When people are dispu- 
 ting, should one be a little pressed, 
 and the other begin to triumph, the 
 former will say, " I will tread upon 
 thy neck, and after that beat thee." 
 A low caste man insulting one who 
 is high, is sure to hear some one say 
 to the offended individual, " Put your 
 feet on his neck." ' Roberts. In like 
 manner, we are also taught to regard 
 our victories past as pledges of fu- 
 ture and greater conquests. — The 
 severity enjoined towards the van- 
 quished kings, though abhorrent to 
 our humane feelings, was right, be- 
 
 cause it was commanded, Deut, 20. 
 16, 17, and it was important that in 
 doing the Lord's work the Israelites 
 should be taught the lesson elsewhere 
 inculcated by the prophet, Jer. 4. 8. 
 ' Cursed be he that doeth the Lord's 
 work deceitfully, and cursed be he 
 that keepeth back his sword from 
 blood.' The act here mentioned wa& 
 in fulfilment of the prediction Dent. 
 33. 29. ' Thou shall tread upon their 
 high places,' on which see note. 
 
 26. Hanged them on five trees, &c. 
 See on ch. 8. 29. 
 
 27. At the time of the going down 
 of the sun. Whether this was on the 
 evening of the day so miraculously 
 lengthened oat, or of the following, 
 it is not perhaps possible to deter- 
 mine. Consideringthe space of time 
 naturally requisite for the preceding 
 events, we incline to the latter sup- 
 position. IT Cast them into the cave. 
 ' That which they thought would 
 have been their shelter, was made 
 their prison first, and then their grave. 
 So shall we be disappointed in thai 
 which we flee to from God ; yet to 
 good people the grave is still * a hi- 
 ding-place,' Job. 14. 3. Henry. IT 
 Laid great stones in the cavers mouth. 
 Mainly, we presume, for the same 
 reason that a similar monument was 
 raised over the place where Achan 
 was stoned and burnt, ch. 7. 26; to 
 perpetuate the memory of the event 
 
JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. I45I. 
 
 and laid rrrcat stones in the 
 cave's nnouth, which remain un- 
 til this very day. 
 
 28 II And that day Joshua 
 took Makkedah, and smote it 
 with the edge of the sword, and 
 the king thereof he utterly de- 
 stroyed, them, and all the souls 
 that were therein ; he let none 
 remain : and he did to the king 
 of Makkedah ^^as he did unto the 
 king of Jericho. 
 
 29 Then Joshua passed from 
 Makkedah, and all Israel with 
 h'm, unto Libnah, and fought 
 against Libnah : 
 
 30 And the Lord delivered it 
 also, and the king thereof, into 
 the hand of Israel : and he 
 
 in connection with the disgrace and 
 ignominy of the culprits M'ho suffer- 
 ed there. Masius remarks, without 
 specifying his authority, that 'those 
 who have visited this region say, that 
 the cave is still shown in a hill near 
 Makkedah, its mouth being closed 
 by a wall to preserve it as a monu- 
 ment.' 
 
 28. That day Joshua took Makke- 
 dah. The same day on which the 
 kings were hung, and which we have 
 already remarked was probably the 
 day subsequent to that on which the 
 sun stood still. Yet it is possible that 
 the sense may be, that about that time 
 — not on the "identical day — he took 
 the city of Makkedah. It might have 
 been a day or two later. IT The 
 king thereof heutterly destroyed. Heb. 
 ' devoted, "made a curse.' IT All 
 the souls. That is, all the people, men, 
 women, and children; for it would 
 appear from ch. 11. 14 that the cattle 
 and spoils were g:! ven to the conquer- 
 ors. ^ As he did unto the king of 
 Jericho. How he had dealt with this 
 king we are not expressly informed. 
 Probably he had been first slain, and 
 then hanged up, as was the king of 
 
 smote it with the edge of the 
 sword, and all the souls that 
 were therein : he let none remain 
 in it ; but did unto the king there- 
 of as he did unto the king of Jer- 
 icho. 
 
 31 H And Joshua passed from 
 Libnah, and all Israel with him, 
 unto Lachish, and encamped 
 against it, and fought against it : 
 
 32 And the Lord delivered 
 Lachish into the hand of Israel, 
 which took it on the second day 
 and smote it with the edge of the 
 sword, and all the souls that were- 
 therein, according to all that he 
 had done to Libnah. 
 
 33 IT Then Horam king of 
 Gezer came up to help Lachish ; 
 
 Ai and the five kings here mentioned. 
 
 29. And all Israel u-ith him. That 
 is, all of Israel that had been engaged 
 with him in this late expeditiono. 
 If Unto Libnah. A city in the tribe 
 of Judah near its western border, not 
 far from Makkedah, about twelve 
 miles west or southwest from Jerusa- 
 lem. It was afterwards given to the 
 priests, ch. 21. 13. Even its ruins 
 have now disappeared. 
 
 31. Unto Lachish. Situated a few 
 miles directly south of Libnah, near 
 the western limits of Judah. It was 
 probably a strongly fortified place, 
 as Joshua could not take it till the 
 second day, and Sennacherib after- 
 wa rds was obliged to ' raise the siege. *■ 
 2 Kings, 19. 8. Is. 37. 8. Nothing is 
 here said of the king of Lachish, as 
 he was one of the five who had been 
 executed before. 
 
 33. Horam king of Gezer. There 
 was a city of this name in the tribe 
 of Ephraim twenty miles southwest 
 of Jerusalem, ch. 16. 3, 10. Judg. 
 1. 19. But this seems too remote 
 from the scene of action. The prob- 
 ability is, that it was some place in 
 the tribe of Judah but little distant 
 
A. C. 1451.] CHAPTER X. 
 
 and Joshua smote him and his 
 people, until he had left him none 
 remaining. 
 
 34 ^ And from Lachish Josh- 
 ua passed unto Eglon, and all Is- 
 raei with him : and they en- 
 camped against it, and fought 
 against it : 
 
 35 And thejr took it on that 
 day, and smote it with the edge 
 of the sword, and all the souls 
 that ivere therein he utterly de- 
 stroyed that day, according to 
 all that he had done to Lachish. 
 
 36 And Joshua went up from 
 
 97 
 
 from Lachish, the king of which 
 either as an ally of the king of La- 
 chish, or for his own security, offer- 
 ed to aid in resisting the further pro- 
 gress of Joshua. ' Thus wicked men 
 are often snared in their counsels, 
 and, by opposing God in the way of 
 his judgments, bring them sooner 
 upon their own heads.' Henry. 
 
 34, Unto Eglon. Another city of 
 Judah, near to Lachish, and fifteen 
 miles from Jerusalem. See map. 
 
 35, Took it on that day. The same 
 day on which they encamped against 
 it. 
 
 36, 37. Unto Hebron — and the king 
 thereof. Probably a successor to him 
 who had been slain and hanged be- 
 fore, V. 23, 2(). The rank which 
 this city evidently held among its sis- 
 ter cities doublless made it important 
 that, in such a crisis as the present, 
 anew head shoull be immediate f7 
 appointed. — Though now taken, the 
 city of Hebron seems afterwards to 
 have fallen back into the hands of 
 the Canaanites, which made it ne- 
 cessary for Caleb to take it a second 
 time as related, ch. 15. 14. Judge, L 
 10. The case appears to have been 
 the same in regard to some other of 
 the places captured on this occasion. 
 Judge, 1. 11 — 13. The reason of it 
 was, that Joshua, in his rapid con- 
 
 9* 
 
 Eglon, and all Israel with him, 
 unto ^Hebron ; and they fougiit 
 against it : 
 
 37 And they took it, and 
 smote it with the edge of the 
 sword, and the king thereof, and 
 all the cities thereof, atid all the 
 souls that toere therein ; he left 
 none remaining (according to all 
 that he had done to Eglon) but 
 destroyed it utterly, atid all the 
 souls that were therein : 
 
 3S IT And Joshua returned, 
 and all Israel with him, to fDc- 
 bir ; and fought against it. 
 
 e See ch. 11 \X * 15. 13. Jud^. 1. 10. f See eh. 
 1 J. 13. JuLlg. 1. n. 
 
 quests, contented himself with tak- 
 ing, demolishing, and burning those 
 ciiies, bat did not garrison any of 
 them for fear of weakening his army. 
 The scattered Crinaanites in sever.'il 
 instances no doubt took advantage of 
 this, returned, repeopled, and put 
 in a state of defence, the cities 
 from which they had been expelled. 
 Hence the Israelites were obliged to 
 conquer them a second time. So the 
 Christian in his spiritual warfare 
 finds it as much as he can do to keep 
 possession of the ground which he 
 has once gained. His old enemies 
 are incessantly returning upon him. 
 His battles must be fought and his 
 victories achieved anew. The lusts 
 which appeared to be slain, are ever 
 and anon giving signs that they still 
 live; and are intent upon regaining 
 their former ascendancy. Th's 
 makes it dangerous to remit our acti- 
 vity for a single hour. Constant vigi- 
 lance is the grand condition of final 
 triumph. IT All the cilice thereof. 
 The cities .subject to its jurisdiction 
 and dependant upon it ; so that Heb- 
 ron was properly speaking a metro- 
 polis, i. e. « mother city. Such too 
 was Gibeon, spoken of above, v. 2. 
 ch. 9. 17. 
 
 38. And Joskua returned. That is 
 turned his course, began to march in 
 
98 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 145L 
 
 39 And he look it, and the 
 king thereof, and all the cities 
 thereof, and they smote them 
 with the edge of the sword, and 
 utterly destroyed all the souls 
 that were therein ; he left none 
 remaining : as he had done to 
 Hebron, so he did toDebir, and to 
 the king thereof ; as he had done 
 also to Libnah, and to her king. 
 
 40 IF So Joshua smote all the 
 
 a new direction. It is not implied 
 ihat he had been at Debir before; 
 but that having now advanced to the 
 southwest as far as he thought fit, 
 even as far as Gaza, v. 41, he turn- 
 ed and directed his course towards 
 Gilgal, lying to the northeast, and 
 fell upon Debir on his way. This 
 city was in the tribe of Judab, about 
 thirty miles southwest of Jerusa- 
 lem and ten miles west of Hebron. 
 It was also called Kirjath-Sepher, 
 ch. 15. 15, and Kirjath-Sannah, ch. 
 15. 19, perhaps from its being one 
 of the seats of learning among the 
 Canaanites; the name Kirjath-Se- 
 pher signifying the city of books or of 
 letters. The Canaanites having sub- 
 sequently retaken it, Caleb, to whom 
 it fell by lot, gave his daughter Ach- 
 sah in marriage to Othniel for his 
 bravery in having carried itby storm, 
 ch. 15. 16. It was afierwards given 
 to the priests, ch. 21. 15, but no trace 
 of it is to be found at the present 
 time. 
 
 40. Smote all the country of ike 
 hills. Overrun as a conqueror', sub- 
 dued and took possession of all the 
 southern section of Canaan, famili- 
 arly known by the appellation of 
 * Hahar,' i. e. the hill-country, which 
 subsequently fell to the lot of Judah. 
 Of this mountainous region Burck- 
 hardt says, the whole country be- 
 tween Tekoa and Hebron is finer 
 and better cultivated than in the 
 neighbourhood of Jerusalem; while 
 the sides of the hills, instead of being 
 naked and dreary, are richly studded 
 
 coimtry of the liills, and of the 
 south, and of the vale, and of the 
 S[)ring.s, and all their kings: he 
 left none remaining, but utterly 
 destroyed all that breathed, as 
 the Lord God of Israel ecom- 
 manded. 
 
 41 And Joshua smote them 
 from Kadesh-barnea even unto 
 ^Gaza, 'and all the country of 
 Goshen, even unto Gibeon. 
 
 g De'it. 20. 16, 17. h Gen. 10. 19. i ch. 11. 16. 
 
 with the oak, the arbutus, the Scotch 
 fir, and a variety of flowering shrubs. 
 Of the hitherto unknown tract south 
 of Hebron, Bankes, Legh, Irby and 
 Mangles inform us that three days 
 to the south of Hebron, they passed 
 towards the Dead Sea through a 
 country well cultivated, but extreme- 
 ly uninteresting : eight or nine miles 
 beyond Kerek they found them- 
 selves on the borders of an extensive 
 desert, entirely abandoned to the 
 wandering Bedouins, A tribe of 
 Jellaheen Arabs here told them, that 
 in years of scarcity they were accus- 
 tomed to retire into Eg^'pt. The 
 same necessity compelled Jacob to 
 the same expedient : and the custom 
 seems handed down from the patri- 
 archs. See Russell's Palestim, IT 
 Of the south. That is, of Canaan, 
 The southern part of the tribe of 
 Judah and Idumea were designated 
 bv the general term, the south. 
 Gen. 20. 1. % Of the vale. Heb, 
 ' the low country,"' i. e. the level 
 champaign on the Mediterranean 
 sea. extending from Joppa to the 
 borders of Egypt. Deut. 1. 7. Judg, 
 1. 9. Jer. 17. 26. IT The springs, 
 Heb. ' the descents,' i. e. probably 
 the slopes or declivities of mountains, 
 tracts formed by the washing down 
 of the mountains, and so capable of 
 cultivation. See Num. 21. 15. Deut. 
 3. 17. IT Destroyed all that hreafh- 
 ed. That is, of mankind; for they 
 kept the cattle for spoil. 
 
 41. All the country of Goshen. Not 
 the country of that name in Egypt, 
 
A. C. 1450.] 
 
 42 And all these kings and 
 their land did Joshua take at one 
 time ; H)ecause the Lord God 
 of Israel fought for Israel. 
 
 43 And Joshua returned, and 
 all Israel with him, unto the camp 
 to Gilgal. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A ND it came to pass, when Ja- 
 bin kinoj of Hazor had heard 
 
 the former residence of the Hebrews, 
 but a place so called in Judah, four- 
 teen miles south of Hebron, ch. 11. 
 16.— 15. 51. 
 
 42, At one time. Heb. 'at one 
 turn, or one stroke; ' i. e. in one un- 
 interrupted course of vigorous ac- 
 tion ; or, as we should say, in one 
 campaign. The leading idea is that 
 from the time Joshua entered upon 
 this career of victories till it was 
 closed there was no pause, no inter- 
 mission, no cessation. IT Because 
 the Lord fought for Israel. This 
 clause is introduced in order to give 
 credibility to the foregoing narra- 
 tive. Viewed in any other light 
 than as the result of omnipotence, 
 such a tide of victories would natu- 
 rally stagger all belief. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1. Jabin king of Hazor. After 
 the very remarkable reduction of 
 the southern parts of Canaan, re- 
 lated in the foregoing chapter, the 
 kings of the north becoming appre- 
 hensi\''e for their safety, are here 
 presented in the act of making a 
 common interest and uniting with 
 Jabin to put a stop to ;the further 
 progress of the Israelites. Jabin 
 was probably the common name of 
 all the kings of Hazor, as we find 
 that the king by whom the Israelites 
 were afterwards kept in bondage for 
 twenty years and who was defeated 
 by Deborah and Barak, was so call- 
 ed. The name signifies 'wiie or i?*- 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 99 
 
 those things, that he "sent to Jo- 
 bab king of Madon, and to the 
 king i^of Shimron, and to the king 
 of Achshaph, 
 
 2 And to the kings that were 
 on the north of the mountams, 
 and of the plains south of "^Cinne- 
 roth, and in the valley, and in 
 the borders '^of Dor on the west, 
 
 3 And to the Canaanite on the 
 east and on the west, and to the 
 
 aCh. 10. 3. bch. 19, 1.5. cNum. 34. U. dcli. 17- 
 11. Judg. 1.27 1 Km. i.n. 
 
 telligent. Hazor was a strong city 
 on the west side of the waters of 
 Merom, or lake Samechonitis, and 
 the capital of northern Canaan. In 
 the distribution of the land it fell to 
 the tribe of Naphtali. It Avas in 
 subsequent times frequently the seat 
 of war, but not a ruin now remains 
 to mark the place where it stood. 
 ^^ Madon. The position of this city 
 is unknown. It was doubtless in 
 the neighborhood of the others here 
 mentioned. H Shimron. Called 
 also Shimron-Meron, ch. 12. 10. It 
 fell afterwards to the lot of Zebulon, 
 and was situated about eleven miles 
 to the northeast of Nazareth. ir 
 Achshaph. Situated in the tribe of 
 Asher, near the confines of Zebulon. 
 It was reduced to a small village, 
 called Chasalus, in the time of Jer- 
 ome, at the close of the fourth cen- 
 tury, but is now entirely swept 
 away. 
 
 2. That were on the north of the 
 mountains. Heb. ' from the north in 
 the mountain,' i. e. residing in the 
 mountainous region of the north, the 
 tract of Anti-Libanus. IT The plains 
 south of Cinneroth. Heb. 'plain.' An 
 ancient city belonging afterwards 
 to the tribe of Naphtali, and suppos- 
 ed to have occupied the same site 
 with the more modern Tiberias. 
 From this city or village, the sea of 
 Chinneroth, or Gennesareth, prob- 
 ably had its name. From the origi- 
 nal it is not perfectly clear whether 
 the plain spoken of lay to the south 
 
100 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1450. 
 
 Amorite, and the Htttite, and the 
 Perizzitc, and the Jebnsite in the 
 nnountains, «and to the Hivite un- 
 der Ulermon ?in the land of 
 Mizpeh. 
 
 4 And they went out, they 
 and all their hosts with them, 
 
 e Judg. 3. 3. fch. 13. 11. g Gen. 31- 49. 
 
 much people, '^even as the sand 
 that is upon the sea-sliore in mul^ 
 titufle, with horses ai.d chariots 
 very many. 
 
 5 And when all these kings 
 were met together, they came 
 and pitched together at the wa- 
 
 h Gen. 22. 17. i 32. 12. Julg. 7. 12. I Sam. 13 5. 
 
 of Chinneroth, or Chinneroth to the 
 south of that. In the former case, it 
 would seem to have been the plain 
 of the Jordan, which we think less 
 likely. IT In the valley. In the 
 low or valley tracts generally, in 
 contradistinction from the mountain- 
 ous points which were inhabited. 
 II The borders of Dor. This was a 
 place on the coast of the Mediterra- 
 nean, about nine miles north of Ce- 
 sarea Palestine, and at a little dis- 
 tance from mount Carmel. A small 
 village, called Tortura, is in the vi- 
 cinity of the ruins of the ancient 
 town containing forty or fifty houses. 
 3. The CoMaanite on the East, &c. 
 The Canaaniies, properly so called, 
 dwell part of them in the east near 
 Jordan, and part on the west near 
 the sea ; both are here united. IT 
 The Hiviie under Herman. At the 
 foot of mount Hermon; of which 
 mountain see on Deut. 3. 9. They 
 are designated in this way to distin- 
 guish them from another portion of 
 the same race dwelling at Gibeon, of 
 whom we have already spoken. 
 IT In the land of Mizpeh. That is, 
 the land of watching or espial, so call- 
 ed from its commanding an exten- 
 sive prospect of the sarrounding 
 country, from which the approach 
 or movements of an enemy might be 
 discovered. There were several 
 places of this name, but reference is 
 here undoubtedly had to that lying 
 in the northern quarter of Gilead, 
 where Laban and Jacob made their 
 covenant, as related Gen. 31. 48. 49. 
 4, And they went out. Took the 
 field ; a phrase frequently employed 
 by the sacred writers for' going forth 
 v/pon a military expedition. Thus 
 3 Sam. 11.1,' and it came to pass — 
 
 at the time when kings go forth,' i. e. 
 to battle, as our version rightly un- 
 derstands it, Comp, Num. 21. 23, 
 Job 39. 21. IT As the sand that is 
 upon the sea-shore. A proveibial ex- 
 pression used to denote a vast but in- 
 definite number — a number of which' 
 no accurate estimate could be for.ned, 
 Josephus, upon what authority we 
 know not, is more particular. He 
 states the number at 300,000 foot, 
 10,000 horse, and 20,000 chario:s of 
 war. Whether this be correct or not, 
 the words of the text lead us to infer 
 that a vast population now occupied 
 the land of promise, and that the soil 
 must have been of exuberant fertil- 
 ity to sustain it. The immense mul- 
 titude moreover of the enemy went 
 to heighten the glory of Joshua's vic- 
 tory. IT With horses and chariots 
 very many. Heb. ' horse and char- 
 iot very much.' The horses were 
 probably brought out of Egypt or Ar- 
 menia and not bred in Canaan, which 
 was not a country favorable to their 
 production or use. Deut. 17. 16. 1 
 Kings, 10. 28, 29. The war chari- 
 ots of the Canaanices are supposed 
 to have been armed with iron scythes- 
 fastened to the poles and to the ends 
 of the axle-trees. When furiously 
 driven they would make fearful 
 havoc in the ranks of infantry — ot 
 which only were the forces of Israel 
 composed — mowing them down like 
 grass. In view therefore of such 
 a formidable armament mustered 
 against him, Joshua receives from 
 the Lord a special encouragement 
 and promise of success. 
 
 5. Were Viet together. Heb. 'were 
 assembled by appointment.' In pur- 
 suance of previous arrangements. 
 Chal. ' met at a time agreed upon.'' 
 
A. C. 1450.] 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 101 
 
 ters of Merom, to fight against 
 Israel. 
 
 6 IF And the Lord said unto 
 
 IT At the waters of Merom. Gener- 
 ally understood of the lake Semechon 
 or Samechonitis lying between the 
 head of the river Jordan and the lake 
 of Gennesaret. The name imports 
 'highness,' and is supposed to be so 
 called because its waters were high- 
 er than those of the sea of Galilee. 
 The Arabic Samaka^ from which 
 Semechon is derived, has the same 
 import. It is situated in a valley and 
 is now called Bahhrat el-Hhule^ i. e. 
 the lake of the valley, a valley formed 
 by the two branches of mount Her- 
 mon. In summer the lake is for the 
 most part dry, and covered with 
 shrubs and grass, in which lions, 
 bears, and other wild beasts conceal 
 themselves. 
 
 6. Shall hough their horses. That 
 is, hamstring them, cut the sinews of 
 their legs. On the effects of such a 
 treatment of these animals Mich- 
 aelis remarks, that 'from ignorance 
 of military affairs, most expositors 
 have understood this command, as 
 if it meant, not that the horses should 
 be killed, but merely lamed in their 
 hind legs, and then let go. But a 
 horse so treated, must, instead of run- 
 ning off, fall instantly backwards, 
 and writhe about miserably till he 
 die, which generally happens from 
 loss of blood, by the stroke of the 
 sabre cutting the artery of the thigh. 
 This is still, as military people have 
 since informed me, the plan adopted 
 to make those horses that are taken, 
 but cannot be easily brought away, 
 unserviceable to the enemy again. 
 They hamstring them, which can be 
 done in an instant ; and they gener- 
 ally die of the wound by bleeding to 
 death ; but though they should not, 
 the wound never heals ; so that even 
 if the enemy recover them alive, he 
 is forced to dispatch them : and 
 every compassionate friend of horses, 
 who has ever seen one in that situa- 
 tion, will do so in order to terminate 
 hisi misery, There is, no foimda- 
 
 Joshua, 'Be not afraid because 
 of them : for to-morrow about 
 this time will I deliver them up 
 
 i Cli. 10. 8. 
 
 tion, for Kimchi's opinion, that mere 
 laming was enjoined, because it 
 would be wrong to put an animal un- 
 necessarily to death. For thus to 
 lame a horse that would still live, in 
 my opinion, would rather have been 
 exJtreme cruelty ; because, being then 
 useless, nobody would be likely to 
 give him any food.' (Comment, on 
 Laws of Moses, Art LXIV.) The 
 reasons for prescribing such a treat- 
 ment probably were ( 1) Because God 
 would have his people act upon the 
 resolution expressed by the Psalmist, 
 Ps. 20. 7, ' Some trust in chariots and 
 some in horses ; but we will remem- 
 ber the name of the Lord our God.' 
 If horses had been in common use 
 among them, they would have been 
 apt to rely upon them instead of trust- 
 ing to the aid of omnipotence in 
 achieving their conquests. But 
 God's design was to cut them off 
 from human resources, and by ena- 
 bling a company of raw and inexpe- 
 rienced footmen to rout powerful 
 bodies of cavalry, to secure the glory 
 of the victory to his own right arm, 
 to which only it was due. (2) Be- 
 cause horses were a kind of useless 
 plunder to the Israelites. From the 
 nature of the country they could not 
 well be employed for purposes of ag- 
 riculture. In that rough and moun- 
 tainous land oxen and asses could 
 be employed to much greater advan- 
 tage ; and as to travelling, it was 
 never designed that the Israelites 
 should be a travelling people. They 
 were to be an agricultural and not a 
 commercial race. They were to live 
 apart from other nations as a reli- 
 gious community. Their stated 
 journeys to Jerusalem to attend upon 
 the religious festivals would be about 
 all the travelling that would be ne- 
 cessary, and this on their rough roads 
 could be better performed on foot or 
 on asses than on horses. Such of 
 these animals therefore as they took 
 in war could be of no use to them, 
 
10^ 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1450, 
 
 all slain before Israel : thou shall 
 khouuh their horses, and burn 
 their chariots with fire. 
 
 7 So Joshua came, and all the 
 people of war with him, against 
 them by the waters of Merom 
 suddenly, and they fell upon 
 them. 
 
 8 And the Lord delivered 
 them into the hand of Israel, who 
 smote them, and chased them un- 
 to great Zidon, and unto iMisre- 
 phothmann, and unto the valley 
 
 K 2 Sam. 8. 4. 1 ch 13. 6 
 
 unless they sold them, and this would 
 not be wise, as they might finally 
 have come round again into the hands 
 of their rnemies. The true policy 
 accordingly was to diminish as far 
 as possible this race of animals, which 
 might give their enemies a signal ad- 
 vantage, and in this policy we sup- 
 pose the present order to have origin- 
 ated. 
 
 7. Suddenly. The great feature 
 of Joshua's military operations ap- 
 pears to have been dispatch. In the 
 celerity of his movements he seems 
 to have equalled the most renowned 
 generals whether of ancient or mod- 
 ern times. Being now apprized of 
 this grand combination of the north- 
 em kings, he loses no time, but by a 
 forced march, and before they could 
 have supposed him at hand, comes 
 suddenly upon them and puts them 
 to the rout. 
 
 8. Unto great Zidon. A well 
 known city of Ancient Phenicia, si- 
 tuated on the east coast of the Medi- 
 terranean, about tweniy-five miles 
 north of Tyre, fifty south of Berytus 
 (Beyroot), and sixty-six west of Da- 
 mascus. Us modern name is Said. 
 The epilhet n2^) great^ here affixed 
 to it, is expressive of number rather 
 than o^ size, and implies not only its 
 fopulousness^hwi the extent and vari- 
 ety of its resources of every kind. 
 ^ MLsrephot/i-maim. Or, Heb. * Mis- 
 repoth of the waters,' i. e. the hirn- 
 ings of the waters ; but whether so 
 
 of Mizpeh eastward ; and they 
 smote them until they left them 
 none remaining. 
 
 9 And Joshua did unto them 
 •"as the LoKD bade liirn : he 
 houghed their horses, and burnt 
 their chariots with fire. 
 
 10 IT And Joshua at that time 
 turned back, and took Hazor,. 
 and smote the king thereof with 
 the sword : for Hazor before- 
 time was the head of all those 
 kingdoms. 
 
 called from its being noted for hot 
 springs, or the manufacture ot glass, 
 or of salt, each of which has been 
 conjectured, or from some other 
 cause, it is not possible to determine. 
 It is supposed to have been a place 
 on the sea coast, about three miles 
 north of Sidon. *{{ Valley of Miz- 
 peh. Under mount Hermon, as ap- 
 pears by comparing this with v. 3- 
 and 17, in the latter of which it ap- 
 pears to be called the valley of Leba- 
 non. This place lay on the east, as 
 Sidon did on the west, so that the 
 vanquished enemy fled in two differ- 
 ent directions, in both of which they 
 were pursued by the conquerors. 
 IT Until they left them none remaining. 
 From other portions of the history^ 
 it is plain thai this language here and 
 elsewhere, is not to be construed in 
 its most literal import. Numbers of 
 the Canaanites did undoubtedly 
 escape the sword of the Israelites, 
 and fled to Zidon, Tyre and other, 
 maritime cities ; and even here it 
 appears, that Jabin escaped with his 
 life from the battle. But the drift of 
 the words is to intimate, that they left 
 none alive who fell into their hands, 
 whomsoever they encountered or 
 overtook they slew. 
 
 10. Hazor — loas the head, &c. Not 
 of all Canaan, but of those northern 
 principalities which were combined 
 in this expedition against Israel. 
 This city, however, afterwards re- 
 covered itself, and grievously op- 
 
A. C. 
 
 1450.] 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 103 
 
 11 And they smote all the 
 souls that were therein with the 
 edge of the swoid, utterly de- 
 stroying ihem: there was not 
 any left lo breathe : and he burnt 
 Hazor with fire. 
 
 12 And all the cities of those 
 
 kings, and all the ki gsofthem, 
 did Joshua take, and sniDte them 
 with the edge of tiie sword, and 
 he utterly destroyed them, "as 
 Moses the servant of tliu Lord 
 commanded 
 
 13 But a? /or the cities that 
 
 n Num. 33. 52. MeJt. 7. 2 & --0. IC, 17. 
 
 pressed the people of Israel^ Judg. 
 4. 2. 
 
 11. t<ot any left to breathe, Heb. 
 ■" noi any breath ;' i. e. not any human 
 being. IT He burnt Hazor loithfire. 
 Comp. V. 13, It is not said express- 
 ly of the Israelites, in this part of the 
 narrative, that they burnt any city ; 
 whatever, as such a statement might j 
 give rise to the impression that, in 
 the ardor of military zeal, they were 
 guilty of excesses, and in the spirit 
 of a licentious soldiery, were eager 
 to apply the torch to the devoted 
 cities. On the contrary, the act is 
 attributed to Joshua, implying that it 
 was done calmly and deliberately, 
 and in all likelihood by divine direc- 
 tion. The phraseology is so con- 
 structed as to give a striking testi- 
 mony to the moderation and self-con- 
 trol of the armies of the Most High. 
 
 12. Utterly destroyed them. That 
 is, the persons, the inhabitants ; for 
 many of the cities themselves, as well 
 as the spoils which they contained, 
 were preserved, as we learn in the 
 ensuing verse. 
 
 13. The cities that stood still in 
 their strength. Heb. tj^ri bS' m^iT 
 standing upon., or by their heaps. 
 It would be difficult to point out 
 any single expression in the whole 
 book of Joshua, perhaps in the 
 whole Scriptures, more difficult of 
 explanation than this. The exact 
 literal version of the words we have 
 given above ; but our common trans- 
 lation has followed the Chaldee para- 
 pharase in rendering the Heb. Vp, 
 by ' strength,' a sense which it has' in 
 no other instance, that we can dis- 
 cover in the compass of the sacred 
 writings. Its prevailing and legiti- 
 
 , mate import is a ' heap of ruins.' 
 
 Thus Deut. 13. 16. in reference to the 
 city which had become the seat of 
 idolatry ; ' Thou shalt gather £.11 the 
 spoil of it into the midst of the streel 
 thereof, and shalt burn with fire the 
 city, and all the spoil ihercof lor the 
 Lord thy God; and it shell be an 
 heap (Vr-) forever; it sh:.ll not be 
 built again.' Josh. 8. 28, ' And Josh- 
 ua burnt Ai, and made it an heap 
 (bp) forever, even a desolation imto 
 this day.' Jer. 49. 2, ' I will cause 
 an alarm of war to be heard in Kab- 
 bah of the Ammonites, and it shall 
 be a desolnte heap, (r ■■272"'5 "::ir))3iid 
 her daughters shall be burned with 
 fire.' Jer. 30. 18, ' The city shiU be 
 builded upon her own hca-p {r'lr) ;' 
 i. e. upon its own ruins. These ex- 
 amples show the genuine force of the 
 word. The mass of expositors, how- 
 ever, from the affinity oC he ideas of 
 a heap of ruiris and an eminence, or 
 elevation of any kind, and not know- 
 ing what to understand by cities 
 'standing upon their ruinous^ heaps,' 
 have been led to interpret it of cities 
 standing upon hills, or reeky heights, 
 forming natural fortresses' of great 
 strength, and such as the Israelites 
 chose to retain for their own use. 
 To this solution we should have no- 
 thing to object were it wari anted by 
 the native import of the term ; but 
 we are persuaded it is no^ The 
 true rendering isunquestionablv that 
 which we have given, .-^nd a consis- 
 tent sense is to be sought for the 
 phrase. From an attentive compa- 
 rison of the context, it appears that 
 the kings andtheinhsbitants of these 
 cities were all put to the sword, while 
 the cattle and the spoil generally went 
 into the hands of the c.Fptors. Dur- 
 ing the time, therefore, of the actual 
 
104 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1450. 
 
 stood still in their strength, Israel 
 burned none ofthem, save Hazor 
 only : that did Joshua burn. 
 
 14 And all the spoil of these 
 cities, and the cattle, the children 
 of Israel took for a prey unto 
 themselves : but every man they 
 smote with the edge of the sword, 
 until they had destroyed them, 
 neither left they any to breathe. 
 
 15 IT ° As the Lord command, 
 ed Moses his servant, so pdid Mo- 
 ses command Joshua, and "Jso did 
 Joshua : he left nothing undone 
 
 oEx. 34. 11,12. pDeur. 7. 2. q ch 1.7. 
 
 occurrence of these events, the cities 
 in question must have presented a 
 fearful scene of carnage and desola- 
 lation. Heaps of lifeless bodies and 
 of gathered spoil would be accumu- 
 lated in the streets, and wherever 
 such a complete conquest and pillage 
 could be easily effected without de- 
 molishing the walls, buildings, or 
 fortifications of the cities, those cities 
 might be said to ' stand still, or con- 
 tinue to stand upon, over, or by their 
 ruinous heaps,' i. e. heaps of the 
 slain and heaps of spoil. This doubt- 
 less was the case in numerous instan- 
 ces. It was not absolutely necessary 
 to raze and burn all the cities, and 
 so many of them were spared ; but 
 Hazor being the head of the confed- 
 eracy and more guilty than the rest 
 was properly made an exception and 
 utterly destroyed. IT Save Hazor 
 only. As this city had begun the war, 
 and from its being a royal residence 
 and strongly fortified might, if it 
 should fall back into the hands of the 
 Canaaniles, possess peculiar facili- 
 ties for renewing and carrying it on 
 afresh, Joshua deemed it prudent to 
 guard against all danger from that 
 quarter by demolishing it altogether. 
 — So the Christian, if he finds his 
 spiritual enemies likely to entrench 
 themselves in any particular corrup- 
 tion or infirmity of his nature, and 
 thence to make violent inroads upon 
 
 of all that the Lord commanded 
 Moses. 
 
 16 So Joshua took all that 
 land, ""the hills, and all the south 
 country, »and all the land of Go- 
 shen, and the valley, and the 
 plain, and the mountain of Israel, 
 and the valley of the same ; 
 
 17 ^Even from the mount Ha. 
 lak, that goeth up to Seir, even 
 unto Baal-gad, in the valley of 
 Lebanon under mount Hermon : 
 and "all their kings he took, and 
 smote them, and slew them. 
 
 r Ch. 12. 8. 8 ch. 10. 41. 
 24. ch. 12. 7. 
 
 his peace, is bound at all hazards, by 
 crucifying such a lust, to deprive 
 them of this advantage. If they can 
 be dislodged from their strong hold 
 in no other way, let him destroy the 
 strong hold itself. 
 
 14. All the spoil of these cities — 
 Israel took. With the exception of 
 such things as had been employed 
 for idolatrous purposes, Deui. 7. 25. 
 
 15. As the Lord commanded Moses, 
 &c. A virtual vindication of the 
 Israelites from the charge of cruelty 
 which might possibly be brought 
 against them in view of the severi- 
 ties exercised towards these van- 
 quished kings and people of Canaan. 
 ^ He left nothing undone. Or, Heb, 
 'removed, rejected, diminished noth- 
 ing.' 
 
 16. The mountain of Israel and 
 the valley of the same. Not any par- 
 ticular mountain and valley, but the 
 mountains and valleys generally in- 
 cluded in the whole extent of the 
 land of Israel. 
 
 17. From the Mount Halak. That 
 is, Heb. ' the bare, smooth, or bald 
 mountain,' so called from its being 
 destitute of trees. The writer's de- 
 sign seems to be to specify the ex- 
 treme southern and northern limits 
 of the promised land. Joshua's con- 
 quests extended from the borders of 
 Seir or Edom, where Mount Halak 
 was situated, northward to Baal-gad, 
 
A. C. 1450.] 
 
 18 Joshua made war a long 
 time with all those kings. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 105 
 
 which lies at the foot of Mount Leb- 
 anon. 
 
 18. Joshua made loar a long time. 
 Heb. 'many days.' As many at 
 least as six or seven years ; as ap- 
 pears from comparing ch. 14. 7 — 10 ; 
 the first having been occupied in the 
 conquest of the southern portion of 
 the land, and the remaining five or 
 six in that of the northern. It would 
 §eem that the writer by inserting 
 this statement here designed to 
 guard the reader against the im- 
 pression that, as the record of these 
 wars is very brief, so the space of 
 time in which they were accomplish- 
 ed was also brief. This by no 
 means follows, as the present ac- 
 count is intended as a mere rapid 
 sketch or outline of Israel's victo- 
 ries over the nations of Canaan. In 
 the sacred writings the compass of 
 a few sentences often contains the 
 events of many years. — We may 
 not perhaps be able to state all the 
 reasons that weighed in the divine 
 mind for thus prolonging the war- 
 fare of his people, but of one we are 
 assured by God himself, Deut. 7. 22. 
 ' The Lord thy God will put out 
 those nations before thee by little 
 and little ; thou may est not consume 
 them at once, lest the beasts of the 
 field increase upon thee.' In addition 
 to this, it was no doubt the purpose 
 of heaven to try the faith and pa- 
 tience of his people by a long series 
 of arduous struggles. Although the 
 commencement of the work was 
 marked by a succession of wonder- 
 ful interpositions in their behalf, 
 yet in its progress they were to be 
 left more to their personal exertions. 
 God would not make his miraculous 
 aid too cheap in their eyes by mak- 
 ing it common. He would train 
 them to a course of the most vigor- 
 ous efforts on their part, while at the 
 same time they were taught their 
 continual dependance on "him for 
 success in their conflicts. This ib 
 in beautiful analogy with the war- 
 fare of the Christian. In its com- 
 10 
 
 19 There was not a city that 
 made peace with the children of 
 
 mencement, at the outset of the 
 Christian life, the power of God is 
 no less wonderfully displayed than 
 in the history before us. The tran- 
 sition of a soul from darkness to 
 light is virtually a miracle. It is 
 effected by the sovereign power of 
 God as really, and to the sinner's 
 consciousness in many instances as 
 marvellously, as the passage of Is- 
 rael througti the cloven waters of 
 Jordan. But in its progress, the 
 work is carried forward more ap- 
 propriately by his own actings. He 
 has the armor given him, but his 
 own activity is called forth in the 
 use of it. His whole life is to be a 
 state of warfare, and it is by hard 
 fighting that he is to obtain the vic- 
 tory. No one enemy will submit 
 to him without an obstinate resis- 
 tance, nor until violently smitten 
 with the sword of the Spirit. There 
 will be some seasons of more than 
 ordinary conflict, when he will 
 need peculiar succor from on high ; 
 and there will be other seasons of 
 comparative rest ; but there is no 
 entire discharge in this war till mor- 
 tality is swallowed up of life ; and 
 then he shall enjoy the fruit of his 
 victories in everlasting rest. 
 
 19. Not a city that made peace — 
 save the Hivites, &c. Although in 
 the commands given to Moses res- 
 pecting the extirpation of the Ca- 
 naan ites we have no express intima- 
 tion that any of them were to be 
 spared upon their voluntary sur- 
 render and submission, yet from 
 the example of Rahab and the Gib- 
 eonites, and especially from these 
 words, the presumption is, that this 
 was the case. The divine laws, 
 wherever it can be done without 
 compromising the interests of jus- 
 tice, always lean to the side of mer- 
 cy. Besides, it has been justly re- 
 marked, that the reason of the law 
 is the law. The evil designed to 
 be prevented by the order for the 
 universal destruction ofthe Canaan- 
 ites, was the infecting of the Israel- 
 
106 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1450- 
 
 Israel, save *the Hivites, the in- 
 habitants of Gibeon : all other 
 ihey took in battle. 
 
 20 For yit was of the Lord 
 to harden their hearts, that they 
 should come against Israel in 
 battle, that he might destroy 
 them utterly, and that they 
 
 xch9. 3, 7. yDeui.2. 30. Judg. 14. 4. 1 Sam. 
 2. 2-5. 1 Kiu. 12. 15. Rom. 9. 18. 
 
 ites with their idolatry, Deut. 7. 4. 
 But if these devoted nations re- 
 nounced their idolatry, and came 
 heartily into the interest of Israel, 
 the danger was effectually prevent- 
 ed, the reason of the law ceased, and 
 consequently, we may suppose, the 
 obligation ceased also. But the 
 Canaanites in general were not in 
 the least disposed to do this, nor did 
 they so much as propose terms of 
 accommodation. Of the cause or 
 occasion rather, of this utter infat- 
 uation, we are informed in the en- 
 duing verse. V All other they took 
 in battle. That is, all whom they 
 did lake, they took in battle. They 
 received none upon submission. Lt 
 is certain from other parts of the 
 sacred narrative thai the Canaanites 
 were neither utterly exterminated, 
 nor absolutely driven from their set- 
 tlements either by Joshua or his 
 immediate successors. On the con- 
 trary a large proportion of them fled, 
 it is supposed, to Tyre and Zi- 
 don and thence migrated into dis- 
 tant countries, particularly Africa, 
 where they established numerous 
 and flourishing colonies. Proco- 
 pius relates that the Phoenicians 
 ned before the Hebrews into Africa, 
 and spread themselves abroad as far 
 as the pillars of Hercules, and adds, 
 ' In Numidia, where now stands the 
 city Tigris (Tangiers) they have 
 erected two columns, on which, in 
 Phoenician characters, is the follow- 
 ing inscription : — ' We are the Phce- 
 Bicians who fled from the face of 
 Jesus (or Joshua) the son of Nave 
 (Nun).' Numbers, however, yet 
 remained to dispute, for ages, the 
 
 might have no favour, but that 
 he might destroy them, ^as the 
 Lord commanded Moses. 
 
 21 If And at that time came 
 Joshua and cut off nhe Anakims 
 from the mountains, from He- 
 bron, from Debir, from A nab, 
 and from all the mountains of Ju- 
 
 z Deut. 20. 16, 17. a Num. 13. 22, 33. Deut. 1. 28. 
 ch. 15. 13, 14. 
 
 possession of the land with their in- 
 vaders, 
 
 20. It was of the Lord to harden 
 their hearts. On the subject of God's 
 hardening the hearts of men, see 
 note on Ex. ch. 4. 21. The mean- 
 ing here is simply that having sin- 
 ned for a long tract of ages against 
 the light of conscience and provi- 
 dence, God was now pleased to leave 
 them to 2l judicial hardness of heart, 
 to give them up to vain confidence, 
 pride, stubbornness, and malignit)'-, 
 that ihey might bring upon them- 
 selves his righteous vengeance and 
 be utterly destroyed. This result 
 is said to be 'of or from the Lord,' 
 because he did not interpose to 
 prevent it, IT ^5 the Lord com- 
 manded Moses. This expression 
 occurs here and elsewhere in this 
 connection, v. 15, 'to show that 
 Joshua and Israel did not act out of 
 cruelty, revenge, and avarice ; but 
 simply in obedience to God, which 
 alone could induce pious men to 
 make such undistinguishing slaugh- 
 ter of their fellow creatures: and 
 doubtless many of them did very 
 great violence to their own feelings 
 and inclinations, while engaged in 
 that service.' Scott. 
 
 21. At that time. That is, during 
 this war ; in the course of these 
 conquests. The words refer to no 
 special point of time, as the work 
 was gradually accomplished during 
 the lapse of a considerable period. 
 Some suppose this to be merely a 
 recapitulation of the military opera- 
 tions detailed, ch. 10. 36—41, add- 
 ing here a memorable circumstance 
 there omitted, viz. the destruction of 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A. C. 1450.] 
 
 dah, and from all lhf3 mountains 
 of Israel : Josliua destroyed 
 them utterly with their cities. 
 
 22 There was none of the 
 Anakims left in the land of the 
 children of Israel : only in Gaza, 
 in ^Gath, "^and in Ashdod, there 
 remained. 
 
 23 So Joshua took the whole 
 land, '•according to all that the 
 
 bl Sa;n. 17. 4. c c!l. 15. IS. d Num. 31. 2, lie- 
 
 107 
 
 the Anakims with the rest of the 
 inhabitants of those places. Of this 
 gigantic race, see on Num. 13. 33 
 Their cutting oflf is particularly 
 mentioned here, because they had 
 been such a tenor to the spies forty 
 years before, to whom their bulk 
 and strength made them appear as 
 absolutely invincible. Even the op- 
 position which they feared the most 
 was overcome. ' Never let the sons 
 of Anak be a terror to the Israel of 
 God, for even their day will come 
 to fall. Giants are dwarfs to Om- 
 nipotence.' Henry. Though these 
 Anakims were now for the most part 
 reduced, yet numbers of them escap- 
 ed and took refuge in the country of 
 the Philistines, and settled there, 
 from whom Goliath, and other 
 giants, descended. After a time 
 some of them returned with followers 
 and rebuilt the cities from which 
 they had been expelled; and Caleb 
 and Olhniel, to whom that region 
 was assigned, vanquished and de- 
 stroyed them after the division of 
 the land. Ch. 14. 6—15. 15. 13—17. 
 22. ^^0 Joshua took the ivhole land. 
 Not absolutely the whole, for in 
 ch. 13. 1, the Lord himself is repre- 
 sented as saying to Joshua, ' There 
 remaineth yet very much land to be 
 possessed,' but all the country de- 
 scribed here and in the preceding 
 chapter ; the greatest and best part 
 of it. IT Gave it for an inheri- 
 
 tance unto Israel. The actual 
 distribution of the land is detailed 
 afterwards, 
 
 Lord said unto Moses, and Josh- 
 ua gave it for an inheritance un- 
 to Israel ^according to their di- 
 visions by their tribes. 'And 
 the land rested from war 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IVrOW these are the kings of 
 
 the land, which the children 
 
 of Israel smote, and possessed 
 
 e Num. 26. 53. ch 14 & 15. & 16 & 17. & 18. & 19. 
 f ch. 14. 15. & 21. 44. & 22. 4. & 2c. 1. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 We have in the present chapter 
 a recapitulation of all the victories 
 thus far achieved. As the writer is 
 about to enter upon a particular ac- 
 count of the distribution of the land 
 among the tribes, he here pau.ses to 
 give previously a general view of 
 the territory to be divided, includ- 
 ing the tracts on both sides the Jor- 
 dan. This he does by specifying 
 the kings, rather than the countries 
 over which they reigned ; for the 
 power of a state is concentrated in 
 the person of its sovereign, and such 
 an enumeration presents the subject 
 more vividly to the mind of the 
 reader. — The first six verses con- 
 tain a list of the kings on the east 
 side of Jordan, conquered by Moses, 
 with their territories, and the re- 
 mainder of the chapter is occupied 
 with a catalogue of those that were 
 reduced by Joshua. ' The enjoyment 
 of present blessings under living 
 benefactors should not be suffered to 
 efface the remembrance of former 
 mercies procured by the instrumen- 
 tality of God's honored servants who 
 have entered into their rest. The 
 services and achievements of Joshua, 
 should not eclipse those of Moses.' 
 Henry. The passages refer ed to 
 in the margin give all the useful in- 
 formation that can now be gleaned 
 respecting those places, but recourse 
 to a good map of ancient Canaan is 
 indispensable to obtaining a clear 
 idea of the subject. 
 
 1 . From the river Arnon unto Mount 
 
108 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1450. 
 
 their land on the other side Jor- 
 dan toward the rising of the sun, 
 "from the river Arnon, ^unto 
 mount Hermon, and all the plain 
 on the east : 
 
 2 "^Sihon king of the Amorites, 
 who dwelt in Heshbon, and ru- 
 led from Aroer, which is upon 
 the bank of the river Arnon, and 
 from the middle of the river, and 
 
 a Num. 21.24. b Deut. 3. 8, 9. c Num 21 24 
 Deut. 2. 33 36. & 3. 6, 1 i. 
 
 Hermon. The small river Arnon 
 was the boundary of all the sottth- 
 ern coast of the land occupied by 
 the Israelites beyond Jordan. The 
 mountains of Hermon were the 
 boundaries on the north. The Ar- 
 non takes its rise in the mountains 
 of Gilead, and after running a con- 
 siderable distance from north to 
 south, turns to the northwest and 
 falls into the Dead Sea not very far 
 from the place where the Jordan 
 discharges itself See Num. 21. 13. 
 Deut. 2. 24. IT And all the plain 
 on the east. Or, even all the plain ; 
 all the arable champaign country on 
 the east of the Jordan, and called 
 Deut. 34. 1, ' The plains of Moab.' 
 On the physical features of this 
 coimtry see note on Num. 3. 2. 
 
 2. Ruled from Aroer. The king- 
 dom of Sihbn was bounded by the 
 Arnon on the south, the Jabbok on 
 the north, the Jordan on the west, 
 and the mountains of Arabia on 
 the east. IT And from the middle 
 of the river. Heb. "injH "Tim and 
 that which lies between the^ streams. 
 A line passing along the middle of 
 a stream, and that stream by no 
 means a large one, is so remarkable 
 ■a boundary to be adopted by ancient 
 barbarous clans, that we are quite 
 satisfied the translation is errone- 
 ous. The word ' from,' introduced 
 by our translators, does not occur in 
 the original either here or in the en- 
 suing clause, ' from half Gilead,' 
 and the meaning undoubtedly is, 
 that Sihon ruled from Aroer over 
 the country lyings, between f^e rivers 
 
 from half Gilead, even unto the 
 river Jabbok, which is the border 
 of the children of Ammon ; 
 
 3 And 'ifrom the plain to the 
 sea of Cinneroth on the east, and 
 unto the sea of the plain, even 
 the salt sea on the east, *the way 
 to Beth-jeshimoth ; and from the 
 south, under ^ Ashdoth-pisgah : 
 
 4 IT And sthe coast of Og 
 
 <i Den . 3. 17. - ch. 13. 20. 1 Deut 3 17. & 4. 49. 
 g Num. kl. b5. Deu . 3. 4, 10. 
 
 (collect, sing, for plur.) even the 
 half of Gilead, as far north as to 
 the river Jabbok. See on ch. 13. 9. 
 All the region lying intermedi- 
 ate between the above mentioned 
 streams, and sometimes called ' half 
 Gilead,' was subject to his authority. 
 This interpretation is strikingly 
 confirmed by the words of Josephus 
 relative to the territory of Sihon, 
 which, he says, ' is a country situate 
 beticeen three rivers, and naturally 
 resembling an island ; the river 
 Arnon being its southern limit, the 
 river Jabbok determining its north- 
 ern side, while Jordan itself runs 
 along by it on its western coast.' 
 (Anliq. B. 41. ch. 5.) The other 
 half of Gilead, as appears from v. 
 4, 5, lay beyond the Jabbok, and be- 
 longed to the kingdom of Og. 
 
 3. And from the plain, &c. Here 
 again the word ' from ' is gratuitous- 
 ly, and, as we conceive, erroneously 
 inserted. The design of the writer 
 is merely to give a more distinct view 
 of the position of the tract called ' the 
 plain,' which embraced as we sup- 
 pose the plain of the Jordan q;i its eas- 
 tern side, extending from the sea of 
 Cinneroth or Gennesaret on the north 
 to the salt or Dead Sea on the south. 
 It is not implied that he reigned to 
 the sea of Cinneroth, but that the 
 plain in question extended that far, 
 the largest part of which fell into his 
 dominions. If Sea of the plain. 
 The Dead Sea is so called from its 
 occupying what was once a fertile, 
 luxuriant, and beautiful plain, in 
 which were situated the cities of So- 
 
A. C. 1450.1 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1()9 
 
 king of Bashan, which was of 
 ^the remnant of the giants, ithat 
 dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, 
 
 5 And reigned in ^mount Her- 
 mon, land in Salcah, and in all 
 Bashan, "'unto the border of the 
 Geshurites. and the Maacha- 
 thites, and half Gilead, the bor- 
 der of Sihon king of Elcshbon. 
 
 6 "Them did Moses the ser- 
 vant of the Lord and the chil- 
 dren of Israel smite : and '^Mo- 
 ses the servant of the Lord gave 
 it /or a possession unto the Reu- 
 benites, and the Gadites, and the 
 half tribe of Manasseh. 
 
 7 IT And these are the kings 
 of the country p which Joshua 
 and the children of Israel smote 
 on this side Jordan on the west, 
 from Baal-gad in the valley of 
 Lebanon, even unto the mount 
 
 h Deut. 3. 11. ch. 13. 12. i Deu'. 1. 4 Ic Deut. 3. 
 8 1 Deiit. 3. 1 ^ ch. 13. 11. m DetU. 3. U. n Num. 
 21 24, 33. o Num. 32. ^9,33 Deui. 3. li, 12. ch. 
 13. 8. p ch. 11. 17 
 
 dom and Gomorrah, called al^o the 
 ' cities of the plain.' IT Betkjeshi- 
 moth. Situated about ten miles east 
 of the Jordan, and about the same 
 distance from its mouth; IT From 
 the south. Or, Heb. ' from Teman.' 
 IT Under Ashdoth-pisgah. Seated in 
 the plains or rather the slopes at the 
 foot of mount Pisgah. The original 
 word ' Ashdoth ' probably signifies 
 the loio places at the foot of a moun- 
 tain. Comp. Deut. 3. 17.— 4. 49. 
 
 4. And the coast of Og, king of Bor- 
 shan. Supply here from v. 1, And 
 the children of Israel smote and pos- 
 sessed the coast, &c.' Varying a 
 little the phraseology with which he 
 commenced, the writer here speaks 
 first of the country of the king of Ba- 
 shan, instead of enumerating the king 
 himself, IF Of the remnant of the 
 giants. See on Deut. 3. 11. IT 
 That dioelt at Ashtaroth and Edrei. 
 Referring to Og and not to the giants, 
 10* 
 
 Halak that goeth up to "JSeir ; 
 which Joshua --gave unto the 
 tribes of Israel /ar a posse.ssion 
 according to their divisions ; 
 
 8 «In the mountains, and in 
 the valleys, and in the plains, 
 and in the springs, and in the 
 wilderness, and in the south coun- 
 try ; 'the Hittites, the Amorites, 
 and the Canaaniles,the Perizites, 
 the HiviteSj and the Jebusites : 
 
 ^ IT "The king of Jericho, 
 one; ^the king of Ai, which is 
 beside Beth-el, one ; 
 
 10 yThe king of Jerusalem, 
 one ; the king of Hebron, one ; 
 
 1 1 The king of Jarnquth, one ; 
 the king of Lachrsh, (me ; 
 
 12 The king of Eglon, one ; 
 Hh'3 king of Gezer, one ; 
 
 13 *The king of Debir, one ; 
 the king of Geder, one ; 
 
 rch. 11.23. fch. 10 40. & 11.16. t Ex. 3. 8. & 
 
 23. ^3. ch. 9. 1. u ch. 6. 2. x ch 8. 29. y ch. 
 
 10.23. zch. 10.33. a eh. 10. 38. qGen. 14. 6. 
 & 32. 3 .Deut. 2. 1,4. 
 
 Probably both were royal cities, and 
 he resided sometimes in one, and 
 sometimes in the other. The reader 
 will find their position on the map, 
 as also that of the places mentioned 
 in the ensuing verse. 
 
 6. Gave it for a possession. The 
 word ' it ' has no antecedent express-, 
 ed, but It is easily referred ta the 
 whole extent of country here spoken 
 of, which was taken by Moses and 
 given to the two tribes and a half as 
 an inheritance. 
 
 7. From Baal-gad. A repetition 
 of what is mentioned, ch, 11. 17. 
 
 8. In, the m.ou7itai7is, and in the vaU 
 leys, &c. The meaning probably is, 
 that he smote the nations dwelling in 
 the mountains, valleys, &c, even the 
 Hittites, the Amorites, &c. The 
 words convey at the same time a 
 striking intimation of the general 
 features of the country, its rich va- 
 riety of soils, contributing at once to 
 
110 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 14 The king of-Hormah, one ; 
 the king of Arad, one ; 
 
 15 ^The king ol Libnah, one ; 
 the king of Adullam, one ; 
 
 IG <^Tho king of Makkedah, 
 one ; ^the king Beth-el, one ; 
 
 17 The king of Tappuah, 
 one, nhe king of Hepher, one ; 
 
 18 The king ofAphek,one; 
 the king of Lasharon, one ; 
 
 19 Tlie king of Madon, one ; 
 'the king of Hazor, one ; 
 
 20 The king of ?Shimrom- 
 meron, one ; the king of Ach- 
 shaph, one ; 
 
 21 The king of Taanach, 
 one ; the king of Megiddo, one ; 
 
 b ch. 10. 29 c ch. 10. 23. d cli. 8. 17. J.idg 1- 
 
 22. elKiu. 4. 10. f ch 11.10. gcli. 11 l- & 
 •19, 15. 
 
 its fruitfulness and its pleasantness. 
 24. All the kings, thirty and one. 
 From the number of these kings, we 
 may learn how numerous and yet 
 how sniall were the petty principal- 
 ities into which the land of Canaan 
 was divided. The extent of this 
 country from north to south was not 
 more than 150 miles, and not more 
 than fifty from east to west. In like 
 Baanner were nearly all the different 
 nations of the world divided. The 
 consequence was that civil wars and 
 border feuds continually prevailed, 
 making them an easy prey to foreign 
 invadors. Thus history informs us 
 that when Caesar invaded Britain 
 there were no less than four kings 
 in the single county of Kent. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 1 . Joshua teas old. In all proba- 
 bility about a hundred, as he employ- 
 ed not far from seven years in the 
 conquest of the land, and is supposed 
 to have spent about one in dividing 
 it, and he died about ten years after, 
 aged one hundred and ten years, ch. 
 24. 29. IT Striken in years. Heb. 
 ' coming or entering into days.' See 
 Gen. 18. 11. IF TAcre remaineth 
 
 22 hThekingofKedesh,one; 
 the king of Jokneam of Carmel, 
 one ; 
 
 23 The king of Dor in the 
 'coast of Dor, one ; the king of 
 Hhe nations of Gilgal, one ; 
 
 24 The king of Tirzah, one : 
 all the kings thirty and one. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 "IVrQW Joshua ''was old and 
 ^ stricken in years; and the 
 Lord said unto him, Thou art 
 old and stricken in years, and 
 there remaineth yet very much 
 land to be possessed. 
 
 2 ''This is the land that yet 
 
 h cli. 19. 37. i ch. 11. 2. M Gtii. U. 1, 2. Is. 
 9. 1. a Stech. 14. 10. i 2"=. 1. bJud. 3. 1. 
 
 yet very much land to be possessed. 
 Heb. ' to possess it.' This is men- 
 tioned to Joshua not as a reason for 
 his continuing the war, but for sus- 
 pending it, though to the Israelites 
 the intimation would answer a dif- 
 ferent purpose. They were admon- 
 ished by it that they were still to hold 
 themselves in readiness for prosecu- 
 ting the v.-ar in due time, and not to 
 think of putting off the harness as 
 long as there remained any land to 
 be possessed. But as to Joshua, at 
 his advanced age he could not expect 
 to see an end of the war. and there- 
 fore it was expedient that he should 
 by aside other cares and make pre- 
 paration at once for dividing the land 
 among those tribes which had not 
 yet received their inheritance. This 
 work was to be done, and done speed- 
 ily, and done moreover under the su- 
 perintendance of Joshua. Conse- 
 quently as he was now old, and not 
 likely to continue long, he was lo 
 lose no time in setting about it. ' All 
 people, but especially the aged, 
 should set themselves to do that 
 quickly which must be done before 
 they die, lest death prevent them. 
 Eccl. 9. 10.' Heiiry. 
 
A. C. 1451.] 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Ill 
 
 remaineth : "^all the borders of 
 the Phihstines, and all ^^Geshuri, 
 3 ^Froin Sihor, which is be- 
 fore Egypt, even unto the bor- 
 ders of Ekron northward, wliich 
 is counted to the Canaanite : ^ five 
 
 c Joel 3. 4. dv. 13. 2 Sam. 3 3. & 13. 37, 3<. 
 e J*r. 2. IS. f Judg. 3. 3. I Sara. 6. 4, 16. Zeph. 
 2. 5. 
 
 2. The land that yet remaineth. 
 That yet remaineth to be conquered, 
 TI All the borders of the Philistines. 
 Lying on the southern coast of the 
 Mediterranean. The Philistines 
 are no where else mentioned among 
 the devoted nations of Canaan, and 
 the reason of their being enumerated 
 here probably is, that their territo- 
 ries formerly belonged to the Canaan- 
 ites, who were driven away and sup- 
 planted by them, Deut . 2, 23. View- 
 ed in this light, therefore, as being 
 originally and legitimately the coun- 
 try of the Canaanites, the possessions 
 of the Philistines were appointed to 
 come into the hands of Israel. IT 
 And all Geshuri. There were two 
 places of this name. The one prob- 
 ably intended here was situated in 
 the half tribe of Manasseh, on the 
 east of Jordan, and in the north-east- 
 ern quarter of the promised land. 
 As the Geshuriies were not extirpa- 
 ted by the Israelites they continued 
 even in the time of Absalom to be ' 
 governed by their own princes, one 
 of whom Talmai, had a daughter 
 married to David, 2 Sam. 13. 37. 
 
 3. Sihor. Frequently taken for 
 the Nile, but probably more correctly 
 understood of a stream forming the 
 southern boundary of Canaan to- 
 wards Eygpt, and falling into the sea 
 on the south of Gaza. Dr. Richard- 
 son describes a rivulet, in this re- 
 gion, thirty yards wide, but nearly, if 
 not altogether, dry in the summer. 
 It, or rather its channel, is called 
 Wadv Gaza. If Unto the borders 
 of Ekron. One of the five lordships 
 —Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath, and 
 Ekron — belonging to the Philistines, 
 and the most northern of all the dis- 
 Uicts they possessed, its territory be- 
 
 lords of the Philislhies ; the Gaz- 
 athites, and the Ashdothites, the 
 Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and 
 the Ekronites ; also ethe Avites : 
 4 From the south all the land 
 of the Canaanites, and Mearah 
 
 g Deal. 2. 23. 
 
 ing the border of the land of Judah , 
 The city of Ekron was situated about 
 thirty four miles west of Jerusalem, 
 ten miles north east of Ashdod, nine 
 miles west by north of Gath, and ten 
 miles east of the shore of the Medi- 
 terranean. It is par'icularly mention- 
 ed in Scripture as the seat of the ido- 
 latrous worship of Baalzebub, or the 
 ' Lord of flies,' 2 Kings 1. 2, but the 
 divine prediction against it, that ' Ek- 
 ron should be rooted up,' Zeph. 2. 4, 
 has long since been accomplished, 
 not even a single ruin of it remain- 
 ing to mark the place where it stood. 
 Am. 1.8. IT Which is counted to 
 
 the Canaanites. Because the origi- 
 nal possessors of this country were 
 the, descendants of Canaan, the 
 youngest son of Ham. The Philis- 
 tines sprung from Misraim, the se- 
 cond son of Ham, and having dispos- 
 sessed the Avites, or Avira, from the 
 places they held In this land, dwelt 
 in their stead. See Gen. 10. 13, 14. 
 IT Five lords. Petty princes. The 
 term is put for the lordships them- 
 selves, just as king is often used for 
 kingdom. The original sarnaivt, 
 princes, literally signifies axles ; and 
 so the Arab, for chief magistrate is 
 Katbun, axis ; because public affairs 
 and the people did, as it were, revolve 
 round and depend upon him, as the 
 parts of a wheel upon its axis. IT 
 Also the Avites. The remnant of 
 the tribe or clan of the Avims said 
 in Deut. 2. 23, to have been expell- 
 ed by the Caphthorim. The scat- 
 tered relics of this people remained 
 mixed up -with the five Philistine 
 lordships above mentioned. 
 
 2. From the south, &c. The whole 
 maritime country from the southern 
 limits here mentioned, as far north 
 
112 
 
 Joshua. 
 
 [A. C. 1451. 
 
 that h beside the Sidonians, Hin- 
 t> Aphek to the borders of ithe 
 Amorites : 
 
 5 And the land of Hhe Gib^ 
 lites, and all Lebanon toward the 
 sun-rising ifrom Baal-gad under 
 mount Hermon unto the enter, 
 ing into Hamath. 
 
 6 All the inhabitants of the 
 
 h ch. 19. 30, i See Judg. 1. 34. k 1 Kin. 5. IS- 
 
 Ps. 83. 7. fijiek. 21. 9. 1 ca. 12 7. 
 
 as to Sidon and some of the Amori- 
 tish possessions in that quarter, is 
 hereby made over in promise to Is- 
 rael. Joshua himself does not appear 
 to have made any conquests on the 
 sea coast IT Mearah. Or, Heb. ' the 
 cave;^ by which Le Clerc under- 
 stands the mountainous tract of Up- 
 per Galilee, sometimes called the 
 cave-country of the Sidonians, 
 abounding in caves and fastnessess, 
 which served as sheltering places in 
 time of war, and as asylums also for 
 roving bands of marauders. Jose- 
 phus often speaks of such places in 
 the bounds of the holy land ; and the 
 Marouite monks of Canobin assured 
 M. de la Roque, that among the 
 mountains between which the river 
 Kadisha runs, there were not less 
 than eight hundred caves or grottos. 
 Others suppose it to have been a 
 single large and remarkable cave be- 
 tween Sarepta and Sidon, described 
 by V/illiam, Bishop of Tyre. This 
 however is less likely. 
 
 5. The land of the Glblitcs. The 
 name of a people dwelling in Gebal, 
 near Sidon. 1 Kings 5. 18. Ezek. 27. 
 9. Their land was not given to the 
 Israelites, because it lay without the 
 precincts of Canaan. From among 
 this people, Solomon employed a 
 number of artists in the erection of 
 the temple, 1 Kings 5. 18. They 
 were also famed for ship-building, 
 Ezek. 27. 9. It is supposed by many 
 that the modern Byblits is the same 
 as the ancient Gebal. They were 
 certainly situated in the same re- 
 gion. 
 
 6. Themwillldriveout. Theori- 
 
 hill-country from Lebanon unto 
 '"Misrephoth-maim, and all the 
 Sidonians, them "will I drive out 
 from before the children of Is- 
 rael : only ^divide thou it by lot 
 unto the Israelites for an inher- 
 itance, as I have commanded 
 thee. 
 
 7 Now therefore divide this 
 
 111 ch. 11. 8. nSee ch 23. 13. 
 ch U I 2. 
 
 Judg. 2 21 23. 
 
 ginal is emphatic ; ' It is 7 that will 
 do it ; I who have all power, and am 
 ever faithful ; I who have promised, 
 and can and will perform.' Chald. 
 ' I will do it by my Word;' i. e. by 
 my eternal Word, the Captain of the 
 Lord's hosts. This, however, like 
 other similar declarations, is to be 
 understood conditioiMlly . God never 
 promised to put them in possession 
 of the whole land, but upon condition 
 of iheir Jidelity to him. If they fail- 
 ed in obedience, they would fail in 
 becoming masters of the country. 
 Accordingly we find that they never 
 did actually possess the whole land 
 here assigned to them. The Sido- 
 nians were never expelled by the Is- 
 raelites, and were only brought into 
 a state of comparativ^e subjection in 
 the days of David and Solomon. 
 Joshua, however, notwithstanding 
 the cavils of infidels actually did all 
 that it was promised he should do. 
 God never said that he should cori- 
 quer all the land, but simply th.nt he 
 shonldbriiig Israeiiiito it, and divide 
 it among them, both which he did, 
 and procured them footing by his 
 conquests sufficient to have enabled 
 them to establish themselv^es in it for- 
 ever. Their failure to do so was ow- 
 ing wholly to themselves. So we 
 must work out our salvation de- 
 pending upon God to work in us, and 
 to work with us. We must resi.st our 
 spiritual enemies, and look to God to 
 trample them under our feet. TI 0?i- 
 ly divide thou it by lot. Heb. ' cast it, 
 cause it to fall.' See note on Gen. 25. 
 18. A phraseology derived from the 
 casting of the lots by which its dis- 
 
A. C. 1450.] 
 
 CHAPTER Xril. 
 
 113 
 
 land for an inheritance unto the 
 nine tribes, and the half-tribe of 
 Manasseh, 
 
 8 With whom the Reubenites 
 and the Gadites have received 
 their inheritance, Pwhich Moses 
 gave them, beyond Jordan east- 
 ward, even as Moses the servant 
 of the Lord gave them ; 
 
 9 From Aroer that is upon 
 the bank of the river Arnon, and 
 the city that is in the midst of 
 the river, 'sand all the plain of 
 Medeba unto Dibon ; 
 
 p Num. 32. 
 Num. ai. 3d. 
 
 Deut. 3.12, 13. ch. 22. 4. q t. 16. 
 
 tribiition was governed. Joshua, no 
 doubt, supposed that the land was 
 first to be conquered, before it was di- 
 vided, but here his mistake is cor- 
 rected. The great Proprietor would 
 hav^e his people consider the country 
 as even now theirs, and as a pledge 
 of his purpose to give it them, di- 
 rects that without further delay it be 
 forthwith apportioned out among the 
 tribes. This order would not only 
 strengthen their assurance of the 
 fiaal possession of the land, but serve 
 also as an incentive to prosecute the 
 work of conquest with fresh vigor, 
 and to keep themselves from all 
 leagues and every kind of entangling 
 connection which might obstruct the 
 attainment of their ultimate object. 
 So the exercise of a lively faith puts 
 the Christian even now in possession 
 of the heavenly Canaan, the land of 
 his eternal inheritance. Of all such 
 it may be truly said ; — 
 
 ' They view the triumph from afar, 
 Ani1 seize it with their eye. 
 
 8. With whom. Heb. 'with him.' 
 i. e. with the other half tribe of 
 Manasseh, who were to have no 
 part in Canaan proper, as their in- 
 heritance had alread)^ fallen to them, 
 on the other side of Jordan, The 
 relative is put for an antecedent, 
 which is to be supplied from the 
 general tenor of the narrative, as in 
 Num. 7. 89. Ps. 114, 3. Is, 8, 31. 
 
 10 And 'all the cities of Sihon 
 king of the Amorites, which 
 reigned in Heshbon, unto the bor- 
 der of the children of Ammon ; 
 
 11 'And Gilead, and the bor- 
 der of the Geshurites and Maac- 
 hathites, and all mount Hermon, 
 and all Bashan unto Salcah ; 
 
 12 All the kingdom of Og in 
 Bashan, which reigned in Ash- 
 taroth and in Edrei, who remain- 
 ed of tthe remnant of the giants. 
 "For these did Moses smite, and 
 cast them out. 
 
 r Num. 21 24.25. a ch. 12. 6. t Deut. 3. U- 
 ch 12. 4. u Num. 21. 24, 33. 
 
 Jer. 1. 3. The speaker here and 
 henceforward is not God, whose 
 words terminate with v. 7, but the 
 historian, who takes occasion to re- 
 hearse the allotment made by Moses 
 to the two tribes and a half on the 
 other side Jordan, in order that the 
 reader might understand the reason 
 why nothing is said of them, in the 
 distribution now to be made by Josh- 
 ua, but the whole land on this side 
 the river is ordered to be given to the 
 nine tribes and a half The other 
 two and a half had been already pro- 
 vided for ; and the restatement of the 
 fact here, in the formal record of the 
 division of the land, would serve to 
 ratify, in the strongest manner, the 
 grant formerly made by Moses. As 
 he had settled the affair, so Joshua 
 would leave it. He would not alter 
 what Moses had done, and the reason 
 why he would not, is intimated in 
 the fact that Moses was ' the servant 
 of the Lord,' faithful in all his house, 
 and acting in this matter by a secret 
 direction from him. 
 
 9. The city that is in the midst of 
 the river, For the true meaning of 
 the expression, * in the midst of the 
 river,' see note on ch, 12. 2, Judg' 
 ing from the reports of travelers, 
 we see no reason to believe that 
 such an inconsiderable stream as 
 Arnon, a mere rivulet, contained an 
 island large enc Jigh for the site of 
 
114 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1445. 
 
 13 Nevertheless, the children 
 of Israel expelled '^not the Gesh- 
 urites, nor the Maachathites : but 
 the Geshurites and the xMaacha- 
 thites dwell among the Israelites 
 until this day. 
 
 14 yOnly unto the tribe of 
 Levi he gave none inheritance ; 
 
 X V. 11. y Num. 13. 20, 23, 24. ch. U. 3, 4. 
 
 a city. These verses from v. 9 to 
 14, comprise a general description 
 of the whole country given to the 
 two tribes and a half. The remain- 
 der of the chapter is occupied with 
 a detailed account of the several dis- 
 tricts allotted to each. Here in v. 
 9, taking ' city' and ' river,' accord- 
 ing to the common Heb. idiom, as 
 the collect, sing, for the plur. we 
 conceive the writer's drift is to say, 
 that beginning at Aroer Moses gave 
 to the two tribes and a half all the 
 cities lijing between the several rivers 
 mentioned ch. 12. 1, 2, together with 
 all the plain or champagne country 
 of Medeba even to Dibon. These, 
 in the next verse, are called the 
 cities of Sihon, because they lay 
 within his territories. 
 
 13. The children of Israel expelled 
 not the Geshurites, &c. Spoken ap- 
 parently by way of reflection upon 
 the Israelites who succeeded Moses, 
 for their remissness in driving out 
 these nations. The failure of Mo- 
 ses to make a clean riddance of 
 them at his first conquest might be 
 entirely excusable, as he was in- 
 tent upon reaching Canaan, and 
 could not well subject himself to 
 the delay necessary for their com- 
 plete extermination. But this plea 
 would not hold after Canaan was 
 entered. The tribes ought to have 
 gone forward at once and finished 
 the work which Moses had begun. 
 Instead of this, it is related to their 
 disgrace, that they still suffered these 
 people to dwell among them down 
 to the time when this history was 
 written. The spirit of inspiration 
 discovers, if we may so speak, a won- 
 derful tact, both in administering 
 
 the sacrifices of the Lord God 
 of Israel made by fire are thcur 
 inheritance, ^as he said unto 
 them. 
 
 15 ^ And MosGs gave unto 
 the tribe of the children of Reu- 
 ben inheritance according to 
 their families. 
 
 censure and bestowing praise. In- 
 stances of both, managed with the 
 most consummate skill, abound in 
 the compass of the sacred s rip- 
 tures. 
 
 14. Unto the tribe of Levi he gave 
 no inheritance. See' on Num. 18. 
 20 — 2-1. IT The sacrifices made by 
 fire. The term is to be understood 
 in a large sense, including not only 
 all the oblations of which any part 
 was burnt, but also the first fruits 
 and tithes assigned to the Leviles 
 for their support. This is repeat- 
 ed again v. 43, to intimate that the 
 Levites had as good a title to their 
 tithes and perquisites, as the rest 
 of their brethren had to their es- 
 tates, and also to enjoin upon the 
 tribes a cheerful and conscientious 
 compliance with the will of God 
 in this respect. "Withholding their 
 dues from the Levites he consid- 
 ered as no less then actually rob- 
 bing himself 
 
 15. Moses gave unto the tribe of 
 the children of Reiiben. The writer 
 now enters upon a minute specifi- 
 cation of the portions assigned by 
 lot to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, 
 and the half tribe of Manasseh. 
 This is very fully and exactly de- 
 tailed. On this mode of assigning 
 to the children their inheritances, 
 and on this account of it, it maj^ be 
 remarked, (1.) That it was the 
 most equitable and satisfactory meth- 
 j od that could be adopted. Had the 
 I distribution been made by arbitrary 
 ! appointment, as all could not re- 
 i ceive portions equally good, some 
 I would probably have complained 
 I that their brethren were better dealt. 
 ,by thaii themselves, Dividing the 
 
A. C. 1445.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 115 
 
 16 And their coast was ^from 
 Aroer that is on the bank of the 
 river Arnon, ''and the city that 
 is in the midst of the river, <=and 
 all the plain by Medeba : 
 
 17 Heshbon, and all her ci- 
 ties that are in the plain ; Dibon, 
 and Bamoth-baal, and Beth- 
 baal-meon, 
 
 18 'I And Jahaza, and Kede- 
 moth, and Mephaath, 
 
 19 «And Kirjathainn, and 
 '"Sibmah, and Zareth-shahar in 
 the mount of the valley, 
 
 20 And Beth-peor, and ^Ash- 
 doth-pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth, 
 
 21 ^Knd all the cities of the 
 
 a Ch. 12 2. b Num. 21. 28. c Num. 21. 30. v. 9. 
 A Num. 21 23. e Num. 32 37. f Num. 32. 38. 
 g Deu-. 3 17. ch. 12. 3. h Deui 3. 10 
 
 plain, and all the kingdom of Si- 
 hon king of the Amorites which 
 reigned in Heshbon, i whom "Mo- 
 ses smote Hvith the princes of 
 Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and 
 Zur, and Hur, and Reba, wliich 
 were dukes of Sihon, dwelling 
 in the country. 
 
 22 IF iBalaam also the son of 
 Beor, the sooth-sayer, did the 
 children of Israel slay with the 
 sword, among them that were 
 slain by them. 
 
 23 And the border of the 
 children of Reuben was Jordan, 
 and the border thereof. This 
 was the inheritance of the chil- 
 
 i Num. 21. 24. k Num. 31. 8. 1 Num. 2i -5. 
 
 & 31. ». 
 
 land by lot, therefore, by cutting 
 off all pretence for the charge of 
 favoritism on the part of Moses, 
 the readiest way of satisfying all 
 parties, and preventing discontent 
 and discord (2.) The several al- 
 lotments are here very minutely 
 detailed in order that litigation 
 growing out of disputed bounda- 
 ries might ever after be prevented. 
 When the limits of each tribe were 
 so clearly settled, there could be 
 little room for contending claims, 
 or if there were, an authentic reg- 
 ister of the lot of each tribe would 
 be at hand to be appealed to for a 
 decision, and there is no doubi that 
 it was often made use of in after 
 ages for this purpose. We cannot 
 but learn from this the great im- 
 portan-:e of devising every prudent 
 method to prevent litigations about 
 property. (3.) The reading of this 
 account by succeeding generations 
 would tend to excite a very deep 
 and lively impression of the good- 
 ness of God in bestowing upon 
 their ancestors, for the benefit of 
 their posterity, such a large and 
 fertile country, an inheritance so re- 
 plete with all the worldly blessings 
 
 which heart could wish. ' God's 
 grants look best, when we descend 
 to the particulars.' Henry. IT Ac- 
 cording to their families. As every 
 tribe had its inheritance divided 
 by lot; so it is probable, that af- 
 terwards the subdivisions to every 
 family and each individual were 
 regulatedin the same manner. Thus 
 their estates would descend to pos- 
 terity, not so much as the inherit- 
 ance of their fathers, as that which 
 the Lord had immediately assign- 
 ed them. Thev could thus say, 
 with the Psalmist, Ps. 16. 5, 6, 
 ' The Lord is the portion of mine 
 inheritance and of my cup: thou 
 maintainest my lot. The lines are 
 fallen unto me in pleasant places; 
 I have a goodly heritage.' 
 
 2L Dukes of Sihon. Probably so 
 called because they had been his tri- 
 butaries, subject to his jurisdiction. 
 They are indeed called ' kings of 
 Midian ' in Num. 31.8, but by ' kings' 
 in the sacred writings we are often 
 to understand no more than mere 
 petty chieftains, who might be at the 
 same time subject to some more po- 
 tent sovereign. See Gen. 14. 1, 2. 
 
 22. Balaam also — did ths children 
 
116 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1445. 
 
 dren of Reuben, after their fam- 
 ilies, the cities and the v.llages 
 thereof. 
 
 24 And Moses gave inheri- 
 tance unto the tribe of Gad, even 
 unto the children of Gad accord- 
 ing to their families. 
 
 25 ""And their coast was Ja- 
 zer, and all the cities of Gilead, 
 "and half the land of the chil- 
 dren of Ammon, unto Aroer that 
 is before "Rabbah ; 
 
 26 And from Heshbon unto 
 Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim ; 
 and from Mahanaim unto the 
 border of Debir ; 
 
 27 And in the valley, pBeth- 
 aram, and Beth-nimrah, "^and 
 Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of 
 the kingdom of Sihon king of 
 Heshbon, Jordan and his border, 
 even unto the edge ""of the sea of 
 Cinneroth, on the other side Jor- 
 dan eastward. 
 
 28 This is the inheritance of 
 the children of Gad after their 
 families, the cities, and their vil- 
 lages. 
 
 29 IT And Moses gave inher- 
 itance unto the half tribe of Ma- 
 nasseh : and this was the posses- 
 sion of the half-tribe of the chil- 
 
 m Num. 32- 35. n Compare Num. £1.26, 28, 29, 
 wilh Dent. •^. 19. & Judg. 11. 13 15, &c. o 2Sam. 
 11.1. & 12. 26. p Num. 32 36. q Gen. 33. 17. 
 I King* 7. .6. rNum. 31.11. 
 
 of Israel slay. He fell with those 
 who instigated him to his wicked- 
 ness. ' This was recorded before, 
 Num. 31, 8, but is repeated here, be- 
 cause the defeating of Balaam's pur- 
 pose to curse Israel was the turning 
 of that curse into a blessing, and was 
 such an instance of the power and 
 goodness of God as was fit to be 
 had in everlasting remembrance.' 
 Henry. 
 
 dren of Manasseh by their fam- 
 ilies. 
 
 30 And their coast was from 
 Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the 
 kingdom of Og king of Bashan, 
 and "all the towns of Jair, which 
 are in Bashan, threescore cities : 
 
 31 And half Gilead, and 
 tAshtaroth, and Edrei, cities of 
 the kingdom of Og in Bashan, 
 were pertaining unto the children 
 of Machir the son of Manas.seh, 
 even to the one half of the "chil- 
 dren of Machir by their families. 
 
 32 These are the countries 
 which Moses did distribute for 
 inheritance in the plains of Moab, 
 on the other side Jordan by Jer- 
 icho eastward. 
 
 33 ^'But unto the tribe of Le- 
 vi, Moses gave not any inheri- 
 tance : the Lord God of Israel 
 was their inheritance, yas he said 
 unto them. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A ND these are the countries 
 ■^^ which the children of Israel 
 inherited in the land of Canaan, 
 "^which Eleazar the priest, and 
 Joshua the son of Nun, and the 
 heads of the fathers of the tribes 
 
 s Num 32.41. lfhron.2. 23. t ch. 12. 4, 
 
 u Nni.i. 32. 39, 40. x v. 14. ch. 18. 7. y Num. 
 18. 20. Ueut. 10. 9. & 18. 1, 2. a Num. 34. 17, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1. These are the countries, &c. 
 The historian having, in the prece- 
 ding chapter, given an account of 
 the disposal of the countries on the 
 other side of Jordan, comes now to 
 state the allotments made to the re- 
 maining nine tribes and a half in the 
 bounds of Canaan proper. The di- 
 rections which Moses had formerly 
 given Num. 36. 53 — 56, respecting 
 
A. C. 1444.1 
 
 of the children of Israel distri- 
 buted for inheritance to them. 
 
 2 bgy lot was their inheri- 
 tance, as the Lord commanded 
 by the hand of Moses, for the 
 nine tribes, and/or the half-tribe. 
 
 3 <^For Moses had given the 
 inheritance of two tribes and a 
 half-tribe on the other side Jor- 
 dan ^ but unto the Levites he 
 gave none iaheritance among 
 them. 
 
 4 For '^the children of Joseph 
 were two tribes, Manasseh and 
 Ephraim : therefore they gave 
 
 b Ntim. 26. 55. & 33. 54. & 31. 13. c ch. 13. 8, 
 32, 33: d Gen.. 48. 5. 1 Chr. 5.1,2. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 117 
 
 the mode of making- this distribu- 
 lion are now to be punctually ob- 
 served. Previously to entering up- 
 on the account of this division, the 
 writer premises two or three things 
 which fall in here more properly 
 than any where else^ as that the Le- 
 vites were not comprehended in the 
 grant made to the tribes ; that the 
 tribe of Joseph was reckoned as two ; 
 and that Caleb had given to him at 
 his request a certain tract of country 
 which had been befare promised by 
 Moses. ^ The keads af the fathers 
 of the tribes. That is, heads or chief 
 men among^ the fathers of the tribes. 
 These were twelve in number, in- 
 cluding- Joshua and Eleazer. They 
 had been before expressly appointed 
 by Moses, Num. 34. 19. This was 
 done that every tribe, having a re- 
 presentative of its own, might be sa- 
 tisfied that there was fair dealing, 
 and might consequently abide more 
 contentedly by its lot. 
 
 2. By lot. was their inheritance. 
 This distribution by lot was overrul- 
 ed by a special providence, so as to 
 correspond with the inspired predic- 
 tions of Jacob and Moses, respecting 
 the allotment of each tribe. The 
 fact is very remarkable, yet unques- 
 tionable, that the tribes found them- 
 selves placed by lot in the very see- 
 
 no part unto the Levites in the 
 land, save cities to dwell in, with 
 their suburbs for their cattle, and 
 for their substance* 
 
 5 *As the Lord commanded 
 Moses, so the children of Israel 
 did, and they divided the land. 
 
 6 H Then the children of Ju- 
 dah came unto Joshua in Gilgal : 
 and Caleb the son of Jephunneh 
 the '"Kenezite said unto him, 
 Thou knowest &the thing that the 
 Lord said unto Moses the man 
 of God concerning me and thee 
 ''in Kadesh-barnea. 
 
 e N<im. 35. 2. ch. 21. 2. f Nam. 32. 12. * ch. 
 1-5. It. g Num. U. 24, 3U. Deul. 1. 36, 38 h Num. 
 13.26. 
 
 tions of the country, which Jacob 
 had foretold two hundred and fifty 
 years before, and Moses shortly be- 
 fore his death. Comp. Gen. 49. and 
 Deul. 33. To Judah fell a country 
 abounding in vineyards Sind pastures; 
 to Zebulon, sea-coasts ; to Issachar, 
 a rich plain betivcen ranges of moun- 
 tains ; to Asher, one abounding in 
 plenty of oil, 7V he at, ^ and metals ; and 
 so of the others. See Masius and 
 Calmet for more particular details. 
 
 4. The children of Joseph loere two 
 tribes. That is, had a double portion 
 or the portion of two tribes. By 
 Joseph's being reckoned two tribes, 
 the nation was made to consist of 
 twelve tribes, though Levi was ex- 
 cluded. 
 
 5. And they divided the land. They 
 entered upon the business of divid- 
 ing it; they took the preliminary 
 measures; they consulted together 
 and settled the manner in which it 
 should be done. The actual divid- 
 ing took place afterwards. It must 
 have required a considerable time to 
 make all the geographical arrange- 
 ments necessary for this purpose. 
 
 6. Then the ch ildren of Judah came. 
 ' Then' — while they were at Gilgal 
 preparing to make the division, 
 which it seems was finished at Shilo, 
 ch. 18. 1. The thread of the narra- 
 
118 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. €.1444. 
 
 7 Forty years old was I when 
 Moses the servant of the Lord 
 isent me from Kadesh-barnea to 
 espy out the land ; and I brought 
 him word again as it was in my 
 heart. 
 
 i Num. 13. 6. a \i. 6. 
 
 tion is again interrupted to introduce 
 the digression concerning the allot- 
 ment of Caleb. The children of Ju- 
 dah, that is, probably, the heads and 
 chief men, accompanied Caleb, who 
 rbelonged to the same tribe, in order to 
 testify their consent to the measure, 
 aftd to aid and countenance him in 
 obtaining the object of his request. 
 As Caleb was one of the twelve 
 whom God had chosen to superin- 
 tend the partition of the land. Num. 
 34. 12, it might seem, if he came un- 
 attended, that he designed to take ad- 
 vantage of his authority as a com- 
 missioner to promote his private in- 
 terest ; he therefore takes his breth- 
 ren along with him to preclude 
 any such imputation. Some suppose 
 that this transaction took place pre- 
 vious to the siege and capture of 
 Hebron related ch. 10. 36, 37, and 
 that the expedition detailed its minute 
 particulars, in ch. 15. 13 — 15, is there 
 barely touched upon, or described in 
 the most general manner. The fact, 
 however, that the application of Ca- 
 leb was made to Joshua at Gilgal, 
 and not while he was pursuing his 
 conquests over the south of Canaan, 
 seems decisive against this opinion. 
 IT Thou kno2cest the thing, &c. Ca- 
 leb probably alludes to what is said 
 Num. 14. 24, ' But my servant Caleb 
 him will I bring into the land where- 
 into he went; and his seed shall pos- 
 sess it.' Deut. 1. 36, ' Caleb the son 
 of Jephunneh, to him will I give the 
 land that he hath trodden upon, and 
 to his children, because he hath 
 wholly followed the Lord." This 
 seems to be spoken, not of the land 
 of promise in general, but of some 
 particular district to which he had 
 penetrated when sent out by Moses. 
 This, undoub:ediy, was 'Hebron, | 
 
 8 Nevertheless, •'my breth- 
 ren that went up with me made 
 the heart ofthe people melt : but 
 I wholly ifollowed the Lord my 
 God. 
 
 9 And Moses sware on that 
 
 k ^um. 13. 31, 32. Deut. 1. 28. 1 Num. 14 24. 
 Deut. 1. 3'J. 
 
 Num. 13, 22, and was so understood 
 by all parties at the time. The pro- 
 mise then made by God to Moses he 
 now pleads ; and what can be more 
 confidently expected than the fulfil- 
 ment of His gracious word 1 There 
 is more presumption in declining 
 and neglecting his promises, than in 
 urging their performance. 
 
 7. Brought him xcord again as it 
 was inmine heart. Made a true and 
 honest statement ; spake sincerely ; 
 uttered the real sentiments of my 
 heart. His conscience bore him wit- 
 ness and now enabled him to say, 
 that neither/car nov favor influenced 
 him on the occasion ; he told what 
 he believed to be the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth. It 
 has been remarked in this connec- 
 tion, that Caleb's name signifies, ac- 
 cording to the heart. 
 
 8, IiohoUy follaioedthe Lord. Heb. 
 ' fulfilled after the Lord.' Arab. ' I 
 perfected m)^ obedience before the 
 Lord my God.' On the import of 
 this expression, see note on Num. 
 14. 24. As he had obtained this tes- 
 timony from God himself, it was not 
 vain glory for him to speak of it, 
 especially as this was the main 
 ground on which he had become en- 
 titled to the object of his petition. It 
 is not pride, but simply a tribute of 
 due acknowledgment, to declare 
 what a gracious God has done for 
 us and by us. ' They that follow 
 God fully when they are j'^oung, 
 shall have both the credit and com- 
 fort of it when they are old, and the 
 reward of it for ever, in the heaven- 
 ly Canaan.' Henry. It was peculi- 
 arly to the honor of Caleb that he 
 maintained such an unbending fide- 
 lity to God when his brethren and 
 associates in that service, except 
 
Ac C. 1444.] 
 
 day saying, "'Surely the land 
 "whereon thy feet have trodden 
 shall be thine inheritance, and 
 tiiy children's for ever ; because 
 thou hast wholly followed the 
 Lord my God. 
 
 10 And now, behold, the 
 Lqud hath kept rae alive, °as he 
 said, these forty and five year.«j, 
 even since the Lord spake this 
 word unto Moses, while the chil. 
 
 m Num. 14. 23. 21 Deul. 1. 36. ch 1. 3. ii Kee 
 Num. 13.2-2. o Mim. 11. 3ii. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 119 
 
 Joshua, proved so faithless and faint- 
 hearted. ' It adds much to the praise 
 of following- God, if we adhere to 
 him when others desert and decline 
 from him.' JJenry. 
 
 9. Moses sware on that day. See 
 Num. 14. 24. Deut. 1. 36. In these 
 passages God himself is the speaker ; 
 and it is he that swears according to 
 the words here recited. But as 
 Moses was the organ through whom 
 the assured promise was conveyed, 
 the swearing is attributed to him. 
 IT The land tvherein thy feet have 
 trodden. Not the land of Canaan in 
 general, but this particular, this 
 identical district. See on v. 6. 
 
 10. Hath kept me alive. Heb. 'hath 
 vivified me.' See on ch. 6. 25. Ac- 
 cording to our previous interpreta- 
 tion it implies that he was kept alive, 
 when, in the ordinary course of 
 things, he would have been dead ; 
 that it was in despite of the tenden- 
 cies of nature to decay and dissolu- 
 tion that he now stood among the 
 living m so much health and strength. 
 His present existence was a kind of 
 resurrection from the dead. The 
 longer we live, the more sensible 
 should we be of the special uphold- 
 ing hand of Providence in prolong- 
 ing our frail and forfeited lives. 
 IT These forty and five years. Of 
 which thirty-eight were spent in th.e 
 wilderness, and seven in the prose- 
 cution of the wars in Canaan, U 
 Wandered in the wilderness. Heb. 
 * walked.' As a punishment for 
 tkeir unbelief and rebellion. If Lo^ 
 
 dren of Israel wandered in the 
 wilderness : and now, lo, 1 am 
 this day fourscore and five years 
 old. 
 
 11 p As yet I am as strong this 
 day, as / was ui the day that 
 Moses sent nne : as my strength 
 was then, even so is my strength 
 now, for war, both •ito go out, 
 and to come in. 
 
 12 Now therefore give me 
 
 p See Deut. 34. 7. q Deiil. 31. 2. 
 
 I am, this day four score and five 
 years old. Heb. ' a son of four-score 
 and five years.' Caleb was now, 
 with the exception of Joshua, not 
 only the oldest man in all Israel, but 
 was twenty years older than any of 
 them ; for all that were above twenty 
 when he was forty, had died in the 
 wilderness. ' It was fit, therefore, 
 that this phoenix of his age should 
 have some particular marks of honor 
 put upon him' in the dividing of the 
 land.' Henry. 
 
 11. .As my strength was then, so is 
 my strength now. My ability not 
 only for counsel, but for action, re- 
 mains unimpaired ; I am as compe- 
 tent as ever for the hard services 
 and difficult exploits of war. He 
 mentions this, both to give glory to 
 God who was the strength as well as 
 the length of his days, and also to 
 intimate to Joshua that it would not 
 be throwing away a portion upon a 
 weak old man who was unequal to the 
 task of either taking or retaining it. 
 On the contrary, even if it were. to 
 be taken from the hands of giants, 
 and should require the utmost prow- 
 ess, energy and nerve of the youth- 
 ful warrior, he was still able to put 
 it forth. He was not afraid to cope 
 at eighty with the same power which 
 he would readily have encountered 
 at forty. — If we would make sure of 
 a ' green old age ' let us begin early 
 to follow the Lord fully. It is usu- 
 ally the excesses of youth which 
 bring on the premature decay of the 
 bodily and mental powers. It is pre- 
 
no 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1445. 
 
 this mountain, whereof the Lord cities were great and fenced 
 spake in that clay ; for thou 
 heardest in that day how "^the 
 Anakims ipere there, and thatthe 
 
 r Num. 13. 23. 3<. 
 
 cisely that sobriety, temperance, and 
 moderation which religion enjoins, 
 that secures to us the longest contin- 
 uance and the highest enjoyment of 
 life, health, and strength ; and these 
 habits cannot begin to be practised 
 too early. IT Both to go out and to 
 come in. A proverbial phrase, equiv- 
 alent to performing all the duties be- 
 longing to an othcial station. See 
 on Num. 27. 17. 
 
 12. Give me this mountain. Not 
 any particular mountain, but this 
 mountainous tract or region; for 
 such was eminently the country 
 about Hebron. He does not men- 
 tion and cannot mean the city of 
 Hebron alone, which had been be- 
 fore taken by Joshua, but he includ- 
 ed in his request all the adjacent 
 countrv, to the caves and strong 
 holds of which the Anakim had re- 
 tired, and where they were now 
 abiding in considerable force. The 
 city itself fell afterwards to the lot 
 of 'the Levites, ch. 21. 13, and be- 
 came a city of refuge, ch. 20. 7. 
 ' When Caleb had it, he contented 
 himself with the country about it, 
 and cheerfully gave the city to the 
 priests, the Lord's ministers; think- 
 ing it could not be better bestowed, 
 no, not upon his own children, nor 
 that it was the less his own for being 
 thus devoted to God.' Henry. He- 
 bron, at a still later period, became a 
 royal city, being made in the begin- 
 niiig of iDavid's reign the metropo- 
 lis of the king dom of Judah. IT 
 For thou heardes t — how the Anakims 
 were there. This, it would seem, 
 was the place from which more than 
 any other the spies took their unfa- 
 vorable report; for here they met 
 with the sons of Anak, the sight of 
 whom so much intimidated them. 
 ' We may suppose that Caleb, ob- 
 serving what stress they laid upon 
 
 "if so be the Lord will he with 
 me, then vl shall be able to drive 
 them out, as the Lord said. 
 
 s I's. IS. 32. 3i. &60. 12. Rom. 8. 31. l ch. 1.5. 
 
 the difficulty of conquering Hebron, 
 a city garrisoned by the gianis, and 
 how from thence they inferred that 
 the conquest of the whole land was 
 utterly impracticable, bravely de- 
 sired to have that city which they 
 called invincible assigned to himself 
 for his own portion ; ' 1 will under- 
 take to deal with that, and if 1 can- 
 not get it for my inheritance, I will 
 do without.' ' Well,' said Moses, 
 'it shall be thine own then, win it 
 and wear it.' Henry. Such is the 
 spirit of the true christian hero. All 
 indeed are not such, but some are ; 
 and he who is, is not only willing, 
 but forward, in the strength of God, 
 to encounter the most formidable 
 enemies and the most apparently in- 
 superable obstacles in w^orkiug out 
 the will of his heavenly Master. If 
 there is any enterprise of peculiar 
 difficulty to be undertaken, or any 
 post of especial danger to be occu- 
 pied, he is prompt to volunteer his 
 services for the occasion.. Not that 
 he courts the perilous work, merely 
 for the purpose of a vain-glorious 
 display of courage or skill, t>ut 
 because he wishes to honor God by 
 his faith-; to give him an opportu- 
 nity, through such an humble instru- 
 ment, to glorify his great name and 
 confound the infidelity of his ene- 
 mies and his timorous friends. In 
 one who feels the missionary im- 
 pulse, this Caleb-like spirit will 
 prompt to a fearless survey of the 
 whole field, and if there be any spot 
 which is at once promising and yet 
 appalling, desirable and yet dread- 
 ful ; a spot where the greatest force 
 of heathen opposition is concentrat- 
 ed; that is the spot which will be 
 really most attractive in his eye. 
 Its difficulties and dangers will be 
 among its highest recommendations. 
 This spirit shone conspicuously in 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 121 
 
 13 And Joshua "blessed him, 
 *and gave unto Caleb the son of 
 Jephunneh, Hebron for aninher- 
 
 . itance. 
 
 14 > Hebron therefore becanne 
 the inheritance of Caleb the son of 
 Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this 
 day ; because that he 'wholly fol- 
 lowed the Lord God of Israel. 
 
 .1 ch. 22 6 X ch 10. 37. & li. 13. Jiulg. 1. 20. 
 See ch. 21. II, 12. 1 Chr, 6. 5.5, 56. y ch. 21. 12. 
 z V. 8, 9. 
 
 Paul in the whole course of his life 
 and labors, and on one occasion we 
 see it nobly expressing itself in so 
 many words, when he says of Ephe- 
 sus, ' A great and effectual door is 
 opened unto me, and many adver- 
 saries.^ The ' adversaries ' were no 
 doubt among the special induce- 
 ments that prompted him to enter 
 that field. It is cause of gratitude 
 to God that there are such spirits 
 still to be found in the world, and 
 that as long as there shall be sons of 
 Anak on earth to intimidate the 
 fearful, there shall be also sons of 
 Caleb to grapple with and destroy 
 them. ^[ If so be the Lord will be 
 with me, &c. Chal. 'perhaps the 
 "Word of the Lord will be for my 
 help.' The ardor of a bold native 
 temperament is here moderated by 
 jhe workings of a spirit of con- 
 scious unworthiness and of humble 
 dependance on the divine blessing. 
 Caleb in these words virtually ac- 
 knowledges that the battle is not to 
 the strong nor the race to the swift, 
 and that the favorable presence of 
 God with us in our undertakings is 
 all in all to our success. The ex- 
 pression is not to be understood as 
 implying any doubt in his mind of 
 God's readiness to assist him, but 
 simply as a disclaimer of exclusive 
 reliance on his own unaided prow- 
 ess. It is the language of one who 
 feels that an arm of flesh, even all 
 the forces of Israel combined, with- 
 out the blessing of heaven, would be , 
 powerless to accomplish the desired 
 result. 
 
 11* 
 
 15 And =^the name of Hebron 
 before loas Kirjath-arba ; which 
 Arha was a great man among 
 the Anakims. ^^^d the land 
 had rest from war. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 '^PHIS then was the lot of the 
 tribe of the children of Ju- 
 
 a G«n. 23. 2. ch. 15. 13. b ch. H. 23. 
 
 13. And Joshua blessed him. That 
 is, not only granted his request, but 
 applauded his brave and enterpris- 
 ing spirit, and implored the blessing 
 of God upon him in reference to his 
 proposed undertaking. 
 
 14. Because that he wholly follow- 
 ed the Lord God of Israel. ' Singu- 
 lar piety shall be crowned with sin- 
 gular favors.' Henry. 
 
 15. Kirjath-arba. That is, the 
 city of Arba, the name of an indi- 
 vidual distinguished either for his re- 
 markable bodily statureand strength, 
 or his power and authority, or per- 
 haps both, among the Anakims. IT 
 And the land had rest from war. 
 There were no more general wars. 
 The inhabitants of Canaan could 
 make no longer any head against 
 the power of Israel. Being dis- 
 jointed and broken they could no 
 longer rally in such force as to 
 make it necessary for the avhole 
 Israelitish body to go against them 
 in a general campaign. This may 
 be considered as the genuine sense 
 of the expression, though it be ad- 
 mitted that there were afterwards 
 particular wars, arising from the 
 attempts of each tribe to expel the 
 ancient inhabitants still remaining 
 in their respective territories. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1. This then was the lot, &c. The 
 account of the partition of the land 
 which was commenced ch. 14. 1 — 5, 
 was interrupted by the mention of 
 Caleb's application to Joshua for 
 Hebron as his inheritance, and that 
 
122 
 
 JOSHUA, 
 
 [A/C. 1443. 
 
 dah by their families ; ''eiien to 
 the border of Edom, the '^wilder- 
 
 fa Num. 33. 36. 
 
 being dispatched, the writer here re- 
 turns from the digression, and re- 
 sumes the thread oi' his narrative re- 
 specting the allotment of the tribes. 
 On this part of the history it may be 
 remarked, (1.) That the business 
 of casting lots on this occasion was 
 undoubtedly conducted with great 
 seriousness and solemnity, and with 
 devout prayer to God, whose is the 
 disposal of the lot, that he would 
 overrule it all to his own glory and 
 the accomplishment of his wise pur- 
 poses. (2.) That although an exact 
 survey of the land was not taken till 
 some time after this, ch. 18. 4, 5, yet 
 some general view of it must have 
 been obtained, and some rude 
 draught have been spread before 
 ihem, sufficient, at least, to have en- 
 abled them to divide the land into 
 nine and a half portions, v/ith more 
 or less accuracy. (3.) That the re- 
 spective lots did not. at this time, so 
 peremptorily and unchangeably de- 
 termine the bounds of each tribe, that 
 they could not subsequently be either 
 contracted or enlarged, or otherwise 
 altered ; for it is evident from what 
 follows, ch. 19, 9, that after Judah's 
 lot was fixed, Simeon's was taken 
 out of it. It would seem, in fact, that 
 the first designation of the portions 
 of the several tribes was quite vague 
 and general, but that the liujits of 
 each were afterwards adjusted and 
 settled by Joshua and the elders, with 
 as much precision as the nature of 
 the case would admit. (4 ) As to 
 the manner in which the casting of 
 lots took place on this occasion, 
 though we are not expressly inform- 
 ed, yet the probability is, that after 
 the "land was geographically divided 
 into the requisite number of portions, 
 these portions properly labelled, or 
 otherwise distinguished, were put 
 into one urn or pot, and the names of 
 the several tribes into another -, that 
 then Joshua, for example, put his 
 hand into the vessel containing the 
 names of the tribes and took out one 
 
 ness of Zin southward was the 
 uttermost part of the south coast. 
 
 slip, while Eleazer took out one from 
 the other vessel, in which the names 
 of the portions were put ; whereupon 
 the name drawn and the portion 
 drawn being read, it was at once de- 
 termined what portion was to be ap- 
 propriated to such a tribe ; and so of 
 the rest. It is probable, however, 
 that this plan was adopted, on thepre- 
 se?it occasion, on]y in resipecltolheiwo 
 large and principal tribes of Judah 
 and Joseph, as they were now at Gil- 
 gal, and the division certainly was 
 not completed till after they arrived 
 at Shilo, ch. 18. 1, 2. In reference, 
 therefore, to this mode of drawing 
 out the lots from the bottom of the 
 urns, the phraseology of a lot's ' com- 
 ing up' or ' coming' forth,' became 
 established. If The Uit of the tribe 
 of the children of Judah. By the spe- 
 cial disposition of providence the lot 
 of Judah came up first, in token of 
 the pre-eminence of that tribe over 
 the rest. This distinction hereby re- 
 ceived the divine sanction. IT Even 
 to the border of Edom. The geogra- 
 phy of-the sacred writings presents 
 many diliiculries, occasioned by the 
 many changes which the civil state 
 of the promised land has undergone, 
 especially for the last two thousand 
 years. Many of the ancient towns 
 and villages have had their names 
 so totally changed, that their former 
 appellations are no longer discern- 
 ible ; several lie buried under their 
 own ruins ; and others have been so 
 long destroyed that not one vestige of 
 them remains. On these accounts, it 
 is very difficult to ascertain the situ- 
 ation of many of the places, mention- 
 ed in this and the following chapters. 
 Yet the ancient appellations of many 
 of these localities may still be detect- 
 ed in modified forms under the mod- 
 ern names, and the sites of a greater 
 number of them satisfactorily deter- 
 mined, than would at first seem prac- 
 ticable. This portion of the sacred 
 story cannot of course be so interest- 
 ing, or so profitable to the general 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 123 
 
 2 And their south border was 
 from the shore of the salt sea, 
 from the bay that looketh south- 
 ward : 
 
 3 And it went out to the south 
 side Ho Maaleh-acrabbim, and 
 passed along to Zin, and as- 
 cended up on the south side un- 
 to Kadesh-barnea, and passed 
 along to Hezron, and went up 
 to Adar, and fetched a compass 
 10 Karkaa : 
 
 4 From thence it passed "^to- 
 
 c Num. 34. 4 d Num. 31. 5. 
 
 reader as details of another charac- 
 ter, and we shafl not therefore en- 
 large upon it in our remarks, but as 
 many of the places here mentioned, 
 are frequently alluded to in the sub- 
 sequent history and the prophets, 
 this enumeration is important, as en- 
 abling us oftentimes to determine 
 their situation ; and it need not be 
 observed that the geography of a 
 country is of the utmost importance 
 in illustrating itshistonj. The quaint 
 remark of Henry, therefore, on this 
 subject is deserving of attention, that 
 ' we are not to skip over these chap- 
 ters of hard names, as useless and not 
 to be regarded; where God has a 
 mouth to speak and a hand to write, 
 we should find an ear to hear and an 
 eye to read.' As it respects the lot 
 of Judah, as here marked out, it was 
 bounded on the south, by the wilder- 
 ness of Sin and the southern coast of 
 the Salt Sea ; on the east by that sea, 
 reaching to the place at which it re- 
 ceives the waters of the Jordan ; on 
 the north, by a line drawn nearly 
 parallel to Jerusalem, across from 
 the northern extremity of the Salt 
 Sea to the south boundary of the Phi- 
 listines and to the Mediterranean 
 Sea ; which sea was its western 
 boundary, as far as the river of 
 Egypt. Joshua is particular in giv- 
 ing the limits of this tribe, as being 
 the first, the most numerous, the most 
 important, that which was to furnish 
 the kings of Judea, that in which 
 
 ward Azmon, and went out unto 
 the river of Egypt ; and the go- 
 ings out of that coast were at the 
 sea : this shall be your south 
 coast. 
 
 5 And the east border was 
 the salt sea, even unto the end 
 of Jordan : and their border in 
 the north quarter urns from the 
 bay of the sea, at the uttermost 
 part of Jordan : 
 
 6 And the border went up to 
 ^Beth-hogla, and passed along 
 
 pure religion was to be preserved, 
 and that from which the Messiah 
 was to spring. As this portion, how- 
 ever, contained nearly half the south- 
 ern part of Canaan, it was after- 
 wards found too extensive, and the 
 possessions of Simeon and Dan were 
 taken out of it. 
 
 2. From the bay that looketh south- 
 toard. Heb. ' the tongue,' i. e. a gulf, 
 bay, or arm of the sea. The like 
 phrase occurs Is. 11. 15, ' The Lord 
 shall utterly destroy Me tongue of the 
 Egyptian Sea.' The southern extre- 
 mity of the Dead Sea, as laid down 
 on the best maps, answers in its form 
 to this description. The term among 
 us is generally applied to a jutting 
 promontory of land. 
 
 3. Maalch-acrabbvfn. Heb. 'the 
 ascent of (the mount of) scorpions ;' 
 probably so called from the multi- 
 tude of those animals found there. 
 '^Kadesh-barnea, Called En-mish- 
 pat, Gen. 14. 7. It was on the edge 
 of the wilderness of Paran, and about 
 twenty-four miles from Hebron. 
 Here Miriam the sister of Moses and 
 Aaron died; and here Moses and 
 Aaron rebelled against the Lord; 
 whence the place was called Meri- 
 bah-Kadesh, or contention of Kadesh. 
 
 5. Unto the end of Jordan. The 
 mouth of Jordan; the place where it 
 discharges itself into the Dead Sea. 
 
 6. Beth-arabah. Heb. ' house of 
 solitude ;' perhaps so called from the 
 loneliness and dreariness of the 
 
124 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 by the north of Beth-arabah ; 
 and the border went up '"to the 
 stone of Bohan the son of Reu- 
 ben : 
 
 7 And the border went up to- 
 ward Debir from "the valley of 
 Achor, and so northward look- 
 ing toward Gilgal, that is before 
 the going up to Adummim, 
 which is on the south side of the 
 river : and the border passed to- 
 ward the waters of En-shemesh, 
 
 fell. 18 17. gch. 1.-26. 
 
 place. "^ The stone of Bohan. A 
 Reubenite, and probabl}^ a distin- 
 guished commander of the forces of 
 that tribe which came over the Jor- 
 dan. It is not unlikely that he died 
 in the camp at Gilgal, and was buri- 
 ed not far off, under the stone here 
 alluded to. 
 
 7. En-shemesh. Heb. ' fountain of 
 the sun;' a place eastward of Jeru- 
 salem, on the confines of Judah and 
 Benjamin. Some conjecture that it 
 was a fountain dedicated by the Ca- 
 naaniies to the sun. IT En-rogcl. 
 Heb. ' fountain of the fallen ;' sup- 
 posed by some to have been the same 
 as the Pool of Siloam; by others 
 placed further down the valley, near 
 the southeast of Jerusalem, and not 
 far from what is now called the 
 Fou7itainof the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 8. The valley of the son of Hinnom. 
 A valley in the vicinity of Jerusa- 
 lem, lying probably on the south of 
 mount Zion, and consequently envi- 
 roning the ancient city on the south 
 side. Who this Hinnom was, or why 
 it was called his valley, is not known. 
 This valley, or, more properly 
 speaking, ravine, is only about one 
 hundred and fifty feet in breadth, and 
 is stated to have been in ancient 
 times exceedingly verdant and shad- 
 ed with trees. But from the inhu- 
 man practices of the Hebrews, in 
 sacrificing their infants at a place in 
 it called Tophet, the whole valley 
 was denounced by Jehovah, and pol- 
 
 and the goings out thereof were 
 at '^En-rogel : 
 
 8 And the border went up 
 iby the valley of the son of Hin- 
 nom, unto the south side of the 
 ''Jebusite ; the same is Jerusa- 
 lem : and the border went up 
 to the top of the mountain that 
 lieth before the valley of Hin- 
 nom westward, which is at the 
 end lof the valley of the giants 
 northward : 
 
 1) 2 Sam. 17. 17. I Kin. I. 9. i ch 18. 16. 2 Kin. 
 
 23. 10. Jer. 13. 2 6. k ch. 18. 28. JuJg. 1. 21. & 
 19 10. IcU. 18. 16. 
 
 luted by Josiah, by ordure and dead 
 men's bones and every kind of filth 
 from the city. After the captivity, 
 the Jews regarded this spot with ab- 
 horrence, on account of the abomi- 
 nations which had been practised 
 there, and following the example of 
 Josiah, threw into it the carcases of 
 animals and the dead bodies of male- 
 factors, and every species of refuse. 
 To prevent the pestilence which such 
 a mass would occasion, if left to 
 putrefy, constant files were kept up 
 in the valley, in order to consume 
 what was thrown into it. It became 
 therefore a striking type of Hell, or 
 that part of Hades where the)^ sup- 
 posed the souls of wicked men were 
 punished in eternal fire. Under this 
 idea, it was often called Gehenna of 
 fire; the name ' Gehenna' being form- 
 ed from the Hebrew t3:n J^"'^ ^'^-- 
 hinnom, valley of Hinnom. See 
 Barnes' Notes on Mat. 6. 22. ^ 
 Valley of the giants. Or, Heb. ' of 
 the Rephaim;' on which word see on 
 Gen. 6. 4. Deut. 2. 7, 11. This val- 
 ley lay about three miles to the south- 
 west of Jerusalem, and appearsto have 
 been so called from its ancient gigan- 
 tic inhabitants. It was the theatre of 
 several signal victories obtained by 
 David over the Philistines, and was 
 also famed for its fertility and its ex- 
 cellent crops of corn. Is, 17. 5. The 
 road from Jerusalem, says Maund- 
 rell, passes through this valley, and 
 in it are pointed out to the traveller 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 125 
 
 9 And the border was drawn 
 from the top of the hill unto 
 "Hhe fountain of the water of 
 Nephtoah, and went out to the 
 cities of mount Ephron ; and the 
 border was drawn "to Baalah, 
 which is °Kirjath-jearim : 
 
 10 And the border compass- 
 ed from Baalah westward unto 
 mount Seir, and passed along 
 unto the side of mount Jearim 
 (which is Chesalon) on the north 
 side, and went down to Beth-she- 
 mesh, and passed on to pTimnah ; 
 
 11 And the border went out 
 unto the side of "^Ekron north- 
 ward : and the border was drawn 
 to Shicron, and passed along to 
 mount Baalah, and went out un- 
 to Jabneel ; and the goings out 
 of the border were at the sea. 
 
 m ch. 18. 15. n Chr. 13. 6. o Jndg. 18. 12. 
 
 p Oen. S8. 13. Judg. 14. 1. q ch. 19. 43. 
 
 the ruined tower of Simeon, the 
 Greek monastery of Elias, and the 
 tomb of Rachel. The valley itself 
 is now only partially cultivated, and 
 even those parts which are sown with 
 Corn yield but a comparatively scan ty 
 crop. ' He turneth a fruitful land in- 
 to barrenness for the wickedness of 
 them that dwell therein.' 
 
 13. And unto Caleb he gave. Or 
 Heb. 'had given.' The^ historian 
 seems pleased Math every occasion 
 to make mention of Caleb, and to do 
 him honor, because he honored the 
 Lord by following him fully. Re- 
 specting this grant to Joshua, see 
 notes on the preceding chapter, v. 
 6—15. 
 
 14. Drove thence the sons of Anak. 
 This is doubtless menti^ed here to 
 show, that the confidence he had be- 
 fore expressed of success in this af- 
 fair, through the presence of God 
 with him, did not deceive him. The 
 event answered all his expectations ; 
 and it is here put on record at once 
 
 12 And the west border was 
 no the great sea, and the coast 
 thereof: this is the coast of the 
 children of Judah round about, 
 according to their families. 
 
 13 IT «And unto Caleb the 
 son of Jephunneh he gave a part 
 among the children of Judah, 
 according to the commandment 
 of the Lord to Joshua, euew 'the 
 city of Arba the father of Anak, 
 which city is Hebron. 
 
 14 And Caleb drove thence 
 "the three sons of Anak, ^She- 
 shai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, 
 the children of Anak. 
 
 15 And yhe went up thence 
 to the inhabitants of Debir : and 
 the name of Debir before was 
 Kirjath-sepher. 
 
 16 IT ^And Caleb said, He 
 
 r T. 47. Num. 34. 6, 7. s ch. 14 13. t ch. 
 14. 1-5. u Judg. 1. 10, 20. I Num. 13. 22. y ch. 
 10. 38. Judg. 1. 11 I Judg. 1. 12. 
 
 to the praise of Caleb, to the glory 
 of God, who never disappoints those 
 that trust in him, and for the en- 
 couragement of believers in all ages. 
 On the sense of the phrase * drove 
 out,' see on Judg. 1. 10. 
 
 15. Debir — Kirjath-sepher. These 
 names, the former signifying a loord 
 or oracle, the latter, the city of a book, 
 have led some commentators to sup- 
 pose that this city was a seat of learn- 
 ing, or a repository of the records of 
 the ancient inhabitants. It is not in- 
 deed probable that writing and books, 
 in our sense of the words, were very 
 common among the Canaanites ; but 
 some method of recording events 
 and a sort of learning was doubtless 
 cultivated in those regions, 
 
 16. And Caleb said, He that smiteth, 
 &c. We cannot think so ill of Ca- 
 leb, as to suppose that this proposi- 
 tion proceeded either from cowardice 
 or sloth. He did not invite another 
 to achieve a difficult and dangerous 
 exploit, because he shrunk from it 
 
126 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and 
 taketh it, to him will I give 
 Achsah my daughter to wife. 
 
 17 And ^Othniel the ^son of 
 Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took 
 it : and he gave him Achsah liis 
 daughter to wife. 
 
 a Judg. 1. 13. * 3. 9. 
 
 32 12. ch. II. 6. 
 
 himself. He had already evinced 
 too much valor to allow of the sap- 
 position. But his generous spirit 
 would not permit him to monopolise 
 all the glory of these victories. He 
 would give occasion to some of his 
 younger brethren to signalise their 
 prowess also ; and to strengthen the 
 inducement, he makes a proffer of 
 his daughter in marriage to the suc- 
 cessful combatant. Such an achieve- 
 ment would be presumptive evi- 
 dence that the man was worthy of 
 her, and one who was likely to de- 
 serve well of his country. So Saul, 
 in like manner, promised his daugh- 
 ter in marriage to him who should 
 kill Goliath, 1 Sam. 17, 25. Fathers, 
 in ancient times, appear to have had 
 nearly an absolute power in the dis- 
 posal of their daughters in marriage, 
 as we learn from the case of Laban, 
 and numerous other instances men- 
 tioned in the Scriptures. Caleb, how- 
 ever, could no doubt safely presume 
 upon his daughter's preference co- 
 inciding with his, especially when 
 such recommendations existed as 
 were supposed in the very nature of 
 the case. Deeds of valor have sel- 
 dom failed, in any age of the world, 
 to prove a powerful passport to the 
 female heart, although it is to be 
 hoped that the force of this attraction 
 will diminish, as the influence of a 
 religion of peace prevails in the 
 world. 
 
 17. Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the 
 brother of Caleb, took it. It was Ke- 
 naz, and not Othniel, who was the 
 brother, and, as appears from Judg. 
 1. 13, the younger brother of Caleb ; 
 otherwise the marriage would have 
 been unlawful, or at least of question- 
 able propriety. It is not at all im- 
 
 13 ''And it came to pass, as 
 she came unto him, that she 
 moved him to ask of her father 
 a field. And ''.she lighted off 
 her ass ; and Caleb said unto her, 
 What wouldst thou? 
 
 19 Who answered, Give me 
 
 c Judg. I 11. d See Gcii. 524 64. 1 Sara. 25 23. 
 
 probable, that Olhniel previously 
 entertained an affection for Ach- 
 sah, so that he could not brook tlie 
 thought that any one else should do 
 more to win her favor, than he him- 
 self would. This prompted him un- 
 hesitatingly to take up the gage 
 which Caleb had thrown down. The 
 result proved that he was worthy 
 both of the work and the wages ; for 
 he became afterwards a deliverer 
 and a judge in Israel, the first single 
 person who presided in their affairs, 
 after the death of Joshua. ' It is 
 good for those, who are setting out 
 in the world, to begin betimes with 
 that which is great and good ; that, 
 excelling in service when they are 
 young, they may excel in honor 
 when they are old.' Henry. 
 
 18. U^e7i she came unto him. Or, 
 Heb. 'in her going;' i. e. in going 
 from her father's house to live with 
 her husband. IT She moved him to 
 ask. Gr. ' she took counsel with him, 
 saying, I will ask.' Being on the 
 point of leaving the paternal roof, 
 sho seized the opportunity, when a 
 parent's heart Avould naturally be 
 tender and yielding, to persuade her 
 husband to solicit an additional boon 
 of her father. He readily consented 
 to the request's being made, but 
 seemsto have preferred that it should 
 come from herself rather than him, 
 as he would do nothing that would 
 appear like taking advantage of Ca- 
 leb's favorable disposition towards 
 his son-in-law. Accordingly the peti- 
 tion was made by Achsah, who, in 
 order to manifest more respect and 
 reverence for her father, alighted off 
 the animal on which she rode, and 
 addressed him in the most suppliant 
 posture. On this eastern mode of 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 127 
 
 a "^blessing ; for thou hast given 
 me a south land, give me also 
 springs of water. And he gave 
 her the upper springs, and the 
 nether springs. 
 
 20 This is the inheritance of 
 the tribe of the children of Judah 
 according to their families. 
 
 21 And the uttermost cities 
 of the tribe of the children of Ju- 
 dah toward the coast of Edom 
 southward were Kabzeel, and 
 "Eder, and Jagur, 
 
 22 And Kinah, and Dimonah, 
 and Adadah, 
 
 23 And Kadesh, and Hazor, 
 and Ithnan, 
 
 e Gen. 33. 11. 
 
 expressing respect, see ' Illustrations 
 of Scripture.' p. 32, 282. 
 
 19. Give me a blessing. Do me an 
 act of kindness, grant me a special 
 favor, as a gift is sometimes called 
 a blessing, Gen, 33. 11. 2 Kings 5. 
 15. 2 Cor. 9. 5. Or, she calls this a 
 blessing, because it would add much 
 to the comfort of her settlement, and 
 she was sure, since she married not 
 only with her father's consent, but 
 in obedience to his command, he 
 would not deny her his blessing IT 
 Hast given me a south land. Which 
 by lying exposed to the burning raj's 
 of the sun, and to the sultry south 
 wmds, was comparatively ill- watered 
 and barren. IT Give me also springs 
 of water. By which she meant not 
 simply gushing springs of water, 
 but the field or fields in which they 
 were situated, v. 18. Chald. ' Give 
 me a place moistened with water.' 
 If the fields belonged to one, and the 
 springs to another, she would of 
 course be little benefited by the pos- 
 session. IT He gave her the upper 
 springs and the nether springs. Both 
 higher and lower ground ; "tracts of 
 hill and dale, well watered. An allu- 
 sion of practical bearing is sometimes 
 made to this, when we pray for spiri- 
 tul and heavenly blessings, which 
 
 24 Ziph, and Telem, andBea- 
 loth, 
 
 25 And Hazor, Hadattah, 
 and Kerioth, and Hezron, which 
 is Hazor, 
 
 •^6 Amam, and Shema, and 
 Moladah, 
 
 27 And Hazar-gaddah, and 
 Heshmon, and Beth-palet, 
 
 28 And Hazar-shual, and 
 Beersheba, and Bizjothjah, 
 
 29 BaalaJi, and Jim, and Azem, 
 
 30 And Eltolad, and Chesil, 
 and Hormah, 
 
 31 And fZiklag, and Mad- 
 mannah, and Sansannah, 
 
 32 And Lebaoth, and ShiU 
 
 f 1 Sam. 27. > 
 
 relate to our souls as blessings of the 
 upper springs, and those that relate 
 to the body and the life that now 
 is, as blessings of the nether springs. 
 From this story we may learn, (1.) 
 That a moderate desire for the com- 
 forts and conveniences of this life is 
 no breach of the commandment^ 
 ' Thou shalt not covet.' (2.) That 
 mutual consultation and joint agree- 
 ment between husbands and wives, 
 as touching the things they shall seek 
 pertaining to the common good of 
 themselves and their families, is the 
 surest omen of success. (3.) -That 
 parents should never think that lost 
 which is bestowed upon their child- 
 ren, for their advantage. They for- 
 get themselves and their relations, 
 who grudge their children what is 
 convenient for them, when they can 
 conveniently part with it. 
 
 20. This is the inheritance, &c. 
 He now returns to the description of 
 Judah's inheritance, from the digres- 
 sion made concerning Caleb and his 
 family, in the preceding verses. 
 
 32. 4^.1 the cities are twenty -nine. 
 But upon an exact computation there 
 appears to be thirty-eight. The rea- 
 son of the discrepancy doubtless is, 
 either that nine of them were after- 
 wards alloted to Simeon, or, as many 
 
JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444 
 
 him, and Ain, and Rimmon : all 
 the cities are twenty and nine, 
 with their villages : 
 
 33 And in the valley, &Esh- 
 taol, and Zoreah, and Ashnah, 
 
 34 And Zanoah, and En-gan- 
 nim, Tappuah, and Enam, 
 
 35 Jarmuth, and AduUam, 
 Socoh, and Azekah, 
 
 36 And Sharaim, and Adi- 
 thaim, and Gederah, and Gede- 
 rothaim ; fourteen cities with 
 their villages : 
 
 37 Zenan, and Hadashah, 
 and Migdal-gad, 
 
 39 And Dilean, and Mizpeh, 
 ''and Joktheel, 
 
 39 Lachish, and Bozkath, 
 and Eglon, 
 
 40 And Cabbon, and Lah- 
 man, and Kithlish, 
 
 41 And Gederoth, Beth-da- 
 gon, and Namaah, and Makke- 
 dah ; sixteen cities with their 
 villages : 
 
 42 Libnah, and Ether, and 
 Ashan, 
 
 43 And Jiphtah, and Ashnah, 
 and Nezib, 
 
 44 And Keilah, and Achzib, 
 and Mareshah ; nine cities with 
 their villages : 
 
 45 Ekron, with her towns 
 and her villages : 
 
 46 From Ekron even unto 
 the sea, all that lay near Ashdod, 
 with their villages : 
 
 47 Ashdod, with her towns 
 and her villages ; Gaza, with 
 her towns and her villages, unto 
 
 g Num. 13. 23. h 2 Kings U. 7. 
 
 of them are expressed by compound 
 terms, translators may have combin- 
 ed what should be separated, and in 
 
 ithe river of Egypt, and ''the 
 great sea, and the border there- 
 of: ■ 
 
 48 IT And in the mountains, 
 Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh, 
 
 49 And Dannah, and Kirjath- 
 sannah, which is Debir, 
 
 50 And Anab, and Eshtemoh, 
 and Anim, 
 
 51 lAnd Goshen, and Holon, 
 and Giloh ; eleven cities with 
 their villages : 
 
 52 Arab, and Dumah, and 
 Eshean, 
 
 53 And Janum, and Beth-tap- 
 puah, and Aphekah, 
 
 54 And Humtah, and "Kir- 
 jath-arba (which is Hebron) and 
 Zior ; nine cities with their vil- 
 lages : 
 
 55 Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, 
 and Juttah, 
 
 56 And Jezreel, and Jok- 
 deam, and Zanoah, 
 
 57 Cain, Gibeah, and Tim- 
 nah ; ten cities with their villages : 
 
 58 Halhul, Beth-zur, and Ge- 
 dor, 
 
 59 And Maarath, and Beth- 
 anoth, and Eltekon ; six cities 
 with their villages : 
 
 60 °Kirjath-baal (which is 
 Kirjath-jearim) and Rabbah ; 
 two cities with their villages : 
 
 61 In the wilderness, Beth- 
 arabah, Middin, and Secacah, 
 
 62 And Nibshan, and the city 
 of Salt, and En-gedi ; six cities 
 with their villages. 
 
 63 IT As for the Jebusites, the 
 
 i V. 4. k Num. Zi. 6. 1 ch. 10. 41. & 11. 16. 
 m ch. 14.S15. & V. 13, n ch. 18. 14. 
 
 one or two instances have formed 
 the names of cities out of epithets. 
 63. Tke Jebusites — the children of 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem, "the 
 children of Judah could not drive 
 them out : pbut the Jebusites 
 dwell with the children of Judah 
 at Jerusalem unto this day. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 129 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ^ND the lot of the children of 
 Joseph fell from Jordan by- 
 Jericho, unto the water of Jer- 
 icho, on the east, lo the wilder, 
 ness that goeth up from Jericho 
 throughout mount Beth-el, 
 
 2 And goeth out from Beth-el 
 to ^Luz, and passeth along unto 
 the borders of A re hi to Ataroth, 
 
 3 And goeth down westward 
 to the coast of Japhleti, ^unto the 
 coast of Beth-horon the nether, 
 and to -^Gezer : and the goings 
 out thereof are at the sea. 
 
 4 '^So the children of Joseph, 
 Manasseh and Ephraim, took 
 their inheritance. 
 
 5 II And the border of the 
 
 oSeeJiidg. 1. 8, 21. 2 Sam. 5. 6. p Judg 1. 21. 
 ach.18. 13. Judg. 1. 26. b cli. 18. 13. 2Chr 8 5. 
 c 1 Chr. 7 28 1 Kings 9. 15. d ch. 17. 14. 
 
 Israel could not drive them out. Josh- 
 ua had before taken the king of Jeru- 
 salem, but not the city. The part from 
 which the Jebusites could not be dis- 
 lodged was more particularly the 
 strong hold of Zion, falling within 
 the lot of Benjamin, which was not 
 finally reduced till the time of David, 
 2 Sam. 5. 6 — 10. As precisely the 
 same thing is said of the children of 
 Benjamin, Judg. 1. 21, which is here 
 said of the children of Judah, the in- 
 ference is inevitable thafpart of Jeru- 
 salem was in the lot of Judah, and part 
 in the lot of Benjamin. The inability 
 of Israel to expel these Jebusites was 
 owing solely to their own remissness 
 and unbelief. If they had attempted it 
 with vigor and resolution, if they had 
 all had the undaunted spirit of Caleb, 
 there is no reason to doubt that God 
 12 
 
 children of Ephraim according 
 to their families was thus : even 
 the border of their inheritance 
 on the east side was ^Ataroth- 
 adar, <^unto Beth-horon the up- 
 per ; 
 
 6 And the border went out to- 
 ward the sea to sJVIichmethah on 
 the north side ; and the border 
 went about eastward unto Ta- 
 anath-shiloh, and passed by it on 
 the east to Janohah ; 
 
 7 And it went down from Ja- 
 nohah to Ataroth, ^and to 
 Naarath, and came to Jericho, 
 and went out at Jordan. 
 
 8 The border went out from 
 Tappuah westward unto the 
 i river Kanah ; and the goings 
 out thereof were at the sea. 
 This is the inheritance of the 
 tribe of the children of Ephraim 
 by their families. 
 
 9 And ''the separate cities for 
 the children of Ephraim were 
 
 ech. 18.13 f2Chr. 8. 5. g ch. 17. 7. h 1 Chr 
 7. 28. i cli. 17. 9. k ch. 17. 9. 
 
 would have been present with them 
 to crown their efforts with success. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1. The children of Joseph. K^hraiim 
 and the half tribe of Manasseh. 
 Their portion, whichwas not one, bat 
 divided and distinct, lay in the very 
 heart of Canaan extending from the 
 Jordan on the east, to the Mediterra- 
 nean on the west, see map. 11 jFell. 
 Heb. ' came out, went forth.' i. e. out 
 of the urn or vessel from which it 
 was d ra wn . U Ufito the water of Je r i- 
 cho. The fountain in the immediate 
 vicinity of Jericho, whose waters 
 were healed by Elisha, as mentioned 
 2 Kings 2. 19—22. '^\ Mount Beth-el. 
 That is, the mount upon or near 
 which the city of Bethel was situated. 
 There was no mountain so called. 
 
130 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 among the inheritance of t!ie 
 children of Manasseh, all the ci- 
 ties with their villages. 
 
 ]0 lAnd they drave not out 
 the Canaanites that dwelt in Ge- 
 zer : but the Canaanites dwell 
 among the Ephraimites unto 
 this day, and serve under tri- 
 bute. 
 
 IJuilg. 1.29. See 1 Kings 9. 16. 
 
 10. Drave not out the Canaanites. 
 Yet they so far prevailed against 
 them as to subject them to tribute ; 
 which shows that with proper exer- 
 tions they might have extirpated 
 them entirely," and that they were 
 inexcusable for not having done so. 
 The remarks of Josephus undoubt- 
 edly furnish the true clue to their 
 remissness. ' After this, the Israel- 
 ites grew effeminate as to fighting 
 any more against their enemies, but 
 applied themselves to the cultivation 
 of the land, which producing them 
 great plenty and riches, ihey neglect- 
 ed the regular disposition of their 
 settlement, and indulged themselves 
 in luxury and pleasures.' ' The 
 Benjamites, to whom belonged Jeru- 
 salem, permitted xts inhabitants to 
 pay tribute ; the rest of the tribes, 
 imitating Benjamin, did the same ; 
 and contenting themselves with the 
 tributes that were paid them, per- 
 mitted the Canaanites to live in 
 peace.' Ant. B. V. ch. 2. § 5, 7. So 
 it may be suggested that Christians 
 are in danger of putting their own, 
 or the sins of others under tiibute, 
 i. e. making them a source of worldly 
 profit, instead of vigorously aiming 
 to eradicate them utterly. It is a seri- 
 ous question, whether the gains of 
 Christian venders of ardent spirits are 
 not derived from this source. Is it not 
 taking tribute of the Canaanites ? 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1. Also a lot for the tribe of Manas- 
 seh. It was important to note this to 
 show, that although Jacob in his bless- 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THERE was also a lot for the 
 tribe of Manasseh ; for he 
 was the ''first-horn of Joseph ; to 
 wit, for i^iVlachir the first-born of 
 Manasseli, the ftither of Gilead : 
 because he was a man of war, 
 therefore he had ^Gilead and Ba- 
 shan. 
 
 a Gen. 41. 51. & 46. 20. & 48. 18. b Gen. 50. £3. 
 Num. 26. 29. & 32- 39, 40. 1 Clir 7. 14. c Deut. 
 3 15. 
 
 ing, Gen. 48. 19, 20, did in a measure 
 set Ephraim before Manasseh, yet it 
 was not to prejudice his rights of pri- 
 mogeniture. Ephraim, indeed, was 
 to be more numerous and powerful 
 than Manasseh, yet Manasseh -was 
 the first-born, and was to have his 
 distinct inheritance, instead of being 
 incorporated with his brother in pos- 
 session. IT Machir. The name of 
 the only son of Manasseh, but here 
 as well as Judg. 5. 14, put for his 
 posterity. Indeed, throughout this 
 description of the boundaries of the 
 tribes, the names of fathers stand for 
 their descendants. IT The first born 
 of Manasseh. Meaning his only son. 
 It is a scriptural usage lo denomi- 
 nate an only son \\\q first born. See 
 Matt. 1. 24, 25. IT The father of 
 Gilead. Although it is true, as ex- 
 pressly affirmed Num. 26. 29, and 
 27. 1, that Machir was the father of 
 a son named Gilead, yet it is certain 
 that this latter name, when used with 
 the article in Heb. as here, is almost 
 invariably applied to the couyitry so 
 called, and which received its de- 
 nomination, in the time of Jacob, 
 from the incident mentioned Gen. 
 31. 48. It can scarcely be doubted 
 therefore, that the phrase ' father of 
 Gilead' is here properly to be under- 
 stood of Machir, and that he is so 
 called just as in 1 Chron. 2. 24, 45, 
 49, 50, Asher is called ' father of 
 Tekoa,' Maon ' father of Beth zur,' 
 Sheva, ' father of Gibea,' and Shabal 
 'father of Kirjath-jearim ;' all the 
 names of places. The reason of 
 Machir, or rather his posterity, b^- 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 131 
 
 2 There was also a lot for 
 ^the rest of the children cf Ma- 
 nasseh by their families ; ^for 
 the children of Abiezer, and for 
 the '-hildren of Heiek, ^and for 
 the children of Asriel, and for 
 the children of Shechem, sand 
 for the children of Hepher, and 
 for the children of Shemida : 
 these were, the male children of 
 Manasseh the son of Joseph by 
 their families. 
 
 3 IT But '^Zelophehad, the son 
 of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the 
 son of Machir, the son of Ma- 
 nasseh, had no sons, but daugh- 
 ters : and these are the names 
 of his daughters, Mahlah, and 
 Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tir- 
 zah. 
 
 4 And they came near before 
 lEleazar the priest, and before 
 Joshua the son of Nun, and be- 
 fore the princes, saying, ^The 
 Lord commanded Moses to give 
 us an inheritance among our 
 brethren : therefore according 
 to the commandment of the Lord 
 he gave them an inheritance 
 among the brethren of their fa- 
 ther. 
 
 5 And there fell ten portions 
 to Mdnasseh, besides the land of 
 Gilead and Bashan, which were 
 on the other side Jordan ; 
 
 d Num. 26. 29—32. e 1 Chr. 7. 13. f Num. 2G. 31. 
 g Nam. 26. 32. h Num. 26. 33. & 27. I & 36- 2. 
 
 i ch. 14. 1. kNum, 27. 6,7. 
 
 ing so called is immediately stated 
 — because being a warlike and vali- 
 ant race they had conquered Gilead 
 and Bashan, therefore that region 
 was allotted them. 
 
 2. The male children af Ma nasseh . 
 This is mentioned merely to prepare 
 the way for the ensuing digression, 
 
 6 Because the daughters of 
 Manasseh had an inheritance 
 among his sons : and the rest of 
 Manasseh's sons had the land of 
 Gilead. 
 
 7 IT And the coast of Manas- 
 seh was from Asher to iMich- 
 methah, that lieih before She- 
 chem ; and the border went 
 along on the right hand unto the 
 inhabitants of En-tappuah. 
 
 8 Now Manasseh had the 
 land of Tappuah : but "^Tap- 
 puah on the border of Manasseh 
 belonged to the children of 
 Ephraim : 
 
 9 And the coast descended 
 "unto the river Kanah, south- 
 ward of the river. "These ci- 
 ties of Ephraim. are among the 
 chies of Manasseh : the coast of 
 Manasseh also was on the north 
 side of the river, and the out-go- 
 ings of it were at the sea : 
 
 10 Southward it vms Ephra- 
 im's, and northward it was Ma- 
 nasseh's, and the sea is his bor- 
 der ; and they met together in 
 Asher on the nortli, and in Is- 
 sachar on the east. 
 
 11 pAnd Manasseh had in Is- 
 sachar, and in Asher, "^Beth- 
 shean and her towns, and Ibleam 
 and her towns, and the inhabi- 
 tants of Dor and her towns, and 
 
 1 cli. 16. 6. m ch. 16. 8. n ch. 16. 8. o ch. 16. 9< 
 p 1 Clir. 7. 29. q 1 Sam, 31. 10. 1 Kings 4. 12, 
 
 concerning the daughters of Zelo- 
 phehad. 
 
 3. But Zelophehad the son of He- 
 fher, &c. See on Num. 26. 33."27. 1. 
 
 11. Beih-sheanandher toi07is. Heb, 
 ' and her daughters.' Beth-shean Oj. 
 Beth-san, the Scythopolis of thg 
 Greek and Roman writers, was situ. 
 
132 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 the inhabitants of En-dor and 
 her towns, and the inhabitants of 
 Taanach and her towns, and the 
 inhabitants of Megiddo and her 
 towns, even three countries. 
 12 Yet "-the children of Ma- 
 
 ated in the plain of Jordan, at the 
 east end of the great plain of Jezreel, 
 and not far from the sea of Galilee. 
 It is now called Bisan, eight hours 
 or twenty-four miles from Tiberias, 
 and described, by Dr. Richardson, as 
 a collection of miserable hovels, 
 containing about two hundred inha- 
 bitants. Bat the interesting ruins 
 in its vicinity point out to the tra- 
 veller its former grandeur and im- 
 portance. H Ajid Ike inhabitants. 
 The phraseology is remarkable, im- 
 plying that they had or possessed not 
 the places only^ but also the people ; 
 that is, that having spared them con- 
 trary to the divine command, they 
 4:educed them to the condition of de- 
 pendants and menials, and served 
 themselves of thcvi. 
 
 12. The children of Manasseh could 
 vot drive out, &c. Their inability 
 was wholly of the moral kind. They 
 could not do it, because they were 
 not disposed to do it, just as it is said 
 of Joseph's brethren. Gen. 37. 4, that 
 * they could not speak peaceably unto 
 him,' so strong was their personal 
 dislike to him. The love of ease, 
 the prospect of gain, and, perhaps, 
 the feelings of humanity, accompani- 
 ed by a gradual declension of faith 
 and zeal, prevailed over the motives 
 which should have prompted them 
 to action, and so rendered them un- 
 able to effect the object. But an 
 inability, arising from this source, 
 was obviously inexcusable, on the 
 same grounds that a drunkard's in- 
 ability to master his propensity for 
 strong drink is inexcusable. In like 
 manner, the ' cannot' of the impeni- 
 tent sinner, in regard to the perfor- 
 mance of his duty, is equally inex- 
 cusable. IT The Canaaniles would 
 d2oellin thai land. Heb. 'willed to 
 dwell.' A very remarkable expres- 
 
 nasseh could not drive out the 
 inhabitants of those cities ; but 
 the Canaanites would dwell in 
 that land. 
 
 13 Yet it came to pass, when 
 the children of Israel were 
 
 sion, indicative of the obstinate de- 
 termination of the Canaanites to re- 
 tain possession of the coimiry, and 
 carrying with it a severe reflection 
 upon the supineness, cowardice, and 
 unbelief of the Israelites. The pre- 
 sent version, ' would,' gives a very 
 exact idea of the import of the origi- 
 nal, which signifies to unll, to deter- 
 mine, especially as the result of com- 
 placency, content, or satisfaction in 
 any thing. It implies here, that the 
 Canaanites resolved to act their own 
 will in remaining, that the}^ would 
 do as they pleased about it. Alas ! 
 how often is it the case that our in- 
 nate lusts, those hidden enemies of 
 the heart, obtain such an advantage 
 over us, that they ma}'- be conceived 
 as uttering the same language! 
 Long accustomed to toleration and 
 forbearance, they at length spurn 
 control, and domineer in the most 
 absolute manner. As if they held 
 their place and power by prescrip- 
 tion, they seem determined not to be 
 dispossessed, and lord it with all the 
 airs of' despotic masters over their 
 too easy and obsequious subjects. 
 But such a base subjection as this, 
 always costs the Christian dear, if, 
 indeed, he be a Christian over whom 
 it is exercised. He may decline a 
 vigorous contest now when the vic- 
 tory is comparatively easy, but he 
 must prepare for the combat by and 
 by, and must count upon tenfold dif- 
 ficalty in achieving a conquest. If 
 he succeeds at all, he will barely es- 
 cape with his life. Interest, duty, 
 safety, all combine therefore to re- 
 quire of the believer the most deter- 
 mined and unremitting efforts to ob- 
 tain and preserve a decided ascen- 
 dancy over the inbred corruptions of 
 his nature. 
 13, Yet it came to pass J &G, This 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 133 
 
 waxen strong, that they put the 
 Canaanites to Hribute ; but did 
 not utterly drive them out. 
 
 14 lAnd the children of Jo- 
 seph spake unto Joshua, saying, 
 Why hast thou given me hut 
 "one lot and one portion to in- 
 herit, seeing I aw ^a great peo- 
 
 sch. 16. 10. t ch. 16.4. u Gen. 18. 22. x Gen. 
 48. 19 Num. 26. 34, 37. 
 
 might better be rendered, ' and' or 
 ' for it came to pass,' as the words are 
 not intended to express an opposition 
 to the leading sense of the preceed- 
 ing verse, but rather to point to the 
 reason of the failure of the Israelites 
 to expel their enemies: viz. because 
 they found it more agreeable to put 
 them under tribute, though in direct 
 disobedience of the divine injunc- 
 tion, Deut. 20, 16. 
 
 14. The children of Joseph. That 
 Is, both the tribes of Ephraim and 
 Manasseh conjointly. They speak, 
 however, according to common us- 
 age in the Hebrew, as if they were 
 but one person. IT One lot and one 
 portion. It is not easy to determine 
 whether they complain of having re- 
 ceived but one lot, when they consi- 
 dered themselves entitled to two, as 
 being two distinct tribes, or that the 
 district assigned to them was so 
 small as to be no more ihan sufficient 
 for one tribe of ordinary dimensions. 
 They complain, however, of the nar- 
 rowness of their bounds, and plead 
 that their great numbers should con- 
 stitute a claim for a larger portion. 
 
 . TI Forasiinich as the Lord hath blessed 
 me hitherto. Increased, multiplied 
 me. On this sense of the word 
 * bless,' see on Gen. 1. 22. 
 
 15 . If thou be a great people. Josh- 
 ua takes them at their word, and 
 makes their alleged greatness an ar- 
 guinent of their being the better able 
 by their own energy and industry to 
 make up any deficiency in their lot. 
 The complete expulsion of the Ca- 
 naanites from their territories would 
 be a virtual enlargement of their 
 bounds, and to this they ought to 
 
 12* 
 
 pie, forasmuch as the Lord hath 
 blessed me hitherto ? 
 
 15 And Joshua answered 
 them, If thou he a great people, 
 then get thee up to the wood- 
 country, and cut down for thy- 
 self there in the land of the Per- 
 izzites and of the giants, if 
 
 hold themselves obliged by the com- 
 mand and the promise of Jehovah. 
 He intimates, if we mistake not, that 
 their lot was in itself sufficiently ex- 
 tensive for their purposes, would 
 they but make it all available.^ which 
 he now enjoins it upon them to do. 
 ' Many wish for larger possession? 
 who do not cultivate and make the 
 best of what they have ; and think 
 they should have more talents given 
 them, when they do not trade with 
 those with which they are intrusted.' 
 Henry. ir Get thee up to the uwod 
 country. That is, to the mountain- 
 ous parts which are covered with 
 wood. We suppose he still has in 
 view certain parts of the tract which 
 had not been expressly assigned, but 
 which were, at present, possessed by 
 the Perizzites and Rephaim, a gi- 
 gantic and formidable race, whom 
 they seem to have been backward to 
 encounter. U Cut down for thyself. 
 That is, prepare a place for thyself. 
 They were to combine the labors of 
 the axe with those of the sword, in 
 obtaining and fitting up for them- 
 selves a suitable possession. It is, 
 however, to be remarked that the 
 original word here rendered ' cut 
 down' is applied Ezek. 23. 47, to dis- 
 patching with the sword, and that it is 
 not therefore, absolutely certain that 
 it refers solely to cutting down the 
 trees of a forest. It may mean cut- 
 ting down enemies in war. Probably 
 the genuine idea is, making a clear- 
 ance for themselves, whether by fell- 
 ing the forests, or by cutting off the 
 giants, or both. It is worthy of notice, 
 that the original word is from the 
 same root with jj^'^i to create^ Gen. 
 
134 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 mount Ephraim be too narrow 
 for thee. 
 
 16 And the children of Jo- 
 seph said, The hill is not enough 
 for us : and all the Canaanites 
 that dwell in the land of the val- 
 ley have ^chariots of iron, loth 
 they who are of Beth-shean and 
 her towns, and they who are 'of 
 the valley of Jezreel. 
 
 17 And Joshua spake unto, 
 the house of Joseph, even to 
 
 y Jude. 1. 19 & 4. 3 
 
 Kings .i.ia. 
 
 Ephraim and to Marasseh, say- 
 ing, Thou art a great people, 
 and hfist great power : thou 
 shalt not have one lot only : 
 
 18 But the mountain shall be 
 thine ; for it is a wood, and thou 
 shalt cut it down : and the out- 
 goings of it shall be thine: for 
 thou shalt drive out the Canaan- 
 ites, ^though they have iron 
 chariots, and though they he 
 strong. 
 
 a Dent. 20. 1. 
 
 1. 1, and which we there endeavored 
 to show, implied a process of re-for- 
 ming, 01: renovating, jnst as the trans- 
 forming an uninhabited woodland 
 tract into cultivated fields, or popu- 
 lous towns, renovates or recreates a 
 coimtry. 
 
 16. The hill is not enough for ns. 
 Heb. ' shall not be found lor us.' i 
 That is, perhaps, is unattainable by | 
 us, cannot be mastered. The grounds \ 
 of their apprehension, they proceed ; 
 to state in^what follows. H And all 
 the Canaanites, &c. Rather, /or all j 
 the Canaanites, &c. It would be j 
 impossible, they thought, to make 1 
 themselves masters of the mountains, 
 so long as their enemies, with their 
 iron chariots, commanded all the ad- j 
 jacent valleys. Such a formidable 
 defence would effectually preclude 
 all access. IT Chariots of iron. Not 
 chariots made wholly of iron, but 
 armed with it; chariots with long 
 scythes fastened to their axle-trees, 
 as described above, ch. 11. 4. 
 
 17. Tkou shall not hare one lot only. 
 Thou shalt not be restricted to what 
 thou callest one lot ; it is in fact a 
 much larger territory, and thou doest 
 wrong to call it by so diminutive a 
 title. Only possess the whole, and 
 great and powerful as thou art, thou 
 wilt find no reason to complain of 
 too contracted bounds. 
 
 18. But the mountain shall be Ihinc. 
 The same mountainous or hilly tract 
 of which he had spoken before. 
 feeing that their request proceeded 
 
 only from pusillanimity and want 
 of faith, he insists upon his first sug- 
 gestion. He would have them quit 
 themselves like men, and take pos- 
 session of the fine wooded hills to 
 which he referred before. There 
 was no reason why they should ask 
 any thing more. And as to the Ca- 
 naanites and their chariots of iron, 
 what were they when set in opposi- 
 tion to the almighty arm of Israel's 
 God 1 They Avere not to fear for a 
 moment but that they should drive 
 them out, terrible as they were. H 
 The outgoings of it shall be thine. 
 Meaning, prob^^bly, the passages and 
 valleys leading to it ; q. d. ' Clear 
 away the wood, occupy the mountain, 
 and you shall soon be able to com- 
 mand all the defiles, all the avenues 
 ofapproach, and no enemy can make 
 head against you.' Otherwise, the 
 meaning may be. The mountainous 
 lTaci,i?ialltheextent of its boundaries, 
 shall be thine. This is sometimes 
 the sense of ' outgoings.' We may 
 learu from this petition of the sons 
 of Joseph, (1.) How prone men are 
 to be discontented with their lot. A 
 di.ssatisfied mind, a disposition to 
 murmur, envy, and covet, rather 
 than to be content, thankful, and 
 liberal, is alas ! too often character- 
 istic of those who are really highly 
 favored of Heaven, would they but 
 survey their blessings in all their 
 length and breadth, and extract the 
 most out of them that they are ca- 
 pable of yielding. (2.) Our com- 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 135 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 
 A ND the whole congregation 
 -^ ot^the children of Israel as- 
 senihled together "at Shiloh, and 
 
 a ch. 19. 51. & 21. 2. & 22 9. Jer. 7. 12. 
 
 plaints of comforts withheld are of- 
 ten no more than testimonies of our 
 own supineness, negligence, and fear 
 of the cross. From an ignoble fear 
 that our enemies are too many, or 
 too mighty for us, and that we can 
 do nothing, we sit down and attempt 
 nothing : and yet we complain of 
 providential allotments. Thus it is 
 that ' the foolishness of man pervert- 
 eth his way, and (yet) his heart fret- 
 teth against the Lord.' 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1. The whole congregation — as- 
 sembled at Shiloh. The" wiihdraw- 
 ment of the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, 
 and Manasseh to take possession of 
 their respective lots, would sensibly 
 diminish the body of the people en- 
 camped around the tabernacle at 
 Gilead, and make it inconvenient as 
 a place of resort to those who were 
 becoming settled at a distance. The 
 expediency, therefore, of removing 
 the tabernacle itself to a more cent- 
 ral position was obvious, though the 
 step, 'it majr be presumed, would not 
 be taken without divine direction, 
 for God expressly retained to him- 
 self the prerogative of ' choosing the 
 place where he should cause hisname 
 to dwell,' Deut. \'2. 11. Shiloh ac- 
 cordingly was selected for this pur- 
 pose. The name of this city is the 
 same as that by which Jacob predict- 
 ed the Messiah, 49. 10, and some 
 commentators suppose that it was 
 first called Shiloh on this occasion, 
 when selected for the resting-place 
 of the ark, and the observance of 
 those institutions which pointed to 
 Christ, the great Peace-maker be- 
 tween heaven and earth. It was si- 
 tuated in the tribe of Ephraim, in 
 the very centre of Canaan, about 
 twenty miles north of Jerusalem, 
 twelve north of Bethel, and ten south 
 of Shechem. It was therefore the 
 
 ''set up the tabernacle of the 
 congregation there : and the land 
 was subdued before them 
 
 2 And tliere remained among 
 
 b Jiula. 18. 31. 1 Sanp 1. 3 'i4 & 4. 3, 4. 
 
 most convenient location possible 
 for all the tribes, and as Joshua was 
 himself of the tribe of Ephraim, he, 
 as chief magistrate of the nation, 
 would always have a ready access to 
 the sanctuary, when the God of Is- 
 rael was to be consulted. In this 
 place the ark and the tabernacle re- 
 mained for upv/ards of three hun- 
 dred and tifiy years, till taken by the 
 Philistines, in the time of Eli, 1 Sam. 
 4, 1 — 11. It was afterwards remov- 
 ed to Nob, and finally, in the reign 
 of David, to Jerusalein.^ IT And the 
 land was subdued before them. Or, 
 Heb. \for the land was subdued,' in- 
 timating to the reader, how it hap- 
 pened that they were enr.bled to avail 
 themselves of this favorable location. 
 They were freed from the molesta- 
 tion of their enemies- The Canaan- 
 ites were so far subdued that they 
 offered no resistance or impediment 
 to the occupation of the spot. 
 
 2. Seven tribes which had not yet 
 received their inheritance. The rea- 
 sons of this delay are unknown. 
 The probability is, that the original 
 survey, on which the division thus 
 far made was founded, was so im- 
 perfect, that the remaining tribes 
 were unwilling to have it made the 
 basis of their respective allotments. 
 This is to be inferred from the fact 
 that Judah's portion was .soon found 
 to be too large, as Joseph's had al- 
 ready been found too small. The 
 dissatisfaction expressed had led 
 therefore to a temporary suspension 
 of the work, till a new and more ex- 
 act survey could be made. Add to 
 this, that they appear to have become 
 tired of the war. Their former con- 
 quests had enriched them with spoil, 
 they were enjoying the ample provi- 
 sions which had been treasured up 
 for the use of the former inhabitants, 
 and they became self-indulgent, 
 slothful, and dilatory. They were 
 
136 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 the children of Israel seven 
 tribes, which had not yet re- 
 ceived their inheritance. 
 
 3 And Joshua said unto the 
 children of Israel, '^Hovv long 
 
 now living at ease in the midst of 
 their brethren ; the regions that yet 
 remained to be divided were remote 
 from the station around which they 
 were clustered, and if they went to 
 taiie possession of them, they must 
 break up their present connections, 
 drive their flocks and herds, and con- 
 vey their wives and children to 
 strange places, and undergo new 
 hardships and trials. Besides this, 
 great numbers of the Canaanites still 
 remained in the unappropriated dis- 
 tricts, and these, they knew, could 
 not be expelled but at the expense of 
 great effort, fatigue, and peril. 
 Their hearts accordingly sunk with- 
 in them at the prospect. They knew 
 the work was to be done — they 
 wished it were done — but still 
 they had not spirit to undertake it. 
 ' The soul of the sluggard desireth 
 and hath nothing.' What a striking 
 picture of the too common apathy 
 and sluggishness of the candidate 
 for the li&avenly inheritance ! How 
 frequently is he diverted from pre- 
 sent duties and debarred from pre- 
 sent comforts, by giving way to 
 slothful or timorous apprehensions 
 of the difficulties that beset his path. 
 What attainments might we not have 
 secured, if, from the commencement 
 of our warfare, we had not relaxed 
 our zeal, nor made truces with our 
 enemies, but had followed up our ad- 
 vantages in the spirit of true Chris- 
 tian heroes ! May not many look 
 back for years, and yet not be able 
 to point out one foot of ground that 
 they have gained, beyond that which 
 was won in their first conflicts'? Yet 
 how certainly are the difficulties in- 
 creased by delay ! Forty years after 
 this time, the tribe of Dan had to 
 fight for their inheritance, and it was 
 four hundred years before the Jebu- 
 sites were driven from Jerusalem. 
 
 are ye slack to go to possess the 
 land which the Lord God of 
 your fathers hath given you ? 
 
 4 Give out from among you 
 three men for each tribe : and I 
 
 Had all the tribes proceeded with 
 united vigor to fulfil the divine com- 
 mand in its utmost extent, they 
 would not so long have been annoy- 
 ed by their remaining enemies, as 
 ' scourges in their sides, and thorns 
 in their eyes.' And who does not 
 find that corruptions gather strength 
 by indulgence, and that graces decay 
 for want of exercise 1 Therefore 
 let us look to ourselves, that we lose 
 not the things that we have wrought. 
 
 3. Hoio long are ye slack to go to 
 possess the land, &c. This is surely 
 the language of rebuke, and implies 
 that there had been a criminal re- 
 missness, among the tribes, in regard 
 to this matter, the probable source of 
 which is explained in the remarks 
 on the preceding verse. It is true, 
 indeed, that they could not well be 
 enjoined to enter immediately, to 
 rush, as it were, upon their inheri- 
 tances, for the particular assign- 
 ments were first to be made to each, 
 but the point of the censure is direct- 
 ed to their indifference in this respect. 
 They manifested no interest in, they 
 were taking no steps towards, hav- 
 ing the requisite survey and divi- 
 sion made. This w^as the essence 
 of their offence. So in reproving 
 the impenitent for his neglecting to 
 work out his own salvation with fear 
 and trembling, and in pressing upon 
 him the faithful discharge of every 
 Christian duty, it is still to be under- 
 stood that his Jirst, his immediate 
 business is to become reconciled to 
 God, by unfeigned repentance ; and 
 thus to secure a title to eternal life. 
 When this is done, his great concern 
 in life is, like that of the Israelites 
 in Canaan, to labor to enter into pos- 
 session of his eternal inheritance. 
 
 4. Give out from among you. Heb. 
 'Give ye for yourselves;' i. e. ap- 
 point, select, ordain. II Three men 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 is: 
 
 will send them, and they shall 
 rise, and go through the land, 
 and describe it according to the 
 inheritance of them, and they 
 shall come again to me. 
 
 5 And they shall divide it in- 
 to seven parts : ''Judah shall 
 abide in their coast on the south, 
 and *the house of Joseph shall 
 abide in their coast on the north. 
 
 6 Ye shall therefore describe 
 the land into seven parts, and 
 
 of each tribe. Of each of the seven 
 tribes that 5'et remained to be provid- 
 ed for, making twenty-one in all. 
 ^ Go through the land. Accompani- 
 ed, perhaps, by a military gtiard to 
 prevent the surveyors from being cut 
 oft^ by straggling parties of the Ca- 
 naanites. Others suppose the Ca- 
 naanites were supernaturally intimi- 
 dated and restrained from attacking 
 them. IF Describe it. See on v. 9, 
 IT According to the inheritance' of them. 
 Heb. 'accordingtothemouth of their 
 inheritance ;' i. e. probably to the 
 value of their inheritance, or the 
 country which they were to inherit; 
 not of iheir particular inheritances, 
 for these were afterwards to be as- 
 signed ihem by lot, but of the coun- 
 try in general w'hich was to consti- 
 tute their inheritance. This is fre- 
 quently the sense of the Heb. term 
 ht3 mouth, as maybe seen by consult- 
 ing Ex. 12. 4. 16. 18. Gen. 43. 7. 
 Prov. 12.8. The words of Josephus, 
 in his account of this affair, gives, 
 as we conceive, very nearly the pre- 
 cise import of the original. ' He al- 
 so gave them a charge to estimate the 
 measure of that part of the land that 
 was most fruitful, and what was not 
 so good.' Again, ' Joshua thought 
 the land for the tribes should be di- 
 vided by estimation of its goodness, 
 rather than the largeness of its mea- 
 sure; it often happening that one 
 acre of some sorts of land was equi- 
 valent to a thousand other acres.' 
 Ant. B. V. ch. 1. § 21. Joshua's in- 
 
 bring the description hither to 
 me, '^that I may cast lots for you 
 here before the Lord our God. 
 7 "But the Levites have no 
 part among you ; for the priest- 
 hood of the Lord is their inher- 
 itance. *»And Gad, and Reuben, 
 and half the tribe of Manasseh, 
 have received their inheritance 
 beyond Jordan on the east, vi^hich 
 Moses the servant of the Lord 
 gave them. 
 
 fch. 14. 2 & V. 10. gch 13. 33. h ch. 13. 8. 
 
 structions, therefore, required the 
 commissioners to have a special eye 
 to the intrinsic value of the different 
 parts of the country, as being more 
 or less fertile and eligible. 
 
 5. And they shall divide it. Or, 
 Heb. ' divide ye it.' IT Judah shall 
 abide in their coast. In their district, 
 in their region. Heb. ' shall stand 
 upon his border.' The meaning un- 
 doubtedly is, that in this survey they 
 were not to take into consideration 
 the tribe of Judah, which was in the 
 south, nor the tribes of Ephraimaud 
 Manas.seh, which were on the north 
 of where they now were, but were 
 carefully to divide the remaining 
 territory which was not occupied by 
 these tribes into seven equal parts. 
 The tribes of Judah and Joseph had 
 been already provided for ; let them 
 stand by themselves. The terms 
 north andsj^Uharehere used relative- 
 ly to Shiloh, rather than to the actu- 
 al position of these two tribes. 
 
 6. Before the Lord our God. Be- 
 fore the ark or tabernacle, over 
 which tne symbol of the divine pre- 
 sence rested. See on ch. 3. 11. The 
 transaction was a solemn one, and 
 he would have it so performed as 
 that the tribes should look upon their 
 possessions, as established to ihem by 
 divine authority. The pious heart 
 ever delights to look upon God as 
 ' determining the bounds of our habi- 
 tations.' 
 
 7. The Levites have no part among 
 you. See on ch. 13. 14. 
 
138 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 8 IT And the men arose, and 
 went away : and J(3shua cliarge 1 
 them that went to describe the 
 land, saying. Go, and walk 
 through the land, and describe 
 it, and come again to me, t'nat I 
 may here cast lots for you be- 
 fore the Lord in Sliiloh. 
 
 8. And Joshua charged. Rather, 
 'Joshua had charged,' as we find 
 mentioned v. 6. These words and 
 the remainingpart of the verse should 
 be included in a parenthesis. 
 
 9. Described it in a book. Laid it 
 down on a map or chart, accompani- 
 ed, perhaps, with a verbal descrip- 
 tion of the leading features of the 
 country. This is the earliest instance 
 of land-surveying on record. The 
 art was perhaps learned from the 
 Egyptians; for their fields being an- 
 nually overflowed by the Nile, and 
 the land-marks swept away, they 
 would be compelled frequently to re- 
 survey them, in order to adjust their 
 limits. This incident is capable, 
 without a violent application, of 
 yielding an important practical hint 
 to the candidate for the heavenly in- 
 heritance. The sacred volume con- 
 tains, not only the will which makers 
 over to us the grant of this inheri- 
 tance, but the title-deeds themselves, 
 yea a map also of the whole estate, 
 a description of every thing that is 
 valuable in it, and clear directions 
 for securing the everlasting posses- 
 sion of it. We may ask, What 
 would be our employment, if such a 
 document were put"^into our hands 
 in reference to an earthly inheri- 
 tance 7 — especially if required to 
 make out our title by proofs drawn 
 from the record itself? Should we 
 not diligently ponder such a record 1 
 Should we not call in professional 
 aid, and use every possible effort to 
 establish our rights '? Should we feel 
 at ease while the issue was doubrful 1 
 Should we willingly let the decision 
 linger, and pass days and months in 
 heedless indifference how the matter 
 should terminate ] Yet, alas ! how 
 
 9 And the men went and 
 passed through the land, and de- 
 scribed it by cities into seven 
 parts in a book, and came again 
 to Joshua to the host at Shiloh. 
 
 10 H And Joshua cast lots for 
 them in Shiloh before the Lord ; 
 and there Joshua divided the land 
 
 many act thus in reference to their 
 title to heaven. They are equally 
 listless and negligent in making out 
 their title, and ' slack in taking pos- 
 session' of the promised portion of 
 the saints. They do not enter upon 
 it, as they might, by faith, and hope, 
 and holy joy. They do not live in 
 heaven, as they might, by setting 
 their affections on things above, and 
 having their conversation there. 
 We are ready to say, it argued base 
 ingratitude to God, and a virtual con- 
 tempt of their own interest, in being 
 so remiss in taking possession of 
 that rich land of promise. But what 
 was Canaan, compared to the rest 
 that is above '? If, like Paul, we 
 could once be caught up to the third 
 heavens, and behold for a single hour 
 those blest abodes, should we ever 
 be ' slack' or lukewarm any morel 
 Should we then think, that the most 
 intense zeal in the service of Christ 
 was being ' righteous overmuch,' or 
 carrying matters too far , or any more 
 than the very nature of the case re- 
 quired"? Wherefore, we would say 
 to the cold-hearted and slack-handed 
 followers of Christ, as the spies after- 
 wards said to the neg]e.ctful Danites, 
 ' We have seen the land, and behold 
 it is very good ; and are ye still "? Be 
 not slothful to go and to enter to pos- 
 sess the land.' IT Described it h^ 
 cities. Setting down the most re- 
 markable cities, with their towns 
 and villages, their distances from 
 each other, and the territories adja- 
 cent. IF And came again to J 'shua. 
 According to Josephus, at the end of 
 seven months. 
 
 10. According to their divisions. 
 According to their respective appor? 
 tionments. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A. C. 1444.] 
 
 unto the children of Israel ac 
 cording to their divisions. 
 
 11 % And the lot of the tribe 
 ofthe children oCBenjamin came 
 up according to their fannilies : 
 and the coast of their lot came 
 forth between the children of Ju- 
 dah and the children of Joseph. 
 
 12 'And their border on the 
 north side was from Jordan ; 
 atid tiie border went up to the 
 side of Jericho on the north side, 
 and went up -through the moun- 
 tains westward ; and the goings 
 out thereof were at the wilder- 
 ness of Beth-aven. 
 
 13 And the border went over 
 from thence toward Luz, to the 
 side of Luz (i^which is Beth-el) 
 southward ; and the border de- 
 scended to Ataroth-adar, near 
 the hill that Uetli on the south 
 side lof the nether Beth-horon. 
 
 14 And the border was drawn 
 thence, and compassed the cor- 
 ner of the sea southward, from 
 the hill that lieth before Beth- 
 horon southward ; and the go- 
 ings out thereof were at '"Kir- 
 jath-baol (which is Kiijath-jea- 
 rim) a city ofthe children of Ju- 
 dah. This was the west quar- 
 ter. 
 
 15 And the south quarter was 
 from the end of Kirjath-jearim, 
 and the border went out on the 
 
 a. 28. 19. Judg. 1. 23. 1 ch. 
 
 139 
 
 i See c 
 16. 3. 
 
 16 1. 
 : ch. 1 
 
 11. And the lot — came up. That is, 
 came forth from the urn or vessel in 
 which the lots were deposited. And 
 so by an easy metaphor it is said im- 
 mediately after, that 'the coast came 
 forth,' because the lot on which it 
 depended came forth. In like man- 
 ner it is said, Levit. 16. 9, ' The goat 
 
 west, and went out to "the well 
 of waters of Nephtoah : 
 
 16 And the border came 
 down to the end of the mountain 
 that lieth before °the valley of 
 the son of Hinnom, and which is 
 in the valley ofthe giants on the 
 north, and descended to the val- 
 ley of Hinnom, to the side of 
 Jebusi on the south, and descend- 
 ed to pEn-rogel, 
 
 17 Aiid was drawn from the 
 north, andweni forth to En-she- 
 naesh, and went forth toward 
 Geliloih, which is over against 
 the going up of Adummim, and 
 descended to nhe stone of Bohan 
 the son of Reuben, 
 
 18 And passed along toward 
 the side over against >"Arabah 
 northward, and went down unto 
 Arabah : 
 
 19 And the border passed 
 along to the side of Beth-hoglah 
 northward : and the out-goings 
 of the border were at the north 
 bay ofthe salt-sea at the south 
 end of Jordan. This was the 
 south coast. 
 
 20 And Jordan was the bor- 
 der of it on the east side. This 
 was the inheritance of the chil- 
 dren of Benjamin, by the coasts 
 thereof round about, according 
 to their families. 
 
 21 Now the cities ofthe tribe 
 
 o ch. 15. 8. p ch. 15. 7. q ch. 15. 6. 
 
 n ch. 15. 9. 
 • ch. 15. 6. 
 
 upon which the Lord's \oXfell, (Heb. 
 upon which the Lord's \oi came up.y 
 IT Betioeen the children of Judah and 
 the children of Joseph. See on Deut. 
 33 12. The prediction of Moses in 
 regard to the lot of Benjamin was re- 
 markably fulfilled, as may be seen 
 in the note on Deut. 33. 12. 
 
140 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 of the children of Benjamin ac- 
 cording to their families, were 
 Jericho, and Beth-hoglah, and 
 the valley of Keziz. 
 
 22 And Beth-arubah, and Ze- 
 maraim, and Beth-el, 
 
 23 And Avim, and Parah, 
 and Op h rah, 
 
 24 AndChephar-haammonai, 
 and Ophni, and Gaba ; twelve 
 cities with their villages : 
 
 25 Gibeon, and Ramah, and 
 Beeroth, 
 
 26 And Mizpeh, and Chephi- 
 rah, and Mozah, 
 
 27 And Rekem, and Irpeel, 
 and Taralah, 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 1. The second lot came forth. Out 
 of the urn. See on ch. 18. 11. 
 IT For the tribe of the children of Si- 
 meon. Exegetical of the preceding 
 word ' Simeon,' showing that the 
 names oipersonsdixe. employed, as we 
 have often elsewhere remarked, in 
 a collective sense for the political 
 bodies, the tribes, kingdoms, or coun- 
 tries of which they are the founders. 
 IT Their inheritance was icithin the 
 iyiheritance of the children of Judah. 
 It would seem that the first rude sur- 
 vey had led to an erroneous impres- 
 sion of the extent of the country. 
 They had supposed it to be much 
 larger than it really was. Under 
 this impression they had assigned a 
 large territory to Judah, taking it for 
 granted that the lots of the other 
 tribes would be in the same propor- 
 tion. But upon closer examination 
 it was found that at that rate of as- 
 signment the land would not hold 
 out, and some of the tribes must be 
 very much scanted or left wholly 
 destitute of their just inheritance. 
 The obvious expedient was to take 
 a part of the territory of Judah and 
 allot it to Simeon. The inheritance 
 of this tribe therefore is said to have 
 fallen within the inheritance of Ju- 
 
 28 And Zelah, Eleph,and*Je- 
 busi, (which Z5 Jerusalem) Gibe- 
 ath, and Kirjath ; fourteen cities 
 with their villages. This 25 the in- 
 heritance ofthe childi en ot Benja- 
 min according to their families. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A ND the second lot came forth 
 •■^^ to Simeon, even for the tribe 
 the children of Simeon according 
 to their families : ''and their in- 
 heritance was within the inher- 
 itance of the children of Judah. 
 2 And ''they had in their inhe- 
 ritance, Beer-sheba, and Sheba, 
 and Moladah, 
 
 dah, because it was included within 
 the original limits ofthe latter tribe, 
 and is elsewhere seldom or never 
 spoken of as a distinct district. In 
 this arrangement the providence of 
 God is to be especially noted, as Ja- 
 cob, in the spirit of prophecy, had 
 foretold that Simeon and Levi should 
 be ' divided in Jacob,' and ' scattered 
 in Israel.' Gen. 49. 7. This was 
 accordingly most literally fulfilled 
 in the manner in which these tribes 
 were now disposed of Levi was 
 'scattered' throughout all the land 
 not having received any distinct in- 
 heritance, but only certain ' cities to 
 dwell in;' and Simeon, as we here 
 learn, was ' divided ' or dispersed 
 over the territories of Judah instead 
 of having one of their own. This 
 arrangement brought them into con- 
 federacy with the tribe of Judah, 
 Judg. 1. 3, and afterwards was the 
 occasion of the adherence of many 
 of this tribe to the house of David at 
 the time ofthe revolt ofthe ten tribes 
 to Jeroboam. 2 Chron. 15. 9, ' out 
 of Simeon they fell to Asa in abun- 
 dance.' 
 
 2. Beersheba^ Sheba. Heb. ' Beer- 
 sheba and (or even) Sheba,' That 
 one and the same city is designated 
 by both these names is clear from th» 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 141 
 
 3 And Hazar-shiial, and Ba- 
 lah, and Azem, 
 
 4 And Eltolad, and Bethul, 
 and Hormah, 
 
 5 And Ziklag, and Beth-ma- 
 rcaboth, and Hazar-susah, 
 
 6 And Beth-lebaoth, and Sha- 
 ruhen ; thirteen cities and their 
 villages : 
 
 7 Ain, Remmon, and Ether, 
 and Ashan ; four cities and their 
 villages : 
 
 8 And all the villages that 
 loere round about these cities to 
 Baalathbeer, Ramath of the 
 south. This is the inheritance 
 of the tribe of the children of 
 Simeon according to their fa- 
 milies. 
 
 9 Out of the portion of the 
 
 fact that otherwise there would have 
 been fourteen cities instead of thir- 
 teen. Besides, in 1 Chron. 4. 28, 
 where Simeon's cities are enumera- 
 ted, the mention of Sheba is omitted 
 as superfluous. As to the import of 
 these names, see on Gen. 21. 31, 32. 
 In the description of the lots of Ju- 
 dah and Benjamin, an account is 
 given both of the limits by which 
 they were bounded and of the cities 
 contained in them. In that of 
 Ephraim and Manasseh the bounda- 
 ries are given, but not the cities. In 
 this chapter Simeon and Dan are de- 
 scribed by their cities only, and not 
 by their borders, because lliey were 
 small and the former lay within the 
 limits of another tribe. The rest 
 have both their borders described, 
 and their cities named. 
 
 9. The part of the ckildren of Ju- 
 dah ivas too much for them. Too 
 large in proportion to the other tribes, 
 and too large for their actual neces- 
 sities ; although, as being the most 
 numerous of all the tribes, it might 
 justly claim a more extensive terri- 
 tory than any of the rest. Yet when 
 13 
 
 children of Judah was the inher- 
 itance of the children of Simeon : 
 for the part of the children of 
 Judah was too much for them : 
 Hherefore the children of Simeon 
 had their inheritance within the 
 inheritance of them. 
 
 10 And the third lot came up 
 for the children of Zebulun ac- 
 cording to their families : and 
 the border of their inheritance 
 was unto Sarid : 
 
 11 ''And their border went up 
 toward the sea, and Maralah, 
 and reached to Dabbasheth, and 
 reached to the river that is «be- 
 fore Jokneam, 
 
 12 And turned from Sarid, 
 eastward, toward the sun-rising, 
 unto the border of Chisloth-tabor 
 
 it was found that they could 2iot in- 
 sist upon the original allotment with- 
 out manifest injustice to the other 
 tribes, the men of Judah submitted 
 without a murmur to relinquish a 
 part of their possession. They will 
 take no advantage of an uninten- 
 tional error by withholding that 
 which equity and kindness would 
 require them to give up. The same 
 generous principle will operate in 
 like manner with every good man. 
 If he has chanced, through the inad- 
 vertency or mistake of another, to 
 gain an undue advantage in a con- 
 tract, he will cheerfully waive his 
 right and make all the" concessions 
 which, in similar circumstances, he 
 would wish to have made to himself. 
 He will, as the apostle enjoins, look 
 upon the things of others, as well as 
 upon his own. 
 
 10. The third lot came up for the 
 children of Zebulun. Though Zeb- 
 ulun v/as younger than Issachar, yet 
 both in the prophetic blessing of Ja- 
 cob and of Moses he came before 
 him, and in like manner he has the. 
 precedency here also in the allot- 
 
142 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 and then goeth out to Daberath, 
 and goeth up to Japhia, 
 
 13 And from thence passeth 
 on along on the east to Gittah- 
 hepher, to Ittah-kazin, and goeth 
 out to Remmon-methoar to 
 Neah ; 
 
 14 And the border compasseth 
 it on the north side to Hanna- 
 thon : and the out-goings there- 
 of are in the valley of Jiphthah- 
 el: 
 
 15 And Kattath,and Nahallal, 
 and Shimron, and Idalah, and 
 Beth-lehem ; twelve cities with 
 their villages. 
 
 16 This is the inheritance of 
 the children of Zebulun accor- 
 ding to their families, these cities 
 with their villages. 
 
 17 H And the fourth lot came 
 out to Issachar, for the children 
 of Issachar according to their 
 families. 
 
 18 And their border was to- 
 ward Jezreel, and Chesulloth, 
 and Shunem, 
 
 19 And Hapharaim, and Shi- 
 hon, and Anaharath, 
 
 20 And Rabbith, and Kishion, 
 and Abez, 
 
 21 And Remeth, and En-gan- 
 nim, and En-haddah, and Beth- 
 pazzez ; 
 
 ment of his inheritance. Provi- 
 dence is wonderful in its correspon- 
 dence with prophecy. The lot of 
 this tribe was washed by the Medi- 
 terranean on the west, and by the 
 sea of Galilee on the east, agreeably 
 to Jacob's prediction, Gen. 49. 13, 
 that Zebulun should be ' a haven of 
 ships.' 
 
 15. Beth-lehem. A place lying at 
 
 22 And the coast reacheth to 
 Tabor, and Shahazimah, and 
 Bethshemish ; and the out-goings 
 of their border were at Jordan : 
 sixteen cities with their villages. 
 
 23 This is the inheritance of 
 the tribe of the children of Issa- 
 char according to their families, 
 the cities and their villages. 
 
 24 H And the fifth lot came 
 out for the tribe of the children 
 of Asher according to their fa- 
 milies. 
 
 25 And their border was Hel- 
 kath, and Hali and Beten, and 
 Achshaph, 
 
 26 And Alammelech, and 
 Amad, and Misheal ; and reach- 
 eth to Carmel westward, and to 
 Shihor-libnath ; 
 
 27 And turneth toward the 
 sun rising to Beth-dagoti, and 
 reacheth to Zebulun, and to the 
 valley of Jiphthah-el toward the 
 north side of Beth-emek, and 
 Neiel, and goeth out to Cabul 
 on the left hand, 
 
 28 And Hebron, and Rehob, 
 and Hammon, and Kanah, ^even 
 unto great Zidon ; 
 
 29 And then the coast turneth 
 to Ramah, and to the strong 
 city Tyre ; and the coast turneth 
 to Hosah : and the out-goings 
 
 f ch. U. 8. Judg. 1. 31. 
 
 a great distance to the north of the 
 Beth-lehem in Judah where our Lord 
 was born. 
 
 25. And their border. The word 
 ' border ' or ' boundary ' both here 
 and in what follows, is not to be un- 
 derstood simply ofthe boundary line, 
 but also of all the towns and lands 
 which it embraces. It might be ren- 
 dered, ' district ' or ' territory.' 
 
A. C. 1444.1 
 
 thereof are at the sea from the 
 coasi to gAchzib : 
 
 30 Ummah also, and Aphek, 
 and Rehob : tvventy and two 
 cities with their villages. 
 
 31 This is the inheritance of 
 the tribe of the children of Ash- 
 er according to their families, 
 these cities with their villages. 
 
 32 IT The sixth lot came out 
 to the children of Naphtali, even 
 for the children of Naphtali ac- 
 cording to their families. 
 
 33 And their coast was from 
 Heleph, from Allon to Zaanan- 
 nim, and Adami, Nekeb, and 
 Jabneel, unto Lakum ; and the 
 out-goings thereof were at Jor- 
 dan : 
 
 34 And then Hhe coast turn- 
 eth westward to Aznoth-tabor, 
 and goeth out from thence to 
 TTukkok, and reao.heth to Zebu- 
 lun on the south side, and reach- 
 eth to Asher on the west side, 
 and to Judah upon Jordan to- 
 ward the sun-rising. 
 
 35 And the fenced cities are 
 Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, 
 Rakkath, and Cinneroth, 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 143 
 
 gGen. 
 
 5. Judg. 1. 31. Mic. 1. H. 
 
 30. Twenty and tioo ciHes. The 
 above enumeration gives us nearly 
 thirty cities instead of twenty-two, 
 but probably several are mentioned 
 which were only frontier towns, 
 sometimes reckoned as belonging to 
 one tribe, and sometimes to another, 
 or perhaps some of the appendant 
 villages are named, as well as the 
 logons. 
 
 34. To Judah upon Jordan. How 
 this is to be understood is not clear. 
 It is certain that the tribe of Naph- 
 tali did not border on the east nor in 
 any other direction, upon Judah, for 
 
 36 And Adamah, and Ramah» 
 and Hazor, 
 
 37 And Kedesh, and Edrei, 
 and En-hazor, 
 
 38 And Iron, and Migdal-el, 
 Horem, and Beth-anath, and 
 Beth-shemesh ; nineteen cities 
 with their villages. 
 
 39 This is the inheritance of 
 the tribe of the children of Naph- 
 tali according to their families 
 the cities and their villages. 
 
 40 ^ And the seventh lot 
 came out for the tribe of the 
 children of Dan according to 
 their families. 
 
 41 And the coast of their in- 
 heritance was Zorah, and Esh- 
 taol, and Ir-shemesh, 
 
 42 And iShaalabbin, and Aja- 
 lon, and Jethlah, 
 
 43 And Elon, and Thimna- 
 thah, and Ekron, 
 
 44 And Eltekeh, and Gibbe- 
 thon, and Baalath, 
 
 45 And Jehud, and Bene-bc- 
 rak, and Gath-rimmon, 
 
 46 And Me.jarkon and Rak- 
 kon, with the border before Jap- 
 ho. 
 
 i Judg. 1. 35. 
 
 there were several tribes that lay be- 
 tween them. Both tribes, however, 
 were bounded by the Jordan on the 
 east, and they might be considered 
 as in some sort conjoined by the easy 
 communication with each other by 
 means of that river. This we deem 
 the only plausible interpretation of 
 the passage, and thus understood it 
 goes strikingly to illustrate the ob- 
 scure prediction of Moses, Deut. 33. 
 23, that Naphtali should ' possess the 
 west and the south,' i. e. that although 
 his settlement should be in the west 
 or northwest, yet by means of the 
 
144 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 47 And H\-\Q coast of the chil- 
 dren of Dan, went out too Utile 
 for them : therefore the children 
 of Dan went up to fight against 
 Leshem, and took it, and smote 
 it with the edge of the sword, 
 and possessed it, and dwelt there- 
 in, and called Leshem, 'Dan, after 
 the name of Dan their father. 
 
 48 This is the inheritance of 
 the tribe of the children of Dan 
 
 k See Judg. 18. 
 
 1 Jiulg. 18. 29. 
 
 navigation of the Jordan, he should 
 avail himself of the advantages of 
 traffic with all the southern section 
 of the land. 
 
 47. The coast of the children of Dan 
 vjent out too little for them. Heb. 
 'went out from them;' i. e. out of 
 their hands, out of their possession. 
 A similar usage of the Heb. verb oc- 
 curs Lev. 25. 28 — 33, where the lands 
 in the year of jubilee are said to ' go 
 out ;' i. e. out of the hands of the pre- 
 sent possessor, to the original ownp^r. 
 The meaning here undoubtedly is, 
 that the Danites, being closely press- 
 ed upon by iheir powerful neighbors 
 the Philistines, were forced in con- 
 siderable numbers to abandon their 
 allotted possessions. In consequence 
 of having their original portion thus 
 wrested out of their hands, they were 
 induced to seek another in a distant 
 quarter of the land, and made an in- 
 road accordingly upon Leshem, lying 
 at the foot of mount Lebanon and near 
 the sources of the river Jordan, This 
 event, which occurred some time 
 after the death of Joshua, and is more 
 fully recorded, Judg. 18. 1 — 29, is 
 touched upon here both to complete 
 what is said of the inheritance of the 
 Danites, and to intimate how it hap- 
 pened, that a part of the tribe were 
 afterwards found inhabiting a dis- 
 trict of the country so remote from 
 their original possessions. This ad- 
 dition to the narrative was perhaps 
 made by Phineas. 
 
 49. The children of Israel gave an 
 inheritance to Joshxia. As it is said 
 
 according to their families^ these 
 cities with their villages. 
 
 49 IT When they had made 
 an end of dividing the land for 
 inheritance by their coasts, the 
 children of Israel gave an inher- 
 itance to Joshua the son of Nun 
 among them : 
 
 50 According to the word of 
 the Lord they gave him the city 
 which he asked, even "'Timnath- 
 
 immediately afterwards, v. 50, that 
 Joshua received his inheritance ' ac- 
 cording to the word of the Lord,' it 
 could be considered no otherwise the 
 gift of the people, than as they cheer- 
 fully acquiesced in the assignment, 
 and were glad of an opportunity of 
 thus testifying, by their hearty con- 
 currence, their affection for their 
 venerable leader and -their interest 
 in his comfortable settlement in his 
 old age. On his part, he evinced a 
 
 sfriking m.O£?eration and <li«;inter<3ct 
 
 edness, and proposed a noble exam- 
 ple to all in public places, in making 
 no provision for himself till he saw 
 all the tribes fixed in their respective 
 inheritances. This was acting in 
 the true spirit of a public servant — 
 to prefer the general welfare to his 
 private convenience, ease, or emol- 
 ument. So the servants of Christ, 
 while they fully appreciate and ar- 
 dently covet an inheritance in the 
 Canaan above, will deem it soon 
 enough to enter upon it when they 
 have done all in their power towards 
 bringing others to partake of the 
 same glorious possession. 
 
 50. According to the word of the 
 Lord. According lo the promise of 
 the Lord ; made probably at the same 
 timejthat a particular inheritance 
 was promised to Caleb. This is to be 
 inferred from Caleb's words, ch. 14. 
 6, who in speaking to Joshua says, 
 ' Thou knowest the things that the 
 Lord said unto Moses the man of 
 God concerning me and thee in Ka- 
 desh-barnea.' As Joshua had, on the 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 145 
 
 "serah in mount Ephraim : and 
 he built the' city, and dwelt 
 therein. 
 
 51 °These «re the inheritances 
 which Eleazar the priest and Jo- 
 shua the son of Nun, and the 
 heads of the fathers of the tribes 
 of the children of Israel, divided 
 for an inheritance by lot ^in 
 Shiloh before the Lord, at the 
 door of the tabernacle of the con- 
 
 n I Chr. 7. 24. o Num. 34. 17. ch. 11. 1. p ch. 
 18. 1, 10. 
 
 occasion referred to, evinced equal 
 courage and fidelity with Caleb, it 
 is reasonable to suppose that he re- 
 ceived the same tokens of the divine 
 approbation. IT Timnath-serah. 
 
 Called Timnath-heres, Judg. 2. 9. 
 where we learn that the name of the 
 mountain on which it stood was Ga- 
 ask. It was here that Joshua was bu- 
 ried, ch. 24. 30. IT He built the city. 
 Repaired it, put it in order, perhaps 
 enlarged and adorned it. In this 
 sense Nebuchadnezzar is said Dan. 
 4. 30, ' to have built Babylon.' 
 
 51. These are the inheritances, &c. 
 This verse is inserted as a general 
 conclusion to all that has been thus 
 far said of the distribution of the 
 land among the several tribes. The 
 writer now turns to another sub- 
 ject. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 2. Appoint out for you cities of re- 
 fuge. Heb. 'give for yourselves.' 
 "No delinquency on the part of Josh- 
 ua is to be inferred from this com- 
 mand, as if he had neglected, or were 
 likely to neglect, a very important 
 part of the arrangements designed to 
 be carried into effect after the settle- 
 ment of Israel in Canaan. He was 
 well aware of the divine intention 
 in this respect, and would doubtless 
 have acted upon it, as well as upon 
 every other order with which he 
 was charged, but God saw fit to inter- 
 pose to remind him that noio was the 
 precise time, when the tribes had just 
 13* 
 
 gregation. So they made an end 
 of dividing the country. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 ^ pHE Lord also spake unto Jo - 
 -^ shua, saying, 
 
 2 Speak to the children of 
 Israel, saying, * Appoint out for 
 you cities of refuge, whereof I 
 spake unto you by the hand of 
 Moses : 
 
 a Ex. 21. 13. Num. 35. 6, 11, U. Deut. 19. 2, 9- 
 
 received their inheritances, and 
 while they were yet together, to se- 
 parate the cities of refuge for the 
 uses for which they were intended, 
 and respecting which such copious 
 instructions had been before given, 
 Num. 35. 11—34. Deut. 19. 2—10. 
 To the notes on these passages the 
 reader is referred for a fuller account 
 of the nature and object of this insti- 
 tution. It was an essential appen- 
 dage to the patriarchal system of go- 
 vernment, as far as the avenging of 
 blood was concerned. It has been 
 already remarked, that the iiearest of 
 kin to a deceased person had not only 
 the right of redeeming an inheri- 
 tance that had been forfeited or ali- 
 enated, but had also authority to slay 
 on the spot the person who had slain 
 his relative. But as a man might 
 casually kill another against whom 
 he had no ilJ will, and with whom 
 he had no quarrel, and might thus 
 be liable to lose his own life unde- 
 servedly, at the hands of the avenger 
 pf blood, these privileged cities were 
 wisely and humanely appointed for 
 the protection of those who had com- 
 mitted accidental homicide, till the 
 cause could receive a judicial hear- 
 ing from the magistrate. They had 
 authority, according as, upon strict 
 examination, they found him guilty 
 or not of wilful murder, to deliver 
 him up to the avenger of blood, or, 
 after the lapse of a certain time, to 
 grant him a discharge. IT By the 
 hand of Moses. By the agency, by 
 
14(5 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 3 That the slayer that killeth 
 any person unawares and unwit- 
 tingly, may flee thither : and 
 they shall >be your refuge from 
 the avenger of blood. 
 
 4 And when he that doth flee 
 unto one of those cities shall 
 stand at the entering of ^the gate 
 of the city, and shall declare his 
 cause in the ears of the elders of 
 that city, they shall take him into 
 the city unto them, and give him 
 a place, that he may dwell 
 among them. 
 
 5 ^And if the avenger of blood 
 
 bRiHh4. 1,2. c Num. 35. 12. 
 
 the ministry of Moses ; by bim as 
 an organ of communication. 
 
 3. The slayer that killeth any per- 
 son. Heb. 'that smiteth (i. e. fatal- 
 ly) any soul.' On this frequent sense 
 of the word ' soul/ see note on Gen. 
 12. .5. IT Unmoares. and unwitiing- 
 ly. Heb. ' through ignorance, error, 
 or mistake, and without knowledge.' 
 The conditions are stated with the 
 utmost explicitness, in words amount- 
 ing almost to repetition, as is evident- 
 ly proper where a matter of so much 
 consequence as rhe life of a human 
 being is concerned. In cases of icilfnl 
 murder, no place whatever could af- 
 ford protection. A man might be 
 taken even from th^ temple, or the 
 horns of the altar. Ex. 21 14 
 3 Kings 2. 31, 34. 
 
 4. Shall tlandattheenterivoofthc 
 gate. The usual place of judicatuve 
 among the people of the East. ir 
 Shall declare his cause. Shall give 
 a true, honest, and exact statement 
 of all the circumstances under which 
 the accident occurred. % They 
 
 shall take him into the city. Heb. 
 ' shall gather him.' Provided they 
 are satisfied, from his relation of the 
 facts, that he is innocent. If That 
 he may dioell among them. It may be 
 asked why, if the proper judges Vv-ere 
 satisfied of his innocence of the 
 crime of wilful murder, he were not 
 
 pursue after him, then they shall 
 not deliver the slayer up into 
 his hand ; because he smote his 
 neighbor unwittingly, and hated 
 him not beforetime. 
 
 G And he shall dwell in that 
 city, '^ until he stand before the 
 congregation for judgment and 
 until the death of the high priest 
 that shall be in those days : then 
 shall the slayer return, and come 
 unto his own city, and unto his 
 own house, unta the city from 
 whence he fled. 
 
 7 IT And they appointed ^Ke- 
 
 d Num. 35. 12, 2.5. e ch. 21. 32. 1 Chr. 6. 76. 
 
 at once dismissed from their juris- 
 diction, and suffered to go at large 
 as usual. The proper reply doubt- 
 less is, (1.) That he might still be 
 in danger from the enraged passions 
 of the pursuer. (2.) He was to await 
 the issue of another tiial, v. 6. (3.) 
 His detention was probably designed 
 as someA\ hat of a punishment for the 
 rashness, or heedlessness to which 
 the homicide was owing. Some- 
 thing of a penalty was to be paid for 
 carelessness, as well as for crime, 
 
 G. Until he stand before the congre- 
 gation for judgment. In order to a 
 still greater security for the interests 
 of justice, and to guard v.-ith the ut- 
 most vigilance against a wrong de- 
 cision, another hearing seems to 
 have been appointed, after a consi- 
 derable interval, and before a larger 
 court, whose verdict was to be final 
 itj the case. It is probable that the 
 ' congregation' here spoken of was 
 that of his own city, or of the people 
 at large, who were also allowed to 
 constitute a tribunal, and to sit in 
 judgment on the case. Compare 
 notes on Num. 35. 25. '^ Until the 
 death of the high priest. See or 
 Num. 35. 25. 
 
 7. And they appointed. Heb. 
 'sanctified, consecrated;' a term im- 
 plying the peculiar sacrcdness which 
 God would have attached in the 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXr. 
 
 147 
 
 desh ill Galilee in mount Naph- 
 tali, and fShechem in mount 
 Ephraim, and sKirjatli-arba, 
 (which is Hebron) in the '>moun- 
 tain of Judah. 
 
 8 And on the other side Jordan 
 by Jericho eastward, they as- 
 signed iBezer in the wilderness 
 upon the plain out of the tribe of 
 Reuben, and kRamoth in Gilead 
 out of the tribe of Gad, and 'Go- 
 lan in Bashan out of the trib.3 of 
 Manasseh. 
 
 9 ™These were the cities ap- 
 pointed for all the children of 
 Israel, and for the stranger that 
 sojourneth among them, that 
 
 f ch. 21. £1. 2 Chr. I'l. 1. g cli. 14- 15. & 21. 11, 13. 
 h hnk- 1 39. i Deut. 4. 43. ch. 21 36. 1 Chr. 6 78. 
 k ch. 21. 38. 1 Kin. 22. 3. I ch. 21. 27. m Num. 35. 1-5. 
 
 minds of his people to this institution. 
 Accordingly they are sometimes, 
 though not perhaps by the sacred 
 writers, called sanctuaries. IT In 
 mount Naphtali. Or, Heb. ' in the 
 mountain,' i. e the mountainous re- 
 gion, or district of Naphtali ; and so 
 in respect to the two other places 
 mentioned. They were situated on 
 high hills that they might be more 
 conspicuous at a distance. It may 
 also be remarked of these cities, (1.) 
 That they were located at conveni- 
 ent distances from each other for 
 the benefit of the several tribes. So 
 of those here mentioned, Kedesh was 
 in the northern, Shechem in the 
 central, and Hebron in the southern 
 district of Canaan. (2.) They were 
 all Levitical cities ; which appears 
 to have been so ordered, that the 
 cases of manslaughter might come 
 under the cognizance of ir.ose who 
 might be presumed to be most thor- 
 oughly versed in the law of God, 
 and most competent to give judg- 
 ment according to it, and who more- 
 over would be less likely than any 
 others to be swayed by private bias 
 in their decisions. Compare Deut. 
 21. 5, where it is said of the priests, 
 
 whosoever killeth any person at 
 unawares might flee thither, and 
 nol die by the hand of the aven- 
 ger of blood, "until he stood be- 
 fore the congregation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 'T^HEN came near the heads 
 -^ of the fathers of the Levites 
 unto •'^Eleazar the priest, and un- 
 to Joshua the son of Nun, and 
 unto the lieads of the fathers of 
 the tribes of the children of 
 Israel ; 
 
 2 And they spako unto them 
 at ^Shiloh in the land of Canaan, 
 saying, "^The Lord commanded 
 
 n V. 6. a ch. 11. 1. & !7, 4. 
 
 c Num. 33. 2. 
 
 the sons of Levi, that ' by their word 
 shall every contraversy and every 
 stroke be tried.' See also to the same 
 purpose Deut. 17. S^— 13, and the 
 notes on Deut. 33. 9, 10. 
 
 8. They assigned. Or, 'had as- 
 signed,' for the assignment had been 
 previously made by Moses, Deut. 4. 
 41 — 43 ; or the meaning may be, that 
 they formally acknowledged, con- 
 firmed, and ratified the selection that 
 JMoses had before made of these 
 cities. 
 
 9. Until he stood before the congre- 
 gation. The judges and elders of 
 the people, in trying civil and cri- 
 minal causes, always sat; the per- 
 sons who came for judgment, or who 
 were tried always stood. Hence the 
 expressions so frequent in the Scrip- 
 ture, ' Standing before the Lord, be- 
 fore the judges, before the elders.' 
 &c. 
 
 CHAPTER. XXL 
 
 1. The heads of the fathers of the 
 Levites. The most distinguished 
 persons among the fathers, chiefs, 
 or elders of the three families of 
 Kohath, Gershom, and Merari, 
 which constituted the body of the 
 
148 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 by the hand of Moses to give us 
 cities to dwell in, with the sub- 
 urbs thereof for our cattle. 
 
 3 And the children of Israel 
 gave unto the Levites out of 
 their inheritance, at the com- 
 mandment of the Lord, these 
 cities and their suburbs. 
 
 tribe of Levi. They here make 
 their petition precisely at the time 
 when it could be most conveniently 
 granted, viz. just after the allotments 
 had been made to the other tribes. 
 Whether this was prior or subse- 
 quent to the designation of the cities 
 of refuge, mentioned in the forego- 
 ing chapter, it is not possible to de- 
 termine. 
 
 3. The children of Israel gave un- 
 to the Levites. They cheerfully obey- 
 ed the divine command. They gave 
 them cities out of their several in- 
 heritances, without any fear of be- 
 ing impoverished by the appropria- 
 tion. Nor will men ever find them- 
 selves suff"erers in their temporal 
 interests, in consequence of a liberal 
 allowance to the ministers of the 
 sanctuary. These cities were as- 
 signed by lot, that it might fully ap- 
 pear that God designed the Levites 
 their habitations^ as he designed the 
 others their inheritances. The re- 
 sult of this arrangement would na- 
 turally be, that the Levites would be 
 dispersed in every part of the land, 
 to instruct the people in the knowl- 
 edge of the divine law, to edify them 
 by their example, to restrain them 
 from idolatry, and prompt them to a 
 constant adherence to the worship of 
 Jehovah, the only true God. Thus 
 the prophetic sentence of the patri- 
 arch, Gen. 49. 7, that they should be 
 ' divided in Jacob, and scattered in 
 Israel,' though originally carrying 
 with it a punitive import, was 
 through the special mercy of heaven 
 converted to a blessing to themselves 
 and to the nation, IT These cities. 
 Referring to those which are enu- 
 merated in the sequel of this chapter. 
 
 4 And the lot came out for the 
 families of the Kohathites : and 
 ''the children of Aaron the priest, 
 which were of the Levites, «had 
 by lot out of the tribe of Judah, 
 and out of the tribe of Simeon, 
 and out of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 thirteen cities. 
 
 4. And the lot came out. It would 
 seem that a certain number of cities 
 were previously designated and set 
 apart en masse, as the habitations of 
 the Levites, and that the particitlar 
 appropriation of them to the several 
 families and their branches was then 
 determined by lot. IT The children 
 of Aaron the priest. All the Ko- 
 hathites were children of Aaron, in 
 being lineally descended from him, 
 but they were not all priests ; where- 
 as the phrase ' children of Aaron' 
 here is but another name for the 
 priests, his successors in office ; and 
 these had their allotment of cities in 
 the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and 
 Benjamin ; the rest, who Avere mere- 
 ly Levites and not priests, had their 
 lot, as appears from v. 5, in the tribes 
 of Ephraim, Dan, and the half-tribe 
 of Manasseh. The providence of 
 God in this assignment is very re- 
 markable, as in consequence of it 
 the priestly part of Aaron's posterity, 
 who were the stated ministers of 
 the sanctuary, the seat of which was 
 afterwards to be fixed at Jerusalem, 
 had their location nearest to that city, 
 so that they were always convenient- 
 ly situated with reference to the work 
 to which they were appointed. IT 
 Thirteen cities. This was a large 
 proportion for the present number 
 of priests, which was small, but in 
 view of the prospective increase of 
 this body, and their future wants, it 
 was no more than was requisite. 
 As to the nature of the tenure by 
 which the Levites, held these ap- 
 propriated cities, the probability is 
 that they had no other property in 
 them than merely the right to cer- 
 tain places of habitation, whieh they 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 5 And ^the rest of the children 
 of Kohath had by lot out of the 
 families of the tribe of Ephraim, 
 and out of the tribe of Dan, and 
 out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 
 ten cities. 
 
 6 And °the children of Ger- 
 shon had by lot out of the families 
 of the tribe of Issachar, and out 
 of the tribe of Asher, and out of 
 the tribe of Naphtali, and out of 
 the half-tribe of Manasseh in 
 Bashan, thirteen cities. 
 
 7 i^The children of Merariby 
 their families had out of the tribe 
 of Reuben, and out of the tribe 
 of Gad, and out of the tribe of 
 Zebulun, twelve cities. 
 
 8 iAnd the children of Israel 
 gave by lot unto the Levites 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 149 
 
 g V. 27, &c. 
 
 hv. 31,&c. iv- 3. 
 
 might let or sell, bui • Iways with 
 the right of perpetual redemption; 
 and with the understanding thr;* they 
 were to return to them in uic year 
 of jubilee. But on this head see notes 
 on Lev. 25. 32, 33. 
 
 5. Out of the tribe of Dan, d^-c, ten 
 cities. A less number than was 
 given out of the tribes above-men- 
 tioned, because their inheritance 
 was less. The law by which the 
 appropriation was to be regulated is 
 contained Num. 35. 8, ' And the cit- 
 ies which ye shall give shall be the 
 possession of Israel ; from them that 
 have many (cities), ye shall give 
 m.any ; but from them that have few, 
 ye shall give few ; every one shall 
 give of his cities unto the Levites, 
 according to his inheritance which 
 he inheriteth.' It may be remarked, 
 that there is no evidence that the 
 priests were bound to live in these, 
 and in no other cities. When the 
 tabernacle was at Nob, both the 
 priests and Levites dwelt there, 
 I Sam. 21. 1—7 ; and when the wor- 
 
 these cities with their suburbs, ^as 
 the Lord commanded by the 
 hand of Moses. 
 
 9 IT And they gave out of the 
 tribe of the children of Judah, 
 and out of the tribe of the chil- 
 dren of Simeon, these cities 
 which are here mentioned by 
 name, 
 
 10 1 Which the children of Aa- 
 ron, being o^ the families of the 
 K^hathites, who were of the child- 
 ren of Levi, had : for theirs 
 was the first lot. 
 
 11 -"And they gave them the 
 city of Arba the father of "Anak 
 ■ which city is Hebron) °in the 
 .aW'Country of Judah, with the 
 .suburbs thereof round about it. 
 
 12 But nhe fields of the city, 
 
 k Num. 35. 2. lver.4. m 1 Chr. 6. 55. n ch. 
 15 13, 14. o ch. 20. 7. Luke 1. 39. p ch. 14. 14. 
 I .hr. 6.56. 
 
 ship of God was established at Jeru- 
 salem, multitudes both of priests and 
 Levites resided there, though it was 
 1 1 Levitical city ; as did the courses 
 of the priests afterwards at Jericho. 
 This was a circumstance which 
 Moses had foreseen and for which 
 he had provided, Deut, 18. 6, &c. 
 So, on the other hand, persons be- 
 longing to the other tribes were not 
 precluded from living in the Leviti- 
 cal cities ; as for instance Gibeah of 
 Benjamin, which is here made a 
 Levitical city, v. 17, was always 
 peopled by the Benjamites, as ap- 
 pears from Judg. 19. 
 
 12, The fields of the city—^gave theij 
 to Caleb. As it would not necessa- 
 rily involve the exclusion of himself 
 or his family from a residence in the 
 city, he probably gave it to the priests 
 in order to set an example to his 
 brethren of cheerfully contributing 
 to the maintenance of religion. See 
 on ch. 14. 6 — 15. 
 
 25. Tanach with her suburbs, and 
 Gath-rimmon. In the parallel pas- 
 
150 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 and the villages thereof, gave 
 they to Caleb the son of Jephun- 
 neh for his possession. 
 
 13 IF Thus ''they gave to the 
 children of Aaron the priest, 
 ""Hebron with her suburbs to he 
 a city of refuge for the slayer : 
 ^ and Libnah with her suburbs, 
 
 14 And tJatir with her sub- 
 urbs, "and Eshtemoa with her 
 suburbs, 
 
 15 And ^Holon with her sub- 
 urbs, yand Debir with her sub- 
 urbs, 
 
 16 And ^Ain with her suburbs, 
 ^and Juttah with her suburbs, 
 and i^Beth-shemesh with her 
 suburbs ; nine cities out of those 
 two tribes. 
 
 17 And out of the tribe of 
 Benjamin, "^Gibeon with her sub- 
 urbs, ''Gcba with her suburbs, 
 
 18 Anathoth with her sub- 
 urbs, and «Almon with her sub- 
 urbs ; four cities. 
 
 19 All the cities of the chil- 
 dren of Aaron, the priests, were 
 thirteen cities with their suburbs. 
 
 20 IT fAnd the families of the 
 children of Kohath, the Levites 
 which remained of the children 
 of Kohath, even they had the 
 cities of their lot out of the tribe 
 of Ephraim. 
 
 q 1 Chr. 6. 57. &c. r ch. 15. 54. & 20. 7. s ch. 
 I5.'42. t cli. 15. 48. u ch. 15. 50. x 1 Chr. 6. 58. 
 ch. 15. 51. y ch. 15. 49. z 1 Chr. 6. 59. ch. 1.^. 42. 
 a ch 15. 55. bch.lo. 10. c ch. 18. 25. d ch. 18. 24. 
 e 1 Chr. 6. 60. f ver. 5. 1 Chr. 6. 66. 
 
 sage, 1 Chron. 6, 70, Aner and Bi- 
 leam are mentioned instead of the 
 above. A careful examination of 
 the two catalogues will discover 
 several other discrepancies of the 
 same kind, which are probably ow- 
 ing to the fact, either that some of 
 the cities were called by different 
 
 21 For they gave them "She- 
 chem with her suburbs in mount 
 Ephraim, to le a city of refuge 
 for the slayer ; and Gezer with 
 her suburbs, 
 
 22 And Kibzaim with her sub- 
 urbs, and Beth-horon with her 
 suburbs, four cities. 
 
 23 And out of the tribe of 
 Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, 
 Gibbethon with her suburbs, 
 
 24 Aijalon with her suburbs, 
 Gath- rimmon with her suburbs ; 
 four cities. 
 
 25 And out of the half-tribe of 
 Manasseh, Tanach with her sub- 
 urbs, and Gath-rimmon with her 
 suburbs ; two cities. 
 
 26 All the cities were ten with 
 their suburbs, for the families of 
 the children of Kohath that re- 
 mained. 
 
 27 IT '^And unto the chilrlT<=>n 
 
 of Gershon, of the families of the 
 Levites, out of the other half- 
 tribe of Manasseh they gave 'Go- 
 lan in Bashan with her suburbs, . 
 to he a city of refuge for the 
 slayer, and Beesh-terah with her 
 suburbs ; two cities. 
 
 28 And out of the tribe of 
 Issachar, Kishon with her sub- 
 urbs, Dabareh with her suburbs, 
 
 29 Jarmuth with her suburbs, 
 
 g ch . 20. 7. h ver. 6. 1 Chr. 6. 71. i ch. 20. 8- 
 
 names, or that their names in pro- 
 cess of time were changed. Others 
 conjecture that some of the cities 
 here enumerated being at this time 
 in possession of the Canaanites, and 
 not easily to be taken out of their 
 hands, others were given them in 
 their stead. 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 151 
 
 En.gannim with her suburbs; 
 four cities. 
 
 30 And out of the tribe of As- 
 her, Mishal with her suburbs, 
 Abdon with her suburbs, 
 
 31 Helkath with her suburbs, 
 and Rehob with her suburbs ; 
 four cities. 
 
 32 And out of the tribe of 
 Naphtah*, ^Kedesh in GaUlee 
 with her suburbs, to he a city of 
 refuge for the slayer : and Ham- 
 moth-dor with her suburbs, and 
 Kartan with her suburbs, tliree 
 cities. 
 
 33 All the cities of the Ger- 
 shonites, according to their fa- 
 milies, iDere thirteen cities with 
 their suburbs. 
 
 34 IF lAnd unto the families of 
 the children of Merari, the rest 
 of the Levites, out of the tribe 
 of Zebulun, Jokneam with her 
 suburbs, and Kartah with her 
 suburbs, 
 
 35 Dimnah with her suburbs, 
 Nahalal with her suburbs ; four 
 cities. 
 
 36 And out of the tribe of 
 Reuben, '"Bezer with her sub- 
 
 k ch. 20. 7. 
 20. 8. 
 
 1 ver. 7. See 1 Chr. 6. 77 m ch. 
 
 41. All the cities — were forty and 
 eight cities, loith their sitburbs. This 
 was in exact accordance with the 
 direction given by Moses several 
 years before, as we learn from Num. 
 35. 7. This order of Moses is a di- 
 rect demonstration that it was given 
 under divine inspiration, as other- 
 wise, how could he possibly have 
 known that so many cities could be 
 assigned to the Levites, without un- 
 duly encroaching on the limits of 
 the other tribes 1 
 
 42. These cities were every one 
 with their svMirbs round about them. 
 
 urbs, and Jahazah with her sub- 
 urbs, 
 
 37 Kedemoth with her sub- 
 urbs, and Mephaath with her sub- 
 urbs ; four cities. 
 
 38 And out of the tribe of 
 Gad, "Ramoth in Gilead with 
 her suburbs, to le a city of re- 
 fuge for the slayer ; and Maha- 
 naim with her suburbs, 
 
 39 Heshbon with her suburbs, 
 Jazer with her suburbs ; four 
 cities in all. 
 
 40 So all the cities for the 
 children of Merari by their fam- 
 ilies, which were remaining of 
 the families of the Levites, were 
 by their lot twelve cities. 
 
 41 "All the cities of the Le- 
 vites within the possession of the 
 children of Israel were fort)^ and 
 eight cities with their suburbs. 
 
 42 These cities were every one 
 with their suburbs round about 
 them. Thus were all these cities. 
 
 43 ^ And the Lord gave un- 
 to Israel ^all the land which he 
 sware to give unto their fathers : 
 and they possessed it, and dwelt 
 therein. 
 
 n ch. 20 8. o Num. 35. 7. 
 
 15. J 8. &26. 3. &28. 4, 13. 
 
 p Gen. 13. 15. 
 
 Heb. 'these cities were city, city, 
 and suburbs round about them.' 
 That is, they each and every one had 
 suburbs attached to them ; by which is 
 meant the adjacent territory to the 
 extent of two thousand cubits on 
 every side ; of which see Num. 35. 5. 
 43. And the Lord gave unto Israel 
 all the land, &c. The foregoing his- 
 tory is here wound up by a suitable 
 acknowledgement of the faithfulness 
 of God, in the performance of all his 
 promises. The Canaanites, it is 
 true, were yet in possession of some 
 parts of the country, but they were 
 
152 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 44 <ix\nd the Lord gave them 
 rest round about, according to 
 all that he sware unto their fa- 
 thers : and 'there stood not a 
 man of ail their enemies before 
 them ; the Lord delivered all 
 their enemies into their hand. 
 
 45 ^There failed not aught 
 of any good thing which the 
 Lord had spoken unto the house 
 of Israel ; all- came to pass. 
 
 q ch. 1 . 23. & 22. 4. r Deut. 7. 21. s ch. 23. 14 
 
 SO far subdued, that ihey gave them 
 no serious molestation, and they 
 were enabled to sit down in their 
 possessions in the enjoyment of com- 
 parative rest and quiet. They had 
 as much of the land in actual posses- 
 sion as they could occupy ; and as 
 they increased God enabled them, 
 according to his promise, Ex. 23. 30, 
 to carry forward the work of exter- 
 mination, and obtain farther room 
 for their settlement. All the assu- 
 rances given to Joshua, ch. 1. 5, of 
 a successful tide of victories during 
 his life were accomplished, and as 
 to the subsequent annoyance and oc- 
 casional prevalence of their enemies, 
 it was owing solely to the supine- 
 ness and infidelity of Israel . So long 
 as they were obedient, they were uni- 
 formly triumphant and prosperous. 
 See notes on ch. 1. 5. ' The inviol- 
 able truth of God's promise, and the 
 performance of it to the utmost, is 
 what all the saints have been ready to 
 bear their testimony to ; and if in any 
 thing it has seemed to come short, 
 they have been as ready to own that 
 they themselves must bear all the 
 blame.' Henry. ' In due season all 
 the promises of God will be accom- 
 plished to his true people ; and their 
 believing hope, and patient waiting 
 and self-denying obedience, will ter- 
 minate in joyful songs of triumph, 
 and thankful celebrations of his 
 faithfulness, love, and power. Then 
 it will be universally -acknowledged 
 that there hath not failed ought of 
 any good thing which the Lord had 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 'pHEN Joshua called the Reu- 
 -^ benites, and the Gadites, and 
 the half tribe of Manasseh, 
 
 2 And said unto them, Ye 
 have kept ^all that Moses the 
 servant of the Lord command- 
 ed you, ^and have obeyed my 
 voice in. all that I commanded 
 
 you 
 
 3 Ye have not left your 
 
 20. Deut. 3. 
 
 b ch. 1. 16, 17. 
 
 spoken : nay, that he has exceeded 
 their largest expectations, and made 
 them more than conquerors, and 
 brought them to their delightful rest 
 and inheritance. May none of us at 
 that season be found among his en- 
 emies, ' who shall be destroyed for 
 ever.' ' Scott. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 1. Then Joshua called, &c. The 
 war being now, for the present at 
 least, concluded, and their services 
 no longer required. 
 
 3. Ye have not left your brethren 
 these onany diys unto this day. Pro- 
 bably for the space of seven years ; 
 for the people were occupied for this 
 period of time in subduing the land. 
 Yet it is very possible that in the in- 
 tervals of action, and when the rest 
 of the army had retired into winter- 
 quarters, some of them at least may 
 have visited their families across the 
 Jordan, or been relieved by other de- 
 tachments, though we have no clear 
 intimation that this was the fact. 
 Certain it is that these two tribes and 
 a half had always their quota of men, 
 originally amounting to 40,000, in 
 readiness at their respective posts, 
 for any service to which they might 
 be called, and after so long "a delay 
 we can easily imagine how ardently 
 they must have longed for the period 
 of their release, when they could re- 
 turn to their peaceful homes to be 
 met with a joyful welcome by their 
 wives and children. But like faith- 
 ful soldiers they await ihe full close 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 153 
 
 brethren these many days unto 
 this day but have kept tlie 
 charge of the commandment of 
 the Lord your God. 
 
 4 And now tlie Lord your 
 God hath given rest unto your 
 brethren, as he promised them : 
 therefore now return ye and get 
 you unto your tents, and unto 
 the land of your possession, 
 
 of the war and an honorable dis- 
 charge. Had they departed sooner 
 they would have been recalled as fu- 
 gitives or branded as cowards ; now 
 they retire with blessings and ap- 
 plause. So though our home in hea- 
 ven be ever so attractive, we are re- 
 quired to remain contentedly on earth 
 till our warfare be accomplished, 
 and, instead of anticipating our re- 
 moval, to wait for a due discharge 
 at the hands of our divine Leader. 
 
 4. Get you unto your tents. To 
 your settled habitations, frequently 
 called tents in the scri])turcs. 2 Sam. 
 18. 17. Hos. 9. 6. Mai. 2. 12. It is 
 probable, however, that they still re- 
 tained somewhat of the nomade hab- 
 its of their ancestors, and that tents 
 were by no means uncommon among 
 them. 
 
 5. Take diligent heed, &c. Josh- 
 ua thinks it not enough merely to 
 dismiss them with the commenda- 
 tions v/hich their zeal and fidelity 
 had so richly merited, but in the 
 spirit of a true servant of God, adds 
 to his encomiums the most pious 
 counsels and exhortations. It is not 
 simply a general admonition relative 
 to their religious duties, in which 
 case one or two brief intimations 
 would have sufficed, but the express- 
 ions are remarkably varied and ac- 
 cumulated, to show in the most for- 
 cible manner the unspeakable im- 
 portance to every child of man of a 
 life of devoted obedience. They 
 were to give the most diligent heed 
 to themselves to see that the love of 
 God, as the great ruling principle of 
 
 14 
 
 ^ which Moses the servant of 
 the Lord gave you on the other 
 side Jordan. 
 
 5 But '•take diligent heed to 
 do the commandment and the 
 law, which Moses the servant of 
 the Lord charged you, «to love 
 the Lord your God and to walk 
 in ail his ways, and to keep his 
 commandments, and to cleave 
 
 c N.im. 3J. 33. Deut. 29. 8. ch. 13. 8. d Deut. 
 6.6, 17. & 11. 2i eDeui. 10. 12. 
 
 action, was deeply seated in their 
 hearts ; this must be evinced by the 
 universality of their obediencQ, ex- 
 tending to every divine precept, and 
 still further illustrated by the con- 
 stancy ^ hurmlily, resolution, and af- 
 fection which were to characterise 
 their walk. Counsel like this can 
 never be unseasonable or superflu- 
 ous. Even the most established Chris- 
 tian, whose progress in holiness 
 has hitherto been most exemplary, 
 cannot deem himself beyond the need 
 of similar exhortations. As long as 
 he abides in the flesh he needs to be 
 ' put in remembrance of these things, 
 though he knows them, and be estab- 
 lished in the present truth.' Especi- 
 ally does he need these kindly moni- 
 tions when settled down, or about to 
 be settled down, in a state of peace 
 and prosperity ; for such a state is 
 one of peculiar danger to his spirit- 
 ual interests. These disbanded sol- 
 diers of Israel were now returning to 
 the bosom of their families, and the 
 peaceful prosecution of their world- 
 1}^ business. They needed, therefore, 
 to be reminded of the danger, of 
 which Moses had long before warn- 
 ed them, of forgetting the Lord 
 their God while enjoying * houses 
 which they built not, wells which 
 they digged not, and vineyards whieh 
 they planted not.' A constant mind- 
 fulness of God accordingly was the 
 great object of Joshua's solicitude for 
 his departing brethren, and in his ex- 
 ample we see the spirit of a Christian 
 parent or guardian, and what kind 
 of counsel he will be most anxious 
 
154 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 unto him, and to serve him with 
 
 all your heart, and with all your 
 
 soul. 
 
 . 6 So Joshua ''blessed them, 
 
 and sent them away : and they 
 
 went unto their tents. 
 
 7 II Now to the one half of 
 the tribe of Manasseh, Moses 
 had given possession in Bashan : 
 ebut unto the other half thereof 
 gave Joshua among their breth- 
 ren on this side Jordan west- 
 ward. And when Joshua sent 
 them away also unto their tents, 
 then he blessed them, 
 
 8 And he spake unto them, 
 saying, Return with much riches 
 unto your tents, and with very 
 much cattle, with silver, and 
 with gold, and with brass, and 
 with iron, and with very much 
 
 f Gen 47. 7. Ex. 39. 43. cli. 14. 13. 2 Sam. 6. 13. 
 Luke 21. 50. g ch. 17. 5. 
 
 to impart to the children of his charge 
 when about to retire from his imme- 
 diate control and enter upon the wide 
 stage of action in the world. 
 
 6. So Joshua blessed them. Spake 
 respectfully of iheir faithful services, 
 wished them every spiritual and tem- 
 poral good, and prayed earnestly to 
 God to protect and prosper them. 
 They undoubtedly returned with all 
 convenient expedition. It had been 
 a long absence, and the meeting was 
 no doubt proportionably happy. 
 Here below, business, journeys, voy- 
 ages, and other casualties are con- 
 tinually separating the dearest rela- 
 tives ; but they are glad to get home 
 in peace. How much happier for 
 the Christian pilgrim, when his war- 
 fare of life is accomplished, to cross 
 Jordan, and meet his brethren in 
 glory, the family of God ! 
 
 7. To the one half of the tribe of 
 Manasseh, &c. This appears to 
 come in here as a parenthesis^ inti- 
 mating the reason why the tribe was 
 divided into two parts. Moses had 
 
 raiment : '^divide the spoil of your 
 enemies with your brethren. 
 
 9 II And the children of Reu- 
 ben, and the children of Gad, 
 and the half-tribe of Manasseh 
 returned, and departed from the 
 children of Israel out of Shiloh, 
 which is in the land of Canaan, 
 to go unto >the country of Gil- 
 ead, to the land of their posses- 
 sion, whereof they were posses- 
 sed, according to the word of the 
 Lord by the hand of Moses. 
 
 10 H And when they came 
 unto the borders of Jordan, that 
 are in the land of Canaan, the 
 children of Reuben, and the 
 children of Gad, and the half- 
 tribe of Manasseh built there an 
 altar by Jordan, a great altar to 
 
 see to. 
 
 h Num. 31. 27. 1 Sam. 30. 14. 
 
 i Num. 32. 1, 26, 
 
 before assigned one half of them 
 their lot on the other side Jordan, 
 
 8. Divide the spoil of your enemies 
 with your brethren. Your brethren 
 that have remained on the other side 
 of the Jordan, protecting your fami- 
 lies, flocks, and goods. It is not im- 
 plied, however, that those who re- 
 mained at home were to have an 
 equal share of the spoil, as this would 
 have been manifestly unjust from 
 their superior numbers and inferior 
 claims. See on Num. 31. 27. 
 
 10. The borders of Jordan. Heb, 
 mb^'b^ gcliloth, properly the vnud- 
 ings, mcanderings made by the Jor- 
 dan in its course, sometimes assum- 
 ing almost a circular form, in ac- 
 cordance with the sense of the origi- 
 nal term, which is used in some ca- 
 ses to signify a ring. The altar was 
 doubtless erected on the eastern side 
 of the Jordan, but it might have been 
 situated upon a projecting tongue or 
 promontory of land, that extended 
 into the borders of Canaan proper. 
 The reader will observe, moreover| 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 155 
 
 11 IF And the children of 
 Israel ^heard say, Behold, the 
 children of Reuben, and the 
 children of Gad, and the half- 
 tribe of Manasseh, have built an 
 alter over against the land of 
 
 IcDeut 13. Vi, &c. Judg. 20. 12. 
 
 that the word ' are,' being printed in 
 Italics, does not occur in the origi- 
 nal, so that we may as properly ren- 
 der it ' is,' and understand the re- 
 lative ' that' of the river Jordan. 
 IT A great altar to see to. Very con- 
 spicuous. Heb. 'an altar great to 
 the sight.' A vast mass of earth, 
 stones, &c., elevated to a command- 
 ing height and visible at a great dis- 
 tance ; intended merely as a memo- 
 rial to all future ages that they be- 
 longed to the tribes of Israel, and that 
 they were worshippers of Israel's 
 God, but made in imitation of the 
 altar of burnt-offering at the taber- 
 nacle. Their motive in this was an 
 apprehension that at some future pe- 
 riod they might be disowned by their 
 brethren on account of their not hav- 
 ing their inheritance in the land of 
 Canaan proper. 
 
 1 1 . Had btdlt an altar over against 
 the kmd of Canaan. This may be 
 deemed conclusive proof that the site 
 of the altar was on the east of the 
 Jordan, in the inheritance of the two 
 tribes and a half, and not on the vjest. 
 There would have been no cause of 
 suspecting it designed for sacrifice, 
 had it been built on the Canaan side 
 of Jordan. 
 
 12. The lohole congregation — gath- 
 ered themselves together. Not per- 
 haps in their own persons, but by 
 their representatives the elders, who 
 transacted all affairs of this nature 
 in the name and behalf of the peo- 
 ple. IT To go up to war against 
 them. The case was one that laid a 
 just ground for suspicion. Having 
 no conception of an altar being erect- 
 ed for any purpose but that of sacri- 
 fice, the other tribes naturally regard- 
 ed it as an act of rebellion against 
 God, and determined instantly to go 
 and punish the supposed apostates. 
 
 Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, 
 at the passage of the children of 
 Israel. 
 
 12 And when the children of 
 Israel heard of it, nhe whole 
 congregation of the children of 
 
 By an express command Ex. 20. 24' 
 Lev. 17. 8, 9. Deut. 12. 5—13, the 
 
 nation had been prohibited from wor- 
 shipping God except at one altar, and 
 for what other than a religious pur- 
 pose could this structure have been 
 reared ? They moreover felt them- 
 selves impelled to this course by the 
 tenor of the law, Deut. 13. 7—13, re- 
 quiring the most summary judgment 
 to be executed upon the individuals 
 or cities that should be found setting 
 up an idolatrous worship. Their zeal 
 for the Lord of hosts under this im- 
 pression was very commendable. 
 Though these trans- Jordanic tribes 
 are their own brethren, bone of 
 their bone, companions with them in 
 tribulation in the wilderness, and 
 their generous allies in the wars of 
 Canaan, yet if ihey revolt from the 
 true God and turn to the service of 
 idols, or openly make a breach in the 
 unity of his worship, they are deter- 
 mined to treat them no longer as 
 brethren, but as enemies who were to 
 be cut ofi^as unsparingly as the Ca- 
 naanites themselves. Their holy 
 jealousy, therefore, in these circum- 
 stances was no more than a proper 
 expression of their intense concern 
 for the glory of God and the honor 
 of his institutions. But their zeal 
 Avas tempered with the meekness of 
 wisdom, and before proceeding to 
 extremities they determined to send 
 an embassy to inquire into the 
 facts, and if their suspicions were 
 confirmed, to see whether they could 
 not be prevailed upon by milder 
 methods to abandon their wicked en- 
 terprise and return to their allegi- 
 ance to the God of Israel. Instead 
 of saying that the case was too clear 
 to admit of doubt, or too gross to al- 
 low of apology, they evidently go on 
 the presumption that they moAj have 
 
156 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 Israel gathered themselves to- 
 gether at Shiloh, to go up to war 
 against them. 
 
 13 And the children of Israel 
 •"sent unto the children of Reu- 
 ben, and to the children of Gad, 
 and to the half-tribe of Manasseh 
 into the land of Gilead, "Phine- 
 has the son of Eleazar the priest, 
 
 14 And with him ten princes, 
 of each chief house a prince 
 throughout all the tribes of Is- 
 rael ; and °each one was a head 
 of the house of their fathers 
 among the thousands of Israel. 
 
 m Deut. 13. H. Judg. 20. 12. n Ex. 6. 23. Num. 
 as. 7. o Num. t. 4. 
 
 been mistaken in their construction 
 of the affair, and that at any rate it 
 was proper that ihey should not con- 
 demn their brethren unheard, but 
 should give them the opportunity of 
 justifying themselves in the measure 
 if it Avere possible. According to the 
 wise man's direction they will ' upon 
 good advice make war.' A noble 
 example of moderation, forbearance, 
 and charity, shines forth in this con- 
 duct. How many an unhappy strife 
 might be prevented by similar pre- 
 caution, by simply staying to inquire 
 calmly into that which constitutes the 
 avowed matter of offence ! Hoav often 
 would a few words of candid explan- 
 ation smother in embryo the most 
 angry controversies, violent quar- 
 rels, and embittered persecutions! 
 By barely adopting the prudent con- 
 duct of Israel on this occasion, indi- 
 viduals, families, churches, and com- 
 munities might, in a thousand instan- 
 ces, be saved a world of jealousy, en- 
 mity, discord, war and bloodshed. 
 
 13, 14. Phineas — and toith him teji 
 princes. Persons of age, experience, 
 and approved discretion, possessing 
 weight of character in the congrega- 
 tion , and likely to be influenced more 
 by the dictates of cool judgment than 
 of hasty passion, were very properly 
 selected to act in behalf of the people 
 
 15 IF And they came unto the 
 children of Reuben, and to the 
 children of Gad, and to the half- 
 tribe of Manasseh, unto the land 
 of Gilead, and they spake with 
 them saying, 
 
 16 Thus saith the whole con- 
 gregation of the Lord, What 
 trespass is this that ye have 
 committed against the God of Is- 
 rael, to turn away this day from 
 following the Lord, in that ye 
 have builded you an altar, Pthat 
 ye might rebel this day against 
 the Lord ? 
 
 p See Lev 17. 8, 9. Deut 12. 13, U. 
 
 on this occasion. The ardent tem- 
 perament of younger men could not 
 so safely be trusted on such a trying 
 emergency. 
 
 16. What trespass is this, &c. 
 Without acquitting the ten tribes of 
 the charge of somewhat of an undue 
 precipitancy in taking up their un- 
 favorable impressions, the matter in 
 question was one on which they were 
 justified in feeling strongly, and act- 
 ing promptly. As it now appeared 
 it was a step fraught Avith the most 
 momentous consequences to the 
 whole body of Israel. Repeated oc- 
 casions had arisen wherein the sin 
 of individuals had been visited upon 
 the entire nation. The iniquity of 
 Achan had not long since caused the 
 defeat of Israel's hosts, together with 
 the loss of six and thirty men; and 
 not very long before the connection 
 of many with the Midianitish women 
 had brought destruction on twenty- 
 four thousand Israelites in one day. 
 AVhat then could be expected, but 
 that, if those who had erected the al- 
 tar should go unpunished, God would 
 punish all the other tribes as partners 
 in their guilt 1 And if formerly one 
 man's sin wrought so much indigna- 
 tion, what would be the consequen- 
 ces of the apostacy of two tribes and 
 a half? To avert so terrible an evil 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 157 
 
 17 75 the iniquity ^^ofPeortoo 
 little for us, from which we are 
 not cleansed until this day, al- 
 though there was a plague in 
 the congregation of the Lord, 
 
 18 But that ye must turn 
 away this day from following 
 the Lord ? and it will be, seeing 
 ye rebel to-day against the 
 Lord, that to-morrow 'he will 
 
 q Num 25. 3, 1. Deut. 4. 3. r Num. 16. 22. 
 
 therefore they felt to be their bound- 
 en duty at all events, and in order to 
 this nothing could be more effectual 
 than plainly reminding them of the 
 sad effects of past transgression. ' It 
 is good to recollect and improve those 
 instances of the wrath of God which 
 have fallen out in our own time, and 
 of which we ourselves have been eye 
 witnesses. The remembrance of 
 great sins committed formerly, 
 should engage us to stand upon our 
 guard against the least occasions and 
 beginnings of sin ; for the way of sin 
 is down-hill.' Henry. 
 
 17. Is the iniquity of Peor too lit- 
 tle for us? The iniquity of our wor- 
 shipping Peor. Num. 25. 3. Deut. 4. 
 3. Does this sin seem so small to us 
 that we cannot be content with that, 
 but must go on adding iniquity to in- 
 iquity 7 IT From toJiick we are not 
 cleansed until this day. That is, of 
 which we have not ceased to suffer 
 the consequences to this day. The 
 wrath of God was indeed so far ap- 
 peased on that occasion by the zeal 
 of Phineas, that he stayed the farther 
 ravages of the plague, yet the shame, 
 the disgrace, the infamy of that trans- 
 action still remained, and more than 
 this, some tokens of the divine dis- 
 pleasure still continued to linger 
 among the congregation. As we 
 see from the case of David, men may 
 repent of a heinous transgressiori 
 and be graciously freed from the 
 guilt of it, while at the same time 
 they may continue to suffer from its 
 evil consequences even to the close 
 of life. In the present instance, 
 14* 
 
 be wroth with the whole con- 
 gregation of Israel. 
 
 19 Notwithstanding, if the 
 land of your possession le un- 
 clean, then pass ye over unto the 
 land of the possession of the Lord, 
 "wherein the Lord's tabernacle 
 dvvelleth, and take possession 
 among us : but rebel not against 
 the Lord, nor rebel agaiiist us, 
 
 s ch. 18. 1. 
 
 however, the words may perhaps im- 
 ply that some measure of that cor- 
 rupt leaven still remained among 
 them, that the infection was not 
 wholly cured, and that though sup- 
 pressed for the present, it was still 
 secretly working and was liable co 
 break again with fresh violence, as 
 is also intimated in the words of 
 Joshua, Gh. 24. 23. 
 
 19. If the land of your possession 
 be unclean. If you* have any preju- 
 dice against the land of your inher- 
 itance; if you think it not equally 
 with ours under the divine favor 
 and protection. They imagined that 
 the two tribes and a half might think 
 their land less" holy for the want of 
 an altar and such tokens of the di- 
 vine presence as pertained to the 
 tabernacle. An opinion was gener- 
 ally prevalent among the azicients, 
 that those countries, in which there 
 \vas no place set apart lor the w^or- 
 ship of God, were unhallowed and 
 unclean. The proposal displayed a 
 very generous and disinterested spi- 
 rit, a willingness to make sacrifices 
 in order to preserve purity, and con- 
 sequently peace. Rather than they 
 should set up a separate altar from 
 a groundless dissatisfaction with 
 their inheritance, they w^ould cheer- 
 fully welcome them back to the 
 other side of the Jordan, ' where the 
 Lord's tabernacle dwelt,' though they 
 should straiten themselves by so do- 
 ing. But what was a little inconve- 
 nience to themselves w^hen such an 
 evil was to be averted, and such a 
 
158 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 in building you an altar besides 
 the altar of the Lord our God. 
 20 tDid not Achan the son 
 of Zerah commit a trespass in 
 the accursed thing, and wrath 
 fell on all the congregation of 
 Israel ? and that man perished 
 not alone in his iniquity. 
 
 t ch.7. 1, 5. 
 
 ciliatjng, how self-denying, how 
 eager for accommodation, is the 
 spirit of true piety ! V But rebel not, 
 against the Lord. Implying that a de- 
 liberate departure from the instituted 
 mode of worship is nothing short of 
 downright rebellion against the God 
 of heaven. Compare with this the 
 parallel expression of Samuel rela- 
 tive to the conduct of Saul, 1 Sam. 
 15. 13. ir Beside the altar of the 
 Lord onr God. In addition to it. 
 
 20. And that man perished not alone 
 in his i7iiquity. The idea expressed 
 in these words of our common trans- 
 lation is unquestionably conveyed by 
 the original; still it is not an exact 
 version. The literal rendering of 
 the Heb. is, ' and he, one man, did 
 not perish in his iniquity.' That is, 
 though he were but a single individ- 
 ual, and it might have been supposed 
 that his death v/ould have been the 
 winding up of his existence in every 
 respect, yet in realit)'- such was his 
 relation to the whole people as a sin- 
 ner, such the connection between his 
 offence and the punishment of the 
 whole nation, that in one sense he 
 may be said to have survived his 
 own death. He still lived in the 
 fearful effects of his transgression, 
 as visited upon the entire congrega- 
 tion. His life and his crime did not 
 terminate together. A strikingly 
 analogous passage occurs Num 
 27.3. 
 
 21. The7i the children of Beuben — 
 answered. If we find somewhat to 
 blame in each of the opposite parties ; 
 in the one, an undue precipitation in 
 building the altar, and in the other, 
 an undue hastiness m ascribing it to 
 
 21 IT Then the children of Reu- 
 ben, and the children of Gad, 
 and the half-tribe of Manasseh 
 answered, and said unto the 
 heads of the thousands of Israel, 
 
 22 The Lord "God of gods, 
 the Lord God of gods, he ^know- 
 eth, and Israel he shall know ; if 
 
 uDeut. lO.n. xlKin. 8, 39. Job 10. 7. & 23. 
 10. Ps. 4'1.21. & 139.1,2. Jer. 12. 3. 2 Cor. 11. 
 11,31. 
 
 wrong intentions, we yet behold very 
 much to admire in both. When the 
 accusers found themselves mistaken, 
 they did not shift their ground, and 
 condemn their brethren for impru- 
 dence ; nor w^hen the accused had 
 evinced their innocence, did they up- 
 braid their accusers with hasty, rash, 
 or unjust surmises. Aware that the 
 measure was easily susceptible of the 
 interpretation their brethren had put 
 upon it, they took their reproofs, se- 
 vere as they were, in good part, and 
 instead of angry retorts or recrimi- 
 nations, gave them the soft answer 
 which turneth away wrath, and by a 
 candid andhonestdeclaration of their 
 real intentions at once set themselves 
 right in the opinion of their breth- 
 ren. 
 
 22. The Lord God of gods. The 
 original Avords, ni!l"i f^ni&i ^?^ -^^ 
 Elohini Yehovah, are exceedingly 
 emphatic, and cannot be easily trans- 
 lated. They are the three principal 
 names by which the supreme God 
 was known among the Hebrews, and 
 may be rendered ' The strong God, 
 Elohim Jehovah' which is nearly 
 the version of Luther, ' Der starke 
 Gott, der Herr,' the strong God, the 
 Lord. q. d. ' that almighty and om- 
 niscient Jehovah, whom we as well 
 as you acknowledge and adore as 
 the God of gods, intinitely superior 
 to all that are called gods — to him 
 we appeal as knowing our inno- 
 ctncy, and that we would shudder at 
 the thought of forsaking or dividing 
 his worship.' By this solemn ap- 
 peal they would convince their breth- 
 ren that their religious faith was 
 unchanged, and their future conduct, 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 159 
 
 it he in rebellion, or if in trans- 
 gression against the Lord, (save 
 us not this day,) 
 
 23 That we have built us an 
 altar to turn from following the 
 Lord, or if to offer thereon 
 burnt-offering, or meat-offering, 
 or if to offer peace-offerings 
 thereon, let the Lord himself 
 ^require it ; 
 
 24 And if we have not rather 
 done it for fear of this thing, 
 
 y Deul. 18. 19. 1 Sam 20. 16. 
 
 they also intimate, should satisfy all 
 Israel that with clean hands and an 
 upright heart they had engaged in 
 this undertaking. Where there is 
 evidence of a deep and heart-felt rev- 
 erence for God, there is the best se- 
 curity for pure intentions and a 
 blameless course ofconduct. IT Save 
 lis not this day. Let God the Judge 
 cause us to perish by the sword of 
 our enemies or of our brethren, if 
 either in principle or practice we 
 have knowingly departed from him. 
 It is a sudden apostrophe to God, 
 prompted by strong emotion and fre- 
 quently occurring in speeches of a 
 very earnest and vehement charac- 
 ter, and highly expressive of- con- 
 scious integrity. 
 
 23. Let the Lord himself require it. 
 Requite it. Let him call us to ac- 
 count for it and punish us as the of- 
 fence may deserve, as the word ' re- 
 quire ' often signifies. See on Gen. 
 9. 5. Dcut. 18. 19. 1 Sam. 20. 16. 
 The trans- Jordanic tribes were ac- 
 cused of erecting an altar prohibited 
 by the law, and that with the design 
 of apostatising from the true religion. 
 They in their answer imply that the 
 law is not violated except by altars 
 intended for sacrifice ; but such was 
 not theirs, as they show by specify- 
 ing the three principal uses of the 
 divinely appointed altar, and deny- 
 ing that they contemplated either of 
 these uses in erecting theirs. 
 
 24. For fear of this thing. What 
 ihis thing was they immediately go 
 
 saying, In time to come your 
 children might speak unto our 
 children, saying, What have ye 
 to do with the Lord God of 
 Israel ? 
 
 25 For the Lord hath made 
 Jordan a border between us and 
 you, ye children of Reuben and 
 children of Gad ; ye have no 
 part in the Lord. So shall your 
 children make our children cease 
 from fearin": the Lord. 
 
 on to state. They were apprehen- 
 siv^e of certain consequences result- 
 ing from their local separation from, 
 their brethren, which are fully de- 
 tailed in the ensuing verses. The 
 original word for ' fear' denotes a 
 great perplexity and solicitude of 
 mind bordering upon actual distress. 
 It occurs Prov. 12. 25, where it sig- 
 nifies affliction. The amount of 
 their answer is, that they were actu- 
 ated by motives directly the reverse 
 of those attributed to them. IT In 
 time to come. Pleb. * to-morrow.' 
 See note on ch. 4. 6. 
 
 25. So shall your children make 
 our children cease from fearing the 
 Lord. The danger to which they 
 allude was not immediate, but pros- 
 pective. There was little probabil- 
 ity of their being disowned by their 
 brethren of the present generation, 
 but their children might be looked 
 upon in after ages as having no in- 
 terest in the God of Israel, or his in- 
 stituted worship. The consequence 
 would be, that, being cut off from 
 public ordinances, the life and pow- 
 er of religion would die out from 
 among them, they would become 
 reckless of their duty and allegiance 
 to God, wickedness would abound, 
 and they would sink to a state of 
 comparative heathenism. This was 
 a prospect of which they could not 
 endure to think. It was a state of 
 things to be by all means averted ; 
 and though it would perhaps have 
 been better to have consulted Joshua. 
 
160 
 
 JOSHUA, 
 
 [A. C. 1444. 
 
 26 Therefore we said, Let us 
 now prepare to build us an altar, 
 not for burnt-offering, nor for 
 sacrifice : 
 
 27 But that it may le ^a wit- 
 ness between us, and you, and 
 our generations after us, that we 
 might ^dothe service of the Lord 
 before him with our burnt-offer- 
 ings, and with our sacrifices, and 
 with our peace-offerings ; that 
 your children may not say to our 
 children in time to come, Ye 
 liave no part in the Lord. 
 
 2S Therefore said we, that it 
 shall be, when they should so 
 say to us or to our generations 
 in time to come, that we may 
 say again, Behold the pattern of 
 the altar of the Lord, which our 
 fathers made, not for burnt-offer- 
 
 7. Gen 31. -IS. ch 21. -27. 
 6, 11, 12, 17, 18, 2S, 27. 
 
 or rather to have taken counsel of the 
 Lord, respecting this measure before 
 they carried it into execution, yet 
 this solicitude for the spiritual wel- 
 fare of their posterity cannot be too 
 highly praised. Nothing weighs 
 more deeply on the truly pious heart, 
 than the transmission to the latest 
 generations of those inestimable re- 
 ligious privileges, which have been 
 the comfort and blessing of their fa- 
 thers. If the outward institutions of 
 piety are wanting in any commun- 
 ity, the very existence of piety itself 
 is endangered, and where that is 
 the case, the judgments instead of 
 the mercies of heaven will descend, 
 as the inheritance of posterity. Yet, 
 alas ! how much more anxious are 
 thou.sands to entail upon their de- 
 scendants ample worldly possessions, 
 even at the hazard of all their better 
 interests, than to perpetuate among 
 them those invaluable means of 
 grace which take hold on eternal 
 fife ! God forbid that we should 
 ever be willing that our children 
 
 ings, nor for sacrifices ; but it is 
 a witness between us and yc-u. 
 
 29 God forbid that we should 
 rebel against the Lord, and turn 
 this day from following the 
 Lord, 'to build an altar for 
 burnt-offerings for meat-offer- 
 ings, or for sacrifices, besides 
 the altar of the Lord our God 
 that is before his tabernacle. 
 
 30 ^ And when Phinehas the 
 priest, and the princes of the 
 congregation, and heads of the 
 thousands of Israel which were 
 with him, heard the words that 
 the children of Reuben, and the 
 children of Gad, and the child- 
 ren of Manasseh spake, it pleas- 
 ed them. 
 
 31 And Phinehas the son of 
 Eleazar the priest said unto the 
 
 b Deuu 12. 13, 11. 
 
 should dwell in splendid mansions, 
 or revel in accumulated riches, on 
 which ' Ichabod' is written! 
 
 27. That it may be a udtness. An 
 indelible monument and assurance 
 that we are as truly the Lord's people 
 as yourselves, and entitled to share 
 unto perpetuity in the same distin- 
 guishing services and privileges. 
 
 28. Say to us, or to our generations 
 ill time to come. Rather according 
 to the well-known Heb. idiom, ' say 
 to u.s,,even to our generations.' It is 
 evident that their fears concerned 
 their offspring, and not themselves. 
 IF That we viay say again. That is, 
 that our posterity, who shall be then 
 living, may say" See on ch. 4. 23. 
 IT Behold ihe pattern. Rather the 
 copy ; the exact representation and 
 resemblance. This they would have 
 regarded as a sign, a memorial, that 
 they both acknowledged and served 
 the same God, and both made use of 
 one and the same altar. 
 
 31. This day we perceive that the 
 Lord is among us. Rendered in the 
 
A. C. 1144.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 161 
 
 children of Reuben, and to the 
 children of Gad and to the child- 
 ren of Manasseh, This day we 
 perceive that the Lord is -^among 
 us, because ye have not commit- 
 ted this trespass a<iainst the 
 Lord : now ye have delivered 
 the children of Israel out of the 
 hand of the Lord. 
 
 32 ^ And Phinehas son of Ele- 
 azar the priest, and the princes, 
 returned from the children of 
 Reuben, and from the children 
 
 c Lev. 26. U, 12. 2Chr. 15. 2. 
 
 Targum of Jonathan, ' This day 
 we know that the majesty of the 
 Lord dwelleth among us, because ye 
 have not committed this prevarica- 
 tion against the Word of the Lord, 
 and thus ye have delivered the child- 
 ren of Israel from the hand of the 
 Word of the Lord.' The sense un- 
 doubtedly is, that the happy issue of 
 the affair proved conclusively that 
 God was among them by his prevent- 
 ing goodness. Had their motives 
 been less pure and conscientious 
 than they were, the result would 
 have been unquestionably far more 
 disastrous. But as all unhappy con- 
 sequences had been avoided, the in- 
 ference was inevitable that God was 
 that day in the midst of them, that 
 he had approved the spirit and mo- 
 tives in which the step originated, 
 and, accordingly, would not suffer 
 a well meant design to be productive 
 of the injurious and mounrful effects 
 which they at one time apprehended. 
 The obvious lesson taught by the 
 passage is, that pure and pious mo- 
 tives in our conduct secure the pre- 
 sence of God with us, and conse- 
 quently an exemption from the evils 
 and disasters that would be sure to 
 follow a contrary course. ' When a 
 man's ways please the Lord, even 
 his enemies shall be at peace with 
 him.' How delightful to recognise 
 the hand of a gracious Providence 
 overruling the most untoward events 
 
 of Gad, out of the land of Gi- 
 lead, unto the land of Canaan, 
 to the children of Israel, and 
 brought them word again. 
 
 33 And the thing pleased the 
 children of Israel ; and the child- 
 ren of Israel ^'blessed God, and 
 did not intend to go up against 
 them in battle to destroy the 
 land wherein the children of 
 Reuben and Gad dwelt. 
 
 34 And the children of Reu- 
 ben and the children of Gad 
 
 d 1 Chr. 29. 20. Neh. 8. 6. Dan. 2 19. Luke 2. 
 
 and brightening the darkest pro- 
 spects, in reference to his humble 
 servants, who are aiming to walk in 
 his fear! How desirable to afford 
 to others the evidence that God is 
 with us, and smiling upon us by the 
 happy and prosperous results of all 
 our undertakings ! IT Yc have de- 
 livered the children of Israel o^U of the 
 hand of the Lord. As it is a sinful 
 and perverse deportment that deliv- 
 ers us into the hand of God for pim- 
 ishment, so it is only repentance, 
 and a corresponding humble and 
 conscientious walk that will deliver 
 us out of his hand. The effect of our 
 example on the public welfare should 
 operate at once to deter us from 
 transgression, and engage us in the 
 practice of every moral virtue. 
 
 32. Brought them word again. 
 Made a full and faithful report of the 
 whole transaction upon their return 
 to their brethren. 
 
 33. Did not intend to go up. Heb. 
 ' said not to go up,' So 2 Sam. 2L 
 16, ' And Ishbi-benob— -thought to 
 have slain David;' Heb. 'said to 
 have slain ;' i. e. purposed, intend- 
 ed. They renotmced the intention 
 of going up. They had at iirst in- 
 tended it, but the statements of their 
 delegates convinced them there was 
 no necessity for it, and they accord- 
 ingly abandoned the idea entirely. 
 IT To destroy the land. To lay waste , 
 to ravage, to make desolate the land. 
 
162 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 called the altar Ed : for it shall 
 be a witness between us that the 
 Lord is God. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIH. 
 
 A ND it came to pass a long 
 
 -^time after that the Lord 
 
 ''had given rest unto Israel from 
 
 all their enemies round about 
 
 ch. 21. 44. & i-2. 4. 
 
 34. Called the altar Ed. It is re- 
 markable that the last word in this 
 clause, ' Ed,' a witness, is not found in 
 the original, at least in the common 
 copies, though others are said to 
 contain it, and it occurs in the Ara- 
 bic and Syriac versions. Our trans- 
 lators have properly supplied it in 
 Italics, as it is the word which the 
 sense evidently requires. How it 
 comes to be lacking in the common 
 editions of the Heb. it is impossible 
 to determine. This altar, upon which 
 there was probably an inscription, 
 was henceforth to be a witness of 
 the relation in which they stood to 
 God and to Israel, and of their con- 
 currence with the rest of ihe tribes 
 in the great fundamental truth, that 
 ' the Lord he is God,' he and no other, 
 and that he was to be w^orshipped 
 in no other way, and at no other 
 place, than he had himself prescrib- 
 ed. It was, moreover, a witness to 
 posterity of their care to transmit 
 their religion pure and unimpaired 
 to them, and would be a witness 
 against them, if ever they should 
 forsake God and turn to idolatry. 
 — From the incidents above related 
 we may gather, (1.) That the best 
 meant things may afford cause of 
 suspicion. As those are sometimes 
 su.spected of aiming to effect a breach 
 in the unity of the church, who are 
 most diligently laboring to heal her 
 divisions, and to preserve to poster- 
 ity the purity of her doctrines and 
 worship. (2.) It can do our breth- 
 ren no injury to be jealous over them 
 with a godly jealou.-fly, even when 
 we may be mistaken {n our fears. 
 (3.) Nothing will so soon kindle the 
 
 that Joshua '^ waxed old and 
 stricken in age. 
 
 2 And Joshua '^called for all 
 Israel, and for their elders, and 
 for their heads, and for their 
 judges, and for their officers, 
 and said unto them I am old and 
 stricken in age : 
 
 3 And ye have seen all that 
 
 b ch. 13. 1. c Dent. 31. 28. ch. 24. 1. I Chr. 28. \. 
 
 zeal of a faithful and devoted spirit, 
 as the symptoms of apostacy from 
 God in others, because to such an 
 one nothing is so dear as his glory. 
 (4.) Rising corruptions and danger- 
 ous errors should, in the spirit of 
 meekness, be resisted as soon as 
 broached, lest the evil leaven, being 
 permitted to spread, should leaven 
 the whole mass. (5.) The testi- 
 mony of a good conscience is the 
 most effectual support against the 
 heaviest accusations. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 1. A long time after, &c. This is 
 supposed to have been m the last or 
 one hundred and tenth year of Josh- 
 ua's life, about thirteen or fourteen 
 years after the conquest of Canaan, 
 and seven after the division of the 
 land among the tribes. II Old and 
 stricken in years. Heb. ' old and 
 come, or gone, into days,' 
 
 2. Called for all Israel, and for 
 their elders, &c. Or, Heb. 'called 
 for all Israel, even for their elders,' 
 &c. clearly indicating that by ' all 
 Israel,' is not meant the whole body 
 of the nation assembled in their own 
 persons, but their elders, heads, 
 judges, &c., convened and acting 
 representatively in the name of the 
 people. They could easily commu- 
 nicate the substance of the charge 
 in their several districts, so that all 
 Israel could hear. This appears to 
 have been the usual method of con- 
 ducting the great and important af- 
 fairs of the nation. See on Num. 
 16. 1, Whether this assembly was 
 held at Timnath-serah, where Josh- 
 ua dwelt, or at Shiloh, where the 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 163 
 
 the Lord your God hath done 
 unto all these nations because 
 of you ; for the ''Lord your God 
 is he that hath fought for you. 
 
 4 Behold, *I have divided un- 
 to you by lot these nations that 
 remain, to be an inheritance for 
 your tribes, from Jordan, with 
 all the nations that I have cut 
 off, even unto the great sea west- 
 ward. 
 
 5 And the Lord your God, 
 
 d Ex. 14. 14. ch. 10. 14, 42. 
 10. 
 
 :ch. 13. 2,6. & 18. 
 
 ark was, it is not possible to deter" 
 mine. From the solemn object of 
 the meeting we should infer that the 
 latter was the place. 
 
 3. Ye have seen, &c. Joshua here 
 speaks with characteristic modesty 
 and humility. The scope of his ad- 
 dress is to engage the covenant 
 people, and their seed after them, to 
 persevere in uphnlding'the true faith 
 and worship of the God of Israel. 
 In order to this, he begins by putting 
 them in mind of the divine interpo- 
 sitions in their behalf. He appeals 
 to what their own eyes had seen, but 
 so as at once to abase himself and 
 exalt the Most High. He does not 
 say, ' Ye have seen what I have 
 done, or what you have done, but 
 what God himself has done.' They 
 were mere instruments in his hand. 
 It was no doubt natural for the Is- 
 raelites to look upon their veteran 
 general, who had led them on from 
 conquest to conquest, with the most 
 profound respect, and to say, ' Had 
 we not had such a commander, we 
 had never succeeded so remarkably 
 in obtaining possession of this good- 
 ly land.' But Joshua will leave 
 them no ground for such reflections. 
 He will not divide the glory of their 
 success with God. He shows them 
 that their enemies had been defeated, 
 not by his prowess or theirs, but sole- 
 ly because the Lord their God had 
 fought for them. The battle was 
 
 fhe shall expel them from before 
 you, and drive them from out of 
 your sight ; and ye shall possess 
 their land, eas the Lord your 
 God hath promised unto you. 
 
 6 ''Be ye therefore very cour- 
 ageous to keep and to do all 
 that is written in the book of the 
 law of Moses, 'that ye turn not 
 aside there-from to the right 
 hand or to the left ; 
 
 7 That ye ''come not among 
 
 f Ex 23. 30. & 33. 2. & 34. U. Deut. 11. 23. ch. 
 13. 6. g Num. 33. 53. h ch 1. 7. i Dent. 5. 
 
 32, & 23. 14. k Ex. 23. 33. Deul. 7. 2, 3. Prov. 
 4. 14. Kph. 5. II. 
 
 the Lord's, and not his, and He was 
 entitled to all the glory. This sen- 
 timent is strikingly reiterated by the 
 Psalmist, Ps. 44, 3, 'For they got 
 not the land in possession by their 
 own sword, neither did their own 
 arm save them ; but thy right hand, 
 and thine arm, and the light of thy 
 countenance, because thou hadst a 
 favor unto them.' The leader of 
 Israel, in these words, speaks the 
 language of every pious heart, in 
 view of every species of worldly suc- 
 cess and prosperity. 
 
 4. / Jiave divided unto you by lot. 
 Heb. ' I have caused it to fall unto 
 you.' IT Those nations that remain. 
 "That remain yet unconquered; 
 where ' nations' stands for the land, 
 or country which they occupied ; as 
 on the contrary, ' land' often stands 
 for 'nation' or 'people.' Remnants 
 of the devoted Caananites still lin- 
 gered about the country, though their 
 armies had long since been broken 
 to pieces, and they were disabled 
 from making any effectual head 
 against Israel. 
 
 5. And drive them — out — and ye 
 shall possess. The same Heb. word, 
 -ja^-n yarash, is here used to signify, 
 to expel from an inheritance, and to 
 succeed those thus expelled. Ye 
 shall disinherit them from before 
 you, and ye shall inherit the land in 
 their stead. 
 
 6. Be ye therefore very courageous 
 
164 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 thesG nations, these that remain 
 
 among you ; neither 'make men- your God, as ye have done unto 
 
 tion of the name of their gods, 
 nor cause to swear hy them, 
 neither serve them, nor bow 
 yourselves unto them : 
 
 I F.x. 25. U. Ps. 15. 4. Jer. 5 7. Zeph. 1. 5 
 See Num 32 38. 
 
 to keep and to do. See observations 
 on ch. 1. 7—9. 
 
 7. That ye come not avtoiig these 
 nations. Thatye have no familiar in- 
 tercourse, nor form intimate connect- 
 ions with them ; which could not be 
 done without contracting some 
 measure of the defilement which 
 their idolatries and iniquities had 
 brought upon them. ' Evil commu- 
 nications corrupt good manners.' 
 The prohibition, as appears from v. 
 12, is pointed especially at intermar- 
 riages with their heathen neighbors. 
 If Neither make mention of the name 
 of their gods. Or, Heb. ' cause to be 
 remembered.' Instead of showing 
 the least respect to their idols, they 
 were to endeavor, on the contrary, to 
 bury the remembrance of them in 
 perpetual oblivion ; let their very 
 names be forgotten. So David says 
 of false gods, Ps. 16. 4, 'Their 
 names will I not take up into my 
 lips.' On the same principle, God 
 says, Hos. 2. 16, 17, ' At that day 
 thou shalt call me Ishi ; and shall 
 call me no more Baali. For I will 
 take away the names of Baalim 
 out of her mouth, and they shall no 
 more be remembered by their name.' 
 Though Baali and Ishi signify the 
 same thing, yet as the former was 
 the appropriated name of idols, he 
 would have it no longer employed, 
 even in reference to himself. The 
 habitual mention of the names of 
 idols would go gradually to diminish 
 the abhorrence in Avhich they were 
 bound to hold them, and eventually 
 to introduce the custom of swearing 
 by them in common discourse. This 
 would infallibly tend to the general 
 prevalence, if not to the formal es- 
 tablishment, of idolatrous practices 
 
 8 But ""cleave unto the Lord 
 
 this day. 
 
 9 "For the Lord hath driven 
 out from before you great na- 
 tions and strong : but as for 
 
 (l 13. 4. ch. 22. 5. 
 
 m Dent 10. 20. & 11 22 
 Deut. a. -3. 
 
 among them. In like manner it may 
 be seriously questioned, whether the 
 paintings, statues, and poems, which 
 abound in Christian countries, re- 
 plete with allusions to the detestable 
 heathen mythology, have not a most 
 pernicious effect in lessening a just 
 abhorrence of the Greek and Roman 
 idolatry, and thus subserving the 
 cause of scepticism, infidelity, and 
 vice. H Nor cause to sioear by them. 
 To swear by any god was virtually 
 to acknowledge him as a witness 
 and avenger in the case of the viola- 
 tion of contracts, and so in effect a 
 suitable object of religious worship. 
 It is implied that they were not to 
 make any covenants with idolaters, 
 because in confirming their coven- 
 ants they would swear by their 
 idols. ^ Let no Israelite be a party 
 to any transaction which should in- 
 volve such a consequence. Neither 
 swear by them yourselves, nor cause 
 others by your procurement to do it.' 
 By neglecting these slighter occa- 
 sions of idolatry they might be im- 
 perceptibly betrayed into it, and led 
 along by degrees, till they had final- 
 ly reached its highest step, which 
 was serving false gods, and bowing 
 down to them, in direct transgres- 
 ,sion of the letter of the second com- 
 mandment. 
 
 8. Cleave unto the Lord your God, 
 &c. Delight in him, depend upon 
 him, devote yourselves to his glory, 
 and continue to do so unto the end, 
 as )'0U have done unto this day ; 
 ever since arriving in Canaan. For 
 since that time, though there might 
 have been many things more or less 
 amiss among them, yet the nation at 
 large had behaved much better than 
 they did in the wilderness, and had 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 165 
 
 you, °no man hatli been able to 
 static! before you unto this day. 
 
 10 pQiie man of you shall 
 chase a thousand : for the Lord 
 your God, ho //. is that (ighteth 
 for you, -^as he hath promised 
 you. 
 
 11 '"Take good heed there- 
 fore unto yourselves, that ye 
 love the Lord your God. 
 
 12 Else if ye do in any wise 
 'go back, and cleave unto the 
 
 och. I. 5 p Lev. 56. S. Deul, 3i- 30 St-e Jnds. 
 3. ol. . 15 15. 2Sani. 23. S. q Ex. 11. 'i. ■* -3 
 
 •27 Deui 3. ^i- rcii. :.2 5. s lieu. IJ :^8 3J. 
 2 Pet. 2. -M, U\. 
 
 not been guilty of any open or gross 
 apostacy from God, but had followed 
 him with exemplary fidelity. 
 
 9. Par the Lord hath driven out. 
 Or, as the origiaal will admit of be- 
 ing rendered, ' and the Lord will 
 drive out,' &c., and so the whole 
 verse may be rendered in the future 
 instead of the past, in which case it 
 will connect more easily and natu- 
 rally with the verse ensuing. TI No 
 mati hath been abU to stand before 
 you. That is, when it actually came 
 to an issue. Some of the ancient in- 
 habitants did indeed yet remain un- 
 conquered, bat in every engagement 
 the Israelites came off victorious. 
 In this sense no man had been able 
 to stand before them. Wherever an 
 enemy had been encountered he had 
 been overcome. 
 
 11. Take i!;ood heed therefore unto 
 yo-urr^lccs. Intimating the condition 
 on which the foregoing promise 
 should be made good to them. Let 
 not the assurance of the divine fa- 
 vor, presence, and protection tend to 
 relax your diligence, or weaken the 
 sense of obligation to love and serve 
 liim ; on the contrary, let it operate 
 as an additional motive to the most 
 intense affection and devotedness 
 towards your heavenly benefactor. 
 As the temptations arising from the 
 presence of your corrupt neighbors, 
 and your own peace and prosperity, 
 are greater than they were in the 
 15 
 
 remnant of these nations, even 
 these that remain among you, 
 and shall ^make marriages with 
 them, and go in unto them, and 
 they to you : 
 
 13 Know for a certainty tliat 
 "the Lord your God will no 
 more drive out any 0/ th.ese na- 
 tions from before you : ^but they 
 sliall be snares and traps unto 
 you, and scourges in your sides, 
 and tiiorns in your eyes untd ye' 
 
 I n.„t. 7. 3. '■ Jvi c- '■ 
 S3 00. JJcui. 7. 16. 1 lii; 
 
 wilderness, it will require greater 
 watcltfulness and diligence to keep 
 yourselves continually approved in 
 the sight of heaven, 
 
 13. Knmo for a certainty. Heb. 
 'knowing thou shall know.' ^ 
 They shall be snares and traps unto 
 you. You will be caught by their 
 wiles ; their baits and allurements 
 will seduce you into crime, into a 
 participation of their vile impieties j 
 and as a consequence of this, taking 
 advantage of your weakness, they 
 will vex and harrass, torment and 
 oppress you, and as willing though 
 unconscious instruments in the 
 hand of a chastising providence, will 
 be as continual goads, spurs, or 
 scourges in your sides, or as annoy- 
 ing thorns in your eyes. They will 
 kill or drive away your cattle, burn 
 or steal your harvests, lay waste your 
 vineyards, alarm or plunder your 
 houses, and in a thousand ways be a 
 perpetual source of trouble. Nay, 
 so completely shall they at length ob- 
 tain the ascendancy, that your re- 
 spective conditions shall be reversed"; 
 instead of exterminating them from 
 the bounds of Canaan, you shall 
 yourselves fall before them, or be ut- 
 terly driven from your inheritance, 
 from the ' good land ' which the Lord 
 himself hath given. What could 
 tend more powerfully to arm their 
 spirits against the forbidden allian- 
 ces than the prospect of such calam- 
 
166 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 perish from off this good land 
 which the Lord your God hath 
 given you. 
 
 14 And behold, this day >I am 
 going the way of all the earth ; 
 and ye know in all your hearts 
 and in all your souls, that 'not 
 one thing hath failed of all the 
 good things which the Lord 
 your God spake concerning 
 you ; all are come to pass unto 
 you, and not one thing hath 
 failed thereof 
 
 15 ''Therefore it shall come 
 to pass, that as all good things 
 are come upon you, which the 
 
 y I Kill. 2. 2. See He'... 9. 27. i ch. 21. 45. I.uke 
 2l. c3 a Deut. 28. 63. 
 
 Lord your God promised you ; 
 so shall the Lord bring upon 
 you '^all evil things, until he 
 have destroyed you from off this 
 good land which the Loud your 
 God hiith given you. 
 
 16 When ye have transgress- 
 ed the covenant of the Lord 
 your God, which he commanded 
 you, and have gone and served 
 other gods; and bowed your- 
 selves to them ; then shall the 
 anger of the Lord be kindled 
 against you, and ye shall perish 
 quickly from off the good land 
 which he halh given unto you. 
 
 .25.16. Deut. '-8. 13, 15, iv 
 
 ities as these 1 IT Scourges in you r 
 sides and thorns in your eyes. 
 ' What !' says a wife to her angry 
 husband, ' am I a thorn in your 
 eyes V ' Alas ! alas ! he has seen 
 another ; I am now a thorn in his 
 eyes.' ' Were I not a thorn in his 
 eyes, his anger would not burn so 
 long!' ' My old friend Taraban 
 never looks at my house now, be- 
 cause it gives him thorns to his eyes.' 
 Roberts. 
 
 14. Going the way of all the earth. 
 About to die, to go inio the grave. 
 To die is in a sense to go a journey, 
 a journey to our long home ; it is the 
 way of all the earth, the way that 
 all mankind must go sooner of later. 
 Joshua felt himself near his end, and ] 
 he would have his people look upon j 
 him and listen to him as a dying man. 
 that so his words might sink the 
 deeper into their hearts. He would 
 spend his last breath in taking them 
 to witness that God had been punc- 
 tiliously faithful to every promise, 
 and in solemnly assuring them that 
 every threatening, however fearful, 
 would receive an equally certain 
 and exact accomplishment. IT Yc 
 know — that not one thing kath failed, 
 &c. The same appeal which is 
 here made by Joshua to Israel after 
 
 sixty years' experience, maybe made 
 to every believer that ever lived. 
 We may bring forth every promise 
 from the Bible, and then search the 
 annals of the world, and inquire of 
 every creature in it, and one single 
 instance will be sought in vain of 
 God's violating or forgetting a prom- 
 ise. The accomplishment may have 
 been delayed or brought to pass in a 
 way that was not expected, but the 
 whole Avorld may be challenged to 
 impeach his veracity, or contradict 
 the assertion that ' all which he hath 
 promised is come to pass; not one 
 thing hath failed thereof.' But let it 
 not be forgotten that the veracity of 
 God is as much pledged for the ex- 
 ecution of his threatenings, as for the 
 performance of his promises. The 
 one is a proof of the other. Yet 
 among the world of the impenitent 
 where is there a mind divested of the 
 floating impression, that mercy will 
 in some way interpose to stay the 
 outgoings of wrath 1 How many, 
 alas ! are now experiencing in hell 
 what they would not believe on 
 earth ! The subsequent history of the 
 chosen people abundantly shows that 
 both the apostacy here' deprecated 
 and the threatenings here denounced 
 did actually take place. Let then 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 167 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A ND Joshua gatherd all the 
 
 tribes of Israel to ^Shechem, 
 
 and "^^'called for the elders of Is- 
 
 every Christian fear as he reads, ' If 
 God spared not the natural branches, 
 take heed lest he spare not thee.' 
 The -worldly, carnal, sensual Chris- 
 tian has no more right to expect in- 
 dulgence from the justice of God than 
 the disobedient Jew. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 1. Gathered all the tribes. That is, 
 the heads, elders, and chief men of 
 the tribes, though not them exclu- 
 sively. See on ch. 23. 2. Joshua 
 probably found his life prolonged be- 
 yond his expectation, and, like Pe- 
 ter in his old age, thinking it meet 
 ' as long as he was in this tabernacle ' 
 to do his utmost towards 'putting' 
 and keeping his people ' in remem- 
 brance ' of the great things of their 
 duty, embraces one more opportu- 
 nity of convening the tribes by their 
 representatives, and giving them a 
 solemn parting charge, The pious 
 servants of God may be disabled 
 through age and infirmities from 
 continuing their personal exertions, 
 but they will never relax their zeal 
 in the service of their divine Master ; 
 and what they v/ant in effiective la- 
 bors, they will endeavor to supply by 
 stimulating and confirming the zeal 
 of others. As Moses, at an advanc- 
 ed age, renewed the covenant in 
 the plains of Moab which had been 
 first entered into at Horeb forty years 
 before, so Joshua on this occasion 
 imitates his example, and makes it 
 his last labor to engage the tribes of 
 Israel once more to give themselves 
 up to God in a perpetual covenant. 
 Thus the good effects of his influ- 
 ence would remain when he him- 
 self was taken from them. ' We 
 must never think our work for God 
 done till our life is done ; and if he 
 lengthen out our days beyond what 
 we thought, we mus"^D conclude it is 
 because he has some further service 
 
 rael, and for their beads and for 
 their judges, and for their offi- 
 cers ; and they ^presented them- 
 selves before God. 
 
 c I Sdin. 10. 19. 
 
 for us to do.' Henry. IT To She- 
 chem. As it is immediately added 
 that, ' they presented themselves be- 
 fore God,' the natural inference 
 would be that this transaction took 
 place in the presence of the ark and 
 the tabernacle, the usual meeting- 
 place of God and his people, which 
 were now, as far as we know, at 
 Shiloh instead of Shechem. This 
 has occasioned some difficulty to 
 commentators, especially as the 
 Greek of the Sept. has SjjXw, Shilo 
 both here and v. 25, though the Al- 
 dine and Comphetensian editions 
 have Si)%£/', Sijcheni in both places, 
 which leads us to suppose that the 
 former reading is a designed alter- 
 ation made with a view to obviate 
 an apprehended discrepancy in the 
 original. At any rate, there is no 
 suificient ground for questioning the 
 genuineness of the present Hebrew 
 text. The two following solutions, 
 therefore, may be proposed ; either, 
 (1) By Shechem here is meant not 
 the city so called, but the territory 
 adjacent, extending to the distance 
 of several miles, within the limits 
 of which it is conjectured that Shiloh 
 stood. But this is less likely, as 
 Shiloh was at least ten miles distant 
 from Shechem, and if the meeting 
 had been at Shiloh we can see no 
 reason why it should not have been 
 expressly so stated, Or, (2) that 
 Shechem was really the place of the 
 convocation, but that the tabernacle 
 was for the present occasion trans- 
 ferred thither, as we learn Judg. 20. 
 1, 18. 1 Sam 4. 3. 2 Sam, 15. 24, that 
 it was sometimes on extraordinaiy 
 emergencies temporarily removed. 
 There were several reasons why 
 Shechem should be considered the 
 most suitable place for the assem- 
 bling of the tribes on this occasion. 
 It was a Levitical city, and nearer 
 than Shiloh to Timnath^serab, Josh- 
 
169 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 2 And Joshua said unlo all 
 the people, Thus sailh the Lord 
 God of Israel, '^Your fathers 
 dwelt on the other side of the 
 
 (I Gen. 11. 26. 3'«. 
 
 ua's residence, whose age and infir- 
 mities miglit at this time have inca- 
 pacitated him from travelling even 
 a short distance from home. It was 
 the place where the covenant was 
 first made with Abraham ages be- 
 fore, Gen. 12. 6, 7, and so would be 
 a peculiarly appropriate place for 
 renewing that covenant, which was 
 one end to be answered i)y their now 
 coming together. It adds to the 
 force af this reason, that it Avas in 
 this immediate vicinity, between the 
 two mounts Gerizzim and Ebal, that 
 Joshua had before, on their iirst en- 
 trance into Canaan, convened the 
 nation for a similar object, eh. 8. 30 
 —35. So that all the associations 
 connected with the place would tend 
 eminently to heighten the solemnity 
 and impressiveness of the transac- 
 tion, in which they were about to 
 engage. If, moreover, as from v. 32 
 many suppose, it was on this occa- 
 sion that the bones of Joseph, and 
 perhaps of the other patriarchs. Acts 
 7. 15, 16, were deposited in the piece 
 of ground which his father gave him 
 near Shechem, it W'ould constitute 
 another strong reason for selecting 
 this, in preference to Shilo, as the 
 place of the present meeting. That 
 such was the fact, however, what- 
 ever might have been the reasons, 
 and whatever the imagined dithcul- 
 ties involved in the supposition , there 
 can be no doubt as long as we ad- 
 here to the letter of the sacred re- 
 cord. H Presented themselves be- 
 fore God. As intimated above, the 
 presumption is that this presentation 
 of themselves was before the ark of 
 the covenant and the tabernacle, the 
 visible residence of God among his 
 people, and now removed to She- 
 chem to give additional solemnity to 
 the proceedings of the assembly. 
 This impression is confirmed by v. 
 62, where it is said that, • a great stone 
 
 flood in old time, even Terah, 
 the father of Abraham, and the 
 father of Nachor : and nhey 
 served other gods, 
 
 was set up there under an oak that 
 was by the sanctuary of the Lord;' 
 i. e. by the place where the sanctu- 
 ary temporarily stood during the 
 time of that convention. Yet the 
 words do not necessarily demand 
 this construction. The phrase 'be- 
 fore God' or 'before the Lord,' is 
 sometimes equivalent to religiously, 
 devoutly, as if under the inspection 
 of the divine eye. Thus Isaac Gen. 
 27. 7, is said to have blessed Jacob, 
 'before the Lord,' i. e. as in his pre- 
 sence, in his name, in a verj' solemn 
 and devout manner. SoJephthahis 
 said, Judg. 11. 11, to have uttered all 
 his words 'before the Lord;' in the 
 same sense. See on ch. 4. 13. 
 
 2. Joshua said unto all the people. 
 All the people now assembled, con- 
 sisting mainly of the elders, chiefs, 
 &c., V. 1, but in addition to them of 
 such portions of the bc^y of the peo- 
 ple as found it convenient to attend. 
 ^ On the otlicr side of the flood. That 
 is, on the other side of the river, the 
 river Euphrates; so called by Avay 
 of eminence. ' Flood ' is an unfor- 
 tunate rendering, as the original 
 word is the comm.on word for ' river,' 
 and repeatedly and for the mo.st part 
 so tran.slated in our established ver- 
 sion. ^ In old time. Heb. ' from 
 everlasting;' i. e. from an indefinite 
 period of remote antiquity; as the 
 same term often signifies an indefi- 
 nite period of time future. IT 
 Served other gods. Prom this it 
 seems clear that Abraham's grand- 
 father and father, and perhaps him- 
 self in the first instance, worshipped 
 the idols of the country in which 
 they lived. By this, however, we 
 are probably not to understand that 
 they had no knowledge of, or rever- 
 ence for, the true God, but that they 
 did not render to him that exclusive 
 worship which was his due. In fact, 
 we may conclude them to have beeu 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 169 
 
 3 And '"I took your father 
 Abraham from the other side of 
 the flood, and led him throughout 
 all the land of Canaan, and mul- 
 tiplied his seed, and °gave him 
 Isaac. 
 
 4 And I gave unto Isaac '^Ja- 
 cob and Esau : and I gave unto 
 
 fGen. 12. 1. Acts 7. 2, 3. g Gen. 21. 2, 3. Ps. 
 127. 3. h Gen. 25. 24, 25, 26. 
 
 in much the same condition as La- 
 ban, who at a subsequent period rep- 
 resented that part of the family 
 which remained beyond the Euphra- 
 tes, and who certainly reverenced Je- 
 hovah, but who also had idols w^hich 
 he called his gods, and the loss of 
 which filled him with vexation and 
 anger. The partial idolatry of their 
 ancestors, however, was humiliating 
 to Israel. Even Abraham, the father 
 of their nation, in whom they gloried, 
 and who was subsequently so highly 
 honored of God, was born and bred 
 up in the worship of false gods. 
 This fact would cut off all vain- 
 boasting in the worthiest of their an- 
 cestors, as far as native character or 
 early conduct was concerned. The 
 father of the faithful himself became 
 what he was purely by the grace of 
 God, and not in virtue of his own 
 innate tendencies to good. Indeed 
 his justification is expressly set forth 
 by the apostle, Rom. 4. 5, as an in- 
 stance of God's 'justifying the un- 
 godly.' 
 
 3. And ItooJc your father Abraham, 
 &c. I exercised such an influence 
 iipon him as induced him to leave 
 that land of idolaters; I prompted 
 him to go. Though no violence 
 was employed, it implies that he 
 would never have gone thence un- 
 less God had ' taken ' him, unless by 
 a divine impulse he had moved him 
 to go. See on Gen. 2. 15, relative to 
 God's 'taking' Adam and putting 
 him into the garden of Eden. So 
 it is the special grace of God that 
 ' takes ' a sinner out of a state of im- 
 penitence and unbelief, and puts him 
 in the way to eternal life, the road 
 15* 
 
 iEsau mount Seir, to possess it : 
 ''but Jacob and his children went 
 down into Egypt. 
 
 5 il sent iVIoses also and 
 Aaron and ™I plagued Egypt, 
 according to that which 1 did 
 among them : and afterward I 
 brought you out. 
 
 iGe 
 7. 15. 
 
 3G. 8. Deui. 2. 5. k Gen. 46. I, 6 Acts 
 1 Ex. 3. 10. m Ex. 7. & 8. & 9. & 10. & 12, 
 
 to the heavenly Canaan, that better 
 country where lies the inheritance 
 of the saints. IT Led him through- 
 out all the land of Canaan. Gave 
 him my gracious guidance and pro- 
 tection during all his wanderings 
 to and fro in that land of promise. 
 IF MuUKplied his seed, and gave him 
 Isaac. That is, multiplied his seed 
 brj giving him Isaac. As this ' mul- 
 tiplication,' however, could not be 
 said to be accomplished merely by 
 the birth of a single son, it is to be 
 understood, not of Isaac alone, but 
 of the long and spreading line of his 
 posterity, among whom he enume- 
 rates Jacob and Esau, including 
 their issue, in the next verse. 
 
 4. I gave u7ito Esau mo%tnt Seir. 
 See on Gen. 36. 7, 8. In order that 
 the land of Canaan, by the removal 
 of Esau, might be reserved entire to 
 Jacob and his posterity. 11 But 
 Jacob and his children went down 
 into Egijpt. Where they suffered 
 a long" and grievous bondage, the 
 particulars of which the speaker 
 does not deem it necessary to recite. 
 
 5. According to that tvhich I did 
 aviong them. Heb. 'which I did in 
 the midst of him.' A peculiar 
 phraseology, and not capable perhaps 
 of being fully reached in any other 
 language. It implies the essential 
 reality of any thing compared with 
 the outward manifestation, sign, or 
 expression oiii. Thus it is said of 
 the butler and baker in prison, Gen. 
 40. 5, that they each dreamed a 
 dream, 'according to the interpreta- 
 tion of his dream,' i. e, one of which 
 the event answered to the dream it- 
 self ; a dream capable of a sound in- 
 
170 
 
 6 And 1 "brouojlit your fathers 
 oat of Egypt : and °ye cam-- 
 unto the sea ; Pand the Egyp- 
 tians pursued after your fathers 
 witli chariots and horsemen un- 
 to the Red sea. 
 
 7 And when they 'Jcried unto 
 the LoKD, -"he put darkness be- 
 tween you and the Egyptians, 
 'and brought the sea upon them, 
 and covered them ; and tyour, 
 eyes have seen, what I have done 
 in Egypt : and ye dwelt in the 
 M^ilderness "a long season. 
 
 8 And I brought you into the 
 land of the Amorites, which 
 
 n Ex. 12. 37, 51. o Ex. 14. 2. p F,x. 14. 9. q Kx 
 U. 1 J. r Ex. H. 20. s Ex. 14. 27, 28. t Deut. 
 4. 34. & 29. 2. u ch. 5. 6. 
 
 JOSHUA. [A. C. 1427. 
 
 dwelt on the other side Jordan ; 
 '^and they fought with you : and 
 I gave them into your hand, 
 that ye might possess their land ; 
 and I destroyed them from be- 
 fore you. 
 
 9 Then ^Balak the son of 
 Zippor, king of Moab, arose and 
 warred against Israel, and ^sent 
 and called Balaam the son of 
 Beor to curse you : 
 
 10 ^But I would not hearken 
 unto Balaam ; therefore he bless- 
 ed you still : so I delivered you 
 out of his hand. 
 
 11 And ^ye went over Jor- 
 
 X N.im. 21. 21, C3. Dent. 2. 32. H 3 \. y See 
 
 .'lulg. U. 25. z N.im. 22. 5. Deiit. 23. 4. a Devit. 
 23 5. b Nnm 2;. 11, 20 &24. 10. c cli. i. 14, 1^ 
 &4. 10, il 12. 
 
 terpretation, which Joseph gave, and 
 •which the actual fulfilment confirm- 
 ed. So here the plagues of Egypt 
 corresponded in fact, in reality, with 
 all that had been predicted of them 
 beforehand, with all that was record- 
 ed of them afterwards, and with all 
 that struck the senses at the time of 
 their actual occurrence. There was 
 no illusion abouilhem in any manner 
 or degree. It was all reality. IT 
 Afterioard I brought you out. Spo- 
 ken of the present generation, though 
 strictly true only of their fathers. 
 Of the usus loquendi here involved, 
 see note on ch. 4. 23. So also in the 
 ensuing verses, where the reader will 
 notice that the words your fathers 
 and ye, them and you, are remarka- 
 bly interchanged. 
 
 6. Cavie unto the sea. The Red 
 Sea, as is afterwards expressed. 
 
 7. Brought the sea upon them — cov- 
 ered them. Heb. ' brought the sea 
 upon him — covered him.' Spoken 
 of, according to usual analogy, as 
 one man. IT Dwelt in the wilder- 
 ness a long season. A mild term for 
 their being condemned to wander 
 for forty years in the wilderness as 
 a punishment for their sins. 
 
 9. Then Balak — arose and warred 
 against Israel. From the previous 
 history, Num. 23 and 24, and also 
 from Judg. 11. 25, it would appear 
 that Balak did not at any time actu- 
 ally engage in conflict with Israel. 
 He is said, therefore, in this place to 
 have ' warred ' against them because 
 he intended it, because he cherished 
 ?i hostile purpose, and concerted his 
 schemes and made his preparations 
 accordingly. The Scripture idiom 
 often speaks of men as doing what 
 they fully design and endeavor to 
 do, and it is a very slight stretch of 
 language to denominate him a war- 
 ring enemy who has all the will and 
 lacks only the opportunitv to become 
 so. See Gen. 37. 21. Ezek. 24. 13. 
 Mat. 5. 28. John, 10. 32, 33. A sim- 
 ilar phraseology occurs in V. 11 in 
 reference to the men of Jericho, 
 which is perhaps to be explained on 
 the same principle. 
 
 10. Iifould not hearken unto Ba- 
 laam. Would not comply with his 
 secret wish and purpose, nor allow 
 him to curse to you ; would not fall 
 in with or favor the ruling desire of 
 his heart. U Delivered you out of 
 his hand. Out of the hand of Ba- 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 171 
 
 dan, and came unto Jericho : and 
 ''the men of Jericho fought 
 against you, the Amorites, and 
 the Perizzites, and the Canaan- 
 ites, and the Hittites, and the 
 Girgashites, the Hivites, and the 
 Jebusites, and I delivered them 
 into your liand. 
 
 12 And *I sent the hornet be- 
 fore you, which drave them out 
 from before you, even the two 
 
 d -Ij. 6. 1. &10. 1. &11. I. 
 7.20. 
 
 e Ex. 23. 23. Deul 
 
 lak. and all the wicked machina- 
 tions which he had set on foot 
 against you. 
 
 11. TAe men of Jericho fought 
 against you. Heb. ' the masters or 
 lords of Jericho.' This is under- 
 stood by many expositors of the ru- 
 lers or magistrates of Jericho, but as 
 the ensuing words, ' the Amorites, 
 the Perizzites, &c.,' seem to stand 
 in immediate apposition with ' men ' 
 or masters, we lake it that theij are 
 meant by the term, and are called 
 'masters' of Jericho from the fact 
 that that city belonged to an exten- 
 sive confederacy composed of the 
 various neighboring nations here 
 specified, of whom it is obviously 
 true that they ' fought' against Is- 
 rael, and were signally delivered 
 into their hand. If, however, the 
 phrase be understood of the citizens 
 or chief men of the city of Jericho, 
 though they did not actually meet 
 Israel in the field, yet they may be 
 said to have fought against them in- 
 asmuch as they stood upon the defen- 
 sive and opposed them by shutting 
 their gates, and probably in making 
 what resistance they could after an 
 entrance had been gained into the 
 city. See on v. 9. 
 
 12. / se7it the hornet before you. 
 Understood by some literally of the 
 insect so-called, by others figurative- 
 ly of the anxieties, perplexities, and 
 pungent terrors which invaded the 
 minds of the Canaanites on the re- 
 ported approach of the hosts of Is- 
 
 kings of the Amorites : hut '"not 
 with thy sword, nor with thy 
 bow : 
 
 13 And I have given you a 
 land for which ye did not labour, 
 and =citics which ye built not 
 and ye dwell in them ; o^" the 
 vineyards and olive-yards which 
 ye planted not do ye eat. 
 
 14 H ''Now therefore fear the 
 Lhbu, and serve him in isincer- 
 
 fPs.41.3 6. g Oeut. 6. 10, U. c!i. 11. 13. h Deut. 
 10. n. 1 S.-^m. 1-2. 21. iOe. . 17. 1. & 20 5. Deut. 
 IS. 13. Ps. 119. 1. 2 Cor. 1 12. Kph. 6. 2-!. 
 
 rael. For further remarks on the 
 subject, see on Ex. 23. 28 and ' Illus- 
 trations of the Scriptures,' p. 66. 
 The writer of the apocryphal book 
 entitled ' The Wisdom of Solomon' 
 seems to have taken the words as lit- 
 erally true. ch. 12. 8 — 10, 'Never- 
 theless thou didst send wasps, fore- 
 runners of thine host, to destroy them 
 by little and little. Not that thou 
 wast unable to bring the ungodly 
 under the hand of the righteous in 
 battle, or to destroy them at once 
 with cruel beasts, or with one rough 
 word : But executing thy judgments 
 by little and little thou gavest them 
 place of repentance, not being igno- 
 rant that they were a naughty gene- 
 ration, and that their malice was 
 bred in them, and that their cogita- 
 tion would never be changed.' H 
 JSot with thy sword, nor with thy hoic. 
 Not that these implements were not 
 made use of in their wars, but that 
 they would have used them in vain 
 unless God, by his secret or open 
 judgments, had previously smitten 
 and paralysed the power of the en- 
 emy. See the passage before quoted 
 from Ps. 44. 3. 
 
 13. For which ye did not labor. 
 Heb. 'thou didst not labor.' The 
 whole body of the nation addressed 
 collectively as one person. IT Of 
 the vineyards and olive-yards — do you 
 eat. That is, of their fruits; a 
 usage of speech of not uncommon 
 occurrence. Thus Gen. 3. 11, 
 ' Hast thou eaten of the tree, where- 
 
172 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 ity and in truth ; and tput away 
 the gods which your fathers 
 served on the other side of the 
 
 k rer. Z 23. Lev. 17. 7 Ezek 20. 18. 
 
 of, &c.,' i. e. of the fruit of the tree 
 So also Rev. 2. 7, ' I will give to him 
 to eat of the tree of life.' 
 
 14. Now therefore fear the Lord, 
 &c. The address of Joshua to Israel 
 thus far has been occupied with a 
 recital of the leading events of their 
 national history, events going to 
 show, in the most striking manner, 
 the interposition of the divine hand 
 in their behalf. He would thus lay 
 a foundation for that deep sense of 
 obligation and obedience, which he 
 aims in the remainder of his dis- 
 course to impress upon their minds. 
 From this point therefore, he be- 
 gins a practical application of the 
 various facts he had before enumer- 
 ated, turning the whole into a power- 
 ful appeal to the consciences and the 
 hearts of his hearers. H Serve him 
 in siiicerity and in truth. In upright- 
 ness, in integrity; not in pretence 
 and outward sernblance only, but in 
 reality and in truth. Do not serve 
 or worship other gods in private, 
 while in public, in the eyes of men, 
 you maintain the form of the worship 
 of the true God. IT Put au-ay the gods 
 vshich your fathers served, &c. From 
 the general character of this genera- 
 tion, as evinced by their conduct, 
 and from the commendation bestow- 
 ed upon them by Joshua, ch. 23. 8, 
 it is difficult to conceive that the 
 positive practice of idolatry was now 
 fairly chargeable upon them. If the 
 secret sin of Achan, in stealing cer- 
 tain forbidden articles at the siege 
 of Jericho, brought such fearful 
 tokens of wrath upon the congrega- 
 tion, have we not reason to sup- 
 pose that the act of paying divine 
 honors to idols, however hidden 
 from human observation, would 
 have incurred, at least, an equal 
 measure of divine indignation. 
 And if such a sin were actually pre- 
 valent among them, how is it to be 
 accounted for that Joshua had not 
 warned them against it before ] B ut 
 
 flood, and lin Egypt ; and serve 
 ye the Lord, 
 
 15 And if it seem evil unto 
 
 perhaps the words of Joshua, in just 
 construction, do not necessarily force 
 upon us such a sense. The phrase, 
 ' Put away the gods, &c.,' may mean 
 simply keep away, renounce, repudi- 
 ate, have nothing to do with, being 
 equivalent to a charge to preserve 
 themselves pure from a contagion to 
 which they were peculiarly liable. 
 "VVe prefer, therefore, to understand 
 the expression of a vigorous and de- 
 termined purpose of mind to which the 
 speaker exhorts the chosen people, 
 while at the same time we cannot 
 deny that there may have been in 
 solitary instances some lingering re- 
 lics of actual idolatry, which Joshua 
 would effectually extinguish by this 
 solemn mandate. But that the of- 
 fence was now prevalent to any con- 
 siderable extent among the people, 
 we have no idea. Not but that there 
 was sufficient corruption in their 
 natures, for such a propensity to 
 live and act upon, but the tenor of 
 the narrative does not, we conceive, 
 justify the supposition in respect to 
 them at this time. We are warrant- 
 ed, however, in drawing from Josh- 
 ua's words tlie practical inference, 
 that God requires the heart in his 
 worship, without which their is no 
 acceptable service ; and that that is 
 still an idol, to which our affections 
 cleave more than they do to God 
 himself IT In Egypt. This fact is 
 nowhere else expressly asserted re- 
 specting the Israelites in Egypt, al- 
 though ^Ezek. 23. 3, 8, and Acts 7. 
 42, 43, go strongly in confirmation 
 of Joshua's words. Considering the 
 idolatrous tendencies of human na- 
 ture, it is not surprising that they 
 should have suffered themselves to 
 become infected with an evil so 
 every where rife around them, and 
 it was, perhaps, in part owing to this 
 that their sufferings were so aggra- 
 vated and embittered in that ' house 
 of bondage.' 
 
 15. If it seem evil in your eyes. 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 173 
 
 you to sorve the Lord, '"choose 
 you this day whom ye will serve, 
 
 in See Ri.t'i I 15. 1 Kin. 18. 21. Rzek. 2 '. 39. 
 Jul.n ". 67. 
 
 Unjust, unreasonable, or attended 
 with too many inconveniences. "IT 
 Choose ye this day u-hom yeunll serve. 
 Not implying that it was previously 
 a matter of indifference, whether 
 thev served God or no, or that they 
 were reallv at liberty to refuse his 
 service if they saw fit ; but he adopts 
 this rhetorical mode of speech, in 
 ordeT- to impress upon them more 
 forcibly a sense of their duty, and 
 the utter absurdity, as well as im- 
 piety, of devoting themselves to any 
 other than the true God. It is a 
 striking way of bringing the matter 
 to an issue. His aim is to bring 
 them to a decided stand ; to a free, 
 intelligent, firm, and lasting choice 
 of God as their portion. In effecting 
 this he makes use of a style of ad- 
 dress which evidently implies that 
 the service of idols compared with 
 the service of God is so irration- 
 al, absurd, and brutish, that no man 
 in the calm exercise of his under- 
 standing could hesitate which to 
 choose. If reason and conscience 
 could but be allowed to speak, thev 
 would not fail to speak on the side 
 of God. A similar course, having 
 the same object in view, was pur- 
 sued by Elijah, 1 Kings 18. 21, who 
 ' came unto all the people, and said. 
 How long halt ye between two opin- 
 ions 1 If the Lord be God, follow 
 him ; but if Baal, then follow him.' 
 The grand inference to be dr^wn 
 from this mode of address is, — That 
 the service of God is matter of vol- 
 untary choice, and that it is his will 
 that we should all seriouslv and sol- 
 emnly make this choice. He would 
 have us weigh the matter well, com- 
 pare the respective claims of his 
 service, and the service of sin and 
 the world, and if our candid judg- 
 ment, as it surely will, pronounces 
 on the side of that which is good, 
 and true, and right, and saving, to 
 resolve at once to embrace it, and 
 adhere to it with a constancy strong- 
 
 whether "the gods which your 
 fathers served that were on the 
 
 er than death. As the evidences in 
 favor of religion are so clear and in- 
 disputable, and its infinite advan- 
 tages so obvious, the man who de- 
 clines making the choice here en- 
 joined must be considered as deliber- 
 ately preferring Satan tq Christ, 
 death to life, hell to heaven. He 
 who acknovlcdges the paramount 
 claims of God and his Gospel, and 
 yet does not act accordingly, does 
 not sincerely and solemnly cAo^sc his 
 service, as that better part which 
 cannot be taken from him, must 
 stand self-condemned both here and 
 hereafter. As for me and my house, 
 u-e v'ill serve the Lord. Ye may act 
 your pleasure in this matter, but 
 whatever may be your election, / 
 am decided as to my own course. 
 As far as myself and my household 
 are concerned, the question whom 
 we shall serve is settled. Whatever 
 halting or M'avering there may be 
 in other cases, there is none in mine. 
 This declaration of their venerated 
 leader, while devoid of the least air 
 of dictation, and apparently leaving 
 them the most unrestrained liberty 
 of choice, was in fact the most pow- 
 erful argument he could have used 
 to influence their minds in th^ di- 
 rection he wished. For the force of 
 example is in proportion to the depth 
 of respect and estimation in which 
 an individual is held, and he could 
 not fail to perceive that the rever- 
 ence Avith which he was regarded 
 would give to his example a weight 
 and authority almost amounting to 
 absolute law. Gratitude for his 
 services, confidence in his wisdom, 
 and love for his person would all 
 combine to make his conduct a pat- 
 tern for theirs; and how blessed is 
 it when those who possess these tm- 
 menseadvantages'for exerting a salu- 
 tary influence on others are dispos- 
 ed, like Joshua, to T.nake it available 
 to the salvation of their fellow-men! 
 This noble resolution of the captain 
 
174 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 other side of the flood, or ° the 
 gods of the Amorites in whose 
 land ye dwell ; Pbut as for me 
 and my house we will serve 
 the LoKD. 
 
 16 And the people answered 
 and said, God forbid that we 
 should forsake the Loud, to 
 serve other gods. 
 
 17 For the Lord our God, he 
 it is that brought us up, and our 
 fathers, out of the land of Egypt, 
 from the house of bondage, and 
 which did those great signs in 
 
 o Kx. 23. 24, Zi, 31 & 31. 15. Deul. 13. 7. i 29. 18. 
 Jutlg. 6. 10. p Gcii. li. 19. 
 
 of Israel obviously suggests the fol" 
 lowing reflections; (1.) The service 
 of God is nothing below the most 
 distinguished of men. It is no di- 
 minution of their greatness, no dis- 
 paragement to their rank, re^puta- 
 tion, or honor to be decidedly pious, 
 and to be openly and avowedly so. 
 On the contrary, it heightens every 
 other distinction, and makes all hon- 
 or still loore .honorable. (•2.) In re= 
 gard to the great interests of religion 
 and the soul, we are to be concerned 
 for others, particularly our house- 
 holds, as well as for ourselves. It 
 should be our earnest aim to unite 
 our families, our wives, children, 
 and servants, those that come under 
 our special care and influence, with 
 us in every pious resolution and la- 
 bor. Heads of households should 
 feel not only anxietij. but deep rcspo7i- 
 sibilitijy in respect to those thus en- 
 trusted to their charge. (3.) Those 
 that lead and rule in other things 
 should be first in the service of God, 
 and go before in every good Avork, 
 (4.) We should resolve to do right 
 and to do good, whatever others may 
 do. Though others may desert the 
 cause of God, we should stand by it 
 at all hazards, whatever charge" of 
 singularity or expression of popular 
 odium it may bring upon us. ' Those 
 that are bound for heaven must be 
 willing to swim against the stream, 
 
 our siiht, and preseived us in 
 all the way wherein we went, 
 and among all the people 
 through whom we passed : 
 
 18 And the Lord drave out 
 from before us all the people, 
 even the Amorites which dwelt 
 in the land : therefore will we 
 also serve the Lord ; for he is 
 our God. 
 
 19 And Joshua said unto the 
 people, "^Ye cannot serve the 
 Lord : for he is a ""holy God i 
 he is ^a jealous God ; ^he will 
 
 q M.itt. 6. 24. r Lev. 19. 2, 1 Sam. 6, 20. Ps. 99. 
 5, 9. Is. 5. 16. s Ex. 20. 5. i Ex. -.^3. 21. 
 
 and must not do as the most do, but 
 as thei^s^ do.' Henry. 
 
 IG. The people ansivered and said, 
 God forbid^ &c, Joshua has the 
 pleasure of finding the people ready 
 from their hearts to concur with 
 him in his pious resolution. By an 
 emphatic expression, denoting the 
 greatest dread and detestation ima- 
 ginable, they show that they startle 
 ai the thought uf aposiatlaing from 
 God, aa if it would, imply their being 
 utterly lost to justice, gratitude, hon^ 
 or, and every generous feeling. At 
 the same time, they give such sub- 
 stantial reasons for their choice, as 
 to show that it was not purely out of 
 compliment to Joshua, highly as they 
 esteemed him, that they made it, but 
 from a full conviction of its intrin- 
 sic reasonableness and equity. They 
 professedly and justly found their 
 obligations, first on the consideration 
 of the great and merciful things 
 which God had done for them, in 
 bringing them out of Egypt through 
 the wilderness into Canaan, when 
 they were now planted in peace ; and, 
 secondly, of the relation in which 
 they stood to God as a covenant 
 people. 'He is our God;' he has 
 graciously engaged himself by pro- 
 mise to us, and we have bound our- 
 selves by solemn vow to him. Woe 
 be to usif we prove false and treach» 
 erous to our plighted faith, 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 175 
 
 not forgive your transgressions 
 nor your sins. 
 
 19. Ye cannot serve the Lord, &c. 
 It cannot be supposed for a moment 
 that Joshua intended to deter the 
 people from the service of God by 
 representing it as impracticable or 
 dangerous. On the contrary, his de- 
 sign is to enlist them more sincerely 
 and steadfastly m it, but his knowl- 
 edge of the weakness and corruption 
 of our fallen nature, prompted him 
 to do this in a manner that savors 
 of discouragement and repulsive- 
 ness. Finding them now animated 
 by a glowing zeal, forward and abun- 
 dant in their professions, and uncon- 
 sciously prone to trust to their own 
 strength, Joshua, in these words, 
 designs to administer a wholesome 
 check to their ardor, by setting im- 
 pressively before them the holy and 
 sin-avenging character of the God 
 with whom they had to do, and the 
 fearful consequences of disobedience 
 and apostacy. This would beat them 
 off from that overweening self-con- 
 fidence which they were so prone to 
 indulge. It would convince them 
 that it was no light and easy matter 
 to persevere in the strict observance 
 of the divine precepts, and thus ihey 
 would be more cautious, circum- 
 spect, and humble in their profes- 
 sions, and go forward in their Avalk 
 with more awe upon their spirits, 
 and a more trembling sense of their 
 dependence on a higher power than 
 their own. This Joshua well knew 
 was the only frame of mind which 
 could be trusted to for permanent 
 and happy results, and he therefore 
 aims to have their present lively 
 zeal based upon the only foundation 
 that would ensure its continuance. 
 He would have them count the cost 
 of the engagements into which they 
 proposed to enter, and be fully aware 
 of the temptations, tribulations, con- 
 flicts and self-denials which they 
 would involve ; and above all would 
 have their inmost souls pervaded by 
 
 20 "If ye forsake the Lord, 
 and serve strange gods, ^tlien 
 
 nlChr. Q^. 9. 2Cl.r. 1>. 2. Ktr.i8.22. Is. I. 23. 
 & tio. 11, 12. Jer. 17. 13. x cli. 23. 15. I^. 61^. 10. 
 
 a deep and atvful reverence of God, 
 the essential principle of all true re- ' 
 ligion. In like manner, it deserves 
 very serious deliberation whether 
 there is not danger of representing 
 the sincere service of God as a mat- 
 ter of very little difficulty, provided 
 only there be evidence of a present 
 vigorous resolution, and whether it be 
 not better in such cases wisely to re- 
 press, chasten, and even dampen the 
 w^armth of present zeal by consider- 
 ations like those which Joshua now 
 pressed upon the children of Israel. 
 The same infallible authority which 
 assures that the yoke of Christ is 
 easy and his burden light, assures us 
 also that the gate is strait, and the 
 way narrow, that leads to life, and 
 that there is need of striving as well 
 as seeking to enter in. Certain it is, 
 that great wisdom is requisite in 
 every spiritual guide in digging 
 deep' and laying the foundations 
 sure of a life of consistent, uniform, 
 and devoted piety. Nor are we of 
 opinion that the policy of such emi- 
 nent servants of God, as Moses, 
 Joshua, Samuel, Peter, and Paul, 
 will ever be out of date in the 
 church. The more the sinner des- 
 pairs of his own sufficiency, the bet- 
 ter security will he give for his ulti- 
 mate stability and perseverance in 
 the faith. ^ He is an holy God. 
 Heb. 'he is holy Gods;' the adjec- 
 tive being plural as w'ell as the sub- 
 stantive. The expression is remark- 
 able and contrary to usual analogy, 
 but whether carrying with it any 
 special implication in regard to the 
 divine nature, it is perhaps impos- 
 sible to say. We imagine on the 
 whole that to a Hebrew ear the 
 phrase w^ould merely convey the 
 idea of more emphasis, solemnity, 
 and awfulness in respect to the at- 
 tribute here affirmed of Jehovah T 
 Will not forgive. Or, Heb. ' will not 
 bear, will not tolerate.' The mean- 
 
178 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 he will turn and do you hurt, 
 and consume you, tifter that he 
 hatli done you good. 
 
 21 And the people said unto 
 Joshua, Nay ; but we will serve 
 the Lord. 
 
 22 And Joshua said unto the 
 people, Ye are witnesses ag;iinst 
 yourselves that yye have chosen 
 you the Lord, to serve him. 
 And they said. We are witnesses. 
 
 y Ps Ua. 173. 
 
 ing is. not that God was implacable, 
 or that he would not show mercy to 
 the penitent, however great their 
 sins, but that they could not offend 
 against him with impunity, that he 
 would certainly punish their tsans- 
 gressions. However, it might be 
 with others, they would be sure to be 
 visited for their iniquities. 
 
 20. Strange gads. Heb. ' gods of 
 the stranger or'foreigner.' H Then 
 he vrill turn, &c. Not in himself or 
 in his dispositions towards his 
 creatures, for we are elsewhere told 
 that with him there is ' no variable- 
 ness nor the least shadov: of turning.^ 
 But the character of his dispen- 
 sations, the course of his providence 
 towards them should be entirely 
 changed, in view of the change in 
 their conduct towards him. He 
 would henceforward be as severe 
 and vindictive, as he hadbeforebeen 
 kind and gracious. IT Consume 
 
 you after that he hath done ijsu good. 
 Nothing so embitters the judgments 
 of God, as the reflection that they 
 have been incurred after the experi- 
 ence of his tender mercies. The 
 fact that we have made him to re- 
 pent of his past kindnesses to us, 
 and forget all the good he had 
 wrought in our behalf, barbs and en- 
 venoms the arrow of remorse be- 
 yond the power of language to de- 
 scribe. 
 
 21. We will serve the Lord,. This 
 shows that they understood the words 
 -of Joshua- to imply no moral ina- 
 
 23 Now therefore ^put away 
 [said he) the strange gods which 
 are among you, and' incline your 
 heart unto the Lord God of Is- 
 rael. 
 
 24 And the people said unto 
 Joshua, Tiie Lord our God will 
 we serve, and his voice will we 
 obey. 
 
 25 So Joshua "made a coven- 
 ant with the people that day, and 
 
 z ver II. Gep. 35 2. Jiidg. 10. 16. 1 Sair.. 7. 3. 
 a.-ce Kx. 15. i5. Z Kiu. U. 17. 
 
 bility on their side, and notwith- 
 standing his statement of difficulties, 
 and the seeming discouragements 
 which he throws in their way, but 
 which are really intended to quick- 
 en and invigorate their resolutions, 
 they declare a firm and fixed pur- 
 pose of obedience. In so saying 
 they did virtually confirm and ratify 
 by their own express consent the 
 covenant which Joshua would now 
 impose upon them, and by voluntar- 
 ily engaging, as he intimated would 
 be the case, to be witnesses against 
 themselves, provided they turned 
 aside from God, they did' in eftect 
 affix their name and seal to that 
 solemn covenant, and bind them- 
 selves under fearful sanctions to its 
 faithful observance. 
 
 23^. Put av:ay the strange gods, 
 &e. See above on v. 14. Rabbi 
 Levi, son of Gerson, a Jewish com- 
 mentator, remarks upon this pas- 
 sage, that Joshua ' says this to them, 
 in order that if their hearts had been 
 enticed by any of the idolatries of 
 the people of that land, they should 
 put aiuay the pernicious thoughts that 
 v/ere in them.' Augustin is of the 
 same opinion in relation to the true 
 meaning of the passage. 
 
 25. Joshua made a co vcnant. Heb. 
 'cut a covenant;' alluding to the 
 sacrifice usually offered on such oc- 
 casions. But whether the ordinary 
 rites were performed at this time is 
 uncertain. The use of this term 
 does not perhaps necessarily imply 
 
A. C. 1427.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 177 
 
 set them a statute and an ordin- 
 ance '^in Shechem. 
 
 26 IT And Joshua '^ wrote these 
 words in the book of the law of 
 God, and took '^a great stone, 
 and «set it up there ^ under an 
 oak that was by the sanctuary 
 of the Lord. 
 
 b ver. 26. c Deut. 31. 24. d See Judg. 9. 6. e See 
 Gen. 28. 18. ch. 4.3. f Gen. 35. 4. 
 
 that they were. The ceremonies 
 usual in forming and in renezci?ig 
 a covenant might not have been the 
 same. TI Set tkem a statute and a,n 
 ordinance. That is, as some sup- 
 pose, on renewing the covenant he 
 formed the whole into a statute and 
 ordinance which was promulgated 
 for all Israel to receive and obey. 
 Both they and their posterity were 
 to regard it in the light of a binding 
 enactment, having all the force of a 
 divine ordinance. Otherwise the 
 phrase, 'he set them a statute, &c.,' 
 may mean that he declared or pro- 
 pounded to them, he set before them, 
 the sum and substance of the Mosaic 
 statutes, which their covenant obli- 
 ged them to observe. But from 
 what is said in the next verse of his 
 writing these words in the book of 
 the law, we think the former the 
 most correct interpretation. 
 
 26. Wrote tkese wofds in the booTc 
 ofthelaio of God. He made a re- 
 cord of the transaction, particularly 
 of the solemn engagements of the 
 people, and inserted it on some blank 
 space of the great roll on which the 
 sacred canon was originally in- 
 scribed. There it was written, that 
 their obligation to obedience by the 
 divine precept and by their own pro- 
 mise, might remain on record to- 
 gether. It would thus, as intimated 
 in V. 25, from its very position serve 
 more effectually as ' a statute and an 
 ordinance,' and be in fact an ever- 
 lasting witness against them in case 
 they should prove unfaithful to the' 
 compact, for it was probably trans- 
 cribed from thence into all the 
 other copies of the law which were 
 16 
 
 27 And Joshua said unto all 
 the people, Behold, this stone 
 shall be ea witness unto us ; for 
 'nt hath heard all the words of 
 the Lord which he spake unto 
 us : it shall be therefore a wit- 
 ness unto you, lest ye deny your 
 God. 
 
 g See Gen. 31. 48, 52. Deut. 31. 19, 21, 26. ch. 22- 
 27, 28, 34. h Deut. 32. 1. 
 
 multiplied in after ages for the bene- 
 fit of the nation. IT Took a great 
 stone ^ and set it up there under an 
 oak. To insure still more effectu- 
 ally the memory of this solemn 
 transaction, Joshua reared a pillar 
 of stone on the spot, according to the 
 custom of ancient times. Gen. 28. 18. 
 Deut. 27. 2, as an enduring monu- 
 ment of the event which had now oc- 
 curred. Whether the stone contain- 
 ed an inscription defining the pur- 
 pose of its erection, is not certain, 
 though not improbable. The * oak' 
 here mentioned is supposed by some 
 to have been the same with that un- 
 der which Jacob buried the idols 
 and images that were found in his 
 family. Gen. 35. 4, but in Judg, 9. 6, 
 the original term is translated 
 'plain,' and the place where the 
 stone was set up is called ' the plain 
 of the pillar.' II That was by the 
 sanctuary of the Lord. Near the 
 place where the ark and the taber- 
 nacle now stood, during their tem- 
 porary continuance at Shechem, 
 See on v. 1. 
 
 27. It hath heard all the words, &c, 
 A strong figure of speech, by which 
 he tacitly upbraids the people with 
 the hardness of their hearts, as if 
 this stone had heard to as good pur- 
 pose as some of them ; and if they 
 should forget what was now done, 
 this stone would so far preserve the 
 remembrance of it, as to reproach 
 them for their stupidity and careless- 
 ness, and be a witness against them, 
 Williams very appositely cites from 
 Livy the following instance of a 
 similar phraseology ; — ' The general 
 of the ^qui informed the Roman 
 
178 
 
 JOSHUA. 
 
 [A. C. 1427. 
 
 28 So i Joshua let the people 
 depart, every man unto his in- 
 heritance. 
 
 29 IT kAnd it came to pass 
 after these things, that Joshua 
 the son of Nun the servant of 
 the Lord died, being a hundred 
 and ten years old. 
 
 i i Judg. 2. C. k Jiidg. 2. 8. 
 
 ambassadors (sent to complain of a 
 plundering excursion) that they 
 might deliver their message to an 
 oak wliich shaded his tent. On this 
 one of the ambassadors turning away 
 said : ' This venerable oak and all the 
 gods shall knoiD that you have viola- 
 ted the peace ; they shall now hear 
 our complaints ; and may they soon 
 be ivitncsses, when we revenge with 
 our arms the violation of divine and 
 human rights.' By a like usage of 
 speech the sacred writers frequently 
 call upon the heavens and the earth 
 to hear their addresses to the people 
 of Israel. Deut. 32. 1. Is. 1.2. 
 
 28. So Joshua let the people depart, 
 every via n unto his inheritance. Heb. 
 'sent away, or dismissed' This 
 verse occurs in nearly the same 
 words Judg. 2. 6, with the added 
 clause, 'to possess the land;' i. e. 
 that every one might manfully exert 
 himself to expel the Canaanites and 
 obtain the complete possession of his 
 destined inheritance. — ' In this affec- 
 ting manner Joshua took his leave 
 of Israel, went from this last and 
 perhaps best source to God and them, 
 and was speedily taken to his rest in 
 heaven.' Scott. 
 
 29. Joshua — died, being an hun- 
 dred and ten years old. Precisely 
 the age of his renowned ancestor Jo- 
 seph; yet he was not buried in the 
 same place with him, but in his own 
 inheritance, which seems to have 
 been ihe general practice. — How 
 long he lived after the entrance of 
 Israel into Canaan we have no 
 merns of- determining. Lightfoot 
 thinks it was about seventeen years, 
 but the Jewish chronolosjers gener- 
 ally fix it at twenty-seven or Iwenty- 
 
 30 And they buried him in 
 the border of his inheritance in 
 iTiinnath-serah, which is in 
 mount Ephraim, on the north, 
 side ofthe hill of Gaash. 
 
 31 And '"Israel served the 
 Lord all the days of Joshua, and 
 all the days of the elders that 
 
 Icli. 19. 50. JuJg. 2 9. m Judg. 2.7. 
 
 eight. There is no mention of any 
 public mourning at his death, as 
 there was for iVloses and Aaron, and 
 his only epitaph was, in effect, 
 couched in the brief terms, ' the ser- 
 vant OF THE Lord.' This however 
 comprehended the sum of the high- 
 est eulogiums that could be bestow- 
 ed on his character. Though infe- 
 rior in many respects to Moses, yet 
 in this he was equal to him, that ac- 
 cording as his work was in the 
 sphere in which he was placed, he 
 had approved himself a diligent, de- 
 voted, and faithful servant of the 
 Most High ; and no man need desire 
 a more honorable testimonial to re- 
 cord his worth to his own or future 
 generations. 
 
 30. Btiried him in the border of his 
 inheritance in Timnath-serah. In 
 the compass, in the limits of his in- 
 heritance. See the remark on the 
 import of the word 'border' in the 
 note on ch. 19. 25. Of Timnath-se- 
 rah, see on Judg. 2. 9. 
 
 31 . The elders that over-lived Josh- 
 ua. Heb. ' that prolonged their 
 days after Joshua.' Intimating that 
 the salutary influence of Joshua's 
 exemplary life and character extend- 
 ed beyonii the term of his natural 
 existence, and served for a number 
 of years to keep the people in a gen- 
 eral course of obedience. Whether 
 for good or for evil the effect of our 
 example may be expected to live 
 after us. This shows that this part 
 ofthe book must have been written 
 a considerable time after the death 
 of Joshua. See on ch. 4. 9. H 
 Which had knoicn all ihe tcorks of 
 the Lord. Who had been eye-wit- 
 nesses of them, who had profound- 
 
A. C. 1426.] 
 
 overlived Joshua, and which had 
 "known all the works of the 
 Lord that he had done for Israel. 
 32 IT And "the bones of Jos. 
 eph, which the children of Israel 
 brought up out of Egypt, buried 
 they in Shechem, in a parcel of 
 ground Pwhich Jacob bought of 
 the sons of Hamor the father of 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 179 
 
 n See Deut. 11. 2. & 31. 13. 
 13. 19. p Gea 33. 19. 
 
 Gen. 50. 2-5. 
 
 ly and devoutly regarded them ; who 
 had not only seen them, but ponder- 
 ed upon them with those sentiments 
 which they were calculated to excite. 
 Such is the genuine import of 
 ' known' in this connection. 
 
 32, The bones of Joseph buried 
 they in Shechem. Joseph's death 
 took place in Egypt about two hun- 
 dred years before that of Joshua, 
 and we learn. Gen. 50. 25, Ex. 13. 
 19, that prior to his decease he had 
 given a strict charge that his bones 
 should- be conveyed away out of 
 Egypt by his people when they 
 themselves went up from thence. 
 Accordingly they had carried these 
 precious relics with them in all their 
 wanderings through the wilderness, 
 and never attempted to bury them 
 till they were peaceably settled in the 
 promised land. The act of sepul- 
 ture, though here related after the 
 account of the death of Joshua, un- 
 doubtedly took place ie/o re it, and not 
 improbably at the time of the gene- 
 ral convention at Shechem descri- 
 bed in the present chapter. The oc- 
 casion, at any rate, would seem to 
 have been a very suitable one for 
 such a solemn ceremony, although 
 it be true that a considerable long 
 interval had now elapsed since the 
 
 Shechem for a hundred pieces 
 of silver ; and it became the in- 
 heritance of the children of Jo- 
 seph. 
 
 33 And Eleazar the son of 
 Aaron died ; and they buried 
 him in a hill that pertained to 
 •^Phinehas his son, which was 
 given him in mount Ephraim. 
 
 q Ex. 6. 25. Judg. 20. 28. 
 
 conquest and occupation of Canaan. 
 But reasons unknown may have de- 
 layed the event. After all, ihe point 
 is uncertain and of little moment. 
 If any one prefers to translate the 
 original ' had buried' instead of ' bu- 
 ried,' implying that the circumstance 
 took place some years before when 
 the children of Joseph first received 
 their inheritance, which they would 
 naturally be disposed at once to con- 
 secrate by depositing within it the 
 remains of their venerated ancestor, 
 we know of nothing to object 
 against it, H Which Jacob botight, 
 &c. See on Gen. 33. 19. 
 
 33. And Eleazar — died. Proba- 
 bly about the same time with Josh- 
 ua, H l7i a hill that pertained to 
 Phi7iehas. As the cities assigned to 
 the priests lay in the lots of Judah, 
 Benjamin, and Simeon, neither fa- 
 ther nor son could properly inherit 
 a portion located in Mount Ephraim. 
 But such a portion might be given. 
 them there, and the probability is that 
 the people voluntarily gave to the 
 high priest a place of residence sit- 
 uated at a convenient distance from 
 Joshua and the tabernacle, and that 
 this was called the ' hill of Phineas,' 
 because he dwelt longer there than 
 his father Eleazar had done. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. — Title, its Origin and Import. 
 
 The seventh book in the received order of the Hebrew Scriptures is 
 termed, aitSSDITZJ Shopketim, Judges ; a name derived from totlD Shaphat, 
 to judge, to determine causes, to do justice, to vindicate, and also, in general, 
 to rule, govern, reg%Llate, and applied here to the chief rulers who governed 
 the Hebrew Republic from the days of Moses till the time of Saul, be- 
 cause riding and judging are so intimately connected in the East, that 
 sitting in judgment is one of the principal employments of the oriental 
 sovereign. From this it will be seen that the title, as thus applied, is to be 
 taken in'a wider sense than the same term conveys with us, viz. persons 
 appointed to determine litigated questions, and to pronounce the sentence 
 of the law in criminal cases. Here, on the other hand, it is used to denote 
 those occasional leaders and chief magistrates of the Israelites, who led 
 out the people to war against their enemies, and after having delivered 
 them from the oppression of the neighboring nations, exercised each 
 during peace, the office of chief ruler and judge of Israel. Still the 
 predominant idea conveyed by the term is rather that of military com- 
 manders, or more properly avenging deliverers, than of judicial officers, 
 as this latter function came more within the province of the priests. 
 
 In order to form a still more distinct idea of the nature of this office, 
 let it be remarked, that the Hebrew constitution made no provision for a 
 permanent and general governor of the nation ; and that for obvious 
 reasons. In the first place, God himself was the chief magistrate of that 
 people, and had established an agency, through which his will might be 
 at all times ascertained. Under him there was his visible minister, the 
 high-priest, who was empowered to attend to the general affairs of the 
 nation, where there was no military or civil ruler specially appointed for 
 the purpose. It is also to be remembered that every tribe had its own 
 chief or prince, whose office was permanent, and who, with the subordinate 
 heads of families, wielded the patriarchal powers, which, in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, were amply sufficient to keep the affairs of his tribe in pro- 
 per order. In this state of things the mild authority of the high-priest 
 ought to have been sufficient for the purposes of general government. 
 But this was not the case ; the apostacy and rebellion of the Israelites, and 
 the punishment with which such sins were visited, gave occasion for the 
 appointment of extraordinary officers, which the organization of the state 
 did not in itself require. These were the Judges. They arose from time 
 to time as they were wanted; and were sometimes called by God himself 
 to their high work, and were sometimes elected by the people. The judge 
 was commonly a person who, having been instrumental in delivering 
 the people from oppression, continued to administer a government 
 more or less extensive during the remainder of his life. Some, however, 
 appear to have been appointed to govern in time of peace. Deborah ruled 
 
184 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in Israel before the war with Jabin ; Samuel was not introduced to the 
 government by his military exploits ; and of several others, it is at least 
 uncertain whether they held any military command. The oppressions 
 which this book records were not always equally felt over all Israel'; and 
 hence ihe authority of the deliverer sometimes extended only over the 
 tribes he had delivered. Thus Jephthah did not exercise his authority on 
 the west of the Jordan, nor did that of Barak extend to the east of that 
 river. Some of the judges appear to have ruled simultaneously over 
 different tribes ; and this is one of the circumstances which render the 
 chronology of the period so perplexing. 
 
 The judges did not transmit their dignity to their descendants, neither 
 did they appoint successors. They could not enact laws or impose taxes 
 on the "people, though they made peace or war, and in their judicial ca- 
 pacity decided causes without appeal. Yei all this power seems to hava 
 been rather the result of character and influence, than of any authority 
 recognized as inherent in the ofiice. No salary or income was attached 
 to it, nor did they receive emoluments of any kind. They had no external 
 marks of distinction ; they were surrounded by no circumstances of pomp 
 or ceremony ; they had no courtiers, guard, train, or equipage. They 
 were in general men of moderate desires, and content to deserve well of 
 their country, without seeking to aggrandize or enrich themselves. They 
 always considered and conducted themselves as specially called of God, 
 relying upon him in all their enterprises, and making it their chief care to 
 bring their countryman to acknowledge, worship, and obey him. Though 
 evincing in some melancholy instances the infirmities of human nature, 
 yet they" were on the whole models of true patriotism and of moral worth, 
 and eminently free from the public crimes, which in all ages have so 
 notoriously flown from the possession and the lust of power. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the Carthagenians, who were descended 
 from the Tyrians, and spoke Hebrew, called their chief magistrates by 
 the same name : but the Latins, whose language lacks the 5/1 of the ancient 
 Hebrews and Carthagenians, wrote the word with a sharp s, and adding a 
 Latin termination, denominated them Suffeies ; a class of functionaries 
 very nearly resembling the archons of the Athenians, and the dictators of 
 the Romans. 
 
 II. — Author and Age. 
 
 The authorship of the book cannot be determined with absolute cer- 
 tainty. Some ascribe it to Samuel, some to Hezekiah, and some to Ezra, 
 who is supposed to have compiled it from the memoirs furnished by the 
 respective judges of their own government. This hypothesis is founded 
 mainly on what is said ch. 18. 30, ' He and his son were priests to the 
 tribe of Dan, until the day of the captivity of the land,' from which it has 
 been imagined that it was not written till after the Babylonish captivity. 
 But this conjecture is evidently erroneous ; as upon comparing Ps. 78. 60, 
 61, andl Sam. 4,11, with that passage, it appears that the captivity intended 
 by the historian was a particular captivity of the tribe of Dan, 'or of that 
 part of it which was settled in the north, and which took place about the 
 time the ark was taken by the Philistines. Besides, the total absence of 
 Chaldee words sufficiently proves the date of the book to have been several 
 centuries anterior to the great Babylonish captivity. Such words are of 
 frequent occurrence in books known to have been written posterior to 
 that event. Most of the Jewish and Christian commentators assign the 
 authorship to Samuel ; probably because internal evidence places it pretty 
 clearly about his time, and in his time he is the most likely person to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 185 
 
 whom the writing of it could be ascribed. That it was written after the 
 establishment of the regal government, appears from the habit the author 
 has of saying, that such and such events happened in the time wlien ' there 
 was no king in Israel;' which renders it evident that there tcu/s a king 
 when he wrote. But that it was written very soon after the establishment 
 of kingly government is no less clear from other passages. Thus we see 
 from ch. 1. 21, that the Jebusites were still in Jerusalem in the lime of the 
 author; but this people were expelled from that city early in the reign of 
 David, 2 Sam. 5. 6. So also in 2 Sam. 11. 21, there is a distinct reference 
 to a fact recorded Judg. 9. 53, which affords another proof that this book 
 was written before the second of Samuel. On the whole, there is little 
 doubt that the book of Judges was composed in its present form, either m 
 the reign of Saul or during the first seven years of the reign of David, 
 and this renders it more probable that it was compiled from the public 
 legisters and records by Samuel, than by any of the other prophets, 
 priests, or kings to whom it has been attributed. 
 
 III. — Structure and Division, 
 
 The book is not constructed with reference to the precise chronologi- 
 cal order of the events related. It is clearly divisible into two leading 
 parts; the first embracing the history of the Judges from Othniel to Sam- 
 son and extending to the end of the sixteenth chapter ; the other occupy- 
 ing the rest of the book, forms a sort of appendix, narrating certr.in me- 
 morable transactions which occurred not long after the death of Joshua, 
 but which are thrown together at the end of the book, that the continuous 
 thread of the preceding narrative might not be interrupted. What re- 
 lates to the two last judges, Eli and Samuel, is related in the following 
 book. 
 
 IV. — Chronology. 
 
 The Chronology of this book is exceedingly embarrassed and difficult, 
 and there is little agreement among learned men respecting it. This arises 
 chiefly from the facts related being reckoned from different eras which 
 cannot now be exactly ascertained ; and also from judges being thought 
 by some to be successive, whom others consider to have been contemporary 
 in different parts of Palestine. Without reciting the details of the differ- 
 ent hypotheses proposed to solve these difficulties, it may be sufficient to 
 state, that Dr. Hales makes the whole period from the death of Joshua to 
 the death of Samson to be 400 years, while Usher and Lightfoot make it 
 not far from 300. After all it is doubtful whether, from the nature of the 
 book, it is possible to adjust the narrative into a regular chronological 
 series. It appears, for the most part, to have been composed of loose his- 
 torical memoranda, having little relation to each other, and put together 
 by the compiler, like the narratives of the Evangelists in the New Testa- 
 ment, without the least view to a methodical arrangement. Accordingly 
 in our remarks on the book we purposely leave all chronological ques- 
 tions untouched. 
 
 V. — Scope and Character. 
 
 The book of Judges forms an important link in the history of the 
 Israelites, and is very properly inserted between the books of Joshua and 
 Samuel, as the Judges were the intermediate governors between Joshua 
 and the kings of Israel. It furnishes a lively description of a fluctuating 
 
186 • INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and unsettled people, a striking picture of the disorders and dangers which 
 prevailed in a republic without magistracy, when ' the highways were 
 unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways,' when few pro- 
 phets arose to control the people, and ' every one did that which was right 
 in his own eyes.' It exhibits the contest of true religion with supersti- 
 tion ; displays the benefits that flow from the former; and represents the 
 miseries and evil consequences of impiety ; afibrding, in fine, a complete 
 verification of the warnings and predictions of Moses, that the children of 
 Israel should be prosperous or unfortunate, according as they obeyed or 
 violated the divine commands. From the scenes of discord and violence 
 which darken this history, Paul has presented us with some illustrious 
 examples of faith in the instances of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jep- 
 thah ; and Dr. Graves remarks, that ' by a superficial reader, the whole 
 period under the Judges may be easily mistaken for an uninterrupted 
 series of idolatries and crimes, from his not observing that the lapses 
 which incurred punishment, and the divine deliverances which attended 
 repentance, are related so fully as to occupy almost the whole narrative ; 
 while long periods, when, under the government of the Judges, the people 
 followed God and the land enjoyed peace, are passed over in a single 
 verse, as productive of no events which required a particular detail.' 
 
 The whole period is distinguished by a display of extraordinary 
 events, and by the most glaring and miraculous proofs of divine interpo- 
 sition. The history of God's government must necessarily be character- 
 ised by the demonstrations of his immediate agenc)''; and the selected in- 
 strument of his will may well be expected to exhibit a succession of 
 unprecedented exploits. It should, however, be observed that some of the 
 actions here recorded were justifiable only on the supposition of a divine 
 warrant, which superseded all general rules of conduct. Without this, 
 the deeds of Ehud, and of Jael, might be pronounced censurable for their 
 treachery, however commendable the motives by which they were promp- 
 ted. In respect too to some other incidents, it is obvious that the sacred 
 writer by no means vindicates all that he relates ; and that the indiscrim- 
 inate massacre of the people of Jabesh-Gilead and the rape of the virgins 
 at Shiloh, stamped as they are with the evident marks of injustice and 
 cruelty, cannot possibly be justified on the principles w^hich the Scriptures 
 elsewhere furnish. In all such cases, and in the recorded characters of 
 God's ministers in general who are brought before us in this book, we 
 perceive the traces of human infirmity ; and while we discriminate be- 
 tween the lights and shades that mark the picture, it cannot be question- 
 able what parts of their conduct ice are called to imitate and what to 
 avoid. 
 
 VI. — Commentators. 
 
 The Commentators upon this book are for the most part the same as 
 those who have undertaken to illustrate the book of Joshua, and whom 
 the reader will find enumerated in the Introduction to that book. Of 
 these the most important are the following : — 
 
 Sebastiani Schmid Co?n7nentarius in Lihrum Judlcum, in 
 quo 'prcEter diligentem textus expUcationem, prcedpucE quce^stiones 
 et loci communes, qiios vacant, ad singula capita et suhjinem ap- 
 pendix chronologica adduntur. Argentorati, 1700. 4io. 
 
 Of the elder commentators it would not be easy to point out a superior to 
 Schmid. For accurate analysis, for strict and careful explication of words 
 
INTRODUCTION. 187 
 
 and phrases, for rigid preciseness in fixing the connection, and for skill 
 in drawing out his didactic inferences, he is perhaps unrivalled. He is 
 indeed prone to dwell unduly upon trifles, but this was the fault of the age, 
 rather than of the man. His works are a rich store-house of biblical ex- 
 position, and the Commentary on Judges is the most finished of his pro- 
 ductions. Walch says of it, in his ' Bibliotheca Theologica,' thai it is ' a 
 distinguished work, at the head of all the commentaries which our 
 countrymen have written. The author treats every thing, both words 
 and things, diligently, learnedly, and copiously, and whoever consults 
 this work, can easily dispense with all others.' Buddeus, in his ' Isagoge,' 
 is equally decided in his testimony to the merits of Schmid as a com- 
 mentator. 
 
 NicoLAi Serarii Judices ei Ruth explanati, Moguntias, 
 1609. Fol. 
 
 VicToaiNi Strigelii Liher Judicum, argumentis et scholiis 
 illustratus. Lipsise, 1575, 1586. 8vo. 
 
 Davidis Chytr^i in historiam Judicum populi Israel diiu- 
 cidus et perspicuus commentarius, cum inserta illius temporis histo- 
 riarum chronologia, Francofurti, 1589. 8vo. 
 
 Jo. Ad AMI OsiANDRi CommentaHus in Lihrum Judicum^ ex- 
 hihens sacrum cum exegesi textum, lectionum et versionum vari- 
 etatem, conciliatas antilogias, chronologiam, utilium quoBstionum 
 solutiones, ohjectiones cum vindiciis, ohservationes philologicas, et 
 locos communes doctrinales. TubingsB, 1682. Fol. 
 
 ' To^be enumerated among the best interpretations of this book.' Walch. 
 
 Martini Buceri Commentarius in Lihrum Judicum. Par- 
 isiis, 1554, 1563. Fol. 
 
 Petri Martyri Commentarius in Lihrum Judicum. Tiguri, 
 1561. Londini, 1564. Fol. 
 
 Jacobi Bonfreri Commentarius in Josuam, Judices, et Ruth 
 Parisiis 1631, 1659. Fol. 
 
 Jo. Enr. Grabii Epistola ad clarissm. vir. Joannem Mil- 
 Hum, qua ostenditur, Lihri Judicuin genuinam LXX interpretum 
 versionem earn esse, quam MS. codex Alcxandrinus exhibet ; 
 Romanam autem editionem, quod ad dictum librum, ah ilia prorsus 
 diversam, atque candem cum Hesychiano esse. Oxonise, 1707. 4to. 
 
 Christ. Fred. Schnurrer R. Tanchum Hierosylumitam 
 ad lihros Vet. Testamenti Commentarii Arahici Specimen, una 
 cum annotationihus ad aliquot loca lihri Judicum. Tugingse, 
 1791. 4to. 
 
188 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Wern. Carl. Ludw. Zieglers Bemerkungen uber das 
 Buck der Richter aus dem Geist des Heldenalters ; nehst Beur- 
 teilung der grieschiscJien Versionen, und Hirer Ahweichung vom 
 Originaltexl ; in Aiictoris Theologischen Ahliandlugen, erster Band. 
 Gotting. 1791. 6vo. p. 262, seqq. 
 
 Heinr. Eberh. Gottl. Paultjs Blicke in das Buck der 
 Richter, wahr scheinlich den altesten Rest anoder altehelra- 
 ischen Literatur, in Auctoris Theolog. Exeget, Conservatoriunii 
 P. II. (Heidelberg, 1822.) p. 180. seqq. 
 
 Gottl. Ludw. Studer das Buck der Richter grammatisch 
 und historisch erkldrt. Bern, 1835. 8vo. 
 
 A valuable and well digested work ; devoted principally to philological 
 illustration, and. after the German fashion, keeping studiously clear of 
 every practical remark, and of everything in fact beyond the bare letter. 
 
 In addition to the above, much valuable matter bearing upon the eluci- 
 dation of different parts of this book, will be found in ' Lowth's Hebrew 
 Poetry,' ' Green's Poetical Parts of the Old Testament,' ' Herder's Spirit 
 of Hebrew Poetry,' and Prof. Robinson's Intrepretation of Judges, ch. 5, 
 the Song of Deborah and Barak, in the ' Biblical Repertory,' No. III. 
 June 1831. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 
 
 CHAPTER r. 
 ]VrO\V after the death of Josh- 
 ■^ uci it came to puss, that tlie 
 children of Israel ''asked the 
 Lord, saying, Who shall go up 
 
 a NuiD. 27. 21. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 1. After Uie death of Joshua. Hovv' 
 long after we have no means oi de- 
 termining ; probably not long, for 
 Othniel, the first judge after Josh- 
 ua's decease, had been his contem- 
 porar}^, and was in fact his son-in- 
 laM'. ^ Asked the Lord. The 
 original phrase is the usual one for 
 consulung the oracle, or inquiring 
 by the ministry of the high-priesr, 
 and through the medium of the Urim 
 and Thummim, the will of Jehovah 
 as to the great m.atters of dury and 
 policy. As vce read of no particu- 
 lar person, who succeeded Joshua 
 as commander-^in-chief of the Isra- 
 elites, it is prob:;ble that every tribe 
 Vv^as governed by one or more of its 
 elders for a number of years, and 
 that in their wars with the Canaan- 
 ites they also were their military 
 leaders. As the people were now 
 becoming more numerous and capa- 
 ble of occupying a larger extent of 
 territory, they deemed it expedient 
 to renew the v.-ar, bnt having no sin- 
 gle head to take the lead in the en- 
 terprise, they very properly sought 
 direCLion from above as to the 
 manner in which the war should be 
 Conducted. It Avill be observed that 
 they do not inquire what indivi- 
 dual should be chosen as successor 
 to Joshua and commander of the 
 forces, but which of the tribes shall 
 take the precedency in the expedi- 
 tion. Whether each tribe was am- 
 bitious of the honor or fearful of the 
 danger of being first, it is not possi- 
 ble to determine, but by common 
 consent it was resolved to refer the 
 17 
 
 for us against the Canaan ites 
 fust to fight against them ? 
 
 2 And the Lord said, '^Judah 
 shall go up : behold, I have de- 
 livered the land into his hand. 
 
 matier to God. the proper arbiter in 
 every doubtful case. Happy is it 
 for us that we have the same infal- 
 lible source of guidance to which to 
 apply in all our perplexities. IT 
 Who shall go uj) for us 7 The com- 
 mon term for a military expedition. 
 See Is. 7. 1. Jer. 50. 3. The phrase 
 ' for us' puts the ' going up' in rela- 
 tion to the whole body of the people. 
 The success of whatever tribe took 
 the lead would be an earnest and as- 
 surance of the success of the rest in 
 obtaining complete possession of 
 their respective allotments. 
 
 2. Jiidak shall go up. That is, 
 the tribe of Judah, not a person of 
 this name. So in v. 3, Simeon 
 stands for the tribe of Simeon, and 
 so also generally in the sequel. The 
 precedency vs'as given to Judah, be- 
 cause it was the most numerous, 
 pov,-erful, and valiant of all the 
 tribes and that which the Lord de- 
 signed should possess the pre-em- 
 inence in ail respects, as being the 
 one from which ihe Messiah was to 
 spring, and for that reason crowned 
 with the ' excellency of dignity' 
 above all its fellows. Judah there- 
 fore must lead in this perilous en- 
 terprise ; for God not only appoints 
 service according to the strength 
 and ability he has given, but ' would 
 also have the burden of honor and 
 the burden of labor go together.' 
 Those who have the precedency in 
 rank, reputation, or influence should 
 always be disposed to go before 
 others in every good work, undis- 
 mayed by danger, difficulty, or ob- 
 loquy, that they may encourage 
 
190 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1425. 
 
 3 And Judah said unto Simeon 
 his brother, Come up with me 
 into my lot, that we may fight 
 against the Canaanites ; and •=! 
 likewise will go with thee into 
 thy lot. So Simeon went with 
 him. 
 
 4 And Judah went up, and 
 the Lord delivered the Canaan- 
 ites and the Perizzites into their 
 
 others by their example. IT Ikave 
 delivered ihe land into his hand. 
 Have determined that he shall sub- 
 due it. Not the whole land, but the 
 land or district destined for his in- 
 heritance. This God had so firmly 
 purposed to deliver into his hand 
 that it might be considered as al- 
 ready done, and such assurance of 
 victory would naturally give cour- 
 age for the contest. 
 
 3. Judah said unto Simeon — come 
 up with me, &c. This proposition 
 was made to Simeon because these 
 tribes being descended, by their pro- 
 genitors, from the same father and 
 mother, Jacob and Leah, were breth- 
 ren in the strictest sense, and be- 
 cause also the lot of Simeon fell 
 within that of Judah. This laid a 
 natural ground for their union and 
 co-operation in the enterprise. ' Ob- 
 serve here that the strongest should 
 not despise but desire the assistance 
 even of those that are weaker. It 
 becomes Israelites to help one ano- 
 ther against Canaanites; and all 
 Christians, even those of different 
 tribes, to strengthen one another's 
 hands against the common interests 
 of Satan's kingdom.' Heyiry. Caleb 
 was probably commander in this war. 
 
 4. The Lord delivered the Canaan- 
 ites and the Perizzites. Or, Heb. 
 ' the Canaanite, et'e/i the Perizzite.' 
 It is not clear that distinct tribes are 
 intended. TI They sleio of them in 
 Bezek, &c. That is, in the city and 
 the adjacent territory. This city is 
 supposed to have been in the tribe of 
 Judah, though there was another I3'- 
 ing to the south of Beth-shean (Scy- 
 
 hand : and they slew of them in 
 ''Bezek ten thousand men. 
 
 5 And they found Adoni-be- 
 zek in Bezek : and they fought 
 against him, and they slew the 
 CanaRnites and the Perizzites. 
 
 6 But Adoni-bezek fled ; and 
 they pursued after him, and 
 caught him, and cut off his 
 thumbs and his great toes. 
 
 d 1 Sam. 11.8. 
 
 thopolis) seven miles from Sichem, 
 where Saul reviewed his army be- 
 fore marching against Jabesh-Gile- 
 ad. This verse is to be considered 
 merely as a brief compend of the 
 narrative which is more fully ex- 
 panded in V. 5. — 7. No feature of 
 the historical style of the Scriptures 
 is more common than this. 
 
 5. And they found Adoni-bezek. 
 That is, ' loul or king of Bezek;' 
 probably the common title of the 
 kings of that place. The original 
 word j^vv; found js sometimes used 
 to denote -fi hostile encounter ; to at- 
 tack, to surprise, and probably has 
 that sense here. The first word of 
 this verse, ' and' would be better ren- 
 dered ' for' in accordance with the 
 remark made above respecting the 
 drift of V. 5.-7. 
 
 6. Cut off his thumbs and his great 
 toes. Heb. ' the thumbs of his 
 hands and of his feet.' Either by 
 express direction or secret impulse 
 from God, who thus purposed to 
 ' mete to him the measure he had 
 meted to others.' * The Hindoos 
 call the thumb the rcvia-viril, the 
 great finger of the hand, and the 
 large toe is named the great finger 
 of the foot. This punishment was 
 exceedingly eommon in ancient 
 times, and was inflicted principally 
 on those who had committed some 
 flagrant offence with their hands and 
 their feet. Thus, those convicted of 
 forgery, or numerous thefts, had 
 their thumbs cut ofl!'. The practice 
 is abolished, but its memory will re- 
 main, as it is now one of the scare- 
 crows of the nursery and domestic 
 
A. C. 1425.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 191 
 
 7 And Adoni-bezek said, 
 Thrce-score and ten kings, hav- 
 ing their thumbs and their great 
 toes cut off, gathered their meal 
 
 life : * If you steal any more, I will 
 cut off your thumbs.' 'Let me 
 find out the thief, and I will soon 
 have his thumbs.' — Roberts. The 
 loss of the thumbs would disable 
 them from drawing the bow or hand- 
 ling to advantage the sword or the 
 spear, and so would in effect utterly 
 incapacitate them for war. ' As to 
 the loss of the great toes, independ- 
 ently of the inconvenience occa- 
 sioned in the act of running or walk- 
 ing, the disabling effect to an Orien- 
 tal is infinitely greater than to an 
 European. The feet and toes are 
 much employed in all the handicraft 
 operations throughout the East, and 
 in many cases the loss of the great 
 toes would completely disqualify a 
 man from earning his subsistence. 
 Besides the many little active oper- 
 ations which they are tutored to ex- 
 ecute, the artisans, as they work 
 with their hands, seated on the 
 g^-ound, hold fast and manage all 
 their work v/ith their feet and toes, 
 in which the great toes have a very 
 prominent duty to perform. Ward, 
 in his ' View of the Hindoos,' has 
 fully shown to what excellent uses 
 the toes are applied in India. ' They 
 are second-hand fingers ; they are 
 called feet-fingers in Bengalee. In 
 his own house a Hindoo makes use 
 of them to fasten a clog to his feet 
 by means of a button, which slips 
 between the two middle toes. The 
 tailor, if he does not thread his 
 needle, certainly twists his thread 
 with them. The cook holds his 
 knife with his toes while he cuts 
 fish, vegetables, &c. The joiner, 
 the weaver, &c., could not do with- 
 out them ■, and almost every native 
 has twenty diflerent uses for his toes.' 
 Pict. Bible. 
 
 7. Three-score and ten kings, &c. 
 Not perhaps all at one time, but 
 first and last, during his whole reign. 
 
 under my table; «as I have done, 
 so God hath requited me. And 
 they brought him to Jerusalem, 
 and there he died. 
 
 eLev. 24. 19. 1 Sam. 15. c 3. J»m. '^. 13. 
 
 It would seem that wasting civil 
 wars had very much prevailed 
 among the Canaanites previous to 
 the arrival of the Israelites, and this 
 circumstance probably tended to 
 facilitate their conquests. ' Judah,' 
 says Lightfoot, ' in conquering 
 Adoni-bezek did in effect conquer 
 seventy kings.' In the case of this 
 cruel tyrant we cannot fail to per- 
 ceive the uncertainty of human 
 greatness. The mighty potentate is 
 here reduced to the condition of a 
 prisoner, to the very extremity of 
 meanness and disgrace; showing 
 that pre-eminence in station often 
 leads only to a sad pre-eminence in 
 misery and distress. ' Let not the 
 highest be proud, nor the strongest 
 secure, for they know not how low 
 they may be brought before they die.' 
 Henry. IF As I have done, so God 
 hath requited me. A striking ac- 
 knowledgment, extorted from a 
 guilty conscience, of the retributive 
 justice of Heaven. ' When God's 
 judgments awaken the conscience 
 we shall own his righteousness, and 
 stand self-condemned before him, 
 HaiL-eis. What pretences he had 
 for warring against these kings, 
 we know not; but thus to insult 
 over the misfortunes of the van- 
 quished, to maim their persons, and 
 compel them, like dogs, to gather up 
 the crumbs from under his table, ar- 
 gued a degree of cruelty which one 
 could scarcely have conceived to 
 exist in a rational being. As the 
 personal injuries he had inflicted 
 would of course disable them from 
 harming him as long as they were 
 kept in bondage, thus to sport him- 
 self in their miseries, was a conduct 
 of pure gratuitous cruelty, and could 
 have proceeded only from the most 
 barbarous and brutal dispositions. 
 But we have cause to be humbled 
 for human nature that such propen= 
 
192 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1425. 
 
 8 (Now Hhe children of Ju- 
 dah had fought against Jeru- 
 salem, and had taken it, and 
 smitten it with the edge of the 
 sword, and set tlie city on fire.) 
 
 y H ?And afterward the chil- 
 dren of Judah went down to 
 fight against the Canaanites tliat 
 
 fSoe Josh n. t.3. g Josh. 10. 35. & 11 21. i 13. 13 
 
 sitie.s still adhere to it. This is evi- 
 dent from the pleasure which child- 
 ren ofien take in torturing insects 
 and animals, and in vexing and ty- 
 rannizing over those v/ho are weak- 
 er than themselves — a disposition 
 which in after life displays itself in 
 a fondness for despotic swa)', in a 
 vindictive spirit, and in a career of 
 ruthless ambition. But God is 
 known by the judgments that he ex- 
 ecuteth, and this cruel Canaanite 
 was in his turn made to feel the an- 
 guish which he had so wantonly in- 
 flicted upon others. The Israelites 
 were led to deal v^ith him on the 
 principle of their own law of retal- 
 iation, ' an eye for an eye, a tvX)th 
 for a tooth,' &c; although, as it 
 would have been inconsistent with 
 those gracious alfections which, as 
 the Lord's chosen people, they were 
 bound to exercise, they did not re- 
 duce him to the same ignominy or 
 insult over him with the same arro- 
 gance that he had shown towards 
 others. Thus it is that God some- 
 times makes men's punishments to 
 correspond with their crimes; and 
 in this case, notwithstanding all the 
 feelings of humanity, we cannot but 
 acquiesce in the judgment that be- 
 fel him, or help being conscious of 
 a secret satisfaction that the same 
 evils he had so cruelly inflicted upon 
 others should be brought home to 
 himself. 
 
 8. Had fought against Jerusalem 
 and had taken it. This event, of 
 prior occurrence, is mentioned here 
 to intimate how It happened that they 
 were able to convey the captive king 
 to Jerusalem. It was because thev 
 liad before taken that city, and It 
 
 dweh in the mountain, and in the 
 south, and in the valley. 
 
 10 And Judah went against 
 the Canaanites that dwelt in He- 
 bron : (now the name of Hebron 
 bcf:>re was ^Kirjath-arba :) and 
 they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, 
 and Talmai. 
 
 h Josh. 14.15. & 5. 13. li. 
 
 was now in their possession. The 
 I reason of removing him thither was 
 perhaps to make him a more public 
 spectacle of the just judgments of 
 God against barbarous and blood- 
 thirsty tyrants. But though the 
 city is said to have been taken, yet 
 the hill of Zion, as appears from the 
 subsequent history, was still held by 
 the Jebusites till the time of David. 
 IT Set the city cm fere. Heb. ' cast 
 the city into the fire;' an inverted 
 phraseology, peculiar to the Hebrew. 
 Thus Ps. 74. 7, ' They have cast fire 
 into the sanctuary ;' Heb. ' they 
 have cast thy sanctuarv into the fire? 
 Joel, 3. 18, 'The hills shall flow with 
 rnilk ;' Heb. ' milk shall flow with 
 hills.' This burning the city or a 
 part of it, Avas probably in token of 
 their detestation of the idolatry 
 which had been practised there. 
 
 9. Went down to fight, &c. That 
 is, descended to the hill-country 1}-- 
 mg south of Jerusalem. 
 
 10. And Judah went doicn against 
 the Canaanites, &c. That is, under 
 the conduct of Caleb, as we learn 
 from Josh. 15. 14 — 19, where sub- 
 stantially the same account with the 
 present occurs. How this has hap- 
 pened, vthetlier the writer of Judges 
 took this narrative from Joshua, or 
 the writer of Joshua inserted his 
 from Judges, it is impossible to de- 
 termine. That both accounts relate 
 the same events there can be no 
 doubt, but whether those events oc- 
 curred before or after the death of 
 Joshua, is a point which we despair 
 of ever haA'ing satisfactoril)' settled. 
 As the discussion of the question 
 would encumber our pages with 
 matter of little profit to the general 
 
A. C. 1444.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 193 
 
 11 iAnd from thence he went 
 against the inhabitants of Debir : 
 and the name of Debir before 
 was Kirjath-sepher : 
 
 12 kAnd Caleb said, He that 
 smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and ta- 
 keth it, to him will I give Ach- 
 sah my daughter to wife. 
 
 13 And Othniel the son of 
 Kenaz, iCaleb's younger broth- 
 er, took it : and he gave him 
 Achsah his daughter to wife. 
 
 14 -"And it came to 
 
 when she came to him^ that she 
 moved him to ask of her father 
 a field : and she lighted from off 
 
 i Josh. 15. 15. k Josh. 15 16, 17, 1 ch. 3 
 
 m Josh. 15.18,19. 
 
 reader, we waive it entirel)'^ without 
 offering an opinion. H Slew Sheshai. 
 and Ahiman, and Talmai. In the par- 
 allel passage, Josh. 15. 14, Caleb is 
 said merely tojh ave ' driven out' these 
 sons of Anak. The probability is, 
 that the words before us give the 
 true sense, and that they were actu- 
 ally slain. An enemy driven out 
 is not necessarily understood to be 
 slain, but whoever is slain is virtu- 
 ally driven out, by being expelled 
 from among the living. 
 
 11—15. See on Josh. 15. 15—19. 
 
 16. The children of the Kenile, Ho- 
 ses' father-in-law. That is, of Jeth- 
 ro;"but why he is called the Kenite 
 it is not easy to say. The probabil- 
 ity is, that he inhabited the country 
 tDccupied by a people of this name. 
 Num. 24. 21, 22, and on this account 
 in process of time came to be distin- 
 guished by the same appellation. 
 Whether Jethro himself accompani- 
 ed Israel into Canaan, according to 
 Moses' invitation. Num. 10. 32, is 
 not clear, but that his posterity did 
 is certain. After their arrival, they 
 at first pitched their tents near Jer- 
 icho, called also ' the city of Palm- 
 trees,' which lay in the lot of Benja- 
 min, and here remained during the 
 17* 
 
 her ass; and Caleb said unto 
 her, What wilt thou ? 
 
 15 And she said unto him, 
 "Give me a blessing : for thou 
 hast given me a south land ; 
 give me also springs of water. 
 And Caleb gave her the upper 
 springs, and the nether springs. 
 
 16 IT °And the children of 
 the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, 
 went up out Pof the city of palm- 
 trees with the children of Judah 
 into the wilderness of Judah, 
 which lieth in the south of 
 lArad ; ""and they went and 
 dwelt among the people. 
 
 n Gen. 33. If. o ch. 4. 11, 17. 1 Sam. 15. 6. 1 Chr. 
 2. 55. Jer. 35. 2. p Deut. 34. 3. q Num. 21. I. 
 r Num. 10. 32. 
 
 life-time of Joshua. After his death, 
 for reasons now unknown, they uni- 
 ted with the tribe of Judah, and 
 went with them to attack Arad. Af- 
 ter the conquest of that country, the 
 Kenites established themselves there 
 and remained in it mingled with the 
 Amalekites, and leading a quiet life 
 remote from public affairs, till the 
 days of Saul. When this king re- 
 ceived a commandment from God to 
 destroy the Amalekites, he sent a 
 message to the Kenites to depart 
 from among them, as God would not 
 destroy them with that devoted peo- 
 ple. From them descended Hemath, 
 the father of the house of Rechab, 
 of whom we have so interesting an 
 account, Jerem. 35. IT Arad. Of 
 this place see on Num. 21. 1. IT And 
 they went and dwelt, &c. That 
 is, the greatest part of them. Some 
 few families were dispersed in other 
 places, as we find the tent of Jael, 
 who was of this stock, far to the 
 north, in the tribe of Naphtali, when 
 Sisera took shelter there, ch. 4. 17. 
 If Among the people. Heb. ' that peo- 
 ple;' viz, the children of Judah re- 
 sident there. ' They who willingly 
 share with God's Israel in their suf- 
 ferings in the wilderness, shall share 
 
194 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1425. 
 
 17 *And Judah went with 
 Simeon his brother, and they 
 slew the Canaanites that inhab- 
 ited Zephath, and utterly de- 
 stroyed it. And the name of 
 the city was called 'Hormah. 
 
 18 Also Judah took "Gazi 
 with the coast thereof, and As- 
 
 e »er. 3. t Num. 21. 3. Josh. 19. 4. u Josh. 11. 2?. 
 
 also with them in the inheritance 
 in glory.' Hmoeis. 
 
 17. And Judah v:ent Kith Shneon, 
 &c. According to previous com- 
 pact, V. 3. The thread of the nar- 
 rative which had been interrupted 
 for the purpose of introducing ihe 
 foregoing account of Caleb and 0th- 
 niel, is here resumed. IT Slew the 
 Canaanites that inhabitr.d Zephath. 
 A valley called Zephathah, is men- 
 tioned 2 Chron. 14. 19, as lying near 
 Maresha in the southern section of 
 Judah, where Asa gained a signal 
 victory over the Ethiopian army. 
 This is probably the same place. It 
 was now destroyed in pursuance of 
 a vow taken by Israel before the 
 death of Moses^ Num. 21. 1 — 3, and 
 which for some reason they had de- 
 layed to perform till this time. This 
 seems likely from the fact that the 
 same name, ' Hormath,' importing 
 'Htter destruction, is there also be- 
 stowed upon the devoted region, and 
 we can otherwise see no particular 
 reason for making Zephath an an- 
 athema on this occasion. Arad ap- 
 pears not to have been so much the 
 name of a city, as of a tract of coun- 
 try embracing a number of cities, of 
 which perhaps Zephath was the 
 principal. 
 
 18. Took Gaza vilh the coast 
 thereof. With the adjoining terri- 
 tory thereof; and so in what follows. 
 Having conquered the south, they 
 turned their arms towards the Phi- 
 listines' country in the west. These 
 cities it is said they * took,' but it is 
 not said that they slew the inhabi- 
 tants, as they ought to have done. 
 They probably contented themselves 
 with making them tributary, and as 
 
 kelon with the coast thereof, and 
 Ekron with the coast thereof! 
 
 19 And -"^the Lord was with 
 Judah ; and he drave out tlie in- 
 habitants of tiie mountain ; but 
 could not drive out the inhabi- 
 tants of the valley, because they 
 had y char lots of iron. 
 
 xver. 2. 2 Kings 13. 7. y Josh. 17. 16, 18. 
 
 a consequence or their ill-judged 
 lenity, they afterwards recovered 
 strength, expelled their invaders, 
 and remained for ages an almost in- 
 cessant source of annoyance and 
 vexation to the Israelites. 
 
 19. Drave out the inhabitants of 
 the mountain. Or, Heb. ' possessed 
 the mountain.' The idea of the or- 
 iginal however is, possessing in con- 
 sequence of a previous expulsion. If 
 the former sense of 'driving out' be 
 retained, mountain, i. e. the moun- 
 tainous region, is of course used for 
 mountaineers, or the inhabitants of 
 the mountain, as the name of a coun- 
 try or city often stands for its occu- 
 pants. In the parallel member of 
 the sentence immediately following, 
 the word ' inhabitants' is expressed. 
 IT But could not drive out, &c. That 
 is, Judah could not. The reason 
 why they could not was their unbe- 
 lief. Had they duly confided in 
 omnipotence, the chariots of iron 
 would have been no more of an ob- 
 stacle to them than chariots of straw. 
 But although on a former occasion. 
 Josh. 11. 4 — 9, they had s^en how 
 complete was the victory which 
 Joshua, relying upon God, had ob- 
 tained over these engines of war, 
 yet now they weakly suffer their 
 fears to prevail over their faith, and 
 instead of trusting God tinder ap- 
 parent disadvantages, they meanly 
 withdraw their forces, when one 
 bold stroke would have completed 
 their victories. So with believers^, 
 when they view outward difficulties 
 with the eye of sense, and forget the 
 almighty power of God ; their hearts 
 grow discouraged , their expectations 
 feeble, and their attempts timid and 
 
A. C. 1425.] CHAPTER I. 
 
 195 
 
 20 ^And they gave Hebron 
 unto Caleb, as Moses said : and 
 he expelled thence the three sons 
 of Anak. 
 
 21 »And the children of Ben- 
 jamin did not drive out the Jeb- 
 usites til at inhabited Jerusalem ; 
 but the Jebusiles dwell with the 
 children of Benjamin in Jerusa- 
 lem unto this day. 
 
 X Num. 14. 24. Deul. 1. 36. Josh. 14. 9, 13. & 15. 
 13 14. a Sea Josli. 13. 63. & IS. 28. 
 
 wavering ; and then no wonder they 
 do not prosper, for in proportion to 
 our faith will be our vigor, zeal, 
 and success. The Chal. paraphrast 
 renders the verse; 'And the Word 
 of Jehovah was in the support of the 
 house of Judah, and they extirpated 
 the inhabitants of the moimtains ; 
 but afterwards, n-hen they sinned, 
 they were not able to extirpate the 
 inhabitants of the plain-country, be- 
 cause they had chariots of iron.' 
 
 20. And tlwAjgave Hebron unto Ca- 
 leb, &c. We have little doubt that 
 the true design of inserting this verse 
 in this connection is lost sight of, by 
 the present mode of rendering. Let 
 the verb be translated in the pluper- 
 fect ten.se, ' had given,' and the drift 
 is obvious. It is as if the writer had 
 said, ' Although they had some time 
 before given Hebron to Caleb, and 
 he had expelled thence the three 
 gigantic sons of Anak, who were 
 deemed the mxost formidable and in- 
 vincible of all the old inhabitants of 
 Canaan, and though his success 
 ought to have been regarded as a 
 pledge and earnest of their own, let 
 the opposing power have been what 
 it might, yet notwithstanding this 
 precedent, they ignobly failed in the 
 achievement of a coYiquest equally 
 easy.' Understood in this sense, the 
 words instead of being an unmean- 
 ing repetition of an incident fre- 
 quently mentioned before, are in 
 fact a tacit but severe rebuke of the 
 cowardice and pusillanimity of the 
 nation. 
 
 21 . The children of Benjaviin did 
 
 22 IT And the house of Jo- 
 seph, they also went up against 
 Beth-el : ^and the Lord was 
 with them. 
 
 23 And the house of Joseph 
 •■sent to descry Beth-el. Now 
 the name of the city before loas 
 ''Luz. 
 
 24 And the spies saw a man 
 come forth out of the city, and 
 
 b ver. 13. c Josh. 2. 1. & 7. 2. eh. 18. 2. a Gen. 
 28. 19. 
 
 not drive out the Jebnsitts. Jerusa- 
 lem was situated partly in the tribe 
 of Judah, and partly in that of Ben- 
 jamin; the northern part belonging 
 to the latter tribe, the southern to the 
 former. This will account for the 
 fact, that what is here said of Ben- 
 jamin, is in Josh. 15. 63, said of Ju- 
 dah. It was owing to the most cul- 
 pable remissness on the part of the 
 tribe of Benjamin that these Jebtt- 
 sites were not expelled from their 
 strong-hold. As the Jebusites dwelt 
 in Jerusalem till the days of David, 
 and the author of this book states 
 them to have been in possession of 
 Jerusalem when he wrote, therefore 
 this book was certainly written before 
 the reign of David, or before the 
 date of his capture of that part of the 
 city. 
 
 22. The house of Joseph — 2cent up. 
 That is, the tribe of Ephraim, as ap- 
 pears from the contrary affirmation 
 respecting Manasseh. ^ The Lord 
 u-as ii-ith them. Another mode of 
 saying that they were eminently suc- 
 cessful in the expedition. The pre- 
 sence of God with us in our conflicts 
 is the strongest assurance of tri- 
 umph. Chal. ' The Word of the 
 Lord was their Helper ;' i. e. Christ. 
 
 23. Sent to descry Bethel. Heb. 
 ' sent to descry, or explore in Bethel.' 
 That is, in the region or tract im- 
 mediately surroundingthe city The 
 primary sense of the original is to 
 make a circuit, especially with a 
 view to spy, explore, or reconnoitre. 
 From this the native import of the 
 word, and from the term made use 
 
196 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1425. 
 
 they said unto him, Show us, we 
 pray thee, the entrance into the 
 city, and «we will show thee 
 mercy. 
 
 25 And when he showed 
 them the entrance into the city, 
 they smote the city with the 
 edge of the sword : but they let 
 go the man and all his family. 
 
 26 And the man went into 
 the land of the Hittites, and 
 built a city, and called the name 
 
 e Jo6ii.2. 12, H. 
 
 of in the next verse to designate the 
 persons in question, there is little 
 doubt that the language implies the 
 constant employment of a number of 
 persons in this service, their being 
 appointed to keep steadily on the 
 watch. We cannot otherwise ac- 
 count for the use of the particle ' in.' 
 H Luz. See on Gen. 28. 19. 
 
 21. And the spies saw a man, &c. 
 Heb. ' the guards, the watchmen ;' 
 implying that there was a stationary 
 loatch placed in the vicinity of the 
 city to observe its movements, to 
 note if any came out, and to appre- 
 hend them. IT Show us — the en- 
 trance into the city. Not the gate, 
 the common avenue, which there 
 could be no difficulty in finding, but 
 some weak point, where an entrance 
 could be effected with least danger 
 and difficulty. IT We will show thee 
 mercy. This confirms the opinion 
 that the Israelites might spare the 
 lives of such Canaanites as either 
 submitted to become bondmen and 
 renounced idolatry, or emigrated in- 
 to other regions, as was the case 
 with this individual and his family. 
 See on Josh. 11. 19. 
 
 25. And when he showed them the en- 
 trance, &c. We do not feel prepared 
 with Adam Clarke to pronounce the 
 conduct of this man ' execrable, 
 taken in whatever light we choose,' 
 without knowing more of the real 
 motives by which he was actuated 
 in giving the intelligence he did. It 
 is possible he might have done it 
 
 thereof Luz : which is the name 
 thereof unto this day. 
 
 27 IT fNeither did Manasseh 
 drive out the inhabitants o/*Beth- 
 shean and her towns, nor Taan- 
 ach and her towns, nor the in- 
 habitants of Dor and her towns, 
 nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and 
 her towns, nor the inhabitants of 
 Megiddo and her towns ; but 
 the Canaanites would dwell in 
 that land. 
 
 f ;osh. 17. 11, 12, '.3. 
 
 from the conviction that ' the Lord 
 Avas with them,' and that by his gift 
 the land was theirs of right, and then 
 the same reasons which justified Ra- 
 hab in entertaining those whom she 
 knew to be the enemies of her coun- 
 try, but the friends of God, would jus- 
 tify him. Yet the fact that he did not, 
 when set at liberty, like Rahab, unite 
 his interests with the worshippers of 
 Jehovah, but retired to his country- 
 men in another region, argues 
 against him, and leads us rather to 
 infer, that he was influenced more 
 by fear than by faith in acting the 
 part of, an inform.er. In that case 
 we are not called to pass judgment 
 on his conduct at all, but leave him 
 in the hands of Him who knows bet- 
 ter than we do how to discriminate 
 between the claims of allegiance to 
 one's country and of the principle of 
 self-preservation. 
 
 26. Went into the land of the Hit- 
 tites. Probably some place without 
 the bounds of the promised land, per- 
 haps in Arabia, where Josephus 
 mentions a city called lAissa (Luz). 
 Antiq. B. 14. ch. 2. The man him- 
 self was perhaps a Hittite, and to 
 perpetuate the name of his city, he 
 called the new one, which he now 
 founded, after the ancient name of 
 Bethel. 
 
 27. Neither did Manasseh drive 
 out. That is, possess by dispossess- 
 ing, the true sense of the original, as 
 already remarked, v. 19. On the 
 situation of Beth-shean, and the 
 
A. C. 1425.] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 197 
 
 23 And ii came to pass when 
 Israel was strong, that they put 
 the Canaanite?? to tribute, and 
 did i]ot utterly drive them out. 
 
 29 *ir ^Neither did Ephraim 
 drive out the Canaanites that 
 dwelt ill Gezer ; but the Ca- 
 naanites dwelt in Gezer among 
 them. 
 
 30 IT Nc-ithcr did Zebn.lun 
 drive out the inhabitants of Ki- 
 tron, nor the ^-inhabitants of Na- 
 jialol ; but tlie Canaanites dwelt 
 among them, and became tri- 
 butaries. 
 
 31 H i Neither did Asher drive 
 out the~inhabitants of Accho, nor 
 tlie inhabitants of Zidon, nor of 
 Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of 
 Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of 
 Rehob : 
 
 g Josh. 13. 10. 1 Kings 9. 16. 
 19. •2i—.H). 
 
 h Josh. 19. 15. i Jsli 
 
 Other towns recited here, see on 
 Josh. 17. 11. ^ And he?- towns. Heb. 
 'and her daughters,' i. e. her de- 
 pendent places, her adjacent villages. 
 •fT The Canaanitesifoxdd dwcllin that 
 land. On this remarkable and very 
 expre.ssive phraseology, see on Josh. 
 17. 12. 
 
 28. When Israel was strong, &c. 
 The fact of their ability aggravated 
 the crime of their neglect, and it is 
 probably with a view to intimate 
 this;, that the circumstance of their 
 becoming strong is mentioned. Thus 
 their sin prepared its own punish- 
 ment, and the love of present ease 
 became the source of perpetual dis- 
 quiet in after times. Thus shall we 
 ever fare by neglecting present op- 
 portunities, through sinful self-in- 
 dulgence and failing to bring under 
 our enemies when they are in our 
 power. See on Josh. 17. 13, 
 
 29. The Canaanites deceit among 
 them. Intimating, perhaps, that they 
 allowed them a quiet settlement and 
 indulged them the privileges of an 
 
 32 But the Asherites >^dwelt 
 amiong the Canaanites, the inha- 
 bitants of the land : for they did 
 not drive them out. 
 
 33 IT iNeither did Naphtali 
 drive out the inliabitants of Beth- 
 shemcsh, nor the inhabitants of 
 Bethanath ; but he ---dwelt among 
 the Canaanites, the inhabitants of 
 the land : nevertheless, the inha- 
 bitants of Beth-shemesh and of 
 Beth.anath "became tributaries 
 unto tliem. 
 
 34 And the Amorites forced 
 the children of Dan into the 
 mountain : for they would not 
 suffer them to come down to the 
 valley : 
 
 35"^ But the Amorites would 
 dwell in mount Heres °in Aija- 
 lon, and in Sliaalbim : yet the 
 
 k I's. 106. 34, 3'>. 1 Jo<h. 19 33. m v. 3-2. n v. 30. 
 o Josh I'J. i-2. 
 
 unconquered people, not even mak- 
 ing them tributary. 
 
 32. The Asherites dwelt among the 
 Canaanites. As it is not usual to say 
 of a larger number that it dwells 
 among a smaller, the inference in 
 regard to Asher and Naphtali is, 
 that they expelled comparatively but 
 feio of the Canaanites, leaving them 
 "in fact a majority of the population. 
 With most of the other tribes, the 
 case appears, for a considerable time 
 at least, to have been different. See 
 on ch. 3. 5. 
 
 34. The Amorites forced the child- 
 ren of Dan into the mountain. That 
 is, into the mountainous parts of 
 their lot. 11 Would not suffer them 
 to come down to the valley. To the 
 lower country, or the plains, proba- 
 bly by reason of their iron chariots, 
 
 35. Would du^ell in mmint Heres, 
 &c. Not content with the posses- 
 sion of the valleys, they in three in- 
 stances at least made themselves for 
 a while masters of the mountains, 
 bm this portion of them, by the sea- 
 
198 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1425. 
 
 hand of the house of Josei)h pre- 
 vailed, so that they became tri- 
 butaries. 
 
 36 And the coast of the 
 Amorites was rfrom the going 
 up to Akrabbim, from the rock, 
 and upward. 
 
 p Nam 34. 4. J..s!.. l". 3. 
 
 sonable assistance of the descendants 
 of Joseph were checked in their pro- 
 gress, confined within narrower lim- 
 its, and compelled to pay tribute. 
 But the Danites as a whole were 
 so pressed and straitened by these 
 Amoritish hordes, that they were 
 finally induced to enlarge their pos- 
 sessions by seeking new quarters in 
 a remote part of the land, ch. 18. 1. 
 Josh. 19. 47. 
 
 36. And the coast of the Amorites 
 ^vas, &c. That is, the territory, the 
 country occupied. The scope of this 
 verse seems to be to intimate that 
 it was not surprising that the Amo- 
 rites were such a formidable enemy 
 to Israel, when it is considered that 
 they were a powerful and numerous 
 race, inhabiting a territory that ex- 
 tended from the southern limits of 
 Canaan (Akrabbim, Josh. 15. 3.) 
 and even from beyond the city of the 
 Rock (Petra), northwest-ward as far 
 as to Mount Heres. 
 
 CHAPTER. II. 
 
 1. An angel of the Lord. As the 
 word ' angel,' iri its primary import, 
 is a term of office equivalent to mes- 
 sejiger, the Jews for the most part 
 are of the opinion that it here de- 
 notes a prophet sent by God as a 
 messenger, and that messenger they 
 suppose to have been Phineas, the 
 high-priest, who was commissioned 
 on this occasion to deliver the ensu- 
 ing solemn reproof to Israel. This 
 is indeed possible, but the more pro- 
 bable opinion we take to be, that it 
 was neither a human prophet nor a 
 created angel, but the Son of God 
 himself, he who is so frequently 
 styled, in the Scriptures, the ' Angel 
 of the covenant.' The evidence of 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A ND an angel of the Lord 
 ^^ came up from Gilgal ^to Bo- 
 chim, and said, I made you to 
 go up out of Egypt, and have 
 brought you unto the land which 
 I sware unto your fathers; and 
 
 this is found in what he immediate- 
 ly goes on to say of himself ; — ' I 
 made j'ou to go up out of Egypt, '&c. 
 Who but Jehovah himself could or 
 would adopt such language as this 7 
 It was not a creature that brought 
 the Israelites out of Egypt ; but Je- 
 hovah. It was not a creature that 
 made a covenant with them ; but 
 Jehovah. It was not a creature to 
 whom they were accountable for 
 their disobedience, and whose dis- 
 pleasure they had so much reason to 
 dread ; but Jehovah. As to the cir- 
 cumstance of his being said to ' come 
 up' from Gilgal, which is supposed 
 to militate against this interpreta- 
 tion, it rather confirms it; for it was 
 in Gilgal, near to Jericho, that this 
 same divine person had appeared to 
 Joshua as an armed warrior. That 
 he v/as Jehovah cannot be doubted, 
 because he suffered Joshua to wor- 
 ship him, and even commanded him 
 to put off' his shoes from his feet, in- 
 asmuch as the ground on which he 
 stood was, by reason of his presence, 
 rendered holy. In his conversation 
 with Joshua he had called himself 
 the ' Captain of the Lord's host,' and 
 therefore there was a particular pro- 
 priety in his appearing now to the 
 people, to inquire, Why they had not 
 carried his orders into effect 1 and 
 to threaten them that he would fight 
 for them no longer. Besides, at Gil- 
 gal the people had renewed the or- 
 dinance of circumcision and the 
 passover, in which they had conse- 
 crated themselves to God afresh, and 
 engaged to serve him as his redeem- 
 ed people. In coming therefore as 
 from Gilgal, the Angel upbraided 
 them with their base ingratitude, re- 
 minded them of their solemn en- 
 
A. C. 1425.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 199 
 
 H said, I will never break my 
 covenant with you. 
 
 2 Alc] "^ye shall make no 
 league with the inhabitants of 
 this land ; ''ye shall throw down 
 their altars: 'but yc have not 
 
 b Gen. 17 7. c Deul 7 2. U Ocut. 12. 3. e vcr. 
 20. l*s. luG. 31. 
 
 gagements, and humbled them the 
 more for their violation of them. 
 TI To Bochim. Heb. ' the weepers.' 
 Gr. K/\auOf!wi/fc, bewailings ; so called 
 by anticipation from the weeping 
 and lamentation, v. 8, that took place 
 there. Where Bochim was situated 
 we are not elsewhere informed, and 
 the probability is, that the place was 
 in reality no other than Shiloh, where 
 the people were now assembled, v. 4, 
 on one of their solemn festivals ; for it 
 appears, v. 5, that sacrifices were of- 
 fered on the occasion, and we know 
 that, as a general rule, sacrifices 
 were not offered except w'here the 
 tabernacle and altar were fixed, and 
 this, at the present time, was at Shi- 
 loh. As to the time when the events 
 recorded, v. 1—11, took place, it was 
 doubtless subsequent to the death of 
 Joshua, though the precise date of 
 it cannot now be ascertained. If in 
 Joshua's time they had been guilty 
 of the gross delinquency here laid to 
 their charge, he would hardly have 
 failed to reprove them for it, or have 
 said, Josh. 23. 8, that they had ' cleav- 
 ed unto the Lord their God nnto that 
 day.' The reason for the mention 
 of Joshua's dismission of the people 
 being inserted in this immediate con- 
 nection, will b3 ^iven in our remarks 
 on V. 6. 11 / mid, 1 7fill never break 
 my covenant. Provided you are true 
 and faithful to yours. The first 
 breach of covenant shall never be 
 laid to my charge. 
 
 2. Yfc' shall ma.ke no lea;j:ne, &c. 
 The letter of this passage is too plain 
 to need remark, but the spirit of it 
 in its application to the Christian Is- 
 rael, merits our most serious regard. 
 It teaches the danger of indecision 
 and supineness in prosecuting our 
 Christian warfare. The command 
 
 obeyed my voice : why have ye 
 done this ? 
 
 3 Wherefore I ulso said, I 
 will not drive them out from be- 
 fore you ; but they shall be ^as 
 thorns in your sides, and stheir 
 
 f;o»h. 23 13. u ^''3. 6. 
 
 to every follower of Christ is, to 
 make no league with our spiritual 
 enemies. Our corrupt affections and 
 lusts are not to be spared. It is not 
 sufficient to make Ihem pay tribute ; 
 we must crucify and slay them ; we 
 must show them no mercy ; our hat- 
 red of them must be irreconcilable 
 and incessant. But, alas ! what is 
 too often our state 1 Do we find in 
 ourselves this zeal 1 Instead of pro- 
 ceeding to the utter extirpation of 
 our spiritual enemies, are we not sa- 
 tisfied if they do not reign 1 Are we 
 not contented to let them exist, pro- 
 vided they will keep themselves con- 
 cealed from public view? What 
 then is the declaration of God con- 
 cerning us 1 Does he not ^varn us 
 that the evils which we spare shall 
 become as thorns in our sides, and 
 prove a snare to our souls 1 And do 
 we not find it in our actual experi- 
 ence to be sol Do not close con- 
 nections and sinful compliances Avith 
 the world lead to disastrous inroads 
 upon our peace 1 Does not an ex- 
 cessive devotion to the cares of the 
 world hinder our upward course, 
 and give the adversary an immense 
 advantage over us 1 And does not 
 the harboring of any besetting sin 
 invest it with tenfold force, and often 
 pave the way for our being invol-ved 
 in some flagrant and scandalous 
 transgression 1 Where then is our 
 safety but in perpetual resistance, in 
 never-ceasing conflict '? 
 
 3. \Vh.crefore I aha said. I in- 
 wardly purposed and resolved. On 
 this sense of the word 'say,' see on 
 ch. 22. 33. Or, with several of the 
 versions, it may be rendered in the 
 present, ' I say, I declare.' IT As 
 thorns in yonr sides. See Nuta. 
 33. 55. Josh. 23. 13> IT Their gods 
 
200 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1425. 
 
 gods shall be a ''snare unto 
 you. 
 
 4 And it came to pass, when 
 the angel of the Lord spake 
 these words unto all the children 
 
 h Ex. 2'. 33. & 34. 12. Dcui. 7. h:. Pe. 10^. 30. 
 
 shall be a snare unto you. Chald. 
 * their abominations.' They wiJl 
 prove an enticement to yon, to en- 
 tangle you in idolatry and so effect 
 your ruin. 
 
 5. The people lifted up Iheir voice 
 and ivept. For a lime, at least, they 
 were deeply affected with a sense of 
 their transgressions. They lifted 
 up their voice both in confession of 
 sin and deprecation of punishment. 
 And have we not equal occasion to 
 weep, whether we consider our sin 
 or our punishment 7 Is not the spar- 
 ing of inveterate lusts as wicked as 
 sparing the devoted Canaanites'? 
 Does it not betray an equal want of 
 reverence for God, of love to his 
 name, of zeal for his honor'? Let 
 us hearJhen the v^oice that proclaims 
 our duty ; ' Be afflicted and mourn 
 and weep; let your laughter be turn- 
 ed into mourning, and your joy into 
 heaviness; humble yourselves under 
 the mighty hand of "God, and he shall 
 lift you up.' But while Ave imitate 
 the humiliation of the Israelites on 
 this occasion, let lis be careful to 
 bring forth fruits more meet for re- 
 pentance than did they in their sub- 
 sequent conduct. For though they 
 now showed signs of deep abase- 
 ment and sorrow of spirit, yet we do 
 not tind, from the ensuing history, 
 thai any general or permanent re- 
 formation took place ; though they 
 now relented, they soon relapsed, 
 and involved themselves afresh and 
 still more deeply in the guilt of de- 
 fection and idolatry. ' Many are 
 melted under the word, that harden 
 again before they are cast in a new 
 mould.' Henry. 
 
 5. They sacrificed, there unto the 
 Lord. They had recourse to the 
 blood of sprinkling for the remission 
 of their sin. Though their weeping 
 was very general and very bitter, so 
 
 of Israel, that the pco»)le lifled up 
 their voice, and wept. 
 
 5 And they called the name 
 of that place Eociiim : and they 
 sacrificed there unto the Lord. 
 
 much so as to give a name to the 
 place, yet they did not hope to pacify 
 their offended God Mith tears. 
 They knew that an atonement was 
 necessary, and they therefore sought 
 him in his appointed way. Would 
 that xce might learn from them ! 
 Humiliation is necessary, but not 
 sufficient. Tears, even if they were 
 to How in rivers, could never wash 
 away sin. The blood of atonement 
 is indispensable, without which 
 there is no remission. Nor should 
 the fact be lost sight of here, that the 
 sin laid to the charge of Israel was 
 not of commission: but of omission; 
 not some flagrant enormity, but a 
 lukewarmness and neglect of duty. 
 Yet they saw their need of a sacri- 
 fice to atone for that. In like man^ 
 ner, though we should have no guilt 
 imputed to us but that of omission 
 and defect, yet must we apply to the 
 blood of sprinkling, and seek for 
 pardon through that one sacrifice 
 offered for us upon the cross. Fin- 
 ally, let the transaction here record- 
 ed teach us the value of a faithful 
 'iHonitor. Yfe do not like faithful 
 admonitions, even from those whose 
 special duty it is to reprove sin. 
 We are ready to account them harsh 
 and severe. But what is the office 
 which a friendly monitor perforins'? 
 Is it not that which the Angel of the 
 covenant came from heaven to exe- 
 cute on this occasion 1 And is it an 
 evil, is it not a mercy, even at the 
 expense of sounding a terrible alarm 
 in the sinner's ears, lo show him 
 his guilt and danger, to rouse him 
 from his security, and to urge him 
 to fly to the only ark of safely 1 Cer- 
 tain it is, that "the congregation of 
 Israel must have felt themselves un- 
 speakably indebted to him who thus 
 sought their welfare ; and equally 
 sure are NV'e that there is not a con* 
 
A. C. 1425.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 201 
 
 6 IT And when Joshua had 
 let the peopli go, the children 
 of Israel went every man unto 
 his inheritance to possess the 
 land. 
 
 7 ""And the people served the 
 Lord all the days of Joshua, and 
 all the days of the eiders that 
 out-lived Joshua, who had seen 
 all the great works of the Lord, 
 that he did for Israel. 
 
 8 And iJoshua the son of 
 Nun, the servant of the Lord, 
 died, being an hundred and ten 
 years old. 
 
 trite sinner in the world who will 
 not be thankful beyond expression 
 to that monitor who has brought 
 him to weep here, and thus prevent- 
 ed him from weeping and wailing 
 and gnashing his teeth in the regions 
 oi "Woe for ever. 
 
 6. Wfien Joshua had let the people 
 go. This passage, v. 6 — 9, has al- 
 ready occurred in nearly the same 
 words in Josh. 24. 29 — 31. It seems 
 to be repeated here as a suitable pre- 
 liminary to the ensuing account of 
 their degeneracy and apostacy. 
 The angel had foretold that the Ca- 
 naanites and their idols would be a 
 snare to Israel. The writer is now 
 about to show that this prediction 
 was actually fulfilled, and in order 
 to that he turns back and takes a 
 brief retrospect of some previous in- 
 cidents in their history which, by 
 contrast, would set the enormity of 
 their transgressions in a still more 
 striking point of view. This is ac- 
 cording to the common usage of the 
 sacred writers, who in their nar- 
 rations, go more by the rclaliov of 
 events to each other, than by their 
 strict chronological order. After 
 bsing so happily fixed in their sev- 
 eral inheritances and having com- 
 menced their settlement in Canaan 
 under such favorable auspices, it 
 18 
 
 9 '"And they buried him in 
 the border of his inheritance in 
 "Timnath-heres, in the mount of 
 Ephraim, on the north sid^ of 
 the hill Gaash. 
 
 10 And also all that genera- 
 tion were gathered unto their fa- 
 thers : and there arose another 
 generation after them, which 
 °knew not the Lord, nor yet the 
 works which he had done for Is- 
 rael. 
 
 11 IT And the children of Is- 
 rael did evil in the sight of the 
 Lord, and served Baalim : 
 
 mJosh. 24. 30. n Josli 19. 50. & 24. 30. 
 5 2. I Sam. 2. 12. 1 Clir. 28. 9 Jer. 9. 3. . 
 Gul. 4. 8. 2 Thess. I. 8. Tims 1. 16 
 
 o Ex- 
 Si. IG. 
 
 greatly aggravated their sin, that 
 they should afterwards have fallen 
 away from God, and so grievously 
 disappointed the promise which 
 their fair beginnings held out. 
 
 7. All the days of the elders that 
 out-lived Joshua. Heb. ' that pro- 
 longed their days after Joshua.' As 
 these elders might some of them 
 have lived several years after Josh- 
 ua's decease, this term should be de- 
 ducted from the whole period of Is- 
 rael's idolatries recorded in this 
 book. 
 
 9. Buried him — in Tirnnath-heres. 
 This place is called, in Josh. 24. 30, 
 ' Timnath-scmA.' By transpo.sing 
 the letters of the last word, it be- 
 comes, as here, ' Heres,' which sig- 
 nifies the sun, and it is not improb- 
 able, as the Jews imagine, that it 
 was so called by reason of some 
 memorial, connected with his sepul- 
 chre, of the sun's miraculously stand- 
 ing still at his command. 
 
 10. \Vhi6hkne70 not the Lord. Had 
 no practical or experimental knowl- 
 edge of him ; no deep or lively im- 
 pression of his goodness ; no affec- 
 tionate, grateful, or devout sense of 
 the wondrous manifestations of his 
 power in their behalf. See on Ex, 
 1.8. 
 
 11. Served Baalim. This word, 
 
202 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 12 And they p forsook the 
 Lord God of their fathers, which 
 brought them out of the land of 
 Egypt, and followed 'bother gods, 
 of the gods of the people that 
 were round about them, and 
 >■ bowed themselves unto them, 
 and provoked the Lord to anger. 
 
 13 And they forsook the 
 Lord, *and served Baal and 
 Ashtaroth. 
 
 p Deur. 31. 16. q Dcut. 6. U. r Ex. 20. 5. s ch. 
 3. 7. Ai 10. 6. Ps. 106. 36. 
 
 the plural of ' Baal,' signifies lords. 
 Their false gods the Canaanites 
 considered as supernatural rulers or 
 governors, each having his peculiar 
 district and office. But when they 
 wished to express a particular 
 ' Baal,' or lord, they usually added 
 some distinctive epithet, as Baal- 
 zephon, Baal-^c^r, Baal-:: ebiib, &c. 
 The pi. is here used to intimate that 
 these imaginary deities were v^arious, 
 and that the worship of the Israel- 
 ites, like that of the Canaanites, was 
 not confined to any one of them. 
 Lords many and gods many had 
 dominion over them. From this 
 verse onwards to the end of the 
 chapter, the writer's drift seems to 
 be to give in brief terms a summary 
 or compend of tlie whole book. It 
 is a general and condensed state- 
 ment of the leading features of the 
 history of Israel, during the period 
 of the Judges, which in the ensuing 
 chapters is expanded into the various 
 details of oppression and deliverance 
 which are so briefly touched upon 
 in these verses. This is according 
 to the common usage of the sacred 
 writers, and we have no doubt that 
 the more minute is the reader's in- 
 spection of the structure of the book, 
 the more plausible will this view of 
 the subject appear. 
 
 12. And they forsook the Lord God. 
 Rather, ' for they forsook,' &c., a 
 mere enlargement in its more mi- 
 nute particulars of the general fact 
 Stated in the preceding verse. Chald. 
 
 14 H tAnd the anger of the 
 Lord was hot against Israel, and 
 he "delivered them into the 
 hands of spoilers that spoiled 
 them, and ^he sold them into the 
 hands of their enemies round 
 about, so that they ycould not 
 any longer stand before their en. 
 emies. 
 
 15 Whithersoever they went 
 out, the hand of the Lord was 
 
 t ch. 3. S. Ts 106.40, 41, 42. u 2 Kingi 17. 20. 
 X ci:. 3. 8. & 4. 2. Ps. 44. 12. .Is. 50. 1. y Ley. 
 i:6. 37. Josh. 7. 12, 13. 
 
 ' they forsook the worship of the Lord 
 God,' as they that forsake the wor- 
 ship of God, do in efiect forsake God 
 himself. 
 
 13. Served Baal and Ashtaroth. 
 Ashtaroth, like Baalim above, is of 
 the plural number, and is probably 
 here used as a general name for all 
 the female deities of these nations, 
 as Baal or Baalim is of the male. 
 The sing. Ashtereth (Astarte)is the 
 name of the Syrian Venus, who was 
 worshipped with the most revolting 
 and abominable riles. It is suppos- 
 ed that the moon was worshipped 
 under this name, as was the sun un- 
 der that of Baal. 
 
 14, Into the hands of spoilers. Rob- 
 bers, marauders, plundering parties 
 of the Canaanites, who committed 
 depredations upon their cattle, flocks, 
 crops, &c. The word may also be 
 understood in a still fuller sense as 
 equivalent to oppressors, those who 
 captured not their property only, but 
 themselves, reducing them to servi- 
 tude, or at least compelling them to 
 pay tribute. IF Sold them. To sell, 
 is to alienate the possession of any 
 thing for a valuable consideration. 
 The term is used in the Scriptures, 
 however, without the annexed idea 
 of an equivalent. God is said to 
 ' sell' his disobedient people, when 
 he delivers them up into the hands of 
 their enemies to be dealt with as they 
 may see fit, when he puts them out of 
 his own hand, as it were, withholds 
 his protectionj and has nothing more 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 203 
 
 against them for evil, as the 
 Lord had said, and ^as the Lord 
 had sworn unto them : and they 
 v/ere greatly distressed. 
 
 16 ^ Nevertheless -nhe Lord 
 raised up judges, which deliv- 
 ered them out of the hand of 
 tliose that spoiled them. 
 
 17 And yet they would not 
 hearken unto their judges, but 
 they ''went a whoring after other 
 gods, and bowed themselves 
 unt>) them : they turned quickly 
 out of the way which their fa- 
 thers walked in, obeying the 
 
 z liev. 26. Deut.28. a ch. 3 9, 10, 15. 1 Sam. 
 12. 11. Acts 13. 20. b Ex. 34. 15, 16. Lev. 17. 7. 
 
 to do with them as the objects of his 
 peculiar protection. It is a term 
 therefore emphatically expressive of 
 the divine dereliction, the most fear- 
 ful judgment in its consequences 
 that can befal a nation or an individ- 
 ual. Comp. ch. 3. 8. 4. 8. Deut. 33. 
 30. Ps. 44. 13. Is. 50. 1. 
 
 15. Whithc?- soever they vjent out. 
 Whatsoever they undertook. Heb. 
 ' in every thing to which they went 
 forth.' Not only in their military 
 expeditions against their enemies, 
 but in whatever undertaking they 
 engaged at home, they were still 
 baffled and disappointe'd, and every 
 thing went against them. The do- 
 ing of any kind of business is fre- 
 quently expressed in Hebrew by the 
 phrase ' going out' or ' coming in.' 
 Thus Deut. 23. 6, ' Blessed shalt 
 thou be when thou comcst in, and 
 blessed shalt thou be when thou go- 
 est out;' i. e. in all thine undertak- 
 ings and employments, in the whole 
 course and current of thine affairs. 
 Comp. Ps. 121. 8. IT ^5 the Lord 
 had said, &c. Particular reference 
 is had to Lev. 26. 15—17. Deut. 28. 
 25, where these very judgments are 
 expressly denounced against them 
 in case they should thus apostatize. 
 
 16, The Lord raised up judges. 
 That is, by the secret prompting and 
 
 commandments of the Lord ; 
 but they did not so. 
 
 18 And when the Lord raised 
 them up judges, then nhe Lord 
 was with the judge, and deliv- 
 ered them out of the hand of 
 their enemies all the days of the 
 judge : (''for it repented the 
 L(iRD because of their groanings 
 by reason of them that oppress- 
 ed them and vexed them.) 
 
 19 And it came to pass, 
 ^when the judge was dead, that 
 they returned, and corrupted 
 themselves more than their fa- 
 
 c Josh. 1.5, (J See Gen. 6. 6. Deut. 32. 36. Ps 
 106. .Jl, 45. e ch. 3. 12. & 4. 1. & 8. 33. 
 
 inspiration, of his spirit, working 
 upon the hearts of particular indi- 
 viduals in view of the sufferings and 
 calamities of the people, and inciting 
 them, like Moses in Egypt, to aim at 
 effecting their deliverance. This in- 
 ward impulse was usually, perhaps 
 always, accompanied by an express 
 call and command to undertake the 
 work, and by some outward desig- 
 nation which testified to the people 
 the divine election; such for the 
 most part as the display of some sig- 
 nal act of heroism, the performance 
 of some marvellous or miraculous 
 exploit, as in the cases of Shamgar, 
 Gideon, Samson, &c. On the im- 
 portof theword 'judges' inihisbook, 
 see Introduction, 
 
 17. Woutd not hearken unto their 
 judges. Would not obey them. IT 
 But went, &c. By the covenant en- 
 tered into at mount Sinai, Ex. 19. 6, 
 the people of Israel were virtually 
 married unto God, so that every in- 
 stance of idolatry was a breach of 
 that solemn compact. The worship 
 of idols was accounted and spoken 
 of as spiritual adultery, and from 
 the nature of the rites accompany- 
 ing these idolatrous practices the 
 term was often more than metaphor- 
 ically proper. 
 
 18, It repented the Lord. He alter- 
 
204 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 thers, in following otlier gods to 
 serve them, and to bow down 
 unto them ; they ceased not 
 from their own doings, nor from 
 their stubborn way. 
 
 20 H f And the anger of the 
 Lord was hot against Israel ; 
 and he said, Because that this 
 people hath ^transgressed my 
 covenant which I commanded 
 their fathers, and have not heark- 
 ened unto my voice ; 
 
 21 ''I also will not henceforth 
 
 fver 14. g Josh 23 16. h Josh 23. 13. 
 
 ed the course of his providence, act- 
 ed as if he repented. See on Gen. 6. 
 6, 7. Deut. 32. 36. 
 
 19. Tliey ceased not from their 
 oian doings. Heb. ' they "let nothing 
 fall from their doings.' They abat- 
 ed, they relaxed nothing of their 
 evil practices. yi Nor from their 
 stiihhom vxty. Heb. 'their hard 
 way.' Hard, as proceeding from a 
 hard and perverse heart ; hard, in the 
 sense of being stubbornly persisted 
 in ; and hard or grievous in its con- 
 sequences. It is the term applied to 
 the obstinate and intractable conduct 
 of Pharaoh. 
 
 20. And the anger of the Lord was 
 kindled, &c. From this verse to the 
 end of the chapter, the narrative is 
 probably to be considered merely as 
 a repetition in substance of what is 
 affirmed by the Angel, v. 1 — 3. It 
 is a more full and detailed statement 
 of the reasons for the foregoing ap- 
 pearance of the divine messenger, 
 threatening them'with the judgments 
 of heaven for their disobedience. 
 Nothing is more common than such 
 transpositions in the order of the in- 
 spired record. The effect is first 
 mentioned, and the c«?<.se afterwards. 
 
 21. Will not henceforth drive out, 
 &c. I will not while you continue 
 in your stubborn way. The pro- 
 mises of God 10 expel the Canaanites 
 were upon condition of their obedi- 
 ence. 
 
 22. That through them J niay prove 
 
 drive out any from before them 
 of tiie nations which Joshua left 
 when he died ; 
 
 22 iThat through them I may 
 •-■prove Israel, whether they will 
 keep the way of the Lord to 
 walk therein, as their fathers 
 did keep it, or not. 
 
 23 Therefore the Lord left 
 those nations, without driving 
 them out hastily, neither deliv- 
 ered he them into the hand of 
 Joshua. 
 
 ch. 3.1,4. 
 
 k Deut. 8.2, 16. & 13. 3. 
 
 Israel. Not for his own satisfaction, 
 but that they themselves might be 
 made better acquainted with the 
 plague of their own hearts, and that 
 the righteous judgments of God 
 might ihus approve themselves to 
 the consciences of all who should 
 either experience, or witness, or 
 hear of them. The Most High of- 
 ten orders his providence on the 
 principle of a father or master who 
 distrusts the fidelity of his son or 
 servant, and places them in such cir- 
 cumstances that they may, by their 
 good or evil conduct, justify his sus- 
 picions, or give him proofs of their 
 being groundless. It is implied, 
 however, that these nations in case 
 the Israelites stood not the test, 
 should be not only trials or ordeals 
 to them, but also scourges and instru- 
 ments of %vrath . TT As their fathers 
 did keep it. That is, those who lived 
 in the days of Joshua, and the elders 
 who overlived him. 
 
 23. Therefore the Lord left, &c. 
 Or, Heb. ' suffered.' It is not to be 
 understood that there was any abso- 
 lute necessity for this delay in expell- 
 ing the Canaanites, but as God fore- 
 saio the remissness of his people in 
 accomplishing this work, he saw fit 
 in his providence to overrule it to a 
 wise and useful result. In like man- 
 ner he overrules the wickedness of 
 all the wicked in the universe, and 
 causes it to redound to the good of 
 the whole and his own glory. 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 205 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 IVrOW these are Hhe nations 
 which the Lord left, to 
 prove Israel by them, [even as 
 many of Israel as had not 
 known all the wars of Canaan ; 
 2 Only that the generations 
 of the children of Israel might 
 know to teach them war, at the 
 
 a ch. 2. 21, 22. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1. No7v these are the nations^ &c. 
 The nations left to prove the Israel- 
 ites were the five lordships or satra- 
 pies of the Philistines, who gave 
 them more trouble than any of the 
 rest — particularly in the latter days 
 of the judges — the Sidonians, Ca- 
 naan ites, and the Hivites that dwelt 
 about Mount Lebanon. ^As many 
 — as had not knojuri, &c. These 
 words and those of the ensuing verse, 
 included together in the parenthesis, 
 however obvious a sense they seem 
 to present to the English reader, are 
 by no means so easy of explication 
 when we turn to the original. The 
 first and perhaps most natural im- 
 pression as to their meaning is, that 
 they are designed to acquaint us 
 with another reason which God had 
 for leaving these nations in the land, 
 beside that of proving Israel, viz. 
 that their posterity might not forget 
 military discipline, but keep them- 
 selves habituated to those warlike 
 practices which would be necessary 
 for their protection. This effect 
 would be secured by the constant 
 presence of an enemy, and therefore 
 God left a remnant of the devoted 
 nations to prevent his people grow- 
 ing rusty, if we may so say, in the 
 use of arms. This we are not pre- 
 pared to term an erroneous construc- 
 tion, but quite sure we are that it is 
 an inadequate one. The term ' to 
 know,' must in fairness be interpret- 
 ed according to its usual Scriptural 
 import, which is to have not merely 
 an intellectual but an experimental 
 knowledge of any thing. By those 
 therefore who 'had not knoivn all 
 18* 
 
 least such as before knew no- 
 thing thereof;) 
 
 3 Namely, 'five lords of the 
 Phihstines, and all the Canaan- 
 ites, and the Sidonians, and the 
 Hivites that dwelt in mount Le- 
 banon, from mount Baal-hermon 
 unto the entering in of Hamath. 
 
 4 'And they were to prove 
 
 the wars of Canaan,' we understand 
 those who had not with confiding 
 faith, with lively zeal, and from a 
 prompt and grateful spirit of obedi- 
 ence, entered into and persevered in 
 those conflicts with the Canaanites 
 which God had enjoined. As they 
 had grossly failed in their duty in 
 this respect , and had not ' known' 
 these wars as they should have done, 
 their children, according to the 
 righteous economy of Providence, 
 were appointed to reap the bitter 
 fruits of their neglect. They were 
 to know to their cost, to be taught by 
 sad experience, the trouble, vexa-' 
 tion, and annoyance that should 
 come upon the successive genera- 
 tions descended from those who, by 
 their culpable remissness, had so 
 righteously incurred this afflictive 
 judgment. This we suppose to be 
 the true import of the original, to 
 which no translation can do full jus- 
 tice. But we may learn from it that 
 the neglect of one generation to dis- 
 charge its appropriate duties, never' 
 fails to burden their successors with 
 the penalty of their remissness. 
 
 3. Mve lords. Five lordships, 
 principalities, or satrapies, as it is 
 rendered by the Seventy. See on 
 Josh. 13. 3. IT All the Canaanites 
 andthe Zidonians, &c. Rather, 'all 
 the Canaanites, even the Zidonians,' 
 &c. That portion of the Canaanites 
 seems to be intended who are other- 
 wise styled Phoenicians, whose capir 
 tal city was Zidon, so called from 
 Sidon the son of Canaan, Gen. 10. 
 15, and who were never entirely 
 subdued by the Israelites. IT From 
 mount Baal-Hermon. A part of 
 
206 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 Israel by them, to know wlieth- 
 er they would hearken unto the 
 commandments of the LoRn, 
 which he commanded their fa- 
 thers by the hand of Moses. 
 
 5 IT t^And the children of Is- 
 rael dwelt among the Canaan, 
 ites, Hittitc'S, and Amorites, and 
 Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jeb- 
 usites : 
 
 d Ps. 106. 35. 
 
 Antilibanus, lying near the sources 
 of the Jordan.' 
 
 4. And they roere to prove Israel. 
 Heb. ' and they were made to be for 
 a trial or proof of Israel ;' expressive 
 not so strictly of the design of their 
 being left, which is stated v. 1, as of 
 the actual event. The result corres- 
 ponded with the divine prescience 
 and purposes. ' God in his revealed 
 will had commanded (doomed) the 
 Canaanites to slaughter, yet secretly 
 gives over Israel to a toleration of 
 some Canaanites, for their own pun- 
 ishment. He hath bidden us cleanse 
 our hearts of all our corruptions ; 
 yet he will permit some of these 
 thorns still in our sides for exercise, 
 for humiliation. If we could lay 
 violent hands on our sins, our souls 
 should have peace ; now our indul- 
 gence costs us many stripes and 
 many tears.' Bp.Hall. "^i To know. 
 That is, to make known, to afford to 
 themselves and others experimental 
 proof God himself of course could 
 stand in no need of such a process 
 10 ascertain the truth. See on Deut. 
 8.2. 
 
 5. Dwelt among Ike Canaajiites. 
 Evidently implying that, contrary to 
 the command of God, they suffered 
 these nations to remain a majority 
 -in point of numbers, as otherwise 
 I hey could not properly be said to 
 dwell among theyn. See on ch. 1. 32. 
 
 6. Took their daughters — and serv- 
 ed their gods. Chal. ' worshipped 
 their errors (idols).' The cause and 
 the effect brought into immediate 
 connection, in exact accordance with 
 
 6 And nhey took their 
 daujxhters to be their wives, and 
 gave their daughters to their 
 sons, and served their gods. 
 
 7 ^And the children of Israel 
 did evil in the sight of the Lord, 
 and forgat the Lord their God, 
 &and served Baalim, and ''the 
 groves. 
 
 8 IT Therefore the anger of 
 
 e Ex. 34. 16. Deul. 7. 3. f ch. 2. U. g ch. 2. 13. 
 h £x. :4 13. Dent. 16. 21. ch. 6. 25. 
 
 what had been long before announc- 
 ed, Deut. 7. 3, 4, ' Neither shall thou 
 make marriages with them; thy 
 daughter thou shalt not give unto 
 his son, nor his daughter shalt thou 
 take itnto thy son. For they will 
 turn away thy son from following 
 me, that they may serve other gods ; 
 so will the anger of the Lord be 
 kindled,' &c. ' In such unequal 
 matches there is more reason to fear 
 that the bad will corrupt the good, 
 than to hope the good will reform 
 the bad.' Henry. 
 
 7. Served Baalim and the groves. 
 Not the groves themselves, but the 
 grove-gods, the images or idols 
 which were set up in shady groves 
 consecrated to their worship. Gese- 
 nius however on the original word 
 riT'iTZ^&i Asheroth, contends with 
 much plausibility that it is a proper 
 name closely related to Ashtaroth, 
 and signifies the statues of Astartc, 
 the Syrian Venus or goddess of For- 
 tune, one of the most noted of the 
 Phoenician deities. This is confirm- 
 ed by nearly all the ancient ver- 
 sions. The rendering ' groves' orig- 
 nated with the Greek Septuagint, 
 probably from the fact of their vota- 
 ries worshipping those images in 
 such retired places. From this source 
 the signification of groves has crept 
 into most lexicons and commen- 
 taries of modern times. f\ Forgat 
 the Lord their God. ' In complais- 
 ance to their new relations, they 
 talked of nothing but Baalim and 
 the groves, so that by degrees they 
 lost the remembrance of the true 
 
A. C. 1403.] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 207 
 
 the Lord was hot against Israel, 
 and he 'sold them into the hand 
 of ''Chushan-rishathaim king of 
 Mesopotamia ; and the children 
 of Israel served Chushan-risha- 
 thaim eight years. 
 
 9 And when the children of 
 Israel icried unto the Lord, the 
 
 i ch. 2. 14. k Hah. 3 7. 1 ver. 15. & ch. 4 3. 
 & 6. 7 & 10. 10. 1 S;ini. 12. 10. iNeli. 9. 27. Vs. 22. 
 5. & IOC. 44. & 107. 13, 19. 
 
 God ; and forgot that there was such 
 a being, and what obligations they 
 lay under to him. In nothing is the 
 corrupt memory of man more treach- 
 erous than in this, that it is apt to 
 forget God; because he is out of 
 sight, he is out of mind ; and here 
 begins all the wickedness that is in 
 the world; they have ^perverted 
 their way,' for they have ' forgotten 
 the Lord their God.' Henry. 
 
 8. Sold them into the hand. Deli- 
 vered them into the hand. See this 
 phrase explained, ch. 2. 14. 
 
 9. Chushan-rishathaim. Render- 
 ed by most of the ancient versions 
 Chushan, the wicked or impious ; pro- 
 perly the doubly, i. e. pre-eminently 
 icicked. The grounds of the appel- 
 lation, supposing this to be correct, 
 it is now impossible to determine. 
 ^Mesopotamia. Heb. Aram-Naha- 
 rai7?i, Syria of the two rivers, i. e. the 
 country lying between the rivers 
 Tigris and Euphrates, thence called 
 Mesopotamia, which signifies the 
 midst of rivers. See on Gen. 24. 10. 
 It is now called Diarbek. IT Served. 
 This servitude, as applied to the 
 state of subjection to which the Is- 
 raelites were oftentimes reduced, 
 must be understood with some vari- 
 ation of meaning according to cir- 
 cumstances ; but generally it signi- 
 fies the obligation to pay tribute and 
 make presents to the conqueror. 
 That they were oblfged to render 
 personal or military service does 
 not appear from the Scriptures ; but 
 that they were sometimes subject to 
 the most severe and cruel treatment 
 is obvious from the whole history. 
 
 Lord "^ raised up a deliverer to 
 the children of Israel, who de- 
 livered them, even 'Othniel the 
 son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger 
 brother. 
 
 10 And °the spirit of the 
 Lord came upon him, and he 
 judged Israel, and went out to 
 
 in ch. 2. 15. n ch. 1. 13. o .=;ee Num. 27. 18. 
 
 ch.fi, 31. 4 U. 29. i 13.25. & 11.6,19. 1 Sara. 11. 
 6. 2 Chr. 15. 1. 
 
 It is very probable, that their subjec- 
 tion to this distant king was more 
 favorable than to the immediately 
 neighboring nations, and even to 
 nations dwelling in the same land 
 with themselves, to which they were 
 afterwards reduced. 
 
 9. IJ'lien the children , of Israel 
 cried. When they uttered fervent 
 prayers coupled with penitent con- 
 fessions of their faults,^as is to be in- 
 ferred from ch. 10. 10, and 15. IG. 
 IT Raised up a deliverer. Heb. ' a 
 saviour.' So afterwards, ' v.dio de- 
 livered,' Heb, ' and saved;' which is 
 more properly we think to be refer- 
 red to God than to Othniel. God 
 saved or delivered them by Othniel. 
 ' Saviour,' in this connection, is but 
 another name for the 'judges,' who 
 were raised up from time to time for 
 the deliverance of Israel. Comp. 
 2 Kings 13. 5. Neh. 9. 27. The 
 original for ' raised up,' properly 
 signifies stirred up, excited, prompted, 
 in consequence of a special divine 
 influence exerted upon the indivi- 
 dual. The phrase is in fact explain- 
 ed by the terms employed in the be- 
 ginning of the next verse. TF Oth- 
 niel the son of Kennz. Of whom see 
 Josh. 15. 16, and Judg. 1. 13. He 
 had already signalized his A^alor in 
 the taking of Kirjath-sepher and by 
 his experience in war, and the re- 
 putation he had gained with his 
 countrymen, was "peculiarly qua- 
 lified to lead them successfully 
 against their oppressors. 
 
 10. The spirit of the Lord came 
 upon him. Heb. ' was, or was made 
 to be, upon him.' A common ex- 
 
208 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 war : and the Lord delivered 
 Chushan-rishalhaim king of Mes- 
 opotamia into his hand; and 
 his hand prevailed against Chu- 
 shan-rishathaim. 
 
 11 And the land had rest 
 forty years : and Othniel the son 
 of Kenaz died. 
 
 pression for one's being moved, act- 
 ed upon, and impelled by supernatu- 
 ral influence to perform some extra- 
 ordinary exploit, or to take the lead 
 in some great and important enter- 
 prise. Chald. ' the spirit of prophecy 
 remained upon him.' The expres- 
 sion implies that he was endowed 
 with singular wisdom, fortitude and 
 valor adapting him to the work to 
 which he was called. IT He judged 
 Israel. That is, he not only assum- 
 ed the office of chief magistrate and 
 entered upon the work of reforming 
 their manners, repressing idolatry, 
 administering justice, and reviving 
 religion, but also, as appears from 
 the ensuing clause, put himself at 
 the head of their forces, and in this 
 capacity pleaded and avenged the 
 cause of Israel against their oppres- 
 sers. Thus the term is employed 
 Ps. 43. 1, 'Judge me, O God, and 
 plead my cause against an ungodly 
 nation :' i. e. judge me by pleading 
 my cause, by vindicating me from 
 the aspersions and delivering me 
 from persecutions of my enemies. 
 Comp. Deut. 32. 36. Ps. 10. 18. 
 
 11. The land )iad rest forty years. 
 Enjoyed prevailing peace, was ex- 
 empt from tribute, and was in every 
 respect in a tranquil and flourishing 
 state, during that period. The forty 
 years are perhaps to ba dated from 
 Othniel's being raised up to judge 
 Israel. ^ And Othniel — died. ' Oth- 
 niel had rescued Israel from idolatry 
 and servitude; his life and their in- 
 nocence and peace ended together. 
 How powerful the presence of one 
 good man is in a church or state, is 
 best found in his loss.' Bp. Hall. 
 An attentive examination of the 
 
 12 H pAnd the children of Is- 
 rael did evil again in the sight 
 of the Lord : and the Lord 
 strengthened 'lEglon the king of 
 Moab against Israel, because 
 they had done evil in the sight 
 of the Lord. 
 
 13 And he gathered unto him 
 
 p ch.2 19. q I S.im. 12. 9. 
 
 chronology of .this book, makes it all 
 but absolutely certain that it is some- 
 where near to this period that we 
 are to refer the idolatry of the Dan- 
 ites and the war with the Benjamites, 
 mentioned ch. 17 — 21. Though, for 
 the reasons stated in our Introduc- 
 tion, thrown together at the end 
 of the book, yet the events no 
 doubt took place either under or be- 
 fore Othniel's administration, who, 
 though a judge, was not, as Henry 
 remarks, such a king in Israel as to 
 keep men from doing what was 
 ' right in their own eyes.' 
 
 12. The Lord strengthened Eglon. 
 Allowed him to become strong, suf- 
 fered his providence to take such a 
 course as would result in his becom- 
 ing too powerful for the Israelites. 
 It was not by positive agency, but by 
 sovereign permission, that this re- 
 sult took place. The course of God's 
 providence often favors the designs 
 of his enemies, and they take advan- 
 tage of it, while the effect, in Scrip- 
 ture style, is attributed to God him- 
 self; but it is only as we should say 
 that God delivered a vessel, with all 
 on board, into the hands of a pirate, 
 because he caused the Avind to blow 
 in a particular direction, of which 
 the pirate, took advantage, and cap- 
 tured the vessel. The phraseology 
 is liable to no just objection when 
 rightly understood, and affords a 
 clue to the explanation of hundreds 
 of passages in the sacred volume. 
 ' Rather than Israel shall want a 
 scourge for their sin, God himself 
 shall raise them up an enemy. Mo- 
 ab had no quarrel but his own ambi- 
 tion ; but God meant by the ambition 
 of the one party, to punish the am- 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 the children of Ammon and 
 ■■Amalek, and went and smote 
 Israel, and possessed nhe city of 
 palm-trees. 
 
 14 So the children of Israel 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 209 
 
 bition of the other ; his justice can 
 make one sin the executioner of an- 
 other, while neither shall look for 
 any measure from him but judg- 
 ment.' Bp Hall. 
 
 13. And he gathered. That is, 
 God gathered ; in the sense above 
 explained. He gathered, by allow- 
 ing Eglon to gather, the forces of 
 these neighboring tribes, who were 
 predisposed by ancient enmity to en- 
 ter into the alliance. IT Possessed 
 the city of palm-trees. Jericho, or 
 rather the site of Jericho, with the 
 adjacent territory, as the city itself 
 was in ruins. On this site, Eglon 
 probably pitched his camp, erected 
 fortifications, and, if Josephus be 
 correct, fixed here his residence. 
 His object was undoubtedly to obtain 
 command of the fords of the Jordan, 
 which would not only open to him 
 a free communication with the land 
 of Moab, but prevent also the tribes 
 on the east and the west of the river 
 forming a junction of forces. Ac- 
 cordingly the first step taken by 
 Ehud, when assured of victory, v. 28, 
 was to take possession of these fords, 
 and thus cut off the retreat of the 
 enemy. 
 
 14. The children of Israel served 
 Eglon eighteen years. ' Israel seems 
 as born to servitude ; they came from 
 their bondage in the land of Egypt, 
 to serve in the land of promise. 
 They had neglected God, now they 
 were neglected of God ; their sins 
 had made them servants, whom the 
 choice of God had made free, yea, 
 his first-born. Worthy are they to 
 serve those men whose false gods 
 they had served ; and to serve them 
 always in thraldom, whom they 
 have once served in idolatry. We 
 may not measure the continuance 
 of punishment by the time of the 
 commission of sin ; one minute's sin 
 
 ^served Eglon the king of Moab 
 eighteen years. 
 
 15 But when the children of 
 Israel "cried unto the Lord, the 
 Lord raised them up a deliv- 
 
 t Deir. ^8. 40. 
 
 u ver. 9. Ps. 78. 34. 
 
 deserves a torment beyond all time.' 
 Bp. Hall. 
 
 15. Cried unto the Lord. With 
 strong and earnest supplications. 
 ' Doubtless Israel was not so insen- 
 sible of their own misery, as not to 
 complain sooner than the end of 
 eighteen years. The first hour they 
 sighed for themselves, but now they 
 cried unto God. The very purpose 
 of affliction is to make us importu- 
 nate ; he hears the secret murmurs 
 of our grief, yet will not seem to 
 hear us, till our cries be loud and 
 strong. God sees it best for the peni- 
 tent to dwell for the time under their 
 sorrows ; he sees us sinking all the 
 while, yet he lets us alone till we be 
 at the bottom; and when once we 
 can say, ' Out of the depths have I 
 cried unto thee,' instantly follows, 
 ' The Lord heard me.' A vehement 
 suitor cannot but be heard of God, 
 whatsoever he asks. If our prayers 
 want success, they want heart ; their 
 blessing is according to their vigor.' 
 Bp. Hall. H A man left-handed. 
 
 Heb. 'a man shut or obstructed of 
 his right hand ;' i. e. not able readily 
 to use it. Chal. 'contracted or im- 
 peded in his right hand.' Syr. ' a 
 man whose right hand was torpid.' 
 The Septuagint renders it an ambi- 
 dexter^ i. e. one who could use both 
 hands alike; from which the Vul- 
 gate, ' who could use either hand as 
 aright hand,' for neither of which 
 is there any authority in the orignal. 
 The true import of the Heb. un- 
 doubtedly is, that through disease, 
 injury, or some other infirmity, he 
 made little or no use of his right 
 hand, but employed his left only, a 
 circumstance which would seem to 
 render him less fit for w-ar, as he 
 must necessarily use his sword some- 
 what awkwardly. ' Yet God chose 
 this left-handed man to be the man 
 
210 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1336 
 
 erer, Ehud the son of Gera, a 
 Benjamite, a man left-handed : 
 and by him the children of Is- 
 rael sent a present lUito Eglon 
 the king of Moab. 
 
 16 But Ehud made him a 
 dagger which had two edges, of 
 a cubit length ; and he did gird 
 it under his raiment upon ijis 
 ri^ht thifjh. 
 
 of his right hand, whom he would 
 'make strong for himself.' It was 
 God's right hand that gained Israel 
 the victory, (Ps. 44. 3,) not the right 
 hand of the instruments he employ- 
 ed.' Henry. It is remarkable that 
 although the name ' Benjamin,' sig- 
 nifies the son of the right hand, yet 
 as appears, from eh. 20. 16, multi- 
 titudes of this tribe were from some 
 cause or other left-handed; so far 
 are men's characters oftentimes from 
 corresponding with their names. H 
 Sent a present. Either the tribute- 
 money which Eglon had imposed up- 
 on the Israelites, or a gratuity over 
 and above their ordinary tribute, 
 sent to conciliate the favor of the 
 lord of Moab, their present master. 
 The former we suppose to be the 
 most probable interpretation, as the 
 original, Mincha, repeatedly occurs 
 in this sense. Similar exactions on 
 the part of the despotic rulers of the 
 East continue to be levied upon sub- 
 ject provinces to the present day, 
 and it is well known that their exor- 
 bitant demands of this kind are 
 among the principal causes of the 
 impoverished state of the oriental 
 nations, and of the frequent insur- 
 rections that occur among them. It 
 is possible that Eglon 's oppressions 
 in this way had become so grievous 
 to the Israelites, that they could bear 
 them no longer, and accordingly in 
 their distress groaned out to God for 
 deliverance. 
 
 16. Ehudmade him a dagger. Caus- 
 ed to be made-, just as Joshua, ch. 5. 
 3, is said to have ' made him sharp 
 knives,' that is, by the ministry of 
 
 17 And he brought the pre- 
 senfunto Eglon king of r*,Ioab : 
 and Eglon 2cas a very fat man. 
 
 18 And when he had made 
 an end to offer the present, he 
 sent away the people that bare 
 the present. 
 
 19 But he himself turned 
 again ^from the quarries that 
 icere by Gilgal, and said, I have 
 
 others. ^Of a citbit length. The 
 original word (1)33 gomed) here 
 rendered ciibit, is of very doubtful 
 signification. As the kindred root in 
 Chald. has the import of contracted, 
 Michaelis suggests that it probably 
 means an instrument made shorter 
 than usual for the purpose intended. 
 The Sept. renders it ' of a span 
 length,' and most of the versions un- 
 derstand it in the same sense. A 
 Jewish cubit is nearly two feet ; a 
 span is about eight inches, a much 
 more convenient length for a poni- 
 ard or stileuo, which would un- 
 doubtedly have been the modern 
 name of Ehud's instrument. % Up- 
 on his right thigh. Whence it could 
 be more" easily drawn forth by his 
 left hand. 
 
 18. Made an end to offer. When 
 he had ended all the ceremonies 
 which in those days were customary 
 in presenting gifts to great men. 
 IT The people that bare the present. A 
 considerable number of persons 
 seems to have been employed on this 
 occasion, not so much because the 
 quantity or variety of the presents 
 required it, as for the sake of eti- 
 quette and a somewhat pompous dis- 
 play. The Orientals habitually af- 
 fect a great parade in presenting 
 their gifts, especially to persons of 
 power and distinction. ' Through 
 ostentation,' says Maillet, ' they 
 never fail to load upon four or five 
 horses what might easily be carried 
 on one. In like manner as to jew- 
 els, trinkets, and other things of 
 value, they place in fifteen dishes, 
 what a single plate would very well 
 
A. C. 1330.] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 211 
 
 a secret errand unto thee, O 
 king : who said, Keep silencj. 
 And all that stood by him went 
 out from him. 
 
 hold.' It appears evident from the 
 next verse that Ehud accompanied 
 this party some distance on their 
 way homewards and then returned 
 himself alone to execute, without 
 accomplices, the deed which he 
 meditated, and to which he was pro- 
 bably impelled by a divine prompt- 
 ing. 
 
 19. From the quarries. Heb. 
 t'^bOS pesilim, from the root ^dq to 
 cut out, or carve, as a sculptor, 
 whence several of the ancient ver- 
 sions understand the word of idols 
 or graven images, by which it is 
 generally rendered. It was perhaps 
 the place where idolatrous statues 
 of stone were cut out of the quarry 
 and erected as objects of worship by 
 the Moabites. This might have 
 been done in contempt of the reli- 
 gion and worship of the Israelites, 
 and the sight of them may have 
 stirred up afresh the pious indigna- 
 tion of Ehud, and animated him 
 with new zeal to accomplish the 
 work upon which he was intent. 
 11 / have a secret errand. Heb. ' a 
 word or thing of concealment, of 
 secrecy.' IT IVho said, Keep silence. 
 This is generally understood as 
 addressed to Ehud, intimating that 
 he was to keep silent, and not de- 
 clare his message till the king's at- 
 tendants had withdrawn. But a 
 preferable sense we think is that 
 given by Geddes in his translation, 
 ' The king said. Privacy !' which 
 was equivalent to a command to his 
 servants to leave the room. This is 
 confirmed by the Chal., Syr., and 
 Arab, versions, and also by the con- 
 nection, as the next clause evi- 
 dently expresses the performance of 
 a command. 
 
 20. Silting in a summer parlor. 
 Heb. ' in an upper room or chamber 
 of cooling.' The extreme heat of 
 the climate olSliged the Orientals to 
 adopt various devices for ventilating 
 
 20 And Ehud came unto 
 him ; and he was sitting in a 
 summer-parlor, which he had 
 for himself alone : and Ehud 
 
 and cooling their apartments. For 
 this purpose they made their doors 
 large, and their chambers spacious ; 
 but they soon found that such simple 
 contrivances were insufficient and 
 that other methods of cooling their 
 habitations were necessary. At 
 Aleppo, according to Russel, this 
 was effected by means of kiosks, 
 which are a sort of wooden divans 
 or stages, which project a little way 
 from their other buildings, and hang 
 over the street. They are raised 
 about a foot and a half higher than 
 the floor of the room, to which they 
 are quite open, and by having win- 
 dows in front and on each side, a 
 great draught of air is produced, 
 causing a refreshing coolness in the 
 sultry heat of summer. Another 
 method of compassing the same end 
 is by ventilators. The houses in 
 Persia are ventilated by means of a 
 triangular building which rises far 
 above the terrace roof, and is open 
 at top, so as to receive the wind in 
 whatever direction it blows. The 
 summer parlor of Eglon was un- 
 doubtedly cooled by some of the.se 
 contrivances, which proves that ex- 
 pedients for mitigating the extreme 
 heat of the climate are of very great 
 antiquity. II Which he had for 
 himself alone. Into which he went 
 when he wished to be retired, and so 
 better adapted to hearing a secret 
 message. The circumstance is pro- 
 bably mentioned here by way of ac- 
 counting for his servants' waiting so 
 long, V. 23, before going in to him. 
 From a circumstance mentioned by 
 Mr. Bruce, it appears that Ehud 
 acted in strict conformity to the cus- 
 toms of the time and place, so that 
 neither the suspicion of the king nor 
 his attendants should be excited by 
 his conditct. It was usual for the 
 attendants to retire when secret mes- 
 sages were to be delivered. ' I 
 drank a dish of coffee/ says he, 'and 
 
212 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1336. 
 
 said, I have a message from God 
 unto thee. And he arose out of 
 his seat. 
 
 21 And Ehud put forth his 
 
 told hira, that I was a bearer of a 
 confidential message from Ali Bey 
 of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to 
 him without witnesses, whenever he 
 pleased. The room was accord- 
 ingly cleared without delay, except- 
 ing his secretary, who was also go- 
 ing away, Avhen I pulled him back 
 by the clothes, saying, stay, if you 
 please ; we shall need you to write 
 the answer.' H / have a viessage 
 from God unto thee. A message to 
 be delivered not in word, but by 
 action. The Hebrew signifies a 
 thing, a busitiess, an affair, as well 
 as a 100 rd. The message was on the 
 point of Ehud's dagger. The ori- 
 ginal for ' God' moreover is a term 
 common both to the true God and 
 the supposed deities of the heathen, 
 so thaiEglon, as an idolater, might 
 have understood it in a very differ- 
 ent sense from that intended by 
 Ehud. Yet we think it most prob- 
 able on the whole that he would un- 
 derstand Ehud, an Israelite, as 
 speaking of the God of Israel, and 
 that a general feeling of reverence 
 inspired by the mention of the deity 
 or the powers above, even though his 
 conceptions of such a power were 
 v^ery vague, was sufficient to prompt 
 him to pay a serious attention to 
 what was professedly uttered in his 
 name. IT And he arose from his 
 seat. Thus paying a becoming re- 
 spect to a divine communication. 
 ' Though a king, though a heathen 
 king, though rich and powerful, 
 though now tyrannizing over the 
 
 f)eople of God, though a fat, unwield- 
 y man that could not easily rise nor 
 stand long, yet \vhen he expected to 
 receive orders from heaven, he rose 
 out of his seat, and whether it was 
 low and easy, or high and stately, 
 he quitted it, and stood up when 
 God was about to speak to him, 
 thereby owning God his Superior. 
 This shames the irreverence of 
 
 left hand, and took the dagger 
 from his right thigh, and thrust 
 it into his belly : 
 
 22 And the haft also went in 
 
 many who are called Christians, 
 and yet when a message from God 
 is delivered to them study to show 
 by all marks of carelessness how 
 little they regard it.' Henry. His 
 rising also gave Ehud a favorable 
 opportunity of striking the fatal 
 blow. 
 
 21. Took the dagger — and thrust 
 it, &c. A correct estimate of the 
 moral character of this bold deed of 
 Ehud can only be formed by settling 
 the previous question, whether in 
 performing it he was acting under a 
 divine commission, or prompted 
 merely by a self-moved impulse of 
 patriotism to free his country from 
 the yoke of a usurper and a tyrant. 
 If the latter were the fact, we have 
 no disposition to justify the course 
 adopted by Ehud, although it may be 
 plausibly maintained to be accord- 
 ing to the acknowledged right of na- 
 ture and of nations for subjects to 
 free themselves from bondage and 
 restore liberty to a country unjustly 
 enslaved by taking the life of their 
 oppressor. Most nations, both in an- 
 cient and modern times, that have 
 recovered themselves from political 
 thraldom have taken this course, - 
 and apparently with the approbation 
 of the great mass of mankind. At 
 any rate, the objection, against this 
 act of Ehud as a base assassination, 
 comes with an ill grace from those 
 who admire and eulogize the con- 
 duct of Brutus in stabbing Ca:;sar in 
 the senate-house, on the plea of rid- 
 ding his country of a tyrant. But 
 the deed of Ehud is doui)tless to be 
 vindicated on other grounds. There 
 is every reason, we think, to look 
 upon him as moved to this underta- 
 king by an impulse from above. It 
 is expressly said v. 15, that God 
 raised him up as a saviour to the 
 country, and how could he save his 
 country but by crushing the power 
 which held it in subjection 1 Again, 
 
A. C. 1336.] CHAPTER III. 
 
 after the blade : and the fat 
 closed upon the blade, so tliat 
 be coiUJ not draw the dagger 
 out of his belly ; and the dirt 
 came out. 
 
 23 Then Ehud went forth 
 
 2x3 
 
 we are brought to the same conclu- 
 sion by considering the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances under which the deed 
 was accomplished. In view of the 
 dangers attending it, what but the 
 confidence of being divinely directed 
 could have induced him, after dis- 
 missing his attendants at Gilgal, to 
 return alone and attempt the execu- 
 tion of his purpose 1 How could he 
 otherwise presume to thisk that he, 
 a single person, and disabled in his 
 right hand could reach the heart of 
 the king amidst the circle of his offi- 
 cers and guards 1 How could he ex- 
 pect, enemy as he was, to be admit- 
 ted to a private interview'? And if 
 admitted, how could he have looked 
 for an incident so favorable to his 
 object as the king's ordering all the 
 company to leave the room 1 And 
 then should he succeed in dispatch- 
 ing the king, wha.t prospect had he 
 of effecting his escape 1 — and yet, 
 should he fail to escape, the Vvholc 
 enterprise, as far as the deliverance 
 of his country was concerned, would i 
 have been abortive. We cannot ' 
 therefore resist the evidence arising 
 from these considerations that Ehud 
 acted in this matter in virtue of a 
 commission from God, M'ho saw fit 
 thus to punish the oppressor of his 
 people after having first m^de use of 
 him for their correction. lie would 
 of course know that the prompting 
 to the act was of God by the Spirit 
 that came upon him, the impulses of 
 which carried their own evidence 
 along with them, and so gave him 
 full assurance at once of the lawful- 
 ness and the success of the attempt, 
 of both which he would otherwise 
 have had the utmost reason to doub^. 
 ' If he be sure that God bids him do 
 it, he is snre both that he may do it, 
 and that he shall do it: for a com- 
 19 
 
 through the porch, and shut the 
 doors of the parlor upon him, 
 and locked them. 
 
 24 When lie was gone out, 
 bis servants came ; ar;d when 
 they saw that, behold, the doors 
 
 mand from God is sufficient to bear 
 us out, and to bring us off, both 
 against our consciences and against 
 all the world.' Henri/. It is not 
 however to be imagined that Ehud's 
 conduct is to be followed as a prece- 
 dent ; for no man can dare to follow 
 It unless he have infallible evidence 
 that he is called of God to do it ; but 
 as no man can expect such a call 
 at this time, no man can without the 
 deepest criminality presume to im- 
 itate his example. 
 
 22. And the dirt cavie nut. Ac- 
 cording to some, ' and it (the blade) 
 went out behind.' The obscurity of 
 the original renders it diflicult to 
 affix any determinate sense to the 
 words. 
 
 23. Ehvd v:ent forth, &c. By a 
 remarkable providence, Eglon fell 
 silently without uttering any shriek 
 or outcry, which might have been 
 overheard by his servants at a dis- 
 tance. His dying groans seem to 
 have been stifled in his own fat, and 
 thus the escape of his executioner 
 was signally favored. Ehud accord- 
 ingly walked forth shutting and 
 locking the doors, and probably ta- 
 king the key with him. Avith such an 
 air of composure and innocence as 
 gave no ground of suspicion, to any 
 of the guards that he might have 
 passed, of v.'hat had taken place 
 vv-ithin. His calm and sedate de- 
 meanor under such trying circum- 
 stances is to be resolved into that 
 strong confidence in God, by which 
 he Avas actuated in executing the 
 commission. 
 
 24. He covereth his feet. This ap- 
 pears to have been an idiomatic and 
 colloquial form of expression for 
 laying down to sleep. When this 
 was done they dropped their slip- 
 pers, lifted up their feet, and cov- 
 
214 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 133G, 
 
 of the parlor were locked, they 
 said, Surely he covereth his feet 
 in his summer-chamber. 
 
 25 And they tarried till they 
 were ashamed : and behold, he 
 opened not the doors of the par- 
 lor, therefore they took a key 
 and opened them : and behold, 
 their lord ivas fallen down dead 
 on the earth. 
 
 26 And Ehud escaped while 
 they tarried ; and passed be- 
 
 ered them with their long loose gar- 
 ments. Thus in the only other 
 place where this phrase occurs, 
 1 Sam. 24. 3, we read, that Saul 
 ' went into a cave to cover his feet,' 
 i. e. to refresh himself by sleep. 
 This interpretation, though varying 
 from that of several of the ancient 
 versions, which regard it as a eu- 
 phemism for a different act, is con- 
 firmed by the Arabic and Syriac, and 
 also by Josephiis, who says, ' The 
 king's servants were very still, as 
 supposing that tlie king had compo- 
 sed himself to sUcp.' From the case 
 of Ishbosheth, '2 Sam. 4. 5, and of 
 David, 2 Sam. 11. 2, it is evident 
 that the custom of taking repose in 
 those hot countries in the middle of 
 the day was by no means unusual. 
 
 25. Tarried till they were asham- 
 ed. That is, perplexed, confound- 
 ed, not knowing what to make of 
 it. They were "greatly agitated be- 
 tween the fear of disturbing him 
 on the one hand, and of neglecting 
 their duty on the other. Though 
 the primary import of the original is 
 thai oi feeling shayne, yet it is also in 
 repeated instances found to be close- 
 ly connected with the idea of disap- 
 pointment in long loailing, and con- 
 sequent perplexity, chagrin, mortifi- 
 cation. Thus Jer. 14. 3, ' And their 
 nobles have sent their little ones to 
 the waters : they have come to the 
 pits, and found no water ; they re- 
 turned with their vessels empty; 
 
 yond the quarries, and escaped 
 unto Seirath. 
 
 27 And it came to pass when 
 he was come, that >he blew a 
 trumpet in the 'mountain of 
 Ephraim, and the cliildren of Is- 
 rael went down with him from 
 the mount, and he before them. 
 
 28 And he said unto them, 
 Follow after me : for ''the Lord 
 hath delivered your enemies the 
 Moabites into your hand. And 
 
 y ch.5. 14. & 6. 3J. 1 Sam. 13 3. xJosh. 17. 15. 
 ch. 1. -ii. Hi 17. 1. Si. 19. 1. a ch. 7. 9, lo. 1 S«m, 
 
 17. -17. 
 
 they were ashamed and confounded, 
 and covered their heads.' Job. G. 
 19, 20, ' The troops of Tema looked, 
 the companies of Sheba wailed for 
 them. They were confounded be- 
 cause they had hoped; they came 
 thither and were ashamed.^ Comp. 
 Ps. 6. 1. Jer. 14. 4. Is. 19 9. 
 H Behold, their lord was fallen dovsn. 
 Heb. ' their lords •' pi. excel, accord- 
 ing to the Heb. idiom. See on Gen. 
 1. 1. ' God, when he hath chastened 
 bis children, doth many times cast 
 the rod into the fire.' Trapp. 
 
 27. Blew a trumpet in the moun- 
 tain of Ephraim. That is, caused 
 trumpets to to be blown in different 
 directions throughout that region. 
 By the ' mountain of Ephraim' is 
 not meant any particular mountain, 
 but the mountainous tract or dis- 
 trict generally. Ehud, though a 
 Benjamite, applied first to the tribe 
 of Ephraim, probably for the reason 
 that that tribe, lying immediately 
 contiguous, was more numerous 
 than his own, and had more men to 
 spare, as the Benjamites not long be- 
 fore, in consequence of the events 
 mentioned ch. 19 — 21, seem to have 
 been reduced to a mere handful. It 
 is not unlikely, moreover, that the 
 Ephraimiles had been the principal 
 sufferers under the rod of Moab. 
 IT The children of Israel went doicn 
 from the mount. After being col- 
 lected in considerable numbers by 
 his emissaries. 
 
A. C. 1336.] 
 
 they went clown after him, and 
 took ^the fords of Jordan toward 
 Moab. and suffered not a man 
 to pass over. 
 
 29 And they slew of Moab at 
 that time about ten thousand 
 men, all lustv, and all men of 
 
 28. Took the fords -of Jordan. He 
 ^rst secured these passes and set a 
 strong guard upon them, to cut off 
 all communication between the Mo- 
 abites on the "vvest, and those in their 
 own country on the east of Jordan, 
 so that those who might attempt to 
 fly should have no means of escape, 
 and those who might resolve to 
 light no prospect of assistance from 
 abroad- '■ He thus shut them up in 
 that land as their prison, in which 
 they were pleasing themselves as 
 their palace and paradise.' Henry. 
 
 29. Ail lustij, arid all men of valor. 
 The best and choicest of all the king 
 of Moab's forces, picked troops, 
 coinposed of men of bulk and stature, 
 able-bodied and high-spirited, whom 
 Eglon had stationed on that side the 
 Jordan to overawe and keep Israel 
 in subjection. Chal. ' every one 
 terrible and full of valor.' 
 
 30. After hivi ivas Shamgar. Of 
 the tribe and family of Shamgar no- 
 thing is said in the Scripture, ex- 
 cept that he was the son of Anath, 
 nor are we informed how long he 
 judged Israel. From his having to 
 do principally with the Philistines, 
 it is probable that he originated in 
 one of the tribes bordering upon 
 their territory, as perhaps that of 
 Judah or Dan. ^ Wifk an ox-goad. 
 Heb. T)2b^ mabnad, from the root 
 •-jT^b lamid, to teach, and literally 
 rendered ' an instructor of oxen •' 
 i. e. an instrument by which they 
 are brought into due subjection, an- 
 alogous to which we have, Hos. 10. 
 11, ' m>2b^ nb^5 '<' heifer that is 
 taught,' and Jer. 31. 18, ' I was chas- 
 tised -|>33 s^b b^'-^'S ^'^ ^ bullock not 
 taught,' i. e. notjtrainedto subjection, 
 though rendered less accurately in 
 
 CHAPTER III. 215 
 
 valor ; and there escaped not a 
 
 man. 
 
 30 So Moab was subdued 
 that day under the hand of Is- 
 rael : and ""-the land had rest 
 fouiscore years. 
 
 31 U" And after him was 
 
 our translation, ' unaccustomed to 
 the yoke.' The Sept. and Vulg. 
 render the original by a coulter or 
 2Jloughskare, but that the ox-goad 
 still used in Palestine is a weapon 
 sufficiently destructive for this pur- 
 pose, if wielded by a strong and 
 .^kilful hand, appears highly prob- 
 able from the description of this 
 implement given by Maundrell. He 
 saj^s, ' the country people were now 
 everywhere at plough in the fields, 
 in order to sow cotton. It was ob- 
 servable, that in ploughing they used 
 goads of extraordinary size ; upon 
 measuring of several, I found them 
 eight feet long, and at the bigger end 
 six inches in circumference. They 
 were armed at the lesser end with a 
 sharp prickle for driving the oxen, 
 at the other end with a small spade, 
 or paddle of iron, strong and massy, 
 for cleansing the plough from the 
 clay that encumbers it in working. 
 May we not from hence conjecture, 
 that it was with such a goad as one 
 of these, that Shamgar made that 
 prodigious slaughter related of him. 
 Judges 3. 21. I am confident that 
 whoever should see one of these in- 
 struments, would judge it to be a 
 weapon not less fit, perhaps fitter, 
 than a sword for such an execution. 
 Goads of this sort I saw always used 
 hereabouts, and also in Syria; and 
 the reason is, because the same 
 single person both drives the oxen, 
 and also holds and manages the 
 plough; which makes it necessary 
 to use such a goad as is above de- 
 scribed, to avoid the encumbrance 
 of two instruments.' This is con- 
 firmed by Mr. Buckingham, who, 
 in describing his journey from Soor 
 (Tyre) to Acre, remarks of the 
 
216 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1316. 
 
 •^Shamgar the son of Anath, 
 which slew oi" the Pliilistiiies six 
 hundred men «with an ox-goad ; 
 ^and he also delivered sisrael. 
 
 d ch. 5. 6, 6. 1 Sam. 
 50. f ch. 2 16. g , 
 11. 4, &c. I S^ui. 4. 1. 
 
 3. \0.:-2. 
 ii. 4. 1, 3, 
 
 Sam. 17. 47, 
 ; 10. 7, .7. 6t 
 
 ploughing that he witnessed, that 
 ' oxen were yoked in pairs, and the 
 plough was small and of simple con- 
 struction, so that it seemed necessary 
 for two to follow each other in the 
 same furrow as they invariably did. 
 The husbandman holding the plough 
 with one hand, by a handle like that 
 of a walking crutch, bore in the other 
 a goad of seven or eight feet in length, i 
 armed with a sharp point of iron at 
 one end, and at the other with a | 
 plate of the same metal shaped like 
 a calking-chisel. One attendant on- 
 ly was necessary for each plough, 
 as he who guided it, with one hand 
 spurred the oxen with the points of 
 the goad, and cleansed the earth from 
 the ploughshare by its spaded heel 
 with the other.' Shamgar was per- 
 haps quietly following the plough, 
 at the time when the Philistines 
 made a sudden inroad upon the 
 country for purposes of plunder, and 
 being moved by God to oppose them, 
 and having neither spear nor sAvord 
 at hand, he availed himself of the 
 implement with which he was driv- 
 ing his oxen, and with that effected 
 the slaughter here described. The 
 achievement was probably mira- 
 culous on his part, like that of Sam- 
 son in killing so many thousands of 
 the Philistines with the jaw-bone of 
 an ass; though several respectable 
 commentators suppose that instead 
 of withstanding the enemy alone, he 
 put himself at the head of a hastily 
 gathered band of country people, 
 who arvning theinselv^es with the 
 implements of tillage v.'ith which 
 they were occupied, fell upon the 
 invaders and put them to a total rout. 
 In support of this sense it is affirm- 
 ed, that a leader is often put for the 
 force which he commands, as above, 
 ch. 1. 13, where Othniel is said to 
 have taken Kirjath-sepher, though 
 
 CIIAPTEll IV. 
 
 A ND nhe children of Israel 
 -^ again did evil in the sight of 
 the Loud when Ehud was dead. 
 
 a ch 2. 19. 
 
 no one will suppose he did it unas- 
 sisted. So also in regard to the ex- 
 ploits of the three champions of Is- 
 rael mentioned 2 Sam. 23. 8 — 13. 
 But this interpretation appears on 
 the whole less likely. The incident 
 is evidently recorded as something 
 uncommon and marvellous, and as 
 divine interpositions nomore strange 
 frequently occurred during the days 
 of the judges, we deem it safer to 
 abide by the exact letter of the text. 
 ' It is no matter how weak the weap- 
 on is, if God direct and strengthen 
 the arm. An ox-goad, when God 
 pleases, shall do more than Goliath's 
 sword. And sometimes he chooses 
 to work by such unlikely means, 
 that the excellency of the power may 
 appear to be of God.' Henry. The 
 brief account here given of Shamgar 
 here suggests the remark, (1.) That 
 the most distinguished men have of- 
 fen risen from the meanest emplo)'- 
 ments. (2.) That M-hen a plough- 
 man is raised up by God to hold the 
 reins of government, or a fisherman 
 is elevated to the apostleship, he will 
 qualify them for their w-ork and 
 bless them with success. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1. The children of Israel did evil 
 again.in the sight of the Lord. This 
 mode of expression when used, as 
 here, of the whole body of the nation 
 seems to imply a general and open 
 defection from the worship of God, 
 so that the services of the sanctuary 
 were in a great measure neglected. 
 ' What a continued circle is here of 
 sins, judgments, repentance, deliv- 
 erance ! The conversation with 
 idolaters taints them with sin, their 
 sin draws on judgment, the smart of 
 the judgment moves them to repen- 
 tance, on their repentance follows 
 speedy deliverance, on their peace 
 
A. C. 1316.] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 217 
 
 2 And the Lord ^sold them 
 into the hand of Jabin king of 
 Canaan that reigned in "^Hazor, 
 the captain of whose host loas 
 ^Sisera, which dwelt in ^Haro- 
 sheth of the Gentiles. 
 
 b ch. 2. 11, c Josh. 11. I, 10. & 19. 36. d I Sam. 
 12. 9. Ps. 83. 9 c ver. 13, 16. 
 
 anddeliverance they sin again! Who 
 would not think idolatry an absurd 
 and unnatural thing 1 which as it 
 hath the fewest inducements, so had 
 also the most direct prohibitions 
 from God ; and yet after all their 
 warnings, Israel falls into it again. 
 Neither affliction nor repentance 
 can secure an Israelite from redoub- 
 ling his worst sin, if he be left to his 
 own frailty.' Bp. Hall. If When 
 Ehud loas dead. This appears to be 
 inserted not merely to indicate the 
 time when this apostacy took place, 
 but also to acquit Ehud of all parti- 
 cipation in it. Had he been alive 
 there would have been less likeli- 
 hood of its occurring. 
 
 2. Sold them. See on ch. 2. 14. 
 IT Jabin, king of Canaan. That is, 
 of the region where the greatest body 
 of the Canaanites dwelt, which was 
 in the northern section of the coun- 
 try. This Jabin was perhaps a de- 
 .scendant, as well as successor of the 
 king of the same name, who reigned 
 also in Hazor, and who was routed 
 and slain, and his city burnt by Josh- 
 ua, Josh. 11. 1, 10. In process of 
 time, it appears that the city had 
 been rebuilt, its power regained, its 
 losses retrieved, and by degrees the 
 king of Hazor had obtained the as- 
 cendancy over Israel, who were ex- 
 ceedingly oppressed under his rod. 
 Their former defeat by the chosen 
 people, would naturally provoke 
 them to make their burdens as heavy 
 as possible, while on the otlier hand, 
 the misery of the sufferers would be 
 aggravated by the reflection, that 
 these Canaanites had once been con- 
 quered and subdued by them, and 
 might now have been under their 
 feet and incapable of molesting them, 
 if their own slothfulness, cowardice, 
 19* 
 
 3 And the children of Israel 
 cried unto the Lord ; for he had 
 nine hundred '"chariots of iron ; 
 and twenty years she mightily 
 oppressed the ciiildren of Israel. 
 
 4 IT And Deborah, a pro- 
 
 f ch. 1. 19. g ch. 5. 8. Fs. 106. 42. 
 
 and unbelief had not given them the 
 advantage. To be oppressed by 
 those whom their fathers had con- 
 quered, and whom they had foolish- 
 ly spared, must have greatly embit- 
 tered their bondage. No reverses 
 are so trying as those which give 
 the upper hand to persons or events, 
 that have once been under our com- 
 plete control. IT Harosheth of the 
 Gentiles. Or, ' Harosheth of the 
 nations,' i. e. of the heathen nations 
 as opposed to the Hebrews, so called 
 perhaps from the remains of the 
 Canaanitish nations having resorted 
 thiiher in great numbers to assist 
 Sisera, the commander of Jabin's 
 armies, and to obtain his protection. 
 It was situated in the tribe of Naph- 
 tali, near the west borders of the 
 Lake Samechonitis, in the region 
 which was afterwards called, per- 
 haps in allusion to this passage, 
 ' Galilee of the Gentiles.' 
 
 3. Cried unfa the Lord. ' Those 
 vv^ho abuse prosperity shall know 
 the cries of adversity.' Haweis. IT 
 Nine hundred chariots of iron. Had 
 so many at his service and under his 
 control. It is probable that part of 
 them belonged to the neighboring 
 powers (ch. 5. 19.) who were confed- 
 erate with him on this occasion, 
 but altogether they made out the 
 vast number here mentioned. ' God 
 provides, on purpose, mighty adver- 
 saries for his church, that their 
 humiliation may be greater in sus- 
 taining, and his glory may be great- 
 er in deliverance.' Bp. Hall. IT 
 Twenty years. A longer period of 
 oppression than either of the former, 
 because God proportions the judg- 
 ments of his sinning people to the 
 aggravation of their offences. 
 
 4. And Deborah a prophetess. Heb. 
 
218 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1316. 
 
 phetess, the wife of Lapidoth, 
 she judged Israel at that time. 
 
 ' Debjrah a woman, a prophetess.' 
 The words ' prophet' and ' prophe- 
 tess' are of very extensive and some- 
 what ambiguous signification in the 
 Old Testament, being sometimes ap- 
 plied to persons extraordinarily en- 
 dowed of God with the poAver of 
 foretelling future events or of work- 
 ing miracles, or of chanting or 
 singing forth the praises of God 
 under supernatural influence ; and 
 sometimes to those who were re- 
 markably instructed in divine knowl- 
 edge by the immediate inspiration 
 of the Spirit of God, and therefore 
 appointed to act as interpreters of 
 his will. As to Deborah, she prob- 
 ably belonged to the latter class, and 
 was perhaps only a woman of emi- 
 nent holiness, prudence, and knowl- 
 edge of divine things, by which she 
 was qualified above any of the other 
 sex then living to judge the people ; 
 that is, by acting as God's mouth to 
 them, correcting abuses, redressing 
 grievances, and determining causes, 
 especially in matters pertaining to 
 the law and the worship of God. She 
 was resorted to by the people of Is- 
 rael, from different parts, for judg- 
 ment or counsel relative to subjects of 
 general interest to the nation, or that 
 part of it where she resided, and dis- 
 charged her duty by expounding the 
 Scriptures, and animating the mag- 
 istrates in their several districts to 
 put the laws in execution. 'I do 
 not find any prophet in Israel during 
 their sin ; but so soon as I hear news 
 of their repentance, mention is made 
 of a prophetess, and judge of Israel. 
 There is no better sign of God's re- 
 conciliation than the sending of his 
 holy messengers to any people ; he 
 is not utterly fallen out with those 
 whom he blesses with prophecy.' 
 Bp. Hall. Under every dispensation 
 the Most High exercises his prerog- 
 ative as a sovereign in the bestow- 
 ment of spiritual gifts, and though 
 women, under the Christian econ- 
 omy, are precluded from the func- 
 
 5 '^ And she dwek under "the 
 palm-tree of Deborah, between 
 
 tion of public teachers, yet nothing 
 hinders them from making the most 
 eminent attainments in divine knowl- 
 edge, and becoming able in a private 
 capacity to render the most signal 
 serivces to the ministry and the 
 cause of Christ. The import of the 
 name Deborah is ' a bee.' Females 
 possessed of her spirit, in respect to 
 the assiduous study of the Scriptures, 
 Avill find themselves, like David, 
 feeding upon that which is siceeter 
 to their taste than honey or the hon- 
 ey-comb, and in the benevolent em- 
 ployments to which it will prompt 
 them, Avill evince the busy and imtir- 
 ing diligence of their insect exem- 
 plar, ^ The wife of Lapidolh. 
 The termination of the word is the 
 Heb. feminine plural, which very 
 seldom occurs in the names of men. 
 Some therefore render it ' woman of 
 Lapidoth,' as if it were the name of 
 a place. Others, as Lapidoth taken 
 appellatively signifies lo.nqjs, would 
 read it a' woman of lamps,' i. e. one 
 who made wicks for the lamps of 
 the Tabernacle. Others, again with 
 more show of probability, would 
 translate it a ' woman of illumin- 
 ations or splendors,' by which they 
 would understand a woman super- 
 naturally enlightened, endowed with 
 extraordinary wisdom, and who had 
 thus become very eminent and illus- 
 trious. After all, tlie present render- 
 ing, ' wife of Lapidoth,' is the most 
 probable. Thus 2 Kings 22. 14, 
 ' Huldah the prophetess, the wife of 
 Shallum.' And for examples of 
 feminine terminations in (he names, 
 see 'Shelomith,' 1 Chron. 23. 9. 
 ' Meramoth,' Ezra 8. 33. and ' Mik- 
 loth,' 1 Chron. 27. 4. H Judged 
 Israel. That is, in the manner above 
 described. It can hardly be supposed 
 that she performed all the duties usu- 
 ally involved in the office of a judge 
 of Israel, of which one of the princi- 
 pal was leading the tribes in person 
 to war against the enemies and op- 
 pressors of their country. But so far 
 
A. C. 1316.] 
 
 CHAPTER ]V. 
 
 219 
 
 Ramah and Beth -el in mount 
 Epliraira : and the children of 
 Israel came up to her for judg- 
 ment. 
 
 as the work of judging the people de- 
 pended upon counselling and direct- 
 ing them in difficult cases, and ex- 
 pounding the will of God under the 
 influence of the spirit of prophecy, 
 this, though a woman, she might be 
 qualified to do. Had this office, at 
 this time, been filled by a man, it 
 would probably have given alarm to 
 Jabin, and afforded a pretext to op- 
 press the nation with still greater 
 burdens, and perhaps to attempt to 
 crush them altogether. Josephus, 
 speaking of this period, says ' When 
 they (the Israelites) were become 
 penitent, and were so wise as to 
 learn that their calamities arose 
 from their contempt of the laws, 
 they besought Deborah, a certain 
 prophetess among them, to pray to 
 God to take pity on them, not to over- 
 look them now they were ruined by 
 the Canaanites.' Ant. B. V. ch. 5. 
 Compare what is said of Samuel, 
 1 Sam. 7. G, 8. 
 
 5. She dwelt under the palm-tree of 
 Deborah. That is, perhaps, collect. 
 a palm-grove, a pleasant and shady 
 recess, amidst a thick plantation of 
 palm-trees ; which from this circum- 
 stance went ever after by the name 
 of Deborah's palm-grove. Whether 
 this is designed to intimate that her 
 ordinary settled habitation was se- 
 lected in this place, or that her judg- 
 ment-seat was fixed here in the open 
 air for hearing the applications that 
 were made to her, it is not easy to 
 determine. The original (nD'!/"!'^ 
 ivas sitting') will admit of either 
 sense. From the phrase ' sitting in 
 judgment,' Ps. 9. 8, it would appear, 
 that the latter is the more genuine 
 import of the words. IT Between 
 Raviah and Bethel in mount Ephra- 
 im. Consequently very near the 
 confines of the tribes of Benjamin 
 and Ephraim, in one of which lay 
 Ramah, and in the other Bethel, the 
 
 6 And she sent and called 
 i Barak the son of Abinoam out 
 ''of Kedesh-naphtali, and said 
 unto him, Hath not the Lord 
 
 i Heb. n. 3'2. k Josh. 19. 37. 
 
 former about six miles north of Jer- 
 usalem, the latter about twelve. 
 
 6. Kedesh-naphtali. So called to 
 distinguish it from two other cities 
 of the same name, the one in Issa- 
 char, the other in Judah. This 
 place was situated on an eminence 
 about eight miles north-west from the 
 headofthesea of Galilee. To Kedesh 
 she sent for Barak, in virtue of the 
 authority with which she was invest- 
 ed as prophetess, and which seems 
 to have been generally acknowledg- 
 ed by her people. ' He could do 
 nothing without her head, nor she 
 without his hands; both together 
 made a complete deliverefand effect- 
 ed a complete deliverance. The 
 greatest and best are not self-suffici- 
 ent, but need one another.' Henry. 
 IT Hath not the Lord God of Israel 
 coramayided, &c. The usual form of 
 a strong affirmation. It does uot ap- 
 pear, however, that Barak had re- 
 ceived any command Avhatever pre- 
 vious to this time. IT Go and draw 
 toil' ard mount Tabor. The true sense 
 of the term ' draw' in this connec- 
 tion, is a point much debated by com- 
 mentators. According to the render- 
 ing in our common translation if 
 would naturally be taken as a com- 
 mand to approach toward mount Ta- 
 bor; but this evidently is incorrect, 
 as the verb in the original never has 
 this meaning, and the exact render- 
 ing of the preposition is in or upon 
 mount Tabor, instead of /o26y//y/. A 
 nearer approximation to the sense of 
 the Hebrew must be attempted, and 
 here as in other cases of doubtful in- 
 terpretation the prevailing usage^ 
 (usus loquendi) of the sacred writers 
 in regard to the Avord in question 
 must afford the clew to our inquiries. 
 That its primary import is to draw, 
 to draw out, and thence, in some 
 cases, to prolong^ to protract, as 
 the sound of a trumpet in blow- 
 
220 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1316. 
 
 God of Israel commanded, say. 
 ing, Go, and draw toward mount 
 Tabor, and take with thee ten 
 
 ing, is universally conceded. In- 
 deed Le Clerc, Schmid, and others 
 on the ground of its being applied 
 tothe long-drmon sound of a trum- 
 pet, Ex. 17. 13, Josh. 6.5, propose to 
 supply the original word for trum- 
 pet and to take it as a command to 
 Barak to go and bloio the trumpet on 
 mount Tabor, as a signal for the 
 gathering of the tribes, as Ehud did 
 upon mount Ephraim. Gesenius 
 and Wmer in their lexicons, under- 
 stand it of dravnng out, or asun- 
 der a military force, i. e. intrans. 
 extending, expanding, spreading 
 themselves out. A preferable sense 
 we think to be that of draining, 
 drafting, or enlisting, not perhap«s 
 by compulsion, but by argument and 
 persuasion ; not so much to raise an 
 army of conscripts, as a band of vol- 
 unteers; as will be easily inferred 
 from the tenor of Deborah's song in 
 the ensuing chapter, which is in 
 part a reproof to several of the tribes 
 for not offering themselves vAUlngly 
 on this perilous emergency. How 
 much support this rendering re- 
 ceives from parallel usage will be 
 seen from the following citations. 
 Cant. 1. 4, ^ Draw me, we will run 
 after thee;' i. e. .secretly but power- 
 fally constrain me. Jer. 31. 3. 'I 
 have loved thee with an everlasting 
 love; therefore with loving kindness 
 ho.ve I drawn thee.' Hos. 11. 4. ' / 
 ^rem\.\\em. with cords of a man, with 
 bands of love ;' i. e. by the power of 
 moral suasion; by arguments and 
 motives suited to their rational na- 
 tures. In like manner, we suppose 
 Barak was ordered to go and use 
 his utmost endeavors to stir up the 
 minds of his countrymen, and as a 
 popular advocate of any cause draws 
 partisans after him, so he was to pre- 
 vail upon as many as possible to en- 
 gage with him in the proposed en- 
 terprise. See on ch. 5. 14. \\ Mount 
 Tabor. An isolated mountain which 
 rises on the north-eastern side of I 
 
 thousand men of the children of 
 Naphtali, and of the children of 
 Zebulun ; 
 
 the great plain of Esdraelon in 
 Galilee, and situated about six 
 miles south-east of Nazareth. It 
 is described as having the appear- 
 ance of a cone with the point cut off; 
 but travellers vary in their estimate 
 of its height, which is probably about 
 2500 or 3000 feet. It is remarkable 
 for standing alone, though there are 
 several eminences in the neighbor- 
 hood, all which it completly over- 
 tops. It is very fertile and is en- 
 tirely covered with green oaks and 
 other trees, shrubs, and odoriferous 
 plants. Roads and paths are made 
 on the south side of the mountain, 
 which lead to its top by winding 
 ascents, and are sufficiently easy to 
 admit of riding to the top. When 
 arrived at the summit, the traveller 
 is astonished to find an oval of half 
 a mile in extent, commanding the 
 finest view any where to be obtained 
 in the whole compass of Palestine. 
 On this plain at the east end is a 
 mass of ruins, apparently the re- 
 mains of churches, towers, strong 
 walls, and fortifications, all bearing 
 the traces of having been erected in 
 a very remote antiquity. Several 
 grottos and cisterns are also pointed 
 out. ' From its top,' says Maund- 
 rell, 'you have a prospect which, if 
 nothing else, will reward the labor 
 of ascending it. It is impossible for 
 man's eyes to have a higher gratifi- 
 cation of this nature. On the north- 
 west, you discern, at a distance, the 
 Mediterranean, and all round you 
 have the spacious and beautiful 
 plains of Esdraelon and Galilee. 
 Turning a little southward you have 
 in view the high mountains of Gil- 
 boa, fatal to Saul and his sons. Due 
 east you discern the sea of Tiberias, 
 distant about one day's journey.' 
 The mountain is now called Djebcl 
 Tour. H Ten thousand men. Ten 
 thousand more or less. Not that he 
 was to be tied to this precise number, 
 nor exclusively to these two tribes ; 
 
A. C. 131G.] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 221 
 
 7 And il will draw unto thee, 
 to the '"river Kishon, Sisera the 
 captain of Jabin's army, w'ith his 
 chariots and his multitude ; and 
 I will deliver him into thy hand? 
 
 8 And Barak said unto her, 
 
 1 Ex. U. 4. 
 
 , 10. 
 
 ch. 5.21. 1 Kings 18. 40. Fs. S3. 
 
 for it is plain from ch. 5. 14 — 23, 
 that several other tribes, as Ephraira, 
 Benjamin, Manasseh, and Issachar, 
 volunteered recruits on the occasion, 
 while those that withheld them are 
 reproved, and Meroz cursed for 
 taking the stand of neutrality; but 
 the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali 
 are more especially mentioned, be- 
 cause they had probably been the 
 principal suflerers under the oppres- 
 sive rule of Jabin, and were nearer 
 at hand to the scene of the approach- 
 ing conflict than any of the rest. In 
 addition to this, Barak himself was 
 of the Iribe of Naphtali, and the es- 
 teem in which he was doubtless 
 held, would naturally bring numbers 
 of them to his standard. 
 
 7. And I will dravy unto thee. The 
 same word as that employed in the 
 preceding verse and having a kind- 
 red import. God would ' draw the 
 hosts of Sisera to the river Kishon,' 
 by so ordering the events of his pro- 
 vidence as to afford motives to them 
 to concentrate" in all their force at 
 that point. They were not to be 
 drawn together by physical but by 
 moral influence. Their counsels 
 were to be so overruled by a secret 
 divine direction, that they should 
 result in their being brought together 
 at that place, as sheep for the slaugh- 
 ter, and yet their utmost freedom of 
 will left undisturbed. ' When God 
 will destroy his enemies their resis- 
 tance is in vain ; and their gathering 
 to battle is only rushing into the 
 snare.' Haioeis. IT The river Kis- 
 hon. See on ch, 5. 21. 
 
 8. If thou wilt go with me, &c. 
 By making his obedienceconditional 
 when the command was absolute, 
 Barak showed that his faith was 
 marred by infirmity, and this con- 
 
 If thou wilt go with me, then I 
 will go : but if thou wilt not go 
 with me, then I will not go. 
 
 9 And she said, I will surely 
 go with thee : notwithstanding 
 the journey that thou takest 
 
 viction is confirmed by Deborah's 
 answer in which she intimates to 
 him that he shall not receive the 
 same honor or ditsinction from the 
 enterprise, that he would otherwise 
 have done. In like manner, Moses' 
 lack of faith when ordered to go up- 
 on a mission to Pharaoh, led God 
 to divide the honor of that embassy 
 with Aaron, which would otherwise 
 have redounded to Moses alone, Ex. 
 4. 14. Still it is evident from the 
 apostle's commendation, Heb. 11. 32, 
 that Barak possessed true though 
 u-eak faith, and that it was from a 
 profound conviction of the spirit of 
 God's dwelling and speaking in De- 
 borah, that he so earnestly desired 
 her presence. Could he but enjoy 
 this, he would feel that he possessed 
 a pledge and earnest of the divine 
 blessing, and this was showing a 
 respect to God's prophets, which im- 
 plied a genuine faith, and was no 
 doubt highly acceptable as far as it 
 went. But though it would natually 
 be a source of great satisfaction and 
 encouragement to him, to have the 
 prophetess with him to animate his 
 soldiers, and to be consulted as an 
 oracle upon all occasions, yet it is 
 plain that he ought to have gone di- 
 rectly forward without her, relying 
 on the Godof Deborah, who had ex- 
 pressly and unconditionally pro- 
 mised him the victory, v. 7. How 
 rare, alas ! is simple child-like con- 
 fidence in God ! How difficult is it 
 for men, and the best of men, to 
 break away from undue dependance 
 on an arm of flesh, even when as- 
 sured by the most express declaration 
 of God, that he will uphold and de- 
 liver them, and be to them more 
 than armies of strength, or muni- 
 tions of rocks ! 
 
222 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1316. 
 
 shall not be for thine honor ; for 
 the Lord shall "sell Sisera into 
 the hand of a woman. And 
 Deborah arose, and went with 
 Barak to Kedesh. 
 
 9. I will surely go wilh thee. An 
 indulgence to human infirmity, such 
 as the divine condescension often 
 afforded to liis weak and wavering 
 s ervants. Were God's thoughts like 
 ours and his ways like ours, he 
 would have been far more apt to dis- 
 card Barak altogether and say to 
 him, that if he had not faith enough 
 to trust the promise of Him who 
 cannot lie, he would call some one 
 to the service who had, and to whom 
 he would give the glory of an ex- 
 ploit which he had in so cowardly 
 a manner declined. But with char- 
 acteristic kindness the Most High is 
 pleased to yield somewhat to his 
 perverseness, and Deborah, under 
 the divine prompting, engages to 
 accompany him. While the parlies 
 thus seem in effect to have changed 
 sexes, it is obviously meet that some 
 tokens of divine disapprobation 
 should mark Barak's faint-hearted- 
 ness, and he is consequently told 
 that he is to share the glory of the 
 victory with a weak Avonan. U 
 T'he journey that thou tallest shalt not 
 be for thine honor. Heb. ' thine 
 honor shall not be upon the way 
 which thou goest.' That is, prob- 
 ably, the way, the conduct, the course 
 which thou art proposing in this 
 matter shall not be such as to re- 
 dound to thy credit. If, however, it 
 be taken as read in our translation, 
 then the remark of Henry may be 
 very well founded, that ' so confident 
 was she of success that she calls his 
 engaging in the war but the under- 
 taking of a journey.' IT The Lord 
 shall sell Sisera into the hand of a 
 woman. Some understand this of 
 Deborah herself, but we think the 
 designed allusion is to Jael. Of her 
 the words may be understood liter- 
 ally; applied to Deborah they can 
 ojjly be explained by a figure of 
 
 10 IF And Barak called °Zeb- 
 ulun and Naphtali to Kedesh ; 
 and he went up with ten thou- 
 sand men Pat his feet : and De- 
 borah went up with him. 
 
 18. 
 
 See Ex. 11. 8. 1 Kings iO. 10. 
 
 speech. Besides, if spoken of Deb- 
 orah, the sentence merely declares 
 what he knew before He was no 
 doubt aware that if she went with 
 him it would diminish the credit of 
 his success, yet notwithstanding he 
 was sensible of this he insisted upon 
 her accompanying him. But in re- 
 gard to the part Jael was to act in 
 the transaction, he of course knew 
 nothing. This Avas a pure predic- 
 tion uttered by Deborah in the spi- 
 rit of prophecy, and such he would 
 understand it to be when the event 
 was accomplished. U Deborah — 
 icent with Barak to Kedesh. Con- 
 sequently Barak had previously, in 
 obedience to her summons, left Ke- 
 desh and repaired to her at her res- 
 idence between Ramah and Beth-el. 
 The above conversation was un- 
 doubtedly held by the parties in per- 
 son after they met. 
 
 10. And Barak called Zebulun and 
 Naphtali. The original for ' called' 
 being in the Hiphil form, properly 
 signifies caused to call, i. e. assem- 
 bled by means of emissaries sent 
 among the tribes. Whether this 
 was done as some suppose, by the 
 blowing of trumpets, the common 
 signal for war, or otherwise, is un- 
 certain. IF Went up with ten thou- 
 sand men at his feet. Heb. ' went 
 np with his feet ten thousand men.' 
 Such is the literal rendering of the 
 original, from which most of the 
 versions depart, and so lose the 
 exact shade of meaning which we 
 conceive the words intended to con- 
 vey, viz. that the ten thousand ac- 
 companied him with as much alac- 
 rity as though all their feet had be- 
 longed to his body; in other words, 
 they were entirely at his eontrol, ob- 
 sequious to his beck and bidding. 
 The phrase may appear uncouth, 
 but it is highly significant, and in ail 
 
A. C. 1316.] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 223 
 
 11 Now Hcber ^the Kenite, 
 widch loas of the children of 
 ■•Hobab the father-in-law of Mo- 
 ses, had severed himself from 
 the Kenites, and pitched his tent 
 unto the plain of Zaanaim, 
 * which is by Kedesh. 
 
 12 And they showed Sisera 
 that Barak the son of Abinoam 
 was gone up to mount Tabor. 
 
 qch. l.IG. r Num. 10.29. 3Ter.6. 
 
 13 And Sisera gathered to- 
 gether ail his chariots, even nine 
 hundred chariots of iron, and all 
 the people that were with him, 
 from Harosheth of the Gentiles 
 unto the river of Kishon. 
 
 14 And Deborah said unto 
 Barak, Up ; for this is the day 
 in which the Lord hath deliv- 
 ered Sisera into thy hand : qs 
 
 t Dent. 9. 3. 2 Sam. 5. i\. Ps. 68. 7. Is. 5^ 12. 
 
 cases we would aim to adhere as 
 closely as practicable to the very 
 letter of the original. The intel- 
 ligent reader would prefer to know 
 precisely what the sacred penman 
 says, and then to be left to put such 
 a construction upon it as to his mind 
 the evidence of the case admits or 
 requires. Comp. ch. 5. 15. 8. 5. — 
 ' The phrase ' men at his feet,' did 
 not, I believe, refer to any particu- 
 lar class of soldiers, but applied to 
 all, whether they fought in chariots, 
 on horses, or on foot. This form of 
 speech is used in eastern books to 
 show how many obey or serve under 
 the general. It may be taken from 
 the action of a slave being prostrate 
 at the feet of his master, denoting 
 submission or obedience. In this 
 way devotees, when addressing the 
 gods, always speak of ihemseh'es as 
 being at their feet. When the Ori- 
 entals speak of his Majesty of Bri- 
 tain, they often allude to the millions 
 who are at his feet. The governors, 
 generals, or judges in the East, are 
 said to have the people of such coun- 
 tries, or armies, or districts, at their 
 feet. Nay. it is common for mas- 
 ters, and people of small possessions, 
 to speak of their domestics as being 
 at their feet. It is therefore heard 
 every day, for ' I will send my ser- 
 vants,' en-kal-adiyila, ' those at my 
 feet.' ' Roberts. 
 
 11. No 10 Hcber the Kenite, &c. 
 This verse comes in here parenthet- 
 ically to prepare the way for what is 
 soon to be said about Jael, a woman 
 of this family. It would otherwise 
 
 seem singular that when the writer 
 had before said ch. 1. 16, that this 
 family had passed into the tribe of 
 Judah, and was dwelling in the wil- 
 derness south of Arad, that one of 
 the stock was found abiding so far 
 north as the tribe of Naphtali. He 
 accounts for it by saying that the in- 
 dividual in question had emigrated 
 to a distance from his brethren. 
 The verse should have been inclu- 
 ded in the usual marks of a paren- 
 thesis. H Pitched his tent unto. 
 That is, gradually shifted his habi- 
 tation towards. See on Gen. 13. 12. 
 He doubtless followed the nomade 
 mode of life. 
 
 12. And they showed Sisera. A 
 common idiom for 'it was told Sise- 
 ra.' See on Gen. 16. 14. 
 
 13. Gathered together. The same 
 word in the original with that spoken 
 of Barak v. 10, and there rendered 
 ' called.' In both cases it means to 
 assemble by proclaviation. IT Unto 
 the rii-cr Kishon. That is, gathered 
 unto the river Kishon. The writer 
 is not giving the boundaries of the 
 several nations that were confed- 
 erate with Sisera, nor stating that 
 they extended from Harosheth of 
 the Gentiles unto the river Kishon. 
 
 14. Hath delivered Sisera into thy 
 hand. Will as certainly deliver as 
 if it were already done.' By Sisera 
 here is meant his army, for as to 
 Sisera himself, he was not delivered 
 into the hand of Barak, but of Jael, 
 as Deborah had before announced, 
 V. 9. IT Is not the Lord gone out 
 before thee. As God had expres.sly 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 :[A. C.13I6. 
 
 not the Lord gone out before 
 thee ? So Barak went down 
 from mount Tabor, and ten thou- 
 sand men after him. 
 
 15 And "the Lord discom- 
 fited Sisera, and all his chariots, 
 
 u P£. 8.'. 3, 10. See Joeh. 10. 10. 
 
 said V. 7, that he would draw Sise- 
 ra's army with his chariois and his 
 multitudes together to the river Ki- 
 shon, and then deliver them into Ba- 
 rak's hand, so Deborah in these 
 words simply intimates that God 
 had thus far been as good as his pro- 
 mise, that he had gone out belbre 
 Barak in the sense of putting every 
 thing in readiness for his achieving 
 the promised victory. The Lord's 
 going before one in battle, when 
 thus explained is equivalent to ma- 
 king sure a successjul result. So 2 
 Sam. 5. 24, ' And let it be when thou 
 heare.st the sound of a going in the 
 tops of the mulberr}' trees, that then 
 thou shall bestir th3'self; for then 
 shall the Lord go out before thee, to 
 smite the host of the "Philistines. ' 
 Nothing so encourages a good man 
 in the way of duty or of danger, as 
 the conviction that the Lord goes 
 before him and that he is acting un- 
 der his direction. IT Barak went 
 down from the mount. Instead of 
 making it his chief object to main- 
 tain the post which he had chosen, 
 Avith all its advantages, on the top of 
 the mount v%'here he was completely 
 unassailable by the enemy's iron 
 chariots, he heroically sallies down 
 to the level plain with his far infe- 
 rior force, in order that by giving 
 Sisera every advantage the glory of 
 the victory to be achieved over him 
 might bs so much the greater. 
 
 15. The Lord discomfUed Sisera. 
 Or, as the Heb. implies confounded, 
 threw them into disorder, drove them 
 tmnuUuouslij together causing char- 
 iots to break and overthrow chariots, 
 and horses and men to be mingled 
 in their fall in wild confusion. It 
 w^as not so much the bold and unex- : 
 peeled charge of Barak that produ- 
 ced this effec', as a supernatural I 
 
 and all his host, with t'ne edge 
 of the sword before Barak ; so 
 that Sisera lighted down off 
 his chariot, and fled away on 
 his feet. 
 
 16 But Barak pursued after 
 
 panic, a terror from God, that seized 
 their spirits, threw them into irre- 
 trievable confusion, and made them 
 an easy prey to the sword. It is 
 said ch. 5. 20, that ' the stars from 
 heaven fought against Sisera,' and 
 Josephus gives the following very 
 probable account of the terrific 
 scene. ' When the-y were come to 
 j a close fight, there came down from 
 I heaven a great storm, with a vast 
 I quantity of rain and hail, and the 
 ! wind blew the rain in the face of the 
 Canaanites, and so darkened their 
 eyes, their arrows and slings were 
 of no advantage to them; nor would 
 the coldness of the air permJl the 
 soldiers to make use of their swords, 
 while this storm did not so much in- 
 commode the Israelites, because it 
 came on their backs. They also 
 took such courage upon the appre- 
 hension that God was assisting them, 
 that they fell upon the very midsi of 
 their enemies, and slew a great num- 
 ber of tliem, so that some of them 
 fell by the Israelites, some fell by 
 their own horses which were put 
 into disorder, and not a few Avere 
 killed bj' their own chariots.' Ant, 
 B. V. ch. 5. IT Sisera lighted 
 down — and fled away on his feet. 
 To guard more effectually against 
 being discovered. Had he fled in 
 his chariot he would have been lia- 
 ble to be recognised and taken or 
 .slain. ' His chariots had been his 
 pride and his confidence • and we 
 )nay suppose that he had therefore 
 despised and defied the armies of the 
 living God, because they were all on 
 foot, and had neither chariot nor 
 horse, as he had; justly therefore is 
 he made ashamed of his confidence, 
 and forced to quit it, and thinks him- 
 self then most safe and easy when 
 he has got clear of his chariot. 
 
A. C. 1316.] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 225 
 
 the chariots, and after the host, 
 unto Harosheth of the Gentiles : 
 and all the host of Sisera fell 
 
 Thus they are disappointed who 
 rest on the creature.' Henry. 
 
 16. Fell upon the edge of tkesiDord. 
 Rather, fell by the edge of the sword. 
 IT There loas not a yuan left. Heb. 
 • there was not left unto one.' Jose- 
 phus says that Sisera's army on this 
 occasion consisted of three hundred 
 thousand footmen, ten thousand 
 horsemen, and three thousand char- 
 iots. Of these only nine hundred 
 may have been iron chariots, as 
 stated by the sacred historian. 
 
 17. To the tent of Joel, the wife of 
 Heber the Kenitc That is, proba- 
 bly, to Jael's apartment of the tent, 
 the harem, the women's quarters. 
 ' We must consider these Kenites as 
 Arabs, and estimate their proceed- 
 ings accordingly. Sisera's claim on 
 Jael, in the absence of Heber, was 
 perfectly proper. When a stranger 
 comes to an Arab camp, where he 
 has no acquaintance, he proceeds to 
 the first tent, and if the proprietor is 
 absent, his wife and daughters are 
 not only authorised, but required, to 
 perform the duties of hospitality to 
 nim. As a character for liberal hos- 
 pitality is an actual distinction of an 
 Arab, no one can with honor repel 
 from the tent a stranger who claims 
 hospitality, nor, in ordinary circum- 
 stances, does any one desire to do 
 so; on the contrary, there is rather 
 a disposition to contend who shall 
 enjoy the privilege of granting him 
 entertainment. In the present in- 
 stance Sisera's application to the 
 tent of the Sheikh, whose privilege 
 it more especially was to entertain 
 strangers, was in the common course 
 of things. As belonging to a friend- 
 ly people, Sisera's claim for protec- 
 tion was as valid as a common claim 
 for hospitality, and could not be re- 
 fused. Having once promised pro- 
 tection to a person, and admitted him 
 to his lent, the Arab is bound, not 
 only to conceal his guest, but to de- 
 
 n, e 
 20 
 
 upon the edge of the sword ; 
 and there was not a man left. 
 17 Howbeit, Sisera fled away 
 
 his pursuers; and if his tent should 
 be forced and his guest slain there, 
 it is his duty to become the avenger 
 of his blood. On these sentiments 
 of honor Sisera seems to have re- 
 lied ; particularly after Jael had 
 supplied him with refreshments, 
 which, in the highest sense, are re- 
 garded as a seal to the covenant of 
 peace and safety : and in fact, after 
 all this an Arab wonld be bound to 
 protect with his own life even his 
 bitterest enemy, to whom he may in- 
 advertently have granted his protec- 
 tion. It is probable that Jael intro- 
 duced Sisera for safety into the in- 
 ner or woman's part of the tent. 
 This she might do without impro- 
 priety, although it would be the 
 most grievous insult for any man to 
 intrude there without permission. 
 Sisera appears to have felt quite cer- 
 tain that the pursuers would not dare 
 search the harem, and indeed it is 
 almost certain that they would not 
 have done so ; for the Hebrews had 
 too long and too recently been them- 
 selves a nomade people, not to have 
 known that a'more heinous and in- 
 expiable insult could not be offered 
 to the neutral Kenite Emir, than to 
 disturb the sanctity of his harem, or 
 even to enter, unpermitted, the outer 
 part of his tent. We very much 
 doubt whether they would have ven- 
 tured, even if they had been certain 
 that Sisera was there, to have enter- 
 ed to kill him, or take him thence, 
 while under Heber's protection. 
 This is an answer to Bp. Patrick, 
 who would have recommended Jael 
 not to have been so hasty to act her- 
 self, but to have waited till the pur- 
 suers came and took him. They 
 could not take him, or even search 
 for him, without inflicting on Heber 
 a dishonor worse than death ; nei- 
 ther could Jael have given him up 
 to them without bringing everlasting 
 infamy' upon her family and tribe.' 
 Pict. Bible. IT There was peace 
 
226 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1316. 
 
 on his feet to the tent of Jael the 
 wife of Heber the Kenite : for 
 there was peace between Jabin 
 the king of Hazor and the house 
 of Heber the Kenite. 
 
 18 IT And Jael went out to 
 
 between Jabin — and the house of He- 
 ber. That is, there was no war ; not 
 that there was any league offensive 
 or defensive between them, but they 
 were not, like the Israelites, objects 
 of hostility to Jabin. The Ken- 
 ites, though they were proselytes 
 and worshipped the true God ac- 
 cording to the Mosaic law, yet as 
 they were strangers by birth and 
 laid claim to no inheritance in the 
 promised land, they seem to have 
 deemed it the best policy , in the midst 
 of the contentions around them, to 
 preserve a strict neutrality and 
 maintain peace, as far as possible, 
 both with the Israelites and the Ca- 
 naanites ; and as their quiet, harm- 
 less way of life exempted them from 
 suspicion, Jabin appears to have of- 
 fered them no molestation. It was 
 doubtless on these grounds that 
 Sisera thought of taking refuge 
 among them, not considering, says 
 Henry, that though they themselves 
 did not suffer by Jabm's power, yet 
 they heartily sympathized with 
 God's Israel that did. 
 
 18. Turn in, my lord, turn in to 
 me. Perhaps no more appropriate 
 comment can be furnished on these 
 words, than the following extract 
 from Pococke, giving an account of 
 the manner in which he was treated 
 in an Arab tent on his journey to Je- 
 rusalem : — ' My conductor led me 
 two or three miles to his tent, and 
 there he sat with his wife and others 
 round a fire. The Arabs are not so 
 scrupulous as the Turks about their 
 women ; and though they have their 
 harem, or women's part of the tent, 
 yet such as they aie acquainted with 
 come into it. I was kept in the ha- 
 rem for greater security; the wife 
 being always with me, 7io stranger 
 even daring to come into the women's 
 apartment unless introduced." So 
 
 meet Sisera, and said unto him, 
 Turn in, my lord, turn in to me ; 
 fear not. And when he had 
 turned in unto her into the tent, 
 she covered him with a mantle. 
 19 And he said unto her, 
 
 Jael invited Sisera to take refuge in 
 her own tent, or in her division of 
 her husband's tent, into which no 
 stranger might presume to enter, and 
 where he naturally supposed him- 
 self to be in perfect safety. There 
 is undoubtedly an apparent treachery 
 in the conduct of Jael on this occa- 
 sion, but the probability is that she 
 was moved by a divirie impulse to ex- 
 ecute the deed she did. At first in- 
 deed on inviting him into the tent, 
 she may have intended no more than 
 the ordinary hospitalities which the 
 Orientals have ever been accustomed 
 to show to strangers and travellers, 
 nor is it certain that she was even 
 aware who he was, till after he had 
 entered the tent. When she had as- 
 certained this, the most natural con- 
 clusion certainly is, reasoning from 
 the nature of woman, that she would 
 have suffered him to lie still till Ba- 
 rak who was on the pursuit had 
 come up, or would in some way 
 have communicated information of 
 his hiding-place to the Israelites. 
 To fall upon him herself, unaided 
 and alone, would appear to have been 
 an exploit surpassing female forti- 
 tude, and would have been a conduct 
 so decidedly and pointedly opposed 
 to all the principles of honor by 
 which Orientals are governed, that 
 we know not how to account for it, 
 unless she had been prompted by a 
 suggestion from above, and this in- 
 ference would seem to be confirmed, 
 both by the fact that it had been ex- 
 pressly predicted that Sisera should 
 be delivered into the hand of a wo- 
 man, and by the eulogium of Debo- 
 rah, ch. 5. 24, ' Blessed above women 
 shall Jael the wife of Heber the Ke- 
 nite be, blessed shall she be above 
 women in the tent,' on which see 
 note. If this were the case, she is 
 sufficiently vindicated by the fact, 
 
A. C. 1316.] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 227 
 
 Give me, I pray thee, a little 
 water to drink ; for I am thirsty 
 And she opened ^a bottle of 
 milk, and gave him drink, and 
 covered him. 
 
 20 Again he said unto her, 
 Stand in the door of the tent, 
 and it shall be, when any man 
 doth come and inquire of thee, 
 and say, Is there any man here ? 
 that thou shalt say, No. 
 
 21 Then Jael Heber's wife 
 
 for God has a right to dispose of the 
 lives of his creatures as he pleases, 
 as we see in the case of Eglon in the 
 preceding chapter ; and probably the 
 cup ofSisera's iniquity was full, and 
 his life already forfeited to divine 
 justice. On the whole, therefore, 
 the presumption is, that Jael did 
 right, yet as the case was wholly ex- 
 traordinary, it can never be estab- 
 lished as a precedent for others. 
 IT Covered Aim with a mantle. Or, a 
 quilt, rug, or blanket. 
 
 19. Opened a bottle of milk and 
 gave him drink. As if this were a 
 more palatable draught than water. 
 By thus doing more for him than he 
 requested, she evinced a kinder care 
 for his comfort and increased his 
 confidence and security. Josephus 
 says it was ' sour milk,' which is not 
 unlikely, as that is considered in the 
 East a very grateful and cooling 
 drink. See on ch. 5. 25. 
 
 20. Thou shalt say, No. It does 
 not appeal" however that Jael prom- 
 ised to deny his being there. Our 
 regard for others may prompt us to 
 many acts of kindness for them, but 
 there is a point beyond which we 
 must not go. A fearer of God will 
 not listen to a request that would in- 
 volve the commission of sin, especi- 
 ally the sin of falsehood. The cus- 
 tom adopted in some families of in- 
 structing servants to say, ' Not at 
 home/ when a master or mistress 
 does not wish, to receive companvj is 
 
 ytook a nail of the tent, and took 
 a hammer in her hand, and went 
 softly unto him, and smote the 
 nail into his temples, and fasten- 
 ed it into the ground : for he 
 was fast asleep, and weary. So 
 he died. 
 
 22 And behold, as Barak pur- 
 sued Sisera, Jael came out to 
 meet him, and said unto him, 
 Come, and I will show thee the 
 man whom thou seekest. And 
 
 y ch. 5. 26. 
 
 directly at variance with the dictates 
 of Christian simplicity and sincerity, 
 nor is it any thing in its favor that 
 it here has the sanction of a wicked, 
 heathen warrior doomed to destruc- 
 tion. The practice of prevarication 
 thus inculcated upon servants may 
 be expected to react upon those who 
 employ them ; for if they are taught 
 to lie for others they will be very apt 
 to do it for themselves. 
 
 21. Took a nail of the tent. One 
 of those long sharp pins or spikes 
 which were driven into the ground, 
 and to which cords were attached to 
 stretch the cloth of the tent and keep 
 it firmly secured. They were prob- 
 ably made of iron; Josephus calls 
 this an 'iron nail,' Shaw, describ- 
 ing the tents of the Bedouin Arabs, 
 says, ' these tents are kept firm and 
 steady, by bracing or stretching 
 down their eaves with cords tied 
 down to hooked wooden pins well 
 pointed, which they drive into the 
 ground with a mallet ; one of these 
 pins answering to the nail, as the 
 mallet does to the hammer, which 
 Jael used in fastening to the ground 
 the temples of Sisera.' IT Took a 
 hammer in her hind. Heb. ' put an 
 hammer in her hand.' As tents 
 were often moved she had probably 
 acquired an expertness in the use of 
 the implements necessary for fasten- 
 ing and unfastening them. ^ And 
 fastened it i^ito the ground. Heb. 
 ' and it went down, penetrated, to the 
 
228 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 when he came into her tent, be- 
 hold, Sisera lay dead, and the 
 nail 7fas in his temples. 
 
 23 So ^God subdued on that 
 day Jabin the king of Canaan 
 before the children of Israel. 
 
 24 And the hand of the child- 
 ren of Israel prospered, and pre- 
 
 groiind.' The verb i^ neuter and 
 should be referred to the pin rather 
 than to Jael. 
 
 23. Subdued — Jahin the king of 
 Canaan. There is in the original 
 an apparent paranomasia, or play 
 upon words, of which the English 
 reader entirely loses sight. The 
 Heb. word for ' subdue' and that for 
 ' Canaan' are from the same root; 
 as if it were said 'he humbled the 
 son of humiliation;' he made good 
 the destiny of s-j/.Z^'?/ if r//io?i implied in 
 the very name ' Canaan.' 
 
 24. Prospered and. prevailed. Heb. 
 ' going, went, and was hard.' On the 
 use of the verb ' to go, or to walk' 
 for the gradual increase or progres- 
 sion of any thing, see on Gen. 3. 8. 
 From this event was to be dated the 
 complete deliverance of Israel from 
 the yoke of Jabin. Having suffered 
 so severely by their guilty and fool- 
 ish forbearance towards their ene- 
 mies, they now resolve to tolerate 
 Ihem no longer, but to make an effec- 
 tual riddance of them, as a people to 
 whom no mercy w^as to be shown 
 "Without equally offending God and 
 endangering their own interests. It 
 was probably with an eye to the ju- 
 dicial sentence under which these 
 devoted nations lay, that this formi- 
 dable enemy in the space of two 
 verses is three times called 'king of 
 Canaan;' for as such he was to be 
 destroyed, and so thoroughly icas he 
 destroyed, that the title ' king of Ca- 
 naan' occurs not again in the subse- 
 quent naricttive, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The subject matter of the present 
 chapter is the triumphal song, sung 
 
 vailed against Jabin the king of 
 Canaan, until they haddestoyed 
 Jabin king; of Canaan. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 npHEN ^sang Deborah and 
 -^ Barak the son of Abinoam 
 on that day, saying, 
 
 1 See £x 15. I. Ps. 
 
 by Deborah and Barak, on occasion 
 of the signal victory above recorded 
 of the forces of Israel over the 
 armies of Jabin and Sisera. The 
 spirit of prophecy is nearly allied to 
 the spirit of poetry, and when the 
 efforts of genius are heightened by 
 the prompting of inspiration, we 
 may reasonably look for results that 
 shall distance all human competition. 
 Nor in the present instance shall we 
 look in vain. Considered merely 
 as a specimen of lyric composition, 
 this ode of Deborah may challenge 
 comparison with the finest effusions 
 of the classic muse of any age or 
 country. Though occasionally ob- 
 scure in the original, and in the 
 English translation, in some in- 
 stances, scarcely intelligible, yet it 
 evidently breathes the highest spirit 
 of poetry. Its strains are lofty and 
 impassioned, its images bold, varied, 
 and lively, its diction singularly 
 happy, and it is pervaded through- 
 out bv a vein of mingled beau,ty and 
 sublimity to be found in the bards of 
 inspiration only. Borne away by 
 the ecstasy and energy of the divine 
 impulse, she breaks forth in the most 
 abrupt and impassioned appeals, and 
 personifications ; at one moment, 
 soaring upwards towards heaven, 
 and then returning to earth ; now 
 touching upon the present, and now 
 upon the past ; and finally closing 
 with the grand promise and result 
 of all prophecy, and of all the deal- 
 ings of God's providence, the over- 
 throw of the wicked, and the triumph 
 of the good. In arranging the course 
 and connection of the thoughts in th^ 
 poem, the following divisions may 
 be easily and naturally traced, 
 
A. C. 1296.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 229 
 
 2 Praise ye the Lord for the 
 ^avenging of Israel, "=when the 
 
 b Ps. 18. 47. c2Chr. 17. 16. 
 
 (1.) A devout thanksgiving for 
 the burst of patriotic feeling, which 
 led the nation to rise and avenge 
 their wrongs, with a summons to 
 the heathen kings to listen to her 
 song of triumph over their allies. 
 V, 1—3. 
 
 (2.) A description of the magni- 
 ficent scenes at mount Sinai, and in 
 the plains of Edom, when the Most 
 High manifested himself in behalf 
 of his people, exerting his miracu- 
 lous power to bring them into the 
 promised land. v. 4, 5. 
 
 (3.) A graphic sketch of the de- 
 gradation and oppression under 
 which the nation groaned in conse- 
 quence of their apostacy , the inse- 
 curity of travelling and desertion of 
 the villages during a twenty years' 
 servitude, v. 6 — 8. 
 
 (4.) The contrast to this exhibit- 
 ed in their present happy state of 
 security from the incursions and de- 
 predations of their enemies, especi- 
 ally at the watering places, which 
 were most exposed, and a vivid in- 
 vocation to herself and Barak, as 
 well as others, to join in a song of 
 praise and triumph to the Author of 
 their deliverance, v. 9 — 13. 
 
 (5.) A commendation of such of 
 the tribes as volunteered on the oc- 
 casion, and a stern rebuke of those 
 which ignobly remained at home. 
 V. 14—18. 
 
 (6.) A glowing description of the 
 of the battle, and an invocation of 
 curses on the inhabitants of Meroz, 
 for not coming up to the help of 
 their brethren in the time of their 
 extremity, v. 19. — 23. 
 
 (7.) A eulogy upon Jael with 
 a vivid description of the circum- 
 stances of Sisera's death, v. 24 — 27. 
 
 (8.) A highly poetical change in 
 the imagery, in which the mother of 
 Sisera is introduced in anxious im- 
 patience for her son's return, and 
 confidently anticipating the success- 
 ful issae of the engagement; con- 
 cluding with a solemn apostrophe to 
 20* 
 
 people willingly offered them- 
 selves. 
 
 God, praying that all his enemies may 
 perish in like manner, and express- 
 ing the assurance that all that love 
 him shall at last gloriously triumph. 
 V. 28—31. 
 
 1. Then sang Deborah and Barak. 
 Heb. ' then sang she, Deborah, and 
 Barak.' The verb is in the fern, 
 sing, in order to give the precedency 
 to Deborah, as is also the case in the 
 song of Miriam, Num. 12. 1. It is 
 not, perhaps, necessary to suppose 
 that Deborah and Barak were the 
 only singers on this occasion. The 
 probability is, that it was composed 
 by Deborah, and sung under her 
 and Barak's direction by the as- 
 sembled hosts of Israel, or by a choir 
 of priests and Levites, shortly after 
 the victory. The phrase ' on that 
 day,' does not necessarily restrict us 
 to the precise day of the battle, but 
 according to Heb. usage may imply 
 simply ' about that time.' 
 
 2. Praise ye the Lord. Heb. * bless 
 ye the Lord ;' i. e. by suitable ascrip- 
 tions of praise and thanksgiving. IT 
 For theavenging of Israel. The inter- 
 pretation of die original phrase is at- 
 tended with great difficulties. With- 
 out attempting to exhibit at length 
 the various modes of rendering 
 adopted by different commentators, 
 it may be sufficient to remark, that 
 the several ideas of delivering, of 
 avenging, of commanding and lead- 
 ing in war, have had their respec- 
 tive advocates among them. We 
 know of no guide to the true sense 
 but that of prevailing usage, and 
 even that is not easily ascertained. 
 We believe, however, that it will be 
 found by accurate analysis, that the 
 leading idea of the verb y^t^ is to 
 free, to let loose, to let break away, 
 as the locks of hair, when the head- 
 gear is taken off, or a licentious peo- 
 ple when the restraints of law and 
 order are removed, and thence by 
 natural derivation, to make naked, to 
 uncover, and also to exempt, to make 
 one clear of. In nearly every in- 
 
230 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 3 
 
 ear. 
 
 ^Hear, O ye kings ; give 
 , O ye princes; I, even I, 
 will sing unto the Lord ; I will 
 
 d De«t 32. 1, 3. Ps. 2. 10. 
 
 Stance in which the word occurs the 
 idea of loosing, getting or setting 
 free, exemption, is someway involv- 
 ed, and perhaps the most correct 
 rendering, in the present passage, 
 would be For the freeing of freedoms, 
 or. For the breaking away of emanci- 
 pations, i.e. for the successful efforts 
 of the people to extricate themselves 
 from the yoke of their oppressors, 
 praise ye the Lord. The predomin- 
 ant import is that of breaking aifay 
 from bonds, and this idea falls in 
 very naturally with that of the par- 
 allel clause, viz. of offering them- 
 selves willingly in order to effect 
 their deliverance ; and as the act of 
 a people in asserting their freedom, 
 can hardly be conceived of as sepa- 
 rate from that of punishing their op- 
 pressors, it is probable that the sense 
 oi avenging has been in this way not 
 unnaturally affixed by interpreters 
 to the original term. The error, 
 however, in our translation is in re- 
 ferring directly to God, what is real- 
 ly represented as the acting of the 
 people. ^ Of Israel. Heb." in Is- 
 rael ;' i. e. aniongthe Israelites. 
 
 3. Hear, O ye kings, &c. The 
 kings and princes here addressed 
 may be understood of the princes of 
 Israel, and then it is merely a de- 
 claration to them, that the prophetess 
 is about to begin a song of triumph, 
 in which it is implied that they 
 should join. But as kings would 
 seem to be too lofty a title to be ap- 
 plied to the leaders and elders of Is- 
 rael, even in the elevated style of 
 poetry, the preferable interpretation 
 is to regard it as an address to the 
 kings and potentates of Canaan, 
 summoning their attention to the 
 song of triumph about to be celebrat- 
 ed over them. The Greek version 
 renders it, * Hear, O kings, and give 
 ear, O satraps;' the Clialdee, 'At- 
 tend ye kings, who came to the war 
 with Sisera, and3'e rulers, who were 
 
 sing praise to the Lord God of 
 Israel. 
 
 4 Lord, "when thou wentest 
 
 e Deut. 33. 2. Ps. 63. 7. 
 
 with Jabin, king of Canaan ;' which 
 shows that they understood the 
 words as referring to foreign princes, 
 and thus the very same terms are 
 used, Ps. 2. 2. The import of the 
 latter clause is, that ' I, even I, a 
 feeble woman, celebrate your over- 
 throw,' and her leading drift is to 
 admonish them, that however high 
 and mighty they may deem them- 
 selves, yet there is one above them 
 with whom it is folly to contend, and 
 to whom, they should be warned by 
 Sisera's fate to submit without dar- 
 ing hereafter to offer insult to a 
 people, whose cause sooner or later 
 omnipotence would plead. 
 
 4. Wken thou wentest out of Seir. 
 After declaring that Jehovah should 
 be the object of her praise, the pro- 
 phetess, by a sudden apostrophe ad- 
 dresses him not as their present de- 
 liverer, but as the God who had for- 
 merly manifested his miraculous 
 power in their behalf, while on the 
 way from Fgj'pt to the land of pro- 
 mise. By comparing the former 
 signal displays of the divine majesty 
 with the present, she would have 
 her hearers infer that it was the same 
 power that had 7i.07r subdued their en- 
 emies, which prostrated them then ; 
 that it was the same goodness which 
 had now restored to them the free 
 enjoyment of their land, that had at 
 first put them in possession of it. 
 The phrases, ' when thou wentest 
 out of Seir, and ' when thou march- jj 
 edst out of the field Edom,' are \ 
 merely an instance of poetic paral- 
 lelism, Seir and Edom denoting the 
 same country ; that is to say, the 
 mountainous region stretching from 
 the southern extremity of the Dead 
 Sea southwards towards the Elan- 
 itic gulf. Here, however, as well 
 as Deut. 33. 2, it appears to be taken 
 in a wider sense as including mount 
 Sinai, the scene of the giving of the 
 law, and of the grand and awful dis- 
 
A. C. 1296.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 231 
 
 out of Seir, when thou march- 
 edst out of the field of Edom, 
 fthe earth trembled, and the 
 heavens dropped, the clouds also 
 dropped water. 
 
 f 2 Sam. 22. S. Ps. 68. S. Is. 64. 3. Hab. 3. 3, 10. 
 
 plays of the majesty of Jehovah by 
 which it was accompanied, to which 
 Deborah here alludes. Not that her 
 description, in this and the ensuing 
 verse, is to be confined to the sublime 
 spectacle witnessed on that occasion. 
 The scope of her language seems to 
 be to portray, in the most glowing 
 and poetic imagery, the general 
 coVuTse of the divine manifestations 
 in behalf of Israel, the convulsions 
 of nature and the consternation of 
 the inhabitants, while the Most 
 High was conducting his people 
 miraculously through the desert to 
 put them in possession of their pro- 
 mised inheritance. These exhibi- 
 tions of God's glory did, as it 2cere, 
 make the earth to tremble, the heav- 
 ens to drop like snow before the sun, 
 and the mountains to" melt ; and ac- 
 cordingly we find the same general 
 imagery employed in other portions 
 of inspired song, as Ps. 18. 8. — 68. 
 8.— 144. 5. Deut. 33. 2. Is. 64. 
 1 — 3. Hab. 3. 6, in some of which 
 the present description is adopted 
 almost word for word. It seems, in 
 fact, to have been a customary be- 
 ginning of Hebrew songs of triumph. 
 5. The mountains melted. Heb. 
 ' flowed down ;' as if melted by the 
 fl-'mes in which, we learn Ex. 19. 
 18, that the sacred mountain was en- 
 veloped, so that it ran down in 
 streams. Others, from the general 
 usage of the original, suppose that 
 allusion is had to tremendous storms 
 of rain, which poured down the 
 mountain sides in such torrents, 
 bearing soil, rocks, and trees with 
 them, that the mountains themselves 
 might be figuratively said to flow 
 down. It does not appear very ob- 
 vious, however, how this can apply 
 to mount Sinai, where fire and not 
 water was the predominant element. 
 It is worthy of remark, in regard to 
 
 5 sThe mountains melted 
 from before the Lord, even 
 'Hhat Sinai from before the Lord 
 God of Israel. 
 
 6 In the days of iShamgar 
 
 g Dcut. 4. 11. Ps. 97. 5. h Ex. 19. 18. i cli. 3. 31. 
 
 this expression, that with the excep- 
 tion of the Vulgate, which has dif- 
 Jluxerunt,Jlo2ced,^ all the ancient ver- 
 sions take the original from another 
 root (^^3 instead of ^3]) and render 
 it were shaken, agitated, made to 
 tremble. Thus theGr., Chal., Arab., 
 and Syr., and this rendering is con- 
 firmed by Is. 64. 1, 3, ' that the 
 mountains mi^hX flow don^n ;' where 
 the Heb. (n^a:) imdoubtedly signi- 
 fies to quake, though our English 
 version, contrary to all authority, 
 gives it the sense of melting. See 
 Gesenius on the above roots. 
 
 6. In thedaysofShamgo.r. After thus 
 celebrating the majesty of Jehovah 
 in his former appearances, the pro- 
 phetess, in order to give her people 
 a livelier sense of their deliverance, 
 and excite them to greater thankful- 
 ness, turns to depict the forlorn and 
 degraded state to which Israel had 
 previously been reduced; their high- 
 ways deserted; their villages de- 
 populated; their cities blocked up ; 
 their country overrun with the en- 
 emies' soldiers ; themselves disarm- 
 ed and dispirited, helpless and hope- 
 less, till it pleased God to look upon 
 them with compassion, and raise up 
 Deborah for a deliverer. IF In the 
 days of Jael. She is mentioned by 
 way of honorable testimonial by the 
 side of a distinguished man, arid in 
 connection with an important epoch, 
 because from her recent achieve- 
 ment, she no doubt at this time stood 
 very conspicuous before the eyes of 
 the nation. Still though these were 
 illustrious characters-, yet no com- 
 plete deliverance was effected for Is- 
 rael till Deborah arose. IT The 
 highu-ays were unoccwpied. Heb. 
 ' the highways ceased.' That is^ 
 ceased to be occupied ; they were 
 abandoned by travellers, on account 
 of their being beset by plundering 
 
232 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 the son of Anath, in the days of 
 kJael, ithe highways were un- 
 occupied, and the travellers 
 walked through by-ways. 
 
 7 The inhahitants of the vil- 
 
 k ch. 4. 17. 1 Ley. 2G.'22. 2 Chr. 15. 5. Ii 33. 8. 
 Lam. 1. i. & i. 18. 
 
 hordes of their enemies. The same 
 idea is expressed Is. 33. 8, ' The 
 highways lie waste, the way-faring 
 man ccasefh.' IT Travellers. Heb. 
 ' walkers of paths.' The original 
 for ' paths,'" usually means an elevat- 
 ed, beaten road. Here it seems to de- 
 signate the open public roads, in 
 distinction from the obscure and 
 crooked by-icays which travellers 
 were now compelled to take, 
 
 7. The inhabitants of the Tillages 
 ceased. Heb. ' the village ceased ;' 
 col. sing, for plur. In other words, 
 the villages were deserted. The 
 tillers of the soil scattered in villages 
 over the country were obliged to for- 
 sake their farms and houses, and 
 seek shelter for themselves in walled 
 cities and fortified places. Chald. 
 ' the unwalled towns were desolate.' 
 ' There are roads in these countries, 
 but it is very easy to turn out of 
 them, and go to a place by winding 
 about over the lands, when that is 
 thought safer. The account Bishop 
 Pococke gives of the manner in 
 which the Arab, under whose care 
 he had put himself, conducted him 
 to Jerusalem, illustrates this with 
 pertinency, which his lordship tells 
 us was by night, and not by the high- 
 road, but through the fields : ' and I 
 observed,' says he, ' that he avoided 
 as much as he could going near any 
 village or encampment, and some- 
 times stood still, as I thought, to 
 hearken.' Just in that manner peo- 
 ple were obliged to travel in Judea, 
 in thejdays of Shamgar and Jael.' 
 Harnier. ^ A mother in Israel. A 
 benefactress; so termed from her 
 services towards her people. As a 
 deliverer of his country is called the 
 father of it, so Deborah is here call- 
 ed a mother in Israel. 
 
 8. They chose new gods. Strange 
 
 lages ceased, they ceased in Is- 
 rael, until that I Deborah arose, 
 that I arose "'a mother in Israel. 
 8 They ''chose new gods ; 
 then was war in the gates : 
 
 n Deut. 32. 16. ch. 2. 12, 17, 
 
 or foreign gods ; that is, they addict- 
 ed themselves to idolatry. They 
 not only submitted to it when forced 
 upon them, but they chose it. Com- 
 pare Deut. 32. 17, ' They sacrificed 
 unto devils, and not to God ; to gods 
 whom they knew not, to neiv gods 
 that came neivly up, whom your fa- 
 thers knew not.' This was the pro- 
 curing cause of all their trouble. 
 They forsook God, and God forsook 
 them. If Then was v:ar in the gates. 
 Heb. ' a besieging of the gates ;' or, 
 as Kimchi renders ii, ' a besieger 
 or assaulter of the gates.' Chal. 
 ' the nations came against them and 
 expelled them from their cities.' 
 The evident implication is, that 
 when they lapsed into idolatry they 
 involved themselves in every species 
 of calamity, and were harassed with 
 wars within the precincts of their 
 towns and cities. As the gates, 
 moreover, were the places where 
 their courts of judicature were held, 
 the continual incursions of the en- 
 emy deprived the magistrate of the 
 dignity, and the people of the benefit 
 of government. There being no 
 peace to him that went or him that 
 came in, the stated administration of 
 justice was' etfectually broken up. 
 1Iir<25 there a shield or spear seen 
 among forty thousand of Israel 7 An 
 interrogation strongly imphing a 
 negative. To such a state were they 
 reduced that there was scarcely a 
 shield or spear seen among 40,000 
 Israelites, The number specified is 
 not to be considered as including 
 the ichole military force of Israel, 
 but the speaker simply gives a round 
 number, and by poetical amplifica- 
 tion a very large one, among whom 
 no arms were to be found; in order to 
 indicate more strongly the destitu= 
 tion of the Israelites in this respect. 
 
A. C. 1296.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 233 
 
 "was there a shield or spear 
 seen among. forty thousand in Is- 
 rf;el? 
 
 9 My heart is toward the gov- 
 ernors of Israel that Poffered 
 
 So 1 Sam. 13. 19, 22. cli. 4. 3. p Ter. 2. 
 
 From 1 Sam. 13. 19—22, some have 
 inferred that their enemies had ac- 
 tually disarmed the subject tribes, 
 and that it was to this that their des- 
 titution was owing. But this hypo- 
 thesis is but little consonant with 
 intrinsic probability, or with other 
 . circumstances alluded to in the nar- 
 rative. Barak is said ch., 4. G, 10, 
 \o have taken 10,000 men with him 
 to mount Tabor, and who will sup- 
 pose that they went thitlier unpro- 
 vided with arms 1 especially when 
 we are informed, v. 15, 16, that the 
 hosts of Sisera perished 'with the 
 edge of the sword before Barak,' so 
 there was not a man left. The ex- 
 pression of Deborah therefore is 
 merely a poetic hyperbole. 
 
 9. My heart is toioard the gover- 
 nors, &c. Heb. ' the law-givers.' 
 After describing the bondage of Is- 
 rael, and its effects upon the courage 
 of the people, the prophetess, by a 
 natural transition, repeats her excla- 
 mations of gratitude to the princes 
 and the people, that they had at 
 length risen and triumphed. Her 
 heart was especially drawn out in 
 sentiments of love and honor to- 
 wards those heads of the tribes, who 
 had so nobly come forward in the 
 hour of need, and by their example 
 aroused and stimulated their coun- 
 trymen to throw off the yoke. They 
 are called ' lawgivers,' not from 
 their enacting new laws, which was 
 never done in Israel, but from their 
 giving sentence in caitses that came 
 before them, and administering jus- 
 tice generally. IT Bless ye the Lord. 
 As it v/as the divine proinpting that 
 moved the leaders to the enterprise, 
 she would not, in bestowing her com- 
 mendations upon the instruments, 
 lose sight of the Author of the 
 felessing, and therefore calls upon 
 
 themselves willingly among the 
 people : Bless ye the Lord. 
 
 10 ^iSpeak, ye nhat ride on 
 white asses, ^ye that sit in judg- 
 ment and walk by the way. 
 
 q Ps. 10.5. 2. & 14.5. 5. r ch. 10. 4. & 12. 14. 
 sPs. 107.32. 
 
 the people at large to join her in a 
 grateful song of praise. 
 
 10. Speak. Rather, Heb. 'med- 
 itate,' i. e. rehearse, celebrate, a song 
 of praise. ^ That ride on white 
 asses. Judea is a country but little 
 favorable to the production of horses, 
 instead of which, asses were ancient- 
 ly ia general use. Of these such aa 
 were of a whitish color were prob- 
 ably the most rare and costly, and 
 therefore were used only by eminent 
 persons. Some have supposed that 
 they were so called from the white 
 garments, or caparisons spread over 
 them ; but it appears unnatural, to 
 ascribe the color of a covering to 
 the creature that wears it. We do 
 not call a man white or black, be- 
 cause he happens to be dressed in 
 vestments of white or black cloth; 
 neither did the Hebrews. The ex- 
 pression naturally suggests the color 
 of the animal itself, not of its trap- 
 pings, and this is confirmed by the 
 reports of travellers. ' White asses, 
 according to Morier, come from 
 Arabia ; their scarcity makes them 
 valuable, and gives them conse- 
 quence. The men of the law count 
 it a dignity, and suited to their 
 character, to ride on asses of this 
 color. As the Hebrews always ap- 
 peared in white garments at' their 
 public festivals and on days of re- 
 joicing, or when the courts of jus- 
 tice were held ; so, they naturally 
 preferred white asses, because the 
 color suited the occasion, and be- 
 cause asses of this color being more 
 rare and costly, were more coveted 
 by the great and wealthy. The 
 same view is taken of this question 
 by Lewis, who says, the asses in 
 Judea, ' were commonly of a red 
 color ; and therefore white asses 
 were highly valued, and used by 
 
234 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 11 Tliey that are delivered 
 from the noise of urchers in the 
 places of drawing water, there 
 shall they rehearse the trighte- 
 ous acts of the Lord, even the 
 
 persoDG of superior note and qual- 
 ity.' ' Paxton. Compare ch. 12. 14. 
 Gesenius remarks that the original 
 term is not perhaps to be understood 
 as signifying a pure white, but a 
 light reddish color with while spots, 
 as asses entirehj white are rarely if 
 ever found. The white color, it is 
 well known, is highly prized by the 
 Orientals, whether in asses, camels, 
 or elephants, and such are usually 
 the properly of princes. IT Ye that 
 sit in judgment. So rendered by 
 several of the older versions, but the 
 pnrase in the original is exceeding- 
 ly difficult of interpretation. Later 
 commentators, with much plausibi- 
 lity, derive the word from a root sig- 
 nifying to extend, to spread out, and 
 understand it of carpets, coverings, 
 or the large outer garments of the 
 Hebrews, w^hich were frequently 
 spread out and used for sleeping up- 
 on at night. Accordingly Prof. 
 Robinson translates the clause, ' Ye 
 that recline on splendid carpets.' 
 But after all the researches of philo- 
 logists, some doubt will still remain 
 as to the true import of the original. 
 IT Ye that walk by the ivay. Ye who 
 can safely travelin the public high- 
 ways, now no longer infested by 
 prowling banditti. The allusion is 
 perhaps to traffickers of various de- 
 scriptions, or to the humbler classes, 
 who were much upon the public 
 roads, but who seldom rode ; so that 
 the poet's invocation "is to the nobles, 
 the 2veaUhy, and the poor, or in other 
 words to the whole nation, to join 
 in the song of triumph. They were 
 now, as the fruits of the recent vic- 
 tory, enjoying a happy security, di- 
 rectly the reverse of their former 
 oppressed and calamitous condition, 
 and nothing was more proper than 
 that they should celebrate in thank- 
 ful strains the praises of their divine 
 
 righteous acts toivard the inhah- 
 Hants of his villages in Israel : 
 then shall the people of the 
 Lord go down to the gates. 
 12 "Awake, awake, Debo- 
 
 u Ps. 57. 8. 
 
 deliverer. It may be remarked that 
 the Syr. and Arab, versions render 
 the two clauses by, ' Ye that sit at 
 home, and ye that walk by the way.' 
 11. From the noise of the archers 
 in the places of drawing' water. Heb. 
 '0^'2)^'O)2 V^" D-^2:2n?3 ^■Ip?2- From 
 the voice of the dividers at the icater- 
 ing-troughs. It would be easy, but 
 of little use, to heap together an im- 
 mense variety of renderings, propo- 
 sed by different expositors, of this 
 very perplexing passage. "The diffi- 
 culty arises principally from the 
 word lD'i::^n)3 translated ' archers,' 
 which occurs only here, and of 
 which lexicographers are unable to 
 determine the exact root. If it be a 
 denominative from yn an arroio its 
 meaning here is undoubtedly ' arch- 
 ers,' but if, as most modern philolo- 
 gists contend, it comes from the verb 
 y^n, it has the import of dividing^ 
 although Gesenius says that yn an 
 arrow comes from this root, and is so 
 called from its dividing or cleaving 
 the air. According to this interpre- . 
 tation, the t3*^^2:n?D are either the 
 victorious warriors returning laden 
 with booty and halting at the water- 
 ing places to divide the spoil with 
 songs of rejoicing, or the shepherds 
 who can now with cheerful carols, 
 securely drive their flocks and herds 
 to water, dividing, separating, or 
 marshalling them as they please. 
 Which of these tM'o senses is the 
 correct one it is not perhaps possible 
 absolutely to determine. Either 
 will suit well the connection, provi- 
 ded the original for ' from' be ren- 
 dered, as it properly may, ' at,' ' for,' 
 ' on account of.' The prophetess 
 had just called upon all the people to 
 join in a song, and she now declares 
 the occasion ; ' Praise the Lord for 
 or on account of the voice, the joyful 
 
A. C. 1296.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 235 
 
 rah ; awake, awake, utter a 
 song : arise, Barak, and ^leiid 
 
 cry, of those who divide at the wa- 
 tering places.' It may be farther re- 
 marked by way of illustration, of 
 the words, that as wells were very 
 scarce in every part of the East, rob- 
 bers and banditti, generally took 
 their stations near tanks, pools, and 
 springs, in order that they might sud- 
 denly fall upon those who came to 
 drink ; and when the country w^as 
 badly governed, annoyances of this 
 kind were very frequent. * In open, 
 unprotected lands of the East, the 
 watering places are at this day the 
 scenes of continual conflict and op- 
 pression. To such places the neces- 
 sity for water conducts different peo- 
 ple, who cannot any where meet in 
 peace. T hese parties of hostile tribes 
 fall in with each other, and quarrel 
 and fight ; and thither the natives of 
 the wilds resort to plunder the par- 
 ties of travellers and merchants who 
 come in search of water. In the 
 deserts of Syria and Arabia, natives 
 and strangers are thus annoyed near 
 the wells. This therefore is the 
 principal reason of war, — the neigh- 
 borhoods of wells being the principal 
 seats of war and depredation in those 
 countries. Travellers also knowing 
 that such tribes are encamped near, 
 or are likely to visit the wells, often 
 dread to approach them, in the fear 
 of being plundered, if not also killed. 
 For this reason we have known par- 
 ties of travellers, that were reduced 
 to almost the last extremity for want 
 of water in the parched deserts, ob- 
 liged to avoid the places where their 
 wants might be satisfied, from hav- 
 ing heard that parties of Arabs were 
 encamped in the neighborhood : and 
 we have heard of others who from 
 the same cause were obliged to go 
 one or two days' journey out of their 
 way, to one watering place, in pre- 
 ference to another that lay directly 
 in their way. No travellers, unless 
 in great force, dare encamp near a 
 well, however pleasant and desira- 
 ble it might be, from the fear of dis- 1 
 
 thy captivity, captive, thou son 
 of Abinoam. 
 
 agreeable visitors. They water their 
 cattle, and replenish their water- 
 skins in all haste, and then go and 
 encamp at a distance from any roads 
 leading to the well. Dr. Shaw men- 
 tions a beautiful rill in Barbary, 
 which is received into a large basin,' 
 called Shrub we Krub ; that is, Drink 
 and avxiy, from the great danger of 
 meeting there with robbers and as- 
 sassins. With equal propriety, and 
 for the same reason, almost every 
 Oriental watering-place might be 
 called Shrub we Krub.' Pict. Bible, 
 The victory now gained put the 
 whole country under their own gov- 
 ernment, and cleansed the land of 
 these marauders. Instead of such 
 danger and insecurity, Deborah 
 here intimates that they may sit 
 down unmolested at the places of 
 drawing water, and there rehearse 
 the righteous acts of the Lord; the 
 land being now in peace, and order 
 and good government every w^here 
 restored. Tl Go dovm to the gates. 
 Shall repossess themselves of the ci- 
 ties and walled villages from which 
 they had been expelled by their ene- 
 mies; they shall henceforth have 
 free access either in or out of the 
 gates, as their occasions might re- 
 quire ; and as it is well known that 
 the gate was the place of judgment 
 in the East, they should again resort 
 in peace and safety to the stations 
 where justice was administered. 
 
 12. Awake, awake, Deborah, &c. 
 The prophetess here turns to her- 
 self and Barak, the leaders and he- 
 roes of the triumph, in a tone of an- 
 imated appeal and excitation. She 
 calls upon herself to dictate a strain 
 descriptive of the preparation and 
 the conflict; and on Barak to lead 
 forth his captives and display them 
 in triumph before his countrymen. 
 That such appeals to one's self are 
 very common in Hebrew poetry is 
 obvious from Ps. 42. 6, 12.— 103. 1 
 — 5. — 104. 1, and elsewhere. ^ 
 Lead thy captivity captive. Lead 
 
236 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 13 Then he made him that 
 remaineth >have dominion over 
 the nobles among the people : 
 the Lord made me have domin- 
 ion over the mighty. 
 
 14 ^Out of Ephraim was 
 
 y Ps. 49. 14. z ch. 3. 27. 
 
 those captive who before held thee 
 in captivity. Comp. Ps. 68. 19. Eph. 
 4.8. 
 
 13. Made him that remained, &c. 
 That is, then he (the Lord) made 
 the dispirited remnant of the Israel- 
 ites, who had survived the oppres- 
 sion of their enemies, to obtain the 
 ascendancy over the nobles or chief- 
 tains of the people of Canaan, and 
 made me, who am but a feeble wo- 
 man, to have dominion over the 
 mighty, 
 
 14, Otit of Ephraim was there a 
 root of them against Amalek. The 
 poetess begins here to enumerate 
 and review the tribes which had 
 joined the standard of Barak. In 
 the account of this matter ch. 4, 10, 
 mention is made only of the tribes 
 ofZebulunand Naphtali, but from 
 the tenor of the song it is obvious 
 that several other tribes, on hearing 
 of the exigency of their brethren, 
 immediately raised a levy and vol- 
 unteered to go to their assistance. 
 For this ready and generous proffer 
 of their services, Deborah pays to 
 them ihe first tribute of her thanks. 
 The opening sentence of her com- 
 mendation quoted above is replete 
 with difficulty. Without adverting 
 to the various renderings which 
 have been proposed both by Jewish 
 and Christian interpreters,' we shall 
 give that which seems on the whole 
 the most probable. The clause is 
 undoubtedly elliptical, and may be 
 thus supplied ;— ' Out of Ephraim 
 (came those) whose dwelling is in 
 Amalek.' The original for ' root' 
 we take to be a poetic expression for 
 a fixed firmly — established seat or 
 dwelling, just as nations taking up 
 their abode in a land are said to be 
 planted in it, to take root in it, as Is. 
 
 there a root of them ^against 
 Amalek ; after thee, Benjamin, 
 among thy people ; out of ^Ma- 
 chir came down governors, and 
 out of Zebulun they that handle 
 the pen of the writer. 
 
 a ch. 3. 13. b Num. 32. 39, 40. 
 
 27. 6, ' He shall cause them that 
 come of Jacob to take root.' Comp. 
 Ps, 80. 8, 9, Job, 5, 3. If it be ask- 
 ed how Ephraim eould be said to 
 have dwelt or taken root in Amalek, 
 since it is well known that the Am- 
 alekites inhabited the country to the 
 south of Palestine between mount 
 Seir and Egypt, the answer is drawn 
 from ch. 13, 15, where it is said that 
 ' Abdon was buried in the land of 
 Ephraim, ^7^ the mount of the Aniale- 
 kites.' From this it is to be inferred 
 that a colony of this people, who 
 were related to the Kenites, had for- 
 merly migrated into the interior of 
 the country, and maintained itself 
 among the Israelites of the tribe of 
 Ephraim, In this way it could be 
 said, that the Ephraimites, whose 
 root, i, e. foundation, dwelling place, 
 was among the Amalekites, on the 
 mountain of that name, came forth 
 to the war. IF After thee, Benjamin, 
 among thy people. Rather, ' After 
 thee, (O Ephraim, came) Benjamin, 
 among thy peoples,' i. e. thy forces, 
 thy hosts. By a sudden change of 
 persons, common to the poetic style, 
 Ephraim is here addressed as pre- 
 sent, and Benjamin, whose quota of 
 men was probably small, is spoken 
 of as being incorporated with it, in- 
 stead of forming a distinct corps by 
 itself. IT Out of Machir came doiun 
 governors. Machir was the son of 
 Manasseh, and the father of Oilead, 
 Gen. 50. 23, Num. 27, 1, and is here 
 put for the tribe of Manasseh, that 
 is, the half of that tribe which dwelt 
 on the west of Jordan, The original 
 for ' governors,' (Qippn^) is in ef- 
 fect the same with o"^};;)?)! lawgiv- 
 ers, V, 9, and is to be understood of , 
 military leaders, expert and valiant 
 chieftains, who_ promptly took the 
 
A. C. 1296.] CHAPTER V. 
 
 15 And the princes of Issa- 
 char were with Deborah ; even 
 
 237 
 
 field at the head of their troops. TI 
 Out of Zebulun they that handle the 
 pen of the loriter. There is some- 
 thing peculiarly incongruous in the 
 idea of penmen coming down to a 
 battle, nor is the rendering in fact 
 warranted by the original. The 
 Heb. term for ' handle,' (D'n^:^?^) is 
 the same with that occurring ch. 4. 6, 
 respecting the tribes of Zebulun and 
 Naphtali, and which we there en- 
 deavored to show, signified to draw 
 in the sense of enlisting. We take 
 it in the same sense here ; implying 
 those, who as the emissaries of Ba- 
 rak, succeeded in drawing after 
 them recruits. As to the instrument 
 employed on this occasion, though 
 our translators have rendered the 
 Heb. toniZJ hy ' pen,' yet the word 
 has no where else that signification 
 throughout the Scriptures. Its genu- 
 ine meaning is a rod, staff, or wand, 
 and instead of the ' pen of the wri- 
 ter,' the correct version undoubtedly 
 is, ' with the rod of the numberer.' 
 A definite number of men (10,000) 
 were by Deborah's orders, ch. 4. 6, 
 to be levied from these two tribes, 
 and the doing of this is described by 
 a metaphor, taken from the custom 
 of shepherds in numbering, separat- 
 ing, or selecting their sheep by 
 means of a rod besmeared with 
 paint, with which they marked every 
 fifth, tenth, or twentieth, as the case 
 might be, as they came out of the 
 outlet of their enclosure. See the 
 process more particularly described 
 in the note on Levit. 27. 32. 
 
 15. The princes of Issachar roere 
 with Deborah. Or, Heb. ' my princes 
 in Issachar were with Deborah.' 
 She calls them ' my princes,' from 
 the grateful esteem with which their 
 services had inspired her. IT Even 
 Issachar, and also Barak. Rather, 
 Heb. ' and Issachar, in like manner 
 as Barak;' i. e. Issachar was equal- 
 ly prompt, ardent, and valiant in the 
 good cause ; he marched forth with 
 equal alacrity. IT Was sent on foot 
 21 
 
 Issachar, and also "^Barak : he 
 was sent on foot into the valley. 
 
 c ch. 4. 14. 
 
 into the valley. Heb. 'was sent with 
 his feet.' See note on ch. 4. 10, 14, 
 The meaning we suppose to be that, 
 when Barak was ordered to charge 
 down the declivity of Tabor towards 
 the valley, the men of Issachar fol- 
 lowed with as much promptitude, 
 as if all their feet had pertained to 
 their leader's body. It may be 
 remarked that the original word, 
 rendered ' valley,' signifies also a 
 low level plain, and thus the known 
 topography of the place requires that 
 it should be rendered here. They 
 descended from mount Tabor into 
 the plain of Esdraelon. — At this point 
 a transition is made to a new theme 
 in the inspired song; viz. a rebuke 
 of the recreant tribes, who refused 
 to join their brethren and flock to 
 the standard of Barak ; and here 
 V. 16, should properly begin. ^For 
 the divisions of Reuien. Heb. ' in or 
 among the divisions.' It is impos- 
 sible to speak with confidence of the 
 exact import of the word, here ren- 
 dered ' divisions.' It is perhaps de- 
 signedly left ambiguous, as is not 
 unusual with Scripture phrases, in 
 order that it may be taken in great- 
 er latitude and fullness of meaning, 
 and include the various senses of 
 which it is susceptible. By some it 
 is understood of the local division of 
 Reuben from the rest [of the tribes 
 by the Jordan and other rivers ; by 
 others, of the classes or ranks into 
 which the tribe was divided; and 
 by others still, of the divided counsels, 
 the conflicting opinions, of the Reu- 
 benites respecting the propriety of 
 taking up arms on the occasion. 
 The root from which the original 
 is derived, signifies to divide, to 
 cleave, and the present term occurs 
 Job 20. 17, in the sense of water- 
 courses, or streams flowing in chan- 
 nels. The most probable interpre- 
 tation, therefore, if we mistake not, 
 is that of Schnurrer and others, who 
 by the ' divisions of Reuben,' under- 
 stand the ' streams of Reuben;' i. e, 
 
238 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 For the divisions of Reuben 
 there were great thoughts of 
 heart. 
 
 16 Why abodest thou ''among 
 the sheep-folds, to hear the 
 
 d Num. 32. 1. 
 
 the well-watered country of Reuben, 
 a region fertilized by numerous 
 creeks and small rivers. It will be 
 recollected that Reuben dwelt on the 
 east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, 
 from the river Arnon northwards, 
 and possessed part of the plain of 
 the Jordan which, Gen. 13. 10, was 
 ' every where well ivatered;^ a re- 
 gion expressly celebrated. Num. 32. 
 1, for its rich pasturage, which ne- 
 cessarily implies the presence of 
 springs and streams. After all, if 
 any one is inclined to construe the 
 phrase in a pregnant sense as com- 
 prising all the above senses of ' divi- 
 sions,' we have no objections to urge 
 against it, nor do we hesitate to be- 
 lieve that a similar mode of solving 
 Scripture difficulties is in many in- 
 stances the true one. IT Great 
 thoughts of heart. The original for 
 ' thoughts',' signifies re solving s, de- 
 cisions, decrees, and the purport of 
 the clause perhaps is, that the Reu- 
 benites at first heroically resolved to 
 join their countrymen, but after- 
 wards recanted their purpose, and 
 meanly staid at home. This con- 
 duct the prophetess first describes in 
 a tone of apparent praise, which by 
 a poetical artifice is converted into 
 an ironical and cutting sarcasm. 
 She intimates that their original re- 
 solution and purpose was magnani- 
 mous ; inquires why it was not ful- 
 filled ; why they preferred to remain 
 at home and listen to the piping of 
 the herdsmen'? She then repeats in 
 effect her first sentence of approba- 
 tion ; but in the ensuing verse, by 
 the change of a single letter, (^p-; 
 for 'Q'^n revolvings for resolvings) 
 she pronounces their noble resolu- 
 tion, to have been mere empty delib- 
 eration amounting to nothing. 
 
 16. Why abodest thou among the 
 sheep-folds? Bishop Horsley°ren- 
 
 bleatings of the flocks 1 For the 
 divisions of Reuben there were 
 great searchings of heart. 
 
 17 «Gilead abode beyond 
 Jordan : and why did Dan re- 
 
 e See Josh. 13. 25, 31- 
 
 ders the original by ' hillocks,' in- J 
 stead of ' sheep-folds,' and we are i| 
 satisfied that he, of all other inter- 
 preters, has come nearest to the 
 genuine scope of the speaker. He 
 remarks, that the noun tD'inSlZjya 
 is from the root f-i&ia to stick up, 
 to be prominent, and it is in the 
 dual form. Hence the substan- 
 tive may signify any gibbosity or 
 prominence. It is used in Jacob's 
 last words, to signify the two pan- 
 niers of a laden ass lying down, and 
 those panniers are the ridges of 
 hills which were the boundaries of 
 his territories. In like manner, we 
 think, it is to be taken here to sig- 
 nify ' hills in double parallel ridges.* 
 Reuben is asked why he abode be- 
 tween t:'^r5li;?3 to hear the bleatings 
 of the flocks. And where shall any 
 one abide to hear the bleatings of 
 the flocks, but among hills, where 
 flocks range 1 See also note on Gen. ^ 
 49. 14. It is still possible that there | 
 may have been such a similarity in I 
 form between the stalls, or ranges i 
 of the Syrian folds or pinfolds for | 
 flocks, and parallel ranges of hills, ' 
 as to render the same term appli- 
 cable to both, so that the present 
 translation does not err widely from 
 the truth. But the construction of 
 Horsley, given above, we think de- 
 cidedly preferable to any other. IT 
 To hear the bleatings of the flocks. 
 Heb. ' the Avhistlings or pipings of 
 the flock ;' i. e. of the shepherds who 
 play on the pipe while guarding 
 their flocks. ^ Great scearchings 
 of heart. That is, great delibera- 
 tions or consultations, but no result. 
 They were forward in counsel and 
 debate, but not in action ; a severe 
 and sarcastic irony. 
 
 17. Gilead abode beyond Jordan. 
 That is, the Gadites, who possessed 
 part of Gilead, Josh. 13. 24, 25. 
 
A. C. 1296.] CHAPTER V. 
 
 main in ships ? '"Asher continu- 
 ed on the sea shore, and abode 
 in his breaches. 
 
 18 ^Zebulun and Naphtali 
 were a people that jeoparded 
 
 239 
 
 f Josh. 19. 29, 31. 
 
 gch. 4. 10. 
 
 their lives unto the death in the 
 high places of the field. 
 
 19 The kings came and 
 fought, then fought the kings of 
 Canaan in Taanach by the wa- 
 
 Perhaps a part of the half tribe of 
 Manasseh is included under the 
 term. The verb p^zj to abide, to 
 tabernacle, necessarily here implies 
 to dwell at ease, quietly, as Ps. 55. 6, 
 ' O that I had wings like a dove ! for 
 then would I fly away, and be at rest, 
 (Heb. p:2J5^ dwell quietly.) IT IVhy 
 did Dan remain in ships 7 Why was 
 Dan so much intent upon liis ships 
 and merchandize 1 This was one 
 of the maritime tribes. Its limits 
 included the haven of Joppa (Jaffa), 
 and also the coast farther south. 
 But Zebulun was also ' a haven for 
 ships,' a seafaring tribe, and yet was 
 forward and active in this expedi- 
 tion. IT Asher continued 07i the sea- 
 shore. The same reproach is here 
 brought against Asher, that he re- 
 mained on his coasts. His lot ex- 
 tended along the Mediterranean, 
 contiguous to Zebulun and Naph- 
 tali, so that if disposed he might 
 easily have succored his brethren. 
 But he also had an excuse for stay- 
 ing at home. The original C)in 
 shore, comes from h^n to wear away, 
 and is applied to a coast, inasmuch 
 as this is continually loearing away 
 by the action of the water, '^ Abode 
 in his breaches. Heb. C^iZ^lC^D rents, 
 ruptures, fissures, from y—|B to rend, 
 implying probably the bays, inlets, 
 and havens, lying along a rugged 
 and broken coast. The celebrated 
 harbor of Accoor Ptolemais'(Acre) 
 lay in the territory of Asher. Ach- 
 zib also and Tyre are mentioned as 
 falling within the limits of this tribe. 
 Josh. 19.29. The Chal, paraphrase 
 gives a different turn to this clause; 
 — ' The house of Asher, on the mar- 
 gin of the sea, dwelt in the broken 
 down cities of the Gentiles, which 
 tljey rebuilt and inhabited.' The 
 
 above rendering, however, is to be 
 preferred. 
 
 18. Jeoparded their lives unto the 
 death. Heb. ' despised, reproached, 
 or contemned;' i. e. they rushed 
 fearless upon danger and death. 
 These tribes from being the more 
 immediate sufferers from Jabin's 
 oppression, were, doubtless, the most 
 eager to throw off the yoke of bon- 
 dage, and would naturally rise in 
 greater numbers and exhibit a more 
 determined valor. H In the high 
 places of the field. Heb. ' the heights 
 of the field.' Either spoken, in re- 
 ference to mount Tabor, on which 
 the army of Israel at first encamped, 
 or poetically taken for the most dan- 
 gerous places of the field. 
 
 19. The kings came and fought. 
 The poetess now proceeds to describe 
 the battle. In the preceding chapter 
 mention is made of a single king 
 only, Jabin, as coming against Is- 
 rael, but, from the use of the plural 
 here, and from the probabilities of 
 the case, it is to be inferred that 
 other allied kings took the field with 
 Sisera. We are expressly informed, 
 Josh. 11. 10, that Hazor, where Ja- 
 bin reigned, was ' before-time the 
 head' of numerous petty principal- 
 ities, and these, it may be supposed, 
 were confederate with him on this 
 occasion. Yet it is possible that, in 
 the lofty style of poetry, ' kings' here 
 may be simply equivalent to warlike 
 leaders and champions, the heroes 
 and potent personages at the head of 
 the Canaanitish forces. '^In Taan- 
 ach, by the waters of Megiddo. These 
 two places, which are "usually men- 
 tioned together, lay within the limits 
 of the plain of Esdraelon, and in the 
 immediate vicinity of the river Ki- 
 shon. Indeed, it is scarcely to be 
 questioned that by the ' waters of 
 
240 
 
 JUDGES, 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 ters of Megiddo ; *»they took no 
 gain of money. 
 
 20 iThey fought from heav- 
 
 hoh. 4. 16. Ps. 44. 12. See ver. 30. i See Josh. 
 10.11 Ps, 77. 17, 18. 
 
 Megiddo,' is to be understood the 
 stream Kishon, in that part of its 
 course. U They took no gain of 
 money. They obtained no spoil or 
 booty; they were utterly disappoint- 
 ed, in their expectations. The ori- 
 ginal, if rendered literally, is very 
 emphatic ; ' not a piece, coin, or 
 particle of silver did they take.' 
 Schmid, however, among the most 
 acute and judicious of commenta- 
 tators, understands the words of the 
 ardor and overweening confidence 
 with which the Canaanites fought. 
 They entered the field so sanguine 
 of success, they resolved not to take 
 the least ransom for the Israelites, 
 either for life or liberty. Thinking 
 it possible that Barak might, on see- 
 ing the formidable power arrayed 
 against him, repent of his under- 
 taking and wish to purchase peace 
 by money; these words, according 
 to the critic above mentioned, ex- 
 press their determination not to lis- 
 ten for a moment to any terms of 
 treaty, but to cut them all off without 
 mercy. This construction does no 
 violence to the original, and is liable 
 to no serious objection. Gr. ' they 
 took no gift of silver.' Ohal. ' they 
 willed not riches of silver;' i. e. 
 they determined to reject or refuse 
 the most tempting bribes. Thus Is. 
 13. 17, ' Behold, "l will stir up the 
 Medes against them, which shall 7iot 
 regard silver ; and as for gold, they 
 shall not delight in it;' i. e. they 
 shall not be prevailed upon to spare, 
 by the prospect of fee or reward. 
 
 20. They fought frovi heaven. As 
 the expression is indefinite, it may 
 be considered as equivalent to say- 
 ing, that a supernatural power was 
 engaged against them ; they had to 
 contend not only with foes on earth, 
 but with foes in heaven. Omnipo- 
 tence armed the elements against 
 them. A parallel idea is expressed 
 in the words that follow. IT The 
 
 en ; •'the stars in their courses 
 fought against Sisera. 
 
 21 iThe river of Kishon 
 
 stars in their coii/rses fought against 
 Sisera. Or, Heb. * the stars from 
 their orbits fought,' &c., lit. 'from 
 their elevations, their exaltations, 
 their highways.' Chal. ' from the 
 place where the stars go forth, war 
 was waged against Sisera.' Prob- 
 ably nothing more than a highly 
 rhetorical or poetical expression for 
 the adverse infiuejice of the atviosphe- 
 ric elements, the rains, winds, thun- 
 ders, and lightnings, which from 
 ch. 4. 15, appear to have been super- 
 naturally excited on this occasion, j 
 See the extract from Josephus, note 1 
 on ch. 4. 15. The stars are here the ^ 
 host of heaven, and this is but an- 
 other phrase for heaven itself ; the - 
 heavens fought against Sisera. 
 
 21. Kishon. This river takes its 
 rise in the valley of Jezreel, near the 
 foot of mount Tabor, and after run- 
 ning westward, with a great variety 
 of turnings and windings, through 
 the plain of Esdraelon, falls into the 
 Mediterranean at the southeast cor- 
 ner of the bay of Acre. ' In travel- 
 ling,' says Shaw, ' under the south- 
 east brow of Carmel, I had an op- 
 portunity of seeing the sources of 
 the river Kishon, three or four of 
 which lie within less than a furlong 
 of each other, and are called ' Ras 
 el Kishon,' or, the head of the Kishon, 
 These alone, without the lesser con- 
 tributions nearer the sea, discharge 
 water enough to form a river half 
 as big as the Isis. During likewise 
 the rainy season, all the water which 
 falls on the eastern side of the moun- 
 tain, or upon the rising ground to 
 the southward, empties itself into it 
 in a number of torrents, at which 
 conjunctures it overflov:s its banks, 
 acquires a wonderful rapidity, and 
 carries all before it-' When Maun- 
 drell crossed this stream on his way 
 to Jerusalem, its waters were low 
 and inconsiderable ; but in passing 
 along the side of the plain, he oh- 
 
A. C. 1296.] CHAPTER V. 
 
 swept them away, that ancient 
 river, the river Kishon. O nny 
 scul thou hast trodden down 
 strength. 
 
 served the tracts of many tributary- 
 rivulets falling down into it from 
 the mountains, by which it must be 
 greatly swelled in the rainy season. 
 At the time of the battle here de- 
 scribed, itjwas undoubtedly in this 
 condition— swollen to a deep and 
 impetuous torrent, sweeping away 
 every thing within its reach. IF 
 That ancient river. The reason of 
 this epithet is not obvious. The 
 Gr. renders it, ' the stream of the 
 ancients, or of antiquities.' The 
 Chal. ' the river in which happened 
 signs and great deeds to Israel from 
 ancient times.' The root ^-[p pro- 
 perly implies the idea of precedency , 
 or priority, whether in point of time 
 or place, and hence its derivatives 
 obtain the sense of either ' antiquity,' 
 or ' the east,' which is always spok- 
 en of as lying before all other coun- 
 tries. ' The river of antiquities,' is 
 undoubtedly the most exact render- 
 ing, and the import may be that it 
 was a river about which the divine 
 counsels were exercised of old ; it was 
 a stream oi ancient designation, oue 
 which God designed to make illus- 
 trious by this and, perhaps, other 
 similar events ; for the plain of Es- 
 draelon, through which it runs, is 
 the most famous battle-ground of the 
 whole territory of Palestine. It was 
 the scene of the conflict of Gideon 
 and the Midianites, of Saul and the 
 Philistines, of the Israelites and the 
 Syrians, 1 Kings 20. 26, and of Josi- 
 ah and the Egyptians. It has in fact 
 been a chosen place for encampment, 
 in every contest carried on in the 
 Holy Land, from the days of Ne- 
 buchadnezzar to the time of the 
 Crusaders, and thence down to that 
 of the modern Napoleon, who here 
 sustained the attack of the whole 
 Syrian army. 'Jews, Gentiles, Sar- 
 acens, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, 
 Turks, Arabs, Christian Crusaders, 
 and an ti-christian Frenchmen — war- 
 21* 
 
 241 
 
 22 Then were the horse- 
 hoofs broken by the means of 
 the prancings, the prancings of 
 their mighty ones. 
 
 riors out of every nation under heav- 
 en, have pitched their tents in the 
 plain of Esdraelon, and have beheld 
 the various banners of their nations 
 wet with the dews of Tabor and 
 Hermon.' It may also be remark- 
 ed, that if the predicted 'battle of 
 Armageddon,' Rev. 16. 16, denote a 
 literal conflict, destined hereafter to 
 take place, there is every probability 
 that this is to be its scene ; for here 
 lies Megiddo, to which allusion is 
 had in the name ' Armageddon,' and 
 we are, in fact, strongly inclined 
 to believe that name is formed by 
 contraction and a slight change of 
 letters, particularly of r for I, which 
 is common in the East, from the 
 Heb. Ti3?3 ^)2 ^!S> al-me- Megiddo, 
 waters of Megiddo, v. 19, which we 
 have there shown to be but another 
 appellation of this very river. We 
 see, therefore, with how much pro- 
 priety the Kishon is called the ' an- 
 cient,' i. e. the ordained, the destined, 
 the designated river ; the river in- 
 tended, in the purposes of heaven, to 
 be signalized by a series of remark- 
 able events. U Thou hast trodden 
 down strength. That is, thou hast 
 vanquished the strong and mighty ; 
 a strain of exultation spoken, per- 
 haps, in the person of all Israel, 
 in view of the glorious victory 
 achieved. 
 
 22. The horse hoofs broken. An- 
 ciently horses were not shod; nor 
 are they at the present day in some 
 parts of the East, The flight was so 
 rapid, that the hoofs of their horses 
 were splintered, battered, and bro- 
 ken by the roughness of the roads. 
 IT By the means of their prancings. 
 Or, Heb. 'of their scamperings.' 
 From ch. 4. 16, it appears that the 
 Canaanites fled with the utmost pre- 
 cipatition. % Of their mighty ones. 
 Of their best and strongest horses. 
 The original (D^^'l^i^) is thus appli- 
 ed Jer, 8. 16, ' The snorting of his 
 
242 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1296. 
 
 23 Curse ye Meroz, said the 
 angel of the Lord, curse ye bit- 
 terly the inhabitants thereof; 
 '"because they came not to the 
 help "of the Lord, to the help 
 of the Lord against the mighty. 
 
 24 Blessed above women 
 
 m ch. n. 9, 10. Neh. 3. 3. n 1 Sam. 17. 47. & 
 
 18. 17. & 2.5. 23. 
 
 horses was heard from Dan; the 
 whole land trembled at the sound of 
 the neighing of his strong ones.' Ch. 
 47. 3, 'At the noise of the stamping 
 of his strong horses.' 
 
 23. Curse ye Meroz. The pro- 
 phetess here turns abruptly to curse 
 ihe inhabitants of Meroz ; a place 
 probably of some note at that time, 
 but of which no trace whatever now 
 remains. The effect of the curse, 
 like that pronounced upon Amalek, 
 Ex. 17. 14, seems to have 'blotted 
 out the remembrance' of its history 
 and its site. We may suppose it to 
 have been a city lying near the 
 scene of action, and that the inhabi- 
 tants, having an opportunity to cut 
 oflf the Canaanites in their flight, 
 neglected to improve it, or in some 
 other way withheld their services 
 on the occasion. '^ Said the angel 
 of the Lord. The Angel- Jehovah, 
 before spoken of, ch. 2. 1. The 
 scope of the words is to intimate 
 that the malediction proceeded not 
 from her own private feelings of ill 
 will or resentment, but was prompt- 
 ed by a divine impulse. It was Je- 
 hovah that commanded the curse. 
 She would not otherwise have inter- 
 rupted her strains of thanksgiving, 
 by the utterance of so fearful a judg- 
 ment. U Curse ye bitterly. Heb. 
 * curse with cursing.' Use the most 
 awful execrations. IT Cavie not 
 
 to the help of the Lord. To the help 
 of the Lord's people ; for he takes 
 what is done to his people, as done 
 to himself; and what is withheld 
 from them as withheld from him- 
 self The Lord needed not their 
 help ; as the event showed that he 
 could accomplish the work without 
 them; nor does omnipotence ever 
 
 shall ''Jael the wife of Heber 
 the Kenite be, Pblessed shall she 
 be above women in the tent. 
 
 25 <3He asked water, aw^ she 
 gave him milk.; she brought 
 forth butter in a lordly dish. 
 
 26 "^She put her hand to the 
 
 o ch. 4, 17. p Luke 1. 
 
 qch. 4. 19. rch. 4.21. 
 
 really need the services of any of his 
 creatures. But he is pleased to al- 
 low them the privilege of being em- 
 ployed as co-workers together with 
 him, and when a crisis arrives in 
 which it is in eflect proclaimed, 
 ' Who is on the Lord's side V it is 
 at our peril that we presume to stand 
 upon neutral ground, and refuse to 
 come up to the help of the Lord. 
 
 24. Blessed above vomen, &c. 
 That is, she shall be praised and 
 celebrated above women. She shall 
 be deemed worthy of the most exalted 
 eulogy for her heroic conduct; all 
 the Israelitish women shall glory in 
 her. This is in marked contrast 
 with the foregoing curse of Meroz. 
 The spirit of prophecy delights to 
 turn from the language of displea- 
 sure and rebuke to that of commen- 
 dation and praise. H Blessed — 
 above uwmen in the tent. Or, as 
 Geddes translates it, 'tent-inhabiting 
 women.' She shall bear the palm 
 above all women of the same class 
 or character with herself, i. e. the 
 women of those tribes that dwell on- 
 ly in tents. The words are evident- J 
 ly applied to the wife of a wander- | 
 ing nomad, who had no fixed place 
 
 of residence, and it is highl)'- prob- 
 able that such were the habits of the 
 Kenites, in contradistinction from 
 the more settled mode of life of the 
 Israelites. 
 
 25. She brought forth butler. The 
 original nstl^n hcmah here rendered 
 ' butter' undoubtedly implies some- 
 thing liquid. It would perhaps be 
 better translated cream, or rather 
 curdled milk. ' Sisera complained 
 of thirst, and asked a little water to 
 quench it, a purpose to which butter 
 is but little adapted. Mr. Harmer 
 
A. C. 1296.] CHAPTER V. 
 
 nail, and her right hand to the 
 workmen's hammer ; and with 
 the hammer she smote Sisera, 
 she smote off his head, when she 
 
 243 
 
 indeed urges the same objection to 
 cream, which, he contends, few peo- 
 ple would think a very proper bev- 
 erage for one that was extremely 
 thirsty; and concludes, that it mast 
 have been buttermilk which Jael, 
 who had just been churning, gave to 
 Sisera. But the opinion of Dr. Rus- 
 sell is preferable, that the hernah of 
 the Scriptures, is probably the same 
 as the haymak of the Arabs, which is 
 not, as Harmer supposed, simple 
 cream, but cream produced by sim- 
 mering fresh sheeps' milk for some 
 hours over a slow fire. It could not 
 be butter newly churned, which Jael 
 presented to Sisera, because the 
 Arab butter is apt to be foul, and is 
 commonly passed through a strainer 
 before it is used ; and Russell de- 
 clares, he never saw butter offered 
 to a stranger, but always haymak: 
 nor did he ever observe the Orien- 
 tals drink buttermilk, but always 
 lehan^ which is coagulated sour milk, 
 diluted with water. It was lehan^ 
 therefore, which Pococke mistook 
 for buttermilk, with which the Arabs 
 treated him in the holy land. A 
 similar conclusion may be drawn 
 concerning the butter and milk 
 which the wife of Heber presented 
 to Sisera ; they were forced cream 
 or hayma.k, and leban, or coagulated 
 sour milk diluted with water, which 
 is a common and refreshing bever- 
 age in those sultry regions.' Pax- 
 ion. IT III a lordly dish. Heb. ' in 
 a bowl of the mighty, of the nobles.' 
 That is, such as nobles use ; a rich, 
 costly, or princely bowl; one with 
 which a person would entertain the 
 most honorable guests. Though it 
 is scarcely supposable that articles 
 of this costly description were com- 
 mon in the tents of nomade tribes, 
 yet in the present case the family of 
 Heber may have possessed, from 
 their ancestors, a sumptuous article 
 of the kind, which Jael would nat- 
 
 had pierced and stricken through 
 his temples. 
 
 27 At her feet he bowed, he 
 fell, hg lay down : at her feet 
 
 urally bring forth on the occasion of 
 a visit from so distinguished a per- 
 sonage. See ' Illustrations of the 
 Scriptures,' p. 137. 
 
 26. She put her hand. Her left 
 hand, as appears from the nature of 
 the case and from the mention of the 
 right in the ensuing clause, IT 
 Jllth the hammer she smote Sisera. 
 The words ' with the hammer' ought 
 properly to have been printed in 
 Italics, as they do not occur in the 
 original, although it is true that the 
 Heb. verb for "' smite' does often, 
 perhaps generally, convey the idea 
 of smiting with a havimer^ for which 
 reason our translators have render- 
 ed in the margin, ' she hammered 
 Sisera.' Yet in v. 23 of this chap- 
 ter it is applied to the beating or 
 striking of the horses' hoofs against 
 the ground. At the time, however, 
 when our translation was made the 
 force of many Heb. words was not 
 so clearly ascertained as at the pre- 
 sent. 1 She smote off his head. 
 Rather, Heb. ' She violently smote, 
 she crushed his head.' That his 
 head was actually severed from his 
 body there is no good reason to be- 
 lieve. IT When she pierced, &c. 
 Or, Heb. ' and she pierced, &c.' 
 The leading idea of the original 
 word is to beat doion, to depress, as 
 appears from its use, Ps. 68. 24. — 110. 
 6. Deut. 33, 11. According to the 
 rendering of our translators it is en- 
 tirely synonimous with the ensuing 
 term ' stricken through.' But this 
 we believe to be unwarranted. The 
 first undoubtedly implies the beating 
 down, the indenting of the side of Si- 
 sera's head which was exposed to the 
 stroke, the other, the transfixing, the 
 perforating of his temples, by the 
 tent-pin. The words intimate a 
 gradation in the act, each expression 
 rising in intensity upon the prece- 
 ding. 
 
 27. At her feet he bowed, &c. Heb. 
 
244 
 
 he bowed, he fell : where he 
 bowed, there he fell down dead. 
 28 The mother of Sisera 
 looked out at a window, and 
 cried through the lattice, Why 
 is his chariot so long in coming? 
 why tarry the wheels of his 
 chariots ? 
 
 JUDGES. [A. C. 1296. 
 
 29 Her wise ladies answered 
 her, yea, she returned answer 
 to herself, 
 
 30 'Have they not sped ? 
 have they not divided the prey ; 
 to every man a damsel or two ; 
 to Sisera a prey of divers colors, 
 a prey of divers colors of needle- 
 
 8 Ex. 15. 9. 
 
 bSD 3515 iT^bn*! V2 between her feet 
 he boiced, or sunk doton, he fell. He 
 probably made some struggles after 
 receiving the blow, and as we may 
 suppose him to have been lying on a 
 bed, or divan, elevated somewhat 
 above the floor, he would naturally 
 fall upon the latter. The several 
 kindred words appear to be merely 
 a poetic amplification of the cir- 
 cumstances of his death. See a sim- 
 ilar phraseology Ps. 20. 6, ' They are 
 brought down and fallen. (-):S2i 
 
 28. The mother of Sisera looked 
 out, &c. By an abrupt but beautiful 
 transition, the mother of Sisera is 
 now introduced as looking from her 
 lattice, confidently expecting her 
 son's victorious return, ostentatious- 
 ly reckoning upon the spoil. ' In 
 this,' says Prof. Robinson, ' is shown 
 the deep insight into human nature 
 which the sacred writer possessed, 
 an insight especially into the frivol- 
 ity of the Oriental female character. 
 Her consolation springs, not from 
 the hope of his triumphant return as 
 a warrior and conqueror, but arises 
 from the slaves, the many-colored 
 garments, the splendid ornaments 
 and attire which will fall to his 
 share. In the mouth of the exulting 
 Hebrew poetess, this is a burst 
 of keen and scoffing irony against a 
 foe who never dreamed of a defeat, 
 and awaited only the spoils of victo- 
 ry.' IT Cried through the lattice. 
 The windows of eastern houses gen- 
 erally open into interior private 
 courts, with the exception sometimes 
 of a. latticed window or balcony to- 
 words the street. At such an one 
 the mother of Sisera is here repre- 
 
 sented as standing and looking out, 
 IT Why is his chariot so long in com- 
 ing? Heb. 'why does his chariot 
 shame (us) in coming'?' i. e. why 
 does it so linger beyond expectation 
 and almost beyond endurance 1 The 
 relation between the ideas of delai^ 
 and shame in certain Hebrew terms 
 is very peculiar. See note on ch. 
 3. 25. 
 
 29. Her loise ladies. The noble 
 female attendants, the matrons of 
 her court or suite. The epithet 
 ' wise,' perhaps, has reference to 
 their sagacity or shrewdness in as- 
 signing reasons for Sisera's delay. 
 
 30. Have they not sped. Heb. ' have 
 they not found;' i. e. have they not 
 succeeded in obtaining the object of 
 their desires 1 IT To every man a dam- 
 <iel or two. Heb. 'to the head of a 
 man ;' an idiom peculiar to the orig^ 
 inal wherever the idea of enumera- 
 tion or distribution is involved. One 
 would have thought that ladies, who 
 had any just conception of the honor 
 of their sex, would have found other 
 subjects of felicitation than this. But 
 the hint serves as a faithful index of 
 the degradation of woman in allhea- 
 then lands, especially in the East. ^ 
 A prey of divers colors of needle-u'ork. 
 Embroidery and rich dresses were 
 reckoned the most valuable parts of 
 the spoil of conquered foes. It was 
 probably the beauty and richness of 
 the Babylonish garment, that first 
 tempted Achan to secrete the spoil 
 that cost him his life. It was also 
 probably from the high value put 
 upon this species of spoil, that Da- 
 vid, 2 Sam. 1. 24, calls upon the 
 daughters of Israel, to join with him 
 in lamenting the death of Saul, 
 
A. C. 1296.] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 245 
 
 work, of divers colors of needle- 
 work on both sides, meet for the 
 necks of them that take the 
 spoil ? 
 
 81 tSo let all thine enemies 
 
 t Ps. S3. 9, 10. 
 
 * who clothed them in scarlet, and 
 with other delights ; who put on or- 
 naments of gold upon their apparel.' 
 H F'or the necks of them that take the 
 spoil. Heb. * for the necks of the 
 prey.' The ellipsis is perhaps well 
 supplied in our translation, though 
 some critics instead of taking ' prey' 
 figuratively for i)ersons seizing the 
 prey, understand it of captured ani- 
 mals, which they suppose to have 
 been usually led in triumph decora- 
 ted with ornaments and trappings 
 upon their necks. In this sense, 
 however, it might, as Prof. Robin- 
 son suggests, be better referred to 
 the decorations of the female slaves. 
 31. So let all thine enemies perish. 
 The prophetess, instead of saying in 
 express terms that the hopes of Sise- 
 ra's mother were doomed to sad dis- 
 appointment, bursts forth into an 
 abrupt apostrophe, which implies 
 this in a very vivid and forcible 
 manner; viz. an invocation of like 
 destruction upon all the enemies of 
 Jehovah. The particle ' so' refers, 
 not to what is expressed, but to what 
 is thus implied, the frustrated hopes 
 and bitter wailings of the mother 
 and her attendants. This highly 
 poetical mode of concluding the song 
 gives a gracefulness and effect to 
 the whole which can scarcely be 
 surpassed. In remarking practical- 
 ly on the prayer of Deborah, it is to 
 be observed that imprecations of 
 evil, when personal and vindictive, 
 are contrary to the mind of God, 
 but when uttered as denunciations 
 of God's determined purposes against 
 his enemies, they are not unsuited 
 to the most holy character. In this 
 light are many of the Psalms of Da- 
 vid to be viewed ; and even Paul 
 could say, ' If any man love not the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, let him be ana- 
 thema-maranatha.' ' Though our 
 
 perish, O Lord : but let them 
 that love him he "as the sun 
 ''when he goeth forth in his 
 might. And the land had rest 
 forty years. 
 
 enemies,' says Henry, 'are to be 
 prayed for, God's enemies, as such, 
 are to be prayed against ; and when 
 we see some of God's enemies re- 
 markably humbled and brought 
 down, that is an encouragement to 
 us to pray for the downfall of all the 
 rest.' Thus are Deborah's words 
 to be interpreted. Being prompted 
 by the spirit of inspiration, they are 
 to be regarded not only as an impre- 
 cation, but also as a prediction ; a 
 prediction which shall assuredly be 
 accomplished in its season upon all 
 that continue to withstand omnipo- 
 tence. IT IM them that love him, 
 be as the sun, &c. These words re- 
 quire simply a practical exposition. 
 'They intimate the true distinction, 
 between the enemies and the friends 
 of God. The latter are character- 
 ised as those that love him. If be- 
 tween men we could admit a medium 
 between love and hatred, we can by 
 no means admit of it between God 
 and his creatures. Indifference to- 
 wards God would be constructive 
 enmity. Those only who love him 
 can be numbered among his friends. 
 In behalf of these the prophetess 
 prays that they may be as ' the sun 
 when he goeth forth in his might.' 
 Under this beautiful image she 
 prays, (1) That they may shine with 
 ever-increasing splendor. ~ The sun 
 in its early dawn casts but a feeble 
 light upon the world ; but soon pro- 
 ceeds to irradiate the whole horizon, 
 and to burst in full lustre upon those 
 who were a little while before im- 
 mersed in darkness. Thus the go- 
 ings-forth of the devoted friends and 
 servants of the Most High, diffuse 
 at first but an indistinct and doubt- 
 ful gleam ; but through the tender 
 mercy of God they advance, and 
 their light shines brighter and 
 brighter to the perfect day. (2) 
 
246 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 • A ND the children of Israel 
 
 "^ did evil in the sight of the 
 
 Lord : and the Lord delivered 
 
 JUDGES. [A. C. 1256. 
 
 I them into the hand ^of Midian 
 
 That they may diflfuse benefits 
 wheresoever they go. The sun is 
 the fountain of light and life to the 
 whole terraqueous sphere. If we 
 look at the places where his genial 
 beams for months together never 
 shine, the whole face of nature wears 
 the appearance of desolation and 
 death ; and nothing but the return of 
 his kindly influences restores her to 
 life. Thus in countries where the 
 friends of God are not found, the 
 whole population is in a state of 
 spiritual and moral death. But in 
 their light, light is seen, and from 
 them is spread abroad a vital influ- 
 ence which wakes up all around 
 them to new life and power. Let us 
 seriously inquire to which of these 
 classes we belong ; for however con- 
 founded now, there will be an awful 
 difference between them ere long; 
 the one arising to everlasting 
 shame and contempt, the other shin- 
 ing forth as the sun in the kingdom 
 of their father. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1, Did evil in the sight of the Lord. 
 After the expiration of the forty 
 years of rest above mentioned, ch. 5. 
 31, Their new defection subjects 
 them as a matter of course to new 
 judgments. With the froward, God 
 will show himself froward, and will 
 walk contrary to those that walk 
 contrary to him. IT Into the hand 
 of Midian. Of the Midianites ; the 
 usual collect, sing, for the plural. 
 A great portion of this race had 
 been cut off by Moses about 200 
 years before. Num. 31. 1 — 18, but in 
 the mean time they had recovered 
 themselves, those that escaped to 
 other regions having returned, and 
 these with the remnant that remain- 
 ed having rapidly increased and ac- 
 quired power, till they became 
 too strong for their sin-weakened 
 
 seven years. 
 
 2 And the 
 prevailed 
 
 hand of Midian 
 against Israel : and 
 
 neighbors the Israelites. Instigated 
 probably by resentment, they joined 
 the Amalekites in order to retaliate 
 upon their ancient conquerors. 
 They inhabited the eastern borders 
 of the Red Sea, having Arnon for 
 their capital. 
 
 2. The hand of Midian prevailed 
 against Israel. Heb. ' the hand of 
 Midian was strong upon Israel ;' in- 
 dicating not merely the commence- 
 ment, but the continuance and the 
 highest degree of oppression. U 
 Made them the dens, &c. That is, 
 prepared, fitted up as residences, the 
 caves and dens of the mountains. 
 They did not make them de novo, in 
 the sense of cutting out, excavating, 
 OT constructing them, for it is said they 
 were already in the mountains, but 
 they so vjorked upon them as to adapt 
 them for dwelling places and strong 
 holds against the assaults of their en- 
 emies. Shaw says that a great way 
 on each side of Joppa, on the sea- 
 coast, there is a range of mountains 
 and precipices; and that in these 
 high situations are generally found 
 the dens, the holes, or caves, which 
 are so frequently mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture, and which were formerly the 
 lonesome retreats of the distressed 
 Israelites. Nothing can give a more 
 vivid impression of the sufferings to 
 which the Israelites were now redu- 
 ced. Not daring to reside in the 
 plain country they M'^eve obliged to 
 betake themselves to the most retire(i 
 holds and fastnesses which their , 
 mountainous territory afforded. Jo- | 
 sephus thus describes this period of i 
 their history; — 'Now when Barak 
 and Deborah were dead, whose 
 deaths happened about the same 
 time; afterwards the Midianites 
 called the Amalekites and Arabians 
 to their assistance, and made war 
 against the Israelites, and were too 
 hard for those that fought against 
 
A. C. 1256.] 
 
 because of the Midianites the 
 children of Israel made them 
 Hhe dens which are in the moun- 
 tains, and caves, and strong 
 holds. 
 
 3 And so it was, when Israel 
 had sown, that the Midianites 
 
 c 1 Sam. 13. 6. Heb. 11. 38. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 247 
 
 them ; and when they had burnt the 
 fruits of the earth, they carried off 
 the prey. Now when they had done 
 this for three years, the multitude of 
 the Israelites retired to the moun- 
 tains, and forsook the plain country. 
 They also made themselves hollows 
 under ground, and caverns, and pre- 
 served therein whatsoever had es- 
 caped their enemies ; for the Midi- 
 anites made expeditions in harvest- 
 time, but permitted them to plough 
 thejland in winter, that so when the 
 others had taken pains, they might 
 have fruits for them to carry away ' 
 J. Antiq. B. V. ch. 6. § 1. See note 
 on Gen. 19. 30. They who abuse 
 God's gifts in prodigality and luxu- 
 ry, often live, as a just punishment, 
 to feel the want of them in hunger 
 and nakedness. 
 
 3. When Israel had sown, &c. The 
 Midianites were principally wander- 
 ing herdsmen, that is, just such a 
 people as the Bedouin Arabs of the 
 present day. Consequently the de- 
 tails of this oppression may be il- 
 lustrated, from what travellers re- 
 late of the modern customs of these 
 roving and plundering tribes. It 
 may be stated as a maxim, that 
 whenever the nomade is the master 
 of the cultivator, the impoverish- 
 ment and ultimate ruin of the latter 
 are inevitable. The Bedouin Arabs 
 come up from their deserts in the 
 spring and perhaps remain through 
 the summer, in the territories of 
 those cultivators who are so unfor- 
 tunate as to lie at their mercy. If 
 there is not an established under- 
 standing between the tillers of the 
 soil and the nomades, as to the tri- 
 bute which the former are to pay 
 
 came up, and ^the Amalekites, 
 ^and the children of the east, 
 even they came up against 
 them : 
 
 4 And they encamped against 
 them, and ^destroyed the in- 
 crease of the earth, till thou 
 
 d ch. 3 13. e Gen. 29. 1. ch. 7. 12. & 8. 10. 1 Kin. 
 4. 30. Job I. 3. f Lev. 26. 16. Deut. 28. 30, 33, 51. 
 Mic. 6. 15. 
 
 for exemption, the Bedouins encamp 
 and pasture their cattle in the culti- 
 vated grounds, after securing such 
 corn and other vegetable produc- 
 tions as they may see fit to appropri- 
 ate for their own use. Thus the 
 ' increase of the earth is destroyed,' 
 and no ' sustenance left' to reward 
 the labor and patience bestowed up- 
 on its production. IF The childre^i 
 of the East.. Various mixed tribes 
 of the Arabians, Ishmaelites, Moab- 
 ites, and Ammonites inhabiting the 
 regions which lay to the east aud 
 southeast of Palestine. They were 
 the descendants of Abraham by Ke- 
 turah. See more respecting them, 
 ch. 8. 10, 11. Gen. 29.1. Job 1. 3. 
 Ezek. 25. 4. IT Came up against 
 them. The efiects of these maraud- 
 ing expeditions a%ie expressly stated 
 in the next verse. 
 
 4. A7id they encamped. This is not to 
 be understood precisely in the sense 
 of a military encampment, which is 
 generally a station occupied but for 
 a very short time. The original 
 • term is frequently applied to the 
 pitching of tents hy i\\e nomade tribes 
 in their wanderings, and is but an- 
 other word for expressing their un- 
 settled, migratory kind of life. Liv- 
 ing mostly in tents, they pitched 
 them now here, and now there, re- 
 maining for a longer or shorter time 
 as the advantages of pasturage or 
 plunder invited them ; and the scope 
 of the present passagis is doubtless 
 to say, that these numerous eastern 
 hordes had so far obtained the mas- 
 tery over Israel, that they fearlessly 
 pitched their tents and made a pro- 
 tracted stay in the very heart of their 
 country, moving on to its utmost 
 
248 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1256. 
 
 come unto Gaza ; and left no 
 sustenance for Israel, neither 
 sheep, nor ox, nor ass. 
 
 5 For they came up with 
 their cattle and their tents, and 
 they came sas grasshoppers for 
 multitude; for both they and 
 their camels were without num- 
 ber : and they entered into the 
 land to destroy it. 
 
 g ch. 7. 12. 
 
 limits, and consuming all its pro- 
 ducts as they advanced. See the 
 next verse. IT Till thou, come unto 
 Gaza. Their ravages ex tended quite 
 across the whole breadth of the land 
 from the east, where they entered, 
 to the limits of the Philistines' pos- 
 sessions, who inhabited the coast of 
 the Mediterranean. Them they dis- 
 turbed not, knowing them to be also 
 hostile to the Israelites. A common 
 enmity is a virtual league of alli- 
 ance. H Neither sheep, nor ox, nor 
 ass. The Bedouins, in oppressing 
 the cultivator, seize all the cattle 
 that are brought abroad, and add 
 them to their own flocks and herds, 
 so that the inhabitants frequently 
 become deprived of all their cattle, 
 as was now the case with the Israel- 
 ites. In western Asia the people 
 who are subject to such annual in- 
 cursions, generally make a compro- 
 mise with the invaders, agreeing to 
 pay them a heavy tribute, on condi- 
 tion that the harvests shall not be 
 touched, or the cattle driven off. 
 Even powerful communities, which 
 might be able to cope with the Be- 
 douins, often enter into a compro- 
 mise of this sort, to prevent the ne- 
 cessity r)f continual warfare and 
 watchfulness. With these, the ar- 
 rangement is a matter of conveni- 
 ence ; but miserable is the condition 
 of those with whom it is a matter of 
 necessity, and to whom it is the on- 
 ly alternative, on which they can 
 secure a scanty subsistence from 
 their fields. The tribute, usually 
 paid in produce, is generally very 
 
 6 And Israel was greatly im- 
 poverished because of the Mid- 
 ianites ; and the children of Is- 
 rael "^cried unto the Lord. 
 
 7 II And it came to pass, 
 when the children of Israel cried 
 unto the Lord because of the 
 Midianites, 
 
 8 That the Lord sent a pro- 
 phet unto the children of Israel, 
 
 heavy ; besides which the chiefs ex- 
 pect extraordinary presents, and 
 what is received in one year as a 
 present, is certain to be exacted in 
 the next year as a right. Thus the 
 pressure accumulates, till it can no 
 longer be borne ; cultivation is then 
 relinquished; and whole settlements 
 are abandoned by their inhabitants, 
 who disperse themselves into other 
 villages or towns, or form a settle- 
 ment where they hope to be more at 
 ease. These particulars, gathered 
 principally from the ' Pictorial Bi- 
 ble,' serve to show the distressed 
 situation of the Israelites under the 
 depredations of these ancient Be- 
 douins, 
 
 5. Came up loith their cattle and 
 their tents. That is, with their 
 wives, children, and domestics, the 
 inhabitants of their tents. This is 
 but an expansion of the idea of the 
 preceding verse. The inroad of 
 these eastern invaders was not a 
 sudden and successful assault fol- 
 lowed by a hasty retreat, but a pro- 
 longed occupation of the country of 
 the Israelites, with their innumer- 
 able tents, and flocks, ahd herds. 
 For numbers and voracity they are 
 compared to ' grasshoppers,' or ra- 
 ther ' locusts,' as the word should be 
 rendered, and nothing can convey 
 a more vivid image of the countless 
 multitude and the wide-spread rava- 
 ges of these armies of marauders. — 
 It was undoubtedly at this time that 
 the famine took place which compel- 
 led the family of Elimelech to mi- 
 grate to the land of Moab, and gave 
 
A. C. 1^6.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 249 
 
 which said unto them, Thus saith 
 the Lord God of Israel, I 
 brought you up from Egypt, and 
 brought you forth out oi' the 
 house of bondage ; 
 
 9 And I deUvered you out of 
 the hand of the Egyptians, and 
 
 rise to the interesting events related 
 in the book of Ruth. The oppres- 
 sion to which the Israelites were at 
 this time subject was, therefore, of a 
 very different character from those 
 which they had previously suffered; 
 and from the minute and expressive 
 details which are given, we cannot 
 but infer that they had never before 
 experienced any thing so. grievous. 
 IT Entered into the land to destroy it. 
 The effect of their entering in was to 
 destroy, to lay waste, the land; 
 whether the Heb. particle (^ to) im- 
 ports the actual design is not so clear. 
 It often indicates merely the event. 
 See note on Josh. 7. 7. 
 
 8. The Lord sent a prophet. Heb. 
 'sent a man, a prophet.' The wri- 
 ter would have it understood that it 
 was a human messenger and not an 
 angel ; for angels in Scripture are 
 not called prophets, though prophets 
 are sometimes called angels. Mai. 3. 
 1. God commissioned some indi- 
 vidual, whose name is not known, 
 to act the part of a prophet, i. e. to 
 be an organ of declaring the divine 
 will on this occasion to his people. 
 "Whether he had ever exercised this 
 function before is uncertain. The 
 supposition that he had is at least 
 unnecessary. Men were often raised 
 up and endowed with extraordinary 
 gifts for particular emergencies, and 
 God having now determined, in an- 
 swer to the prayers of his oppressed 
 people, to grant them deliverance, 
 begins by sending them a prophet be- 
 fore he raises up for them a Saviour. 
 It was fitting that their deep and un- 
 feigned repentance should precede 
 the purposed relief, and a prophet 
 would be the most suitable instru- 
 ment of effecting this. The imme- 
 22 
 
 out of the hand of all that op- 
 pressed you, and 'drave them 
 out from before you, and gave 
 you their land ; 
 
 10 And I said unto you, I am 
 the Lord your God ; i^fear not 
 the gods of the Amorites, in 
 
 iPs. 44. 2,.3. k 2 Kings 17. 35, 37, 38. Jer. 10. 2. 
 
 diate object of our prayers is not al- 
 ways that which God sees fit inmie- 
 diately to grant. He may see that 
 something else entirely different is 
 necessary as a preparative to the 
 main blessing, and as a general rule 
 we cannot hope for the marks of the 
 divine forgiveness without being 
 deeply humbled for our previous sin. 
 ' The sending of prophets to a people, 
 and the furnishing a land with faith- 
 ful ministers, is a token for good, 
 and an evidence that God has mercy 
 in store for them.' Henry. In what 
 way precisely this prophet executed 
 his mission, whether by addressing 
 the people in a general assembly, or 
 by delivering it from city to city, and 
 from tribe to tribe, it is not possible 
 to decide ; but his errand was to con- 
 vince them of sin, and to bring them 
 to repentance and humiliation be- 
 fore God in view of their past trans- 
 gressions. % Brought you up from 
 Eirypl. You in the loins or persons 
 of your fathers. See this phraseol- 
 ogy explained. Josh. 4. 23. 
 
 9. Of all that oppressed you. It is 
 not perfectly clear to whom this is 
 intended to apply. It cannot well be 
 referred to the Canaanites, in Judea 
 as they can scarcely be said to have' 
 'oppressed' the Israelites prior to 
 the occupation of their lands by the 
 latter, although they doubtless had 
 every disposition to do it. Some of 
 the Jewish commentators with much 
 probability understand it of Sihon, 
 Og, Arad and others whom the Is- 
 raelites encountered on their way 
 from Egypt to Canaan, to whom 
 should perhaps be added Balak, king 
 of Moab, the Midianites, the Edom- 
 ites, and whatever enemy endeavor- 
 ed to molest them on their march 
 
250 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1-266. 
 
 whose land ye dwell : but ye 
 have not obeyed my voice. 
 
 11 IT And there came an an- 
 gel of the Lord, and sat under 
 an oak which was in Ophrah, 
 
 that pertained unto Joash Uhe 
 Abi-ezrite : and his son "'Gideon 
 threshed wheat by the wine- 
 press, to hide it from the Midian- 
 ites. 
 
 IJosh. 17, 2. i!i Heb. 11.32. 
 
 These they overcame, expelled, and 
 look possession of their country, and 
 so made good the declaration of the 
 text. 
 
 10. rear not the gods of the Amor- 
 ites. Fear them not so as to serve 
 and worship them j pay them not di- 
 vine honors. By the Amorites is 
 meant the Canaanitish nations in 
 general. See on Josh. 24. 14. 15. 
 % But ye have not obeyed my voice. 
 In this and the two preceding verses 
 there is no express promise of deliv- 
 erance, bat merely a recital of the 
 Lord's goodness and the charge of 
 disobedience and rebellion brought 
 against the people. The reason per- 
 haps of an address so purely legal 
 was to deepen their repentance, to 
 make them feel more bitterly the 
 evil and malignity of their conduct, 
 and on the borders of despair to cry 
 more earnestly for the divine succor. 
 As we learn, however, from the 
 facts recorded that it icas the purpose 
 "of God to afford relief, we may pro- 
 perly understand the rebuke as im- 
 plying the promise of pardon and 
 deliverance, on condition of their re- 
 turning to God. As a general rule, 
 in God's dealings with sinners, 
 where present evils are spoken of as 
 a penalty of pa^ offences, it is to be 
 understood that forgiveness will fol- 
 low reformation. We may there- 
 fore without hazard suppl}^ the last 
 clause thus ; — ' But ye have not 
 obeyed my voice ; nevertheles I 
 have heard your cry, and have pur- 
 posed deliverance.' This is merely 
 putting the actual conduct of the 
 Most High into words. 
 
 11. A?i angel of the Lord. Not a 
 created angel, but the Son of God 
 himself, the eternal Word, the Lord 
 of angels, anticipating the appear- 
 ance he was afterwards in the full- 
 ness of time to make in human form. 
 
 This is evident from his being 
 called V. 14 — 16, ' Jehovah,' and from 
 his saying, ' I will be with thee.' 
 See on ch. 2. 1, IT Sal under an 
 oak which vjas in Ophrah. Or, Heb. 
 'sat under a grove or cluster of" 
 oaks.' Ophrak was a city of Ma- 
 nasseb, west of Jordan," situated 
 about sixteen miles north of Jericho, 
 and not far from the river Jordan. 
 IT Joash the Abi-ezrite. Of the pos- 
 terity, of the family, of Abiezer, who 
 belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, 
 Josh. "17. 2. This Ophrah probably 
 fell to the inheritance of this family, 
 and it may be also so called to dis- 
 tinguish it from another Ophrah, in 
 the tribe of Benjamin. Josh. 18. 23. 
 V Gidean threshed wheat by the wine 
 press. The Hebrew properly de- 
 notes, ' threshed wheat with a stick 
 in a wine press ;' a very expressive 
 illustration of the remarks made 
 above respecting the oppression of 
 the Midianites. Gideon was obliged 
 to thresh his wheat in a small quan- 
 tity, and in an unusual place, to con- 
 ceal it from the enemy. This shows 
 how extreme was the distress of the 
 Israelites, seeing that they could not 
 retain an}^ part of their own produce 
 except by stealth . The smallness of 
 the quantity is shown by the manner 
 in which it was threshed, which was 
 not with cattle, as was usual with 
 large quantities, bat b}^ means of the 
 flail, which was seldom employed 
 but in threshing small quantities. 
 And then the threshing was in or 
 near the wine press, that is, in an 
 unusual place, in ground appropri- 
 ated to another purpo.<e. The flail 
 also falling on grain placed on the 
 dead ground, not on a boarded floor, 
 as with us, made but little noise, 
 whereas the bellowing of the oxen 
 might, in the other case, have led to 
 detection. It will be obsei ved, how- 
 
A. C. 1256.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 251 
 
 12 And the "angel of the 
 Lord appeared unto him, and 
 said unto him, The Lord is 
 "with thee, thou mighty man of 
 valor. 
 
 13 And Gideon said unto 
 
 H cIk 13. 3. Lnkel. II, 
 
 over, contrary to the opinion of some 
 commentators, that this threshing- 
 ground was in the open air, else 
 Gideon could not have expected dew 
 to fall upon the ground or on the 
 fleece, which he spread out there, v. 
 37 — iO, V To hide it from the 
 Midianites. Heb. ' to cause it to flee 
 from the Midianites;' i. e. that it 
 might be hastily gathered up on the 
 approach of the enemy and conveyed 
 •to a place of safety. The original 
 word is the same with that employ- 
 ed Ex. 9. 20, 'He that feared the 
 word of the Lord — made his servants 
 and his cattle jiee into the houses,' 
 where it is evidently exegetical of 
 'gather' in the preceding verse. 
 
 13. The Lord is vnth thee. Chal. 
 Uhe Word of the Lord is for thy 
 jielp, thpu mighty man of valor.' 
 jtn ancient form of salutation, ex- 
 pressing the assurance, or conveying 
 an invocation, of the presence, pro- 
 lection, and blessing of God. From 
 .Gideon's answer v. 13, it would ap- 
 .pear that the former is the sense in 
 -this passage. Thus Boaz saluted 
 his reapers, Ruth, 2, 4, and thus the 
 angel accosted the mother of Christ, 
 Luke 1.28. IT Thou mightij man 
 
 of V alor. This appellatron may 
 a"t once have been founded upon 
 some previous display of courage 
 and personal progress put forth by 
 Gideon, and may also have been pre- 
 dictive of the character he should 
 hereafter exhibit as a divinely com- 
 missioned and qualified deliverer of 
 his countrymen. The instruments 
 \vhich God chooses to effect his pur- 
 poses he endows, strengthens., and 
 animates for the work to which he 
 calls them. Though often to human 
 view unlikely instruments, yet they 
 will ever be found best qualified for 
 i.he employment assigned them. 
 
 him, O my Lord, if the Lord be 
 with us, why then is all this be- 
 fallen us ? and p where be all his 
 miracles i which our fathers told 
 us of, saying, Did not the Lord 
 bring us up from Egypt? but 
 
 p So Ps. 89. 49. Is 59. 1. & 63 1-5. q Ps. 44. 1 ' 
 
 13. If the Liord be loith us. Chal. 
 'is the'Shechinah of the Lord for our 
 help V The angel it will "be observed 
 addressed Gideon in the singular, 
 ' the Lord is with thee-\ but he, in 
 his reply, continually makes use of 
 the plural, — ' if the Lord be with us' 
 — showing that he identified himself 
 with his people, and that he scarcely 
 knew how to conceive of the divine 
 presence with Aim, when there was 
 no evidence of its being enjoyed by 
 them. An humble and self-distrust- 
 ing spirit is always backward to re- 
 cognize the special tokens of the di- 
 vine favor, and, far from wishing to 
 monopolize them, is anxious that 
 such gracious manifestations should 
 be shared by others. IT Why then 
 is all this befallen us. Heb.'w^hy 
 hath all this found us 1.' A plain ac- 
 knowledgment that the evils suflfer- 
 ed were occasioned .by the withdraw- 
 ment of the olivine presence. It is 
 supposed, by the very terms, that the 
 continued enjoyment of the light of 
 God's countenance would have pre- 
 cluded them. IT Where be all his 
 miracles, &c. Why does not the 
 same power w^hich delivered our fa- 
 thers from the yoke of the Eg)- ptians, 
 deliver us out of the hands of the 
 Midianites 1 ' It is sometimes hard, 
 but never impossible, to reconcile 
 cross providences with the presence 
 of God and his favor.' Henry. IT 
 Delivered us into tM /lands of the 
 3Iidianites. Heb. t]!:, properly the 
 holloiv of the ha7id ; diflferent from 
 -ji the hand usually employed in 
 such connections. — 'The valiant 
 man was here weak, weak in faith, 
 weak in discourse, whilst he argues 
 God's absence by affliction, a^d his 
 presence by deliverances, and the 
 unlikelihood of success, by his own 
 inability ; all gross inconsequences. 
 
252 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1256. 
 
 now the Lord hath 'forsaken us, 
 and delivered us into the hands 
 of the Midianites. 
 
 14 And the Lord looked 
 upon him, and said, 'Go in this 
 thy might, and thou shalt save 
 Israel from the hand of the Mid- 
 ianites : 'have not I sent thee? 
 
 15 And he said unto him, O 
 
 r 2 Chr. 15. 2. 
 t Josli. 1. 9. ch 
 
 I Sam. 12. 11. Heb. 11. 32, 34. 
 
 Rather should he have inferred 
 God's presence in their correction; 
 for wheresoever God chastises, there 
 he is, yea, there he is in mercy. No- 
 thing more proves us his than his 
 stripes : he will not bestow chastise- 
 ment where he loves not. Fond na- 
 ture thinks God should not suffer the 
 wind to blow on his dear ones, but 
 none out of the place of torment 
 have suffered so much as his dearest 
 children. He says not, ' We are 
 idolaters : therefore the Lord hath 
 forsaken us, because we have forsa- 
 ken him.' This sequel had been as 
 good as the other was faulty ; ' He 
 hath delivered us unto the Midian- 
 ites, therefore he hath forsaken us.' 
 Sins, not afflictions, argue God ab- 
 sent.' Bp. Hall 
 
 14. And the Lord looked upoji him. 
 That is, not merely directed his e5'es 
 towards him, but looked upon him 
 efficaciously, with an indescribable 
 power and influence, as it is said, 
 Luke 22. 61, ' And the Lord turned 
 and looked upon Peter;' i. e. in such 
 a way as he only could look upon 
 him ; with an efficacy absolutely di- 
 vine, the consequence of which was 
 he went out and wept bitterly. 
 Here however the look was one of 
 encouragement and favor, one which 
 banished his fears and inspired him 
 with new life, spirits, and confidence. 
 It will be noticed that the language 
 here employed, ' The Lord (Jeho- 
 vah) looked upon him,' plainly dis- 
 closes the real character of him who 
 is above called an angel. IT Go in 
 this thy strength. In the supernatu- 
 ral strength and fortitude with which 
 
 my Lord, wherewith shall I 
 save Israel ? behold, "my family 
 is poor in Manasseh, and I am 
 the least in my father's house. 
 
 16 And the Lord said unto 
 him, ^Surely I will be with thee, 
 and thou shalt smite the Midian- 
 ites as one man. 
 
 17 And he said unto him. If 
 
 u See 1 Sam. 9. 21. 
 
 Ex. 3. 12. Josh. 1. 5. 
 
 thou perceivest thyself to be endow- 
 ed as the result of this interview. 
 God gives men a commission of ser- 
 vice by giving them all the qualifi- 
 cations necessary for the execution 
 of it, and when this is the case hu- 
 man ceremonies merely recognise 
 instead of creating the authority un- 
 der which such persons act. ' A 
 good cause, a good calling, and a 
 good conscience will make a good 
 courage.' Trapp. 
 
 15. My family is poor. Heb, ' my 
 thousand is the meanest, or poorest,' 
 From Ex. 18. 25, we learn that the 
 Israelites were divided into tens,Jif' 
 lies, hundreds, and thousands ; a di- 
 vision expressly recognised Mic. 5. 
 2. 'Thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, 
 though thou be little among the thou- 
 sands of Israel, &c.' These thou- 
 sands embraced of course numerous 
 families, and the assertion of Gid- 
 eon seems to be, that the thousand to 
 which his family belonged had be- 
 come not only greatly diminished in 
 numbers, but also impoverished in re- 
 sources, so that they could do little 
 towards withstanding the enemy. 
 IT Least in my father's house. Either 
 the youngest, or in his apprehension 
 the least competent for the work in 
 question. He would represent him- 
 self as lacking in that ability, rank, 
 and influence which would induce 
 his countrymen to join his standard 
 in an enterprise against the Midian- 
 ites. 
 
 16. Smite the Midianites as one 
 man. As easily and effectually as if 
 they were but one man. 
 
 ' 17 Shoio vie a sign, that thou talk' 
 
A. C. 1249.] CHAPTER VL 
 
 253 
 
 now 1 have found grace in thy 
 sight, then -^shew me a sign 
 that thou talkest with me. 
 
 18 ^Depart not thence, I pray 
 thee, until I come unto thee, and 
 bring forth my present, and set 
 
 y Ki. 4. 1— S, ver. 36, 37. 2 Kings 20. 8. Ps. 86. 
 17. Is. 7. a. z Gen. 18. 3, 5. ci. 13. 15. 
 
 ^5^ loiih me. That it is thou, the true 
 and real Jehovah, with whom I am 
 honored to speak; that there is no 
 mistake, no illusion, as to the per- 
 sonage with whom I am now hold- 
 ing converse. This request seems 
 to have been prompted by a momen- 
 tary misgiving whether it were 
 really the divine Being himself with 
 whom he now had the honor of an 
 interview. ' The un usualness of 
 those revelations, in those corrupted 
 times, was such, that Gideon might 
 think of any thing rather than ''an 
 angel : no marvel if so strange a 
 promise from an unknown messen- 
 ger found not a perfect assent. Fain 
 would he believe, but fain would 
 have good warrant for his faith. In 
 matters of faith we cannot go on too 
 sure grounds : as Moses therefore, 
 being sent on the same errand, de- 
 sired a sign, whereby Israel miglit 
 know that God sent him; so Gideon 
 desires a sign from this bearer, to 
 know that this news is from God.' 
 Bp. Hall. 
 
 18. Bring forth my present. Heb. 
 *i]nn:>3 '>''m 'nincha ; a word usually 
 employed to signify a nienl-offcring 
 i. e. an offering of bread, wine, oil, 
 flour, and such like, as is observed on 
 Gen. 4. 3, 4. This has led some com- 
 mentators to suppose that Gideon, by 
 such an oblation, recognised in his 
 visiter a divine person, whom he in- 
 tended to honor by a real sacrifice, 
 and in fact the Greek version ren- 
 ders it, ' I will bring forth a sacrifice, 
 and sacrifice before thee.' Others re- 
 gard it merely as a hospitable meal 
 provided for the entertainment of a 
 respectable stranger. But in this 
 ease it is not so easy to perceive how 
 Gideon could have anticipated the 
 working of a sign or miracl-e in con- 
 22* 
 
 it before thee. And he said, I 
 will tarry until thou come 
 again. 
 
 19 ^ ^And Gideon went in, 
 and made ready a kid, and un- 
 leavened cakes of an ephah of 
 
 nection with the offering, as it is evi- 
 dent he did. He would seem in fact 
 to have forgotten the request which 
 he had a moment before made. The 
 remark of Henry on the word is at 
 least very plausible : — ' It is the same 
 word that is used for a meat-offering 
 (meal-offering,) and perhaps that 
 word which signifies both, because 
 Gideon intended to leave it to this 
 divine person, to determine which^it 
 should be, when he had it before 
 him, whether a feast, or a meat-of- 
 fering, and accordingly he would be 
 able to judge concerning him; if he 
 ate of it as common meat, he would 
 suppose him to be a man, a prophet ; 
 if otherwise, as it proved, he should 
 know him to be an angel.' 
 
 19. Made ready a kid, &c. The 
 manner in which the Arabs still en- 
 tertain strangers will cast light up- 
 on this passage. Shaw, in his Pre- 
 face, observes ; — ' Besides a bowl of 
 milk, and a basket of figs, raisins, 
 or dates, which upon our arrival 
 were presented to us, to stay our 
 appetites, the master of the tent 
 where we lodged, fetched us from 
 his flock, according to the number 
 of our company, a kid or a goat, a 
 lamb or a sheep, half of which v/as 
 immediately seethed by his wife, 
 and served with cuscasoe; the rest 
 was made kabab ; i. e. cutinto pieces 
 and roasted, which v/e reserved for 
 our breakfast or dinner next day.' 
 *\\ Put the broth in a pot^ &c. We 
 are to infer, according to the editor 
 of the Pictorial Bible, either that 
 Gideon boiled or stewed the kid and 
 seived up the meat and soup separ- 
 ately ; or else that he stewed one 
 part of the kid, and roasted or boiled 
 the other. Both methods are con- 
 sonant to oriental usages ; and, per- 
 
254 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249 
 
 flour : the flesh he put in a has- 
 ket, and he put the broth in a pot, 
 and brought it out unto him un- 
 der the oak, and presented it. 
 
 20 And the angel of God said 
 unto him, Take the flesh and the 
 unleavened cakes, and '^lay them 
 upon -this rock, and 'pour out 
 the broth. And he did so. 
 
 21 IF Then the angel of the 
 Lord put forth the end of the 
 staff* that was in his hand, and 
 touched the flesh and the unleav- 
 
 b ch. 13. 19. c See 1 Kings 18. 33, 34. 
 
 ened cakes ; and '^there rose 
 up fire out of the rock, and con- 
 sumed the flesh and the un- 
 leavened cakes. Then the an- 
 gel of the Lord departed out of 
 his sight. 
 
 22 And when Gideon ^per- 
 ceived that he vms an angel of 
 the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O 
 Lord God ! ""for because I have 
 seen an angel of the Lord face 
 to face. 
 
 23 And the Lord said unto 
 
 d Lev 9. i24. 1 Kings 18.38. 2 Chr. 7. 1. e ch. 
 13. 21. f Gen. 16. 13. 41.32. 30. Ex. 33. 20. ch. 13 22. 
 
 haps, the latter is the best hypothe- 
 sis, as the animal thus divided may 
 be the more speedily dressed. In this 
 case, the roasted part was probably 
 prepared in the most usual way of 
 preparing a hascy dish, that is, by 
 cuuing the meat into small pieces, 
 several of which are strung upon a 
 skewer, and so roasted or rather 
 broiled ; as several of these skewers 
 of meat can be dressed together, a 
 meal may in this way be very soon 
 prepared. This dish, he remarks, 
 is called kaboob, and is very com- 
 mon in western Asia. When meat 
 is thus dressed in itvo ways, the stew 
 is generally intended for immediate 
 use, and the kaboob for a future 
 meal, or for the traveller to carry 
 with him for his refreshment on the 
 way. As Gideon brought the meat, 
 as distinguished from the 'broth,' in 
 a basket, it was probably intended 
 by him that the stranger should take 
 it away with him for his future use. 
 This was a proper mark of careful 
 hospitality and attention. The bas- 
 ket was, probably, a small hand-bas- 
 ket made of palm-leaves or rashes. 
 IT Bronsht it out unto him under the 
 oak. See note on Gen. 18. 6 — 8. 
 The Arabs are accustomed, even to 
 the present day, to receive their 
 guests under a shade in the open air. 
 21. There rose up fire out of the 
 rock, &c. Showing hereby that he 
 was not a man who needed meat, 
 
 but the Son of God, who was to be 
 served and honored by sacrifice; 
 and signifying also to Gideon that 
 he had ' found grace in his sight,' 
 for God usually testified his accep- 
 tance of sacrifices, by kindling them 
 with fire from heaven. The accep- 
 tance of the sacrifice was also a to- 
 ken of the acceptance of his person ; 
 it went to confirm the commission 
 now given him, and to afibrd him 
 every needed assurance of success. 
 ir Departed out of his sight. Though 
 he had hitherto appeared in the form 
 of a traveller, with a statF in his 
 hand, yet he did not walk olf as a 
 man, but vanished and disappeared 
 as a spirit ; perhaps in the flame of 
 fire which he had kindled. Comp, 
 ch. 13. 20. 
 
 22. Perceived that he was an an- 
 gel of the Lord. Rather, ' Perceived 
 that he was /Ae angel of the Lord.' 
 V. 11. Comp. Gen. 32. 30. Ex 33.20. 
 IF Alas! O Lord God ! &c. An ellip- 
 tical sentence strikingly expressive 
 of the agitation and terror into 
 which Gideon was thrown, upon 
 discovering the real character of 
 the Angel. It is, as if he had said, 
 ' Have mercy upon me, O Lord God, 
 or I shall surely die, because I have 
 seen the angel of Jehovah face to 
 face !' As remarked upon Gen. 16. 
 13, it was anciently a prevalent sen- 
 timent, that if any man saw God, or 
 his representative Angel, he must 
 
A. C. 1249.] CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ?Peace he unto thee 
 
 him, 
 
 not : thou shalt not die. 
 
 24 Then Gideon built an al- 
 tar there unto the Lord, and 
 called it Jehovah-shalom : unto 
 
 fear this day it is yet 
 the Abi-ezrites. 
 25 IT And it 
 the same night. 
 
 die. On this account, Gideon is 
 alarmed and prays for his life. 
 ' Ever since man has by sin exposed 
 himself to God's wrath and curse, 
 an express from heaven has been a 
 terror to him, as he scarcely dares 
 expect good tidings thence ; at least, 
 in this world of sense, it is a very 
 awful thing to have any sensible 
 conversation with that world of spi- 
 rits, to which we are so much stran- 
 gers.' Henry. 
 
 23. The Lord said unto him, Peace 
 be unto thee^ Sue. ' Peace,' i. e. safely, 
 life, well-being ; the exact reverse 
 of what he feared. It is uncertain 
 whether this was spoken in an aud- 
 ible voice, or by inward suggestion; 
 probably the latter. ' The angel that 
 departed for the wonder, yet returns 
 for the comfort of Gideon. It is not 
 usual with God to leave his children 
 hi amaze, but he brings them out in 
 the same mercy which led them in, 
 and will magnify his grace in the 
 one, no less than his power in the 
 other.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 24. Gideon built an altar there — 
 and called it Jehovah-shalom. That 
 is, upon the top of the rock, on 
 which the miracle had been wrought, 
 V. 26. The purpose for which the 
 altar was erected, is explained in the 
 verses immediately following. The 
 words sVD"I3 nitl"' Jehovah Shalom, 
 literally signify, The Lord, peace, 
 and he probably so denominated the 
 altar, in reference to the assurance 
 of peace and blessing given him on 
 that memorable spot. 
 
 25. And it came to pass the same 
 night. Rather, \for it came to pass 
 the same night;' intimating the rea- 
 son that led him to erect the altar. 
 The incident is mentioned in the 
 preceding verse by anticipation. 
 There is no ground to suppose that 
 Gideon erected the altar before he 
 
 255 
 
 ^in Ophrah of 
 
 came to pass 
 that the Lord 
 
 said unto him, Take thy father's 
 
 had received the divine command 
 for so doing, and that was not till 
 the night after the vision, as is evi- 
 dent from what follows. But it is 
 entirely accordant with Scripture 
 usage to relate an event at first in 
 the gross, in a general and compen- 
 dious wa)', and afterwards to de- 
 scribe it in detail, wiih an express 
 enumeration of all the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 25. Take thy fathefs young bullock, 
 even the second bullock. Or, Heb. 
 'and the second bullock,' implying 
 that two bullocks were now to be 
 slain ; but as mention is made of 
 only one in v. 26, 28, our present 
 rendering is probably correct. But 
 why this animal is distinguished 
 by the epithet ' second,' is a question 
 not easily answered. It may be con- 
 jectured, that the Midianites had 
 taken away all the cattle of the Is- 
 raelites that they could lay their 
 hands upon, so that Gideon's father 
 had very few cattle left, perhaps on- 
 ly two, and of these the ' second,' in 
 point of age, Gideon is now directed 
 to offer as the fittest for sacrifice. 
 After all, the grounds of the epithet 
 cannot be satisfactorily settled. — 
 As Gideon's father appears to have 
 been addicted to idolatry, as well as 
 many of his fellow-townsmen, it may 
 be, as many of the elder commenta- 
 tors suppose, that this bullock had 
 been kept and fattened by him for a 
 sacrifice to Baal. IT The altar of 
 
 Baal that thy father hath. Which 
 belonged to his father, probably as 
 being built on his ground, and the 
 place of his worship, though evi- 
 dently designed for the common use 
 of the whole city, v. 29—30. '^Cut 
 down the grove that is by it. Prob- 
 ably a grove dedicated to Ashtaroth, 
 and perhaps containing her image, 
 as the original w^ord is ri'^XHi Asher- 
 
256 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 young bullock, even ihe second 
 bullock of seven years old, and 
 throw down the altar of Baal 
 that thy father hath, and 'cut 
 down the "grove that is by it : 
 
 26 And build an altar unto 
 the Lord thy God upon the top 
 of this rock, in the ordered place, 
 and take the second bullock, and 
 offer a burnt-sacrifice with the 
 wood of the grove which thou 
 shalt cut down. 
 
 27 Then Gideon took ten 
 men of his servants, and did as 
 the LoKD had said unto him : 
 
 ak, on which see note on ch. 3. 7. 
 ' First must Baal's altar be ruined, 
 ere God's be built: both may not 
 stand together: the true God will 
 have no society with idols, neither 
 will allow it us. I do not hear him 
 say, ' That altar and grove, which 
 were abused to Baal, consecrate 
 now to me:' but as one whose holy 
 jealousy will abide no worship till 
 there be no idolatry, he first com- 
 mands down the monuments of 
 superstition, and then enjoins his 
 own service : the wood of Baal's 
 grove must be used to burn a sacri- 
 fice unto God. When it was once 
 cut down, God's detestation and 
 their danger ceased : the good crea- 
 tures of God, that have been profan- 
 ed to idolatry, may, in a change of 
 their use, be employed to the holy 
 service of their Maker.' Bp.Hall. 
 
 26. Upon the top of this rock. Heb. 
 ' upon the top of this strong-hold.' 
 The native rock had probably been 
 in some way fortified and converted 
 into a fortress, to secure them from 
 the Midianites. IT In the ordered 
 place. Or, Heb. 'in an orderly 
 manner.' The original signifies 
 arrangement, disposition, order, and 
 doubtfess has reference to the pre- 
 scribed mode of erecting the altar, 
 Ex. 20. 24, 25, and also of laying on 
 the wood and the pieces of flesh 
 
 and so it was, because he feared 
 his fatiier's household, and the 
 men of the city, that he could 
 not do it by day, that he did it 
 by night. 
 
 2S ^ And when the men of 
 the city arose early in the morn- 
 ing, behold, the altar of Baal 
 was cast down, and the grove 
 was cut down that ivas by it, 
 and the second bullock was of- 
 fered upon the altar that was 
 built. 
 
 29 And they said one to ano- 
 ther, Who hath done this thing? 
 
 prepared for sacrifice. The cere- 
 mony was to be gone about with 
 care' and reverence; it was not to 
 be performed in a cursory, hurried, 
 or irregular manner, but with a due 
 observance of all the appointed for- 
 malities. Although Gideon was not 
 a priest, nor was this the established 
 place of sacrifice or worship, yet 
 God may dispense with his own in- 
 stitutions, whenever it seems good in 
 his eyes. His call and commission 
 can "'make any person, and his 
 choice any place, sacred. 
 
 27. Feared his father's household. 
 Lest they should have opposed him 
 from an'apprehension, that the de- 
 struction of the altar would incense 
 the Midianites, and so bring aug- 
 mented evil upon themselves, v. 30. 
 It is not to be inferred that Gideon 
 feared the resentment of his kindred 
 or neighbors, or that he shrunk from 
 any danger connected with the un- 
 dertaking ; but as a matter of policy 
 and prudence, he saw fit to engage 
 in the enterprise by night, when he 
 would be least exposed to interrup- 
 tion or opposition from the votaries 
 of Baal. It appears obvious that 
 his father was of this number ; ac- 
 cordingly he look ten of his own 
 servants, in whom he could confide, 
 and who, we may suppose, had like 
 their master preserved their integ- 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 257 
 
 And when they inquired and 
 asked, they said, Gideon the son 
 of Joash hath done this thing. 
 
 30 Then the men of the city 
 said unto Joash, Bring out thy 
 son, that he may die : because 
 
 rity, and not 'bowed the knee to 
 Baal,' and by their aid faithfully ex- 
 ecuted the work enjoined upon him. 
 
 29. They said, Gideon the son of 
 Joash hath done this thing. By what 
 means they satisfied ihemselves of 
 this, we are not informed. The 
 original, by using two nearly syno- 
 nimous words, '^rp-'^l "^laiT^ ^^'^V 
 inquired and investigated, implies 
 that a very careful and diligent in- 
 quiry was made. It is probable that 
 Gideon had been previously known 
 to be somewhat disaffected to the 
 prevalent idolatry, and upon put- 
 ting this and all other circumstances 
 together, they hesitate not to fix their 
 suspicions upon him, which may 
 have been confirmed by the disclo- 
 sures of some of the party engaged 
 with him. In some way or other, 
 the evidence was conclusive against 
 him, and nothing but his blood could 
 satisfy the persecuting rage of his 
 idolatrous fellow-townsmen. 
 
 30. Bring out thy son thai he may 
 die. As a profane and sacrilegious 
 wretch. To such a pitch of impiety 
 were these degenerate Israelites ar- 
 rived, that they do not scruple to 
 call upon Jeash to deliver up his 
 own son to death, for aiming to sup- 
 press practices, which, if the law 
 had had its course, would have sub- 
 jected them to death. The divine 
 law expressly prescribed that the 
 worship of idols should be treated 
 as a capital offence, and yet these 
 wicked men impiously turn the 
 penalty upon the worshippers of the 
 God of Israel 1 ' Was it not enough 
 to offer the choicest of their bullocks 
 to Baal, but must the bravest youths 
 of their city fall as a sacrifice to that 
 dunghill deity, when they pretended 
 he was provoked '? How soon will 
 idolaters become persecutors.' Hen- 
 ry. Rosenmuller suggests, with 
 
 he hath cast down the altar of 
 Baal, and because he hath cut 
 down the grove that loas by it. 
 31 And Joash said unto all 
 that stood against him, Will ye 
 plead for Baal? will ye save 
 
 much plausibility, that it was in re- 
 ference to this incident Gideon de- 
 rived his name, with posterity, from 
 5J-[3 Gada, to cut or hew doion, q. d. 
 a cutter-down, a demolisher. Innu- 
 merable instances occur in the Scrip- 
 tures, in which persons are called 
 by acquired, and not by their origi- 
 nal names, the latter being in fact 
 often entirely lost. 
 
 31. Joash said unto all that stood 
 against him, &c. Joash had evident- 
 ly before been a patron of Baal's 
 altar, but here he appears decidedly 
 taking part with his son who had 
 demolished it. To what the sudden 
 change in his mind was owing, we 
 are not informed. The probability, 
 we think, is, that Gideon, perceiv- 
 ing in the morning to what a pitch 
 of exasperation the citizens were 
 wrought, and how seriously they 
 threatened his life, took occasion 
 frankly to inform his father of the 
 visit of the angel, and of all the cir- 
 cumstances of his call and commis- 
 sion, and that this added to his feel- 
 ings as a father, had served at once 
 to convince him of his former error 
 and to determine him to stand by 
 his son against the rage of the popu- 
 lace. His argument is briefly this; 
 — Do not act thus precipitately 
 against my son ; for if Baal be really 
 a God, he will avenge his own cause, 
 and if he be not a god, then they 
 who plead for him deserve instant 
 death. A deity who cannot defend 
 himself, is unworthy of the defence 
 of others. This reasoning was un- 
 answerable, and it prevailed. It 
 was, in fact, a fair challenge to Baal 
 to ' do either good or evil,' and the 
 result convinced his worshippers of 
 their folly in praying to one to help 
 them who could not defend himself. 
 —The following is proposed as an 
 amended translation of this verse, of 
 
258 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 him ? he that will plead for him, 
 let him be put to death whilst it 
 is yet morning : if he le a god, 
 let him plead for himself, be- 
 cause one hath cast down his 
 altar. 
 
 32 Therefore on that day he 
 
 which of course the Hebrew scholar 
 alone is qualified to pronounce judg- 
 ment; — ' And Joash said unto all 
 -that stood against (rather, by, npon^ 
 i. e. round about, him), Will ye 
 plead for Baal 1 will ye save him 
 (Gideon)? seeing that if he were a god 
 whosoever should have dared to con- 
 tend with him (Baal) would have 
 died before morning ; if he is a god 
 he will himself ^]e3A with him (Gid- 
 eon), because he hath cast down 
 his altar.' The drift of Joash, as we 
 understand the passage, is to repre- 
 sent to Baal's votaries how absurd it 
 is for ther.i to undertake to avenge 
 the insult done to their idol, when if 
 he were a god, as they thought him 
 to be, he would assuredly have taken 
 the matter into liis own liands and 
 punished the offender on the spot 
 Avithout suffering him to see the 
 light of the morning. We have little 
 doubt that this is the true sense of 
 the words. The common version 
 is not only contradictory in making 
 Joash propose, that he who pleadeth 
 for Baal should be immediately put 
 to death, and then asserting that Baal 
 should plead for himself; but it 
 erroneously renders ^pSn — iP by 
 whilst it is yet viorning^ when its 
 true signification is %uitil or against 
 the morning, i. e. he would ha^'e 
 perished against or previous to the 
 morning; Baal would have killed 
 him outright. The proposed ren- 
 dering is clearly confirmed by the 
 tenor of the next verse. The con- 
 duct of Joash, under these circum- 
 stances, leads us to remark, (1.) 
 That if we have been zealous in a 
 bad cause, we should with greater 
 zeal seek to amend what we have 
 done amiss, by our open advocacy 
 
 called him '^Jerubbaal, saying, 
 Let Baal plead against him, be- 
 cause he hath thrown dov/n his 
 altar. - 
 
 33 IT Then all ithe Midianites, 
 and the Amalekites^ and the 
 children of the east were gath- 
 
 k I Sam. 12 U. 2 Sam. 11. 21. See Jer. 11. 13. 
 no<. 9. 10. 1 ver. 3. 
 
 of the truth. (2.) Nothing must pre- 
 vail upon us to give up the innocent, 
 whoever combine to destroy them, 
 (3.) Though it may be highly dan- 
 gerous to reprove a wicked people, 
 we must do our duty, and trust God 
 with the event, 
 
 32. He called him. Rather accord- 
 ing to the Heb. idiom ' he was call- 
 ed ;' not that his father particularly 
 gave him that name, but it became 
 an appellation by which he was gen- 
 erally called. '^Jerubbaal. Heb. 
 ^5>^'1-i Yerubbaal, doubtless contract- 
 ed from ^5:3 ^i-ii one with whom Baal 
 pleads or contends ; i. e. impliedly, 
 one with whom Baal may plead if he 
 pleases ; with whom he is challeng- 
 ed to plead if he can or dare. Ac- 
 cording to a very common usage, h 
 is a kind of play upon the original "^ 
 word for 2^'t^ad (^'^n ''^c^) which 
 occurs so often in the preceding 
 verse. The name was evidently 
 intended to imply a standing defi- 
 ance to Baal, LO do his worst upon 
 Gideon and his adherents. Instead 
 of this name, we find in 2 Sam, 11. 
 21, the equivalent title r,:rn'n*i Yer- 
 ubbosheth, i. e. the -.shame, or the abo^ 
 rriination, shall contend, applied to 
 Gideon. Baal is in several instances 
 called, in the prophets, 'the shame,' 
 
 ' the shameful thing,' &c. See Jer. 
 11. 13. Hos. 9. 10. ^Saying, Lei 
 Baal, &,c. Rather, ' meaning. Let 
 Baal,' &c. Thus the original 
 ("i?3sb) ^s often to be imderstood. 
 Tt is equivalent to the phrase, 
 * Which being interpreted is,' &c. 
 
 33. Then all the Midianites and 
 the Amalelcites — went over. Heb. 'all 
 Midian and Amalek.' They passed 
 over the Jordan and crossed the 
 country as far as to the borders of 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 259 
 
 ered together, and went over, 
 and pitched in '"the valley of 
 Jezreel. 
 
 34 But "the Spirit of the Lord 
 came upon Gideon, and he °b!ew 
 a trumpet ; and Abi-ezer was 
 gathered after hun. 
 
 35 And he sent messengers 
 throughout all Manasseh ; who 
 also was gathered after him : 
 and he sent messengers unto 
 
 111 Josh. 17. 16. n cli. 3. 10. 1 Chr. li. 18. B Ci;r. 
 21. 20. o. Num., 10. 3.. ch 3- 27. 
 
 Manasseh and Issachar, and pitched 
 in the ' plain' (rather than the ' val- 
 ley') of Esdraelon, anciently called 
 Jezreel, of \s:hich see on ch. 5. 21, 
 
 34. The spirit of th^ Lard came up-. 
 071 Gideon. Heb. 'the spirit of the 
 Lord .clothed Gideon.' That is, 
 filled him up fully, possessed him 
 entirely, raising him above him- 
 self, in all the endowments neces- 
 sary for his arduous undertaking. 
 Chal. 'a spirit of fortitude from be- 
 fore the Lord clothed Gideon.' The 
 phrase is remarkable, as intimating 
 his being indued with supernatural 
 courage, zeal, and M'isdom in the 
 prosecution of the work before him. 
 Being thus clothed with the armor of 
 God he ' waxed valiant in fight,' and 
 was enabled to ' turn to flight the ar- 
 mies of the aliens.' The same phrase 
 in the original occurs 1 Chron. 13. 18. 
 2 Chron. 24. 20, though in both in- 
 stances rendered in our version, 
 ' The spirit of the Lord came upon,' 
 which comes far short of the force 
 and significancy of the Hebrew. A 
 similar phraseology is met with in 
 the N. T. Luke 24.49, ' Tarry ye in 
 the city of Jerusalem, till ye be en- 
 dued (Gr. clothed) icil-h powc^- from 
 on high.' IT And he bleto a trumpet. 
 Caused trumpets to be blown to call 
 in volunteers, as we before remark- 
 ed of Ehud, ch. a. 27. '^ Abiezer 
 teas gathered after him. Heb. ' was 
 called together, was convoked by 
 proclamation.' By Abiezer, is meant 
 the house or family of Abiezer, the 
 
 Asher, and unto Zebulun, and 
 unto Naphtali ; and they came 
 up to meet them, 
 
 36 H And Gideon said unto 
 God, If thou wilt save Israel by 
 my hand, as thou hast said, 
 
 37 pBehold, 1 will put a 
 fleece of wool in the floor : and 
 if the dew be on the fleece only, 
 and it he dry upon all the earth 
 besides, then shall I know that 
 
 ,p See Ex. 4. 3, 1, 6, 7. 
 
 kindred of Gideon, as Israel often 
 stands for Israelites. 
 
 35. Throughout all Manasseh. Pro- 
 bably on boih sides the Jordan. If 
 Unto Asher — Zebulun — and Naph- 
 tali These were near to the half 
 tribe of Manasseh on the north. As 
 they naturally concluded that if their 
 neighbors were overrun by the Mi- 
 dianites, their own turn would come 
 next, they were forward to unite 
 against a common enemy. The 
 tribe of Ephraim lay to the south of 
 Manasseh. They were not invited, 
 and this gave rise to the crimination 
 mentioned ch. 8. 1, 
 
 37. IvriU put a fleece of wool, &c. 
 It is exceedingly di Ihcult to determine 
 whether Gideon desired the working 
 of this miracle for the confirmation 
 of his own wavering faith, or main- 
 ly to strengthen the confidence of 
 his followers. From the circum- 
 stances of his interview with the 
 Angel, from the success of his en- 
 deavors to destroy idolatry in his 
 father's house, from the readiness of 
 several of the tribes to enlist under 
 his banners, and more especially 
 from its being said just before, that 
 he was 'clothed with the spirit of 
 the Lord,' ii would seem scarcely 
 credible that he could have desired 
 any stronger assurance himself of 
 the divine presence and blessing. 
 Yet considering the weakness of 
 human nature, it is more than pos- 
 sible that this might have been the 
 case J that the view of the great 
 
260 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 thou wilt save Israel by my 
 hand, as thou hast said. 
 
 38 And it was so : for he 
 rose up early on the morrow, 
 and thrust the fleece together, 
 
 multitudes of the enemy may have 
 rather intimidated his spirit, and 
 made him anxious for a still farther 
 manifestation of the divine favor, 
 as the seal of his commission. Some 
 have even supposed that God, who 
 intended to vouchsafe to him these 
 new tokens of his mission, put into 
 his heart to ask them. However this 
 may be, the result went, (1.) To il- 
 lustrate the divine condescension. 
 God, instead of being offended with 
 his servant, kindly acceded to his 
 request. A fellow creature who had 
 given such solemn promises, would 
 have been quite indignant at finding 
 his veracity seemingly called in 
 question. How offensive was the 
 apparent tenor of the request;—' If 
 thoa wilt save Israel by mine hand, 
 and do as thou hast said, behold I will 
 put a fleece of wool on the floor;, 
 and if the dew be on the fleece only, 
 and it be dry upon all the earth be- 
 side, then shall I know that thou wilt 
 save Israel by mine hand, as thou 
 hast said.' Nor did even this suf- 
 fice ; he must go still farther, and 
 prove God a second time by revers- 
 ing the request, before he can believe 
 that God loill do as he has said. Vet 
 the Most High, in his amazing cle- 
 mency, far from being offended, 
 gives him the satisfaction he desires 
 and accomodates himself to the 
 wishes of his doubting servant ! ' Is 
 this, O Lord, the manner of men !' 
 (2.) To show the efficacy of prayer. 
 It was prayer that prevailed in this 
 instance. With great humility and 
 much tenderness of spirit, Gideon 
 besought the divine interposition. 
 When he repeated his request for a 
 second sign, the reverse of the for- 
 mer, he did it with an humble apo- 
 logy, like Abraham in similar cir- 
 cumstances, deprecating God's dis- 
 pleasure, because ii. looked so much 
 
 and wringed the dew out of the 
 fleece, a bowl-full of water. 
 
 39 And Gideon said unto 
 God, "^Let not thine anger be hot 
 against me, and I will speak but 
 
 q Gen. 18. 32. 
 
 like a capricious distrust, and his 
 supplication prevailed. So we, un- 
 der circumstances of pressing exi- 
 gency, may look for a gracious an- 
 swer to our importunate prayers. 
 Not that we are to expect miracu- 
 lous manifestations, for the age of 
 miracles is pasi,butwe may confi- 
 dently expect that even in relation 
 to temporal matters, our prayers 
 will not go forth in vain; while in 
 reference to spiritual matters, they 
 shall descend almost in visible an- 
 swers on our souls. Were we to 
 suppose the whole church, or neigh- 
 borhood where we dwell, to be in a 
 state of the utmost barrenness and de- 
 solation, as it respects the blessings 
 of salvation, yet if we cry earnestly 
 to God the dew ol his grace shall 
 descend upon us in the richest abun- 
 dance. If, on the oiher hand, the 
 judgments of heaven are poured 
 forth around us, to us a merciful 
 exemption shall be given, according 
 to the divine promise, ' A thousand 
 shall fall at thy side, and ten thou- 
 sand at thy riglit hand, but it shall 
 not come nigh thee.' No man can 
 conceive to what an extent God will 
 magnify his grace and condescen-- 
 sion towards an humble supplicant,, 
 calling upon him from the depths of 
 his soul, till he has himself made 
 the happy experiment. ' We may 
 ask what we will, and it shall be 
 done unto us,' !! Dry upon all the 
 earth beside. Upon all the ground 
 immediately adjacent to the place. 
 
 38. A bowl full of water. For an 
 account of ihe abuiidant dews which 
 fall in the East, see note on Gen, 27.. 
 28. ' We remember,' says the edi- 
 tor of the Pictorial Bible on this 
 place, ' while travelling in Western 
 Asia, to have found all the baggage, 
 v.'hich had been left in the open air, 
 so w^et, when we came forth from 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 261 
 
 this once : Let me prove, I pray 
 thee, but this once with the 
 fleece ; let it now be dry only 
 upon the fleece, and upon ail the 
 ground let there be dew. 
 
 40 And God did so that night : 
 for it was dry upon the fleece 
 only, and there was dew on all 
 the ground. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 n^HEN ^'Jerubbaal (who 
 
 IS 
 
 Gideon) and all the people 
 
 the tent in the morning, that it seem- 
 ed to have been exposed to heavy 
 rain, and we could with difficulty 
 believe that no rain had fallen. So 
 also, when sleeping in the open air, 
 the sheep-skin cloak which served 
 for a covering has been found in the 
 morning, scarcely less wet than if 
 it had been immersed in water.' 
 
 39, Let me prove — 2cith the fleece. 
 Let me make trial. IT Let it be dry 
 upon the fleece. This might be con- 
 sidered a more extraordinary event 
 than the former, as it is natural for 
 wool to absorb whatever moisture 
 there may be in the air about it ; but 
 this was in direct contravention of 
 the ordinary laws of nature. ' So 
 willing is God to give to the heirs of 
 promise strong consolation., even by 
 two immutable things. He suffers 
 himself, not only to be prevailed 
 with by their importunities, but to 
 be prescribed to by their doubts and 
 dissatisfactions.' Henry. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 1. ThewellofHarod. Heb. 'foun- 
 tain of Harod,' i. e. of trepidation. 
 If this were a town or village it is no 
 where else mentioned. Probably 
 as Tin Harad signifies to shake or 
 tremble through fear, the fountain 
 may have had its name from the ter- 
 ror and panic with which the Mid- 
 ianites were seized at this place ; or, 
 what is still more likely, from the 
 fear which induced many of his ad- 
 
 23 
 
 that were with him, rose up 
 early and pitched beside the 
 well of Harod : so that the host 
 of the Midianites were on the 
 north side of them by the hill of 
 Moreh, in the valley. 
 
 2 And the Lord said unto 
 Gideon, The people that are 
 with thee are too many for me 
 to give the Midianites into their 
 hands, lest Israel ^vaunt them- 
 selves against me, saying, Mine 
 own hand hath saved me. 
 
 b Deut. 8. 17. Is. 10. 13. 1 Cor. 1. 29. 2 Cor. 4. 7. 
 
 herents to turn back from that place, 
 as related v. 3, where this very word 
 occurs, T^ni i^li "n^a whosoever is 
 fearful and afraid. Nothing is 
 more common in the Scriptures than 
 for persons and places to be named 
 from memorable events. The foun- 
 tain was situated not far from Gilboa, 
 on the borders of Manasseh, - V 
 Hill of Moreh. Heb. ' hill of the 
 archer.' Probably an eminence in 
 the Gilboa range of mountains, and 
 conjectured to be so called from the 
 archers that there wounded Saul, 1 
 Sam. 31.3. ^\ In the valley. The 
 valley of Jezreel or Esdraelon, of 
 which seech. 5. 21, 
 
 2, The people — are too many. 
 Though the whole array of the Isra- 
 elites consisted of only 32,000, while 
 that of the Midianites amounted to 
 at least 135,000, or four to one to the 
 Israelites, yet the Lord deems this 
 small number entirely too large for 
 the purposes he had in view, and 
 even when diminished to 10,000, or- 
 ders a still farther reduction, The 
 reason of this command is given in 
 what follows. The discharge of so 
 large a number of volunteers by no 
 means implies that they did not do 
 right in willingly offering them- 
 selves to the expedition ; the act of 
 enlisting in the service was proper 
 and commendable, but God saw that 
 the spirit by which they were actu- 
 ated was in multitudes of them de- 
 fective, and therefore so ordered it 
 
263 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 3 Now therefore go to, pro- 
 claim in the ears of the people, 
 saying, '^Whosoever is fearful 
 and afraid, let him return and 
 depart early from mount Gilead. 
 
 that they should be put to the test, 
 while at the same time he secured to 
 his own great name the entire glory 
 of the victory. We often read in 
 the sacred narrative of God's bring- 
 ing about great events by few agents, 
 but this is the first instance in which 
 he purposely made them fewer. 
 His design in addition to what has 
 been mentioned above doubtless was, 
 (1) To show that as to any particu- 
 lar instruments, he could, in effect- 
 ing his purposes, easily dispense 
 with them, and that they were more 
 indebted to him for employing them, 
 than he to them for tendering their 
 services. (2) To shame and humble 
 his people for their past cowardice in 
 tamely submitting to the yoke of 
 Midian. By the result of this enter- 
 prise he would afford them convinc- 
 ing proof that the disproportion of 
 numbers formed no apology for their 
 remissness ; that if they had, as they 
 ought to have done, made sure of the 
 favor of God, one of them might have 
 chased a thousand. But chief of all, 
 his purpose is to silence and exclude 
 boasting—' lest Israel vaunt them- 
 selves against me.' ' How jealous 
 is God of his honor ! He is willing 
 to give deliverance to Israel, but the 
 praise of the deliv^erance he will keep 
 to himself; and will shorten the 
 means, that he may have the mea- 
 sure of the glory.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 3. Proclaim in the cars of the peo- 
 ple, &c. This was according to a 
 standing enactment of the law, Deut. 
 20. 8, the design of which Avas to 
 prevent the contagious effects of 
 cowardice or ' faint-heartedness,' in 
 the army. The punctilious obser- 
 vance of this precept by Judas Mac- 
 cabeus is mentioned 1 "Mac. 3. 56, a 
 portion of ancient history which un- 
 fortunately is apt to be greatly over- 
 looked and undervalued in conse- 
 
 And there returned of the peo- 
 pie twenty and two thousand ; 
 and there remained ten thou- 
 sand. 
 
 4 And the Lord said unto 
 
 quence of being contained in the 
 ' Apocrypha.' These writings, 
 though not canonical, are intrinsi- 
 cally of very great value, and Chris- 
 tians generally, if but made aware 
 of their true character as to author- 
 ity, would prize their Bibles none 
 the less for containing them. IT De- 
 part early from mount Gilead. A 
 clause of very difficult solution from 
 the fact, that mount Gilead was on 
 the eastern side of the Jordan, 
 whereas Gideon was now on the 
 west, not far from mount Gilboa, and 
 did not cross the Jordan till after the 
 victory. Some would solve the diffi- 
 culty by supposing that there was a 
 mountain called Gilead on the west 
 of the Jordan as well as on the east. 
 But as there is no evidence of this, 
 the hj^pothesis merely cuts the knot 
 without untying it. Others again 
 propose a new reading for the text, 
 viz. Gilboa instead of Gilead. But 
 this is equally gratuitous. For our 
 own part, as the true import of the 
 Heb. 352: rendered depart early is 
 left by the lexicographers entirely 
 undetermined, we feel disposed to 
 abide by the rendering of the Chal- 
 dee, ' Whosoever is fearful and 
 afraid, let him return, and let a se- 
 lection be made from viount Gilead,^ 
 i. e. from the men of mount Gilead, 
 or the Abiezrites, among whom 
 Gideon dwelt, and upon whom he 
 supposed he could put more depend- 
 ence. This interpretation would 
 seem to be strikingly confirmed by 
 the complaint of theEphraimites in 
 ch. 8. 1, 2, on which see notes. ^ 
 There returned of the people ticenty 
 and tioo thousand. The application 
 of a rigid test is apt to make thinning 
 work in the ranks of God's pro- 
 fessed friends. One would have 
 thought that against such an enemy 
 as Midian, and under such a leader 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 268 
 
 Gideon, The people are yet too 
 many ; bring them down unto 
 the water, and I will try them 
 for thee there ; and it shall be 
 that of whom I say unto thee, 
 This shall go with thee, the 
 same shall go with thee ; and of 
 whomsoever I say unto thee. 
 
 as Gideon, no Israelite would have 
 owned himself fearful and proved 
 recreant to his duty. Yet two parts 
 out of three turned their backs upon 
 their country's standard when they 
 saw the numbers and the strength of 
 the enemy ! Alas, if it should be 
 found that the true and constant 
 hearts enlisted under the banner of 
 Christ bear no larger proportion than 
 this to the whole number! Who 
 will not do well to fear and tremble 
 for his own fidelity '? ' Christianity 
 requires men. David's royal band 
 of worthies was the type of the forces 
 of the church, all valiant men, and 
 able to encounter with thousands. 
 Doth but a foul word, or a frown, 
 scare thee from Christ '? Doth the 
 loss of a little land or silver disquiet 
 thee '? Doth but the sight of the Mid- 
 ianites in the valley strike thee'? 
 Home then, home to the world; 
 thou art not for the conquering band 
 of Christ. If thou canst not resolve 
 to follow him through infamy, pri- 
 sons, racks, gibbets, flames, depart to 
 thine house, and save thy life to thy 
 loss.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 4. The people are yet too many. It 
 is hardly possible to conceive a se- 
 verer trial of faith than that to which 
 Gideon's was now subjected. While 
 he doubtless thought his men too feio, 
 God saw that they were too many, 
 and ordered a still farther reduction ! 
 ' This may help us to understand 
 those providences which sometimes 
 seem to weaken the church and its 
 interests— its friends are too many, 
 too mighty, too wise, for God to 
 work deliverance by ; God is taking 
 a course to lessen them, that he may 
 be exalted in his own strength.' 
 Henry, IT I will try them. Will 
 
 This shall not go with thee, the 
 same shall not go. 
 
 5 So he brought down the 
 people unto the water : and the 
 Lord said unto Gideon ; Every 
 one that lappeth of the water 
 with his tongue as a dog lappeth, 
 him shalt thou set by himself; 
 
 put them to the proof; or, Heb. ' will 
 separate, will purify,' the word usu- 
 ally applied to the assaying or re- 
 fining of metals. Is. 48. 10. Mai. 3. 
 2, 3. IT For thee. God himself 
 knew perfectly beforehand who 
 would stand the test and who would 
 not, but for the satisfaction of Gid- 
 eon, he would have the trial made in 
 an open and convincing manner. 
 U Of whom I say unto thee, This shall 
 go, &c. That is, whom I shall in- 
 dicate by the result of the experi- 
 ment, not in express words. We 
 have before remarked of the word 
 ' say,' when applied both to God and 
 men, that it by no means necessari- 
 ly implies verbal communication, but 
 often simply the mental p^irpose of 
 the speaker. Probably a better ren- 
 dering throughout the clause would 
 be — * loill go,' ' willnot go,' &c. mak- 
 ing the sense rather that of 3.predic- 
 tion, than of a command. In the 
 first instance, the timorous were sep- 
 arated by public proclamation; in 
 the present, the same effect was to be 
 produced by a private signal, under- 
 stood only by God and his servant 
 Gideon. Multitudes had remained 
 rather than to incur the imputation 
 of cowardice, whom the Most High 
 still saw to be cravens at heart. 
 
 5. Every one that lappeth — as a 
 dog, &c. The two modes of drink- 
 ing here described have been differ- 
 ently understood, and the first, in 
 particular, has been the subject of 
 various interpretations. The dog 
 drinks by shaping the end of his long 
 thin tongue into the form of a spoon, 
 which it plies rapidly to and from 
 the water, throwing each time a 
 spoonful of the fluid into its mouth. 
 The human tongue is not adapted to 
 
264 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249, 
 
 likewise every one that boweth 
 down upon his knees to drink. 
 
 6 And the number of them 
 that lapped, putting their hand 
 to their mouth, were three hun- 
 dred men : but all the rest of the 
 people bowed down upon their 
 knees to drink water. 
 
 7 And the Lord said unto 
 Gideon, ''By the three hundred 
 men that lapped will I save you, 
 
 |d 1 Sam. 14. 6. 
 
 this use ; and it is physically impos- 
 sible, therefore, for a man to lap lit- 
 erally as a dog laps. The true ex- 
 planation undoubtedly is, that these 
 men instead of kneeling down to 
 take a long draught, or successive 
 draughts, from the water, employed 
 their hand as the dog employs his 
 tongue,— that is, forming it into a 
 hollow spoon, and dipping water 
 with it from the stream. This mode 
 of drinking is often practised in the 
 East, and practice alone can give 
 that peculiar tact to it which gener- 
 ally excites the wonder of travellers. 
 The interchange of the hand be- 
 tween the water and the mouth is 
 managed with amazing dexterity 
 and with nearly or quite as much 
 rapidity as the tongue of the dog in 
 the same act. The water is not 
 sucked out of the hand, but by a pe- 
 culiar jerk, is thrown into the mouth 
 before the hand is brought close to it, 
 so that the hand is approaching with 
 a fresh supply almost before the pre- 
 ceding has been swallowed ; which 
 constitutes another resemblance to 
 the action of the dog's tongue. In 
 travelling when one comes to water 
 and wishes to drink, he cannot well 
 stop the whole party to wait for him ; 
 and, therefore, if on foot, any delay 
 would oblige him to unusual exer- 
 tion in order to overtake his party. 
 Therefore he drinks in the manner 
 above described, and satisfies his 
 thirst, in much shorter time than 
 would one who should kneel or lie 
 clown for the purpose and indulge 
 
 and deliver the Midianites into 
 thy hand : and let all the other 
 people go every man unto his 
 place. 
 
 8 So the people took victuals 
 in their hand, and their trum- 
 pets : and he sent all tlie rest of 
 Israel every man unto his tent, 
 and retained those three hundred 
 men. And the host of Midian 
 was beneath him in the valley. 
 
 himself in a more leisurely draught. 
 This consumes so much time that 
 few, but those who are mounted, in- 
 dulge in it, as they can ride on be- 
 fore and satisfy themselves by the 
 time their party comes up; or if be- 
 hind, can easily overtake them. 
 This explanation will serve to show 
 how the distinction operated, and 
 why those who ' lapped, putting their 
 hand to their mouth,' were consider- 
 ed to evince an alacrity and readi- 
 ness for action which peculiarly 
 fitted them for the service in which 
 Gideon was engaged. — It may be ob- 
 served that the original word for 
 lappeth (p^'^ yalok) is precisely the 
 sound which a dog makes in drink- 
 ing. 
 
 6. T%at lapped, putting their hand 
 to their mouth. Heb. 'that lapped, 
 with their hand, towards their 
 mouth.' ^Him shall thou set by 
 himself. Heb. 315:^. As this is the 
 same word with that employed ch. 
 7. 37, to signify the putting by itself 
 of the fleece, it would seem that that 
 miracle had a designed though latent 
 reference to the two classes of men 
 here distinguished^ of whom the 
 one saturated themselves with water, 
 while the other, through a commend- 
 able hardihood and self-denial, left 
 themselv^es comparatively dry. The 
 reader, however, will exercise his 
 OA^Ti judgment as to recognizing any 
 such allusion. 
 
 7. Will I save you. You, the na^ 
 tion ; the word being in the plural. 
 
 8. So the people took victuals, &c. 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 265 
 
 9 IT And it came to pass the 
 same «night, that the Lord said 
 unto him, Arise, get thee down 
 unto the host ; for I have dehv- 
 ered it into thy hand. 
 
 10 But if thou fear to go 
 down, go thou with Phurah thy 
 servant down to the host : 
 
 11 And thou shalt ^hear what 
 they say ; and afterward shall 
 thy hands be strengthened to go 
 down unto the host. Then weut 
 
 e Gen. ■16. 2. 3. f v. 13, 14, 15. See Gen. 24. 14. 
 1 Sam. 14. 9, 10. 
 
 That is, the three hundred who lap- 
 ped. They took the necessary quan- 
 tity of victuals for the day's con- 
 sumption, while the others were dis- 
 missed to their tents, i. e. to go 
 where they pleased. It is highly 
 probable, however, that many of 
 them remained within hearing, 
 though at a safe distance, and fallow- 
 ed up the blow after the assault had 
 been made and the route commenced 
 by the select band. Those who 
 shun the conflict are often forward 
 to share the victory. M And re- 
 tained. Besides the sense of ' retain- 
 ing,' the Heb. implies that he clung 
 to them with strong affection and 
 confidence. IT The host of Midian 
 was beneath him in the valleij. In the 
 valley of Jezreel. This circum- 
 stance should be particularly noted 
 in connection with the dream men- 
 tioned below. 
 
 9. And it came to pass the same 
 night, &c. It should seem that the 
 previous reduction of his numbers 
 had filled Gideon with some secret 
 misgivings. God therefore gra- 
 ciously offered him a farther sign, 
 whereby his faith should be con- 
 firmed, and his fear altogether dis- 
 pelled. This was a sign that should 
 be given him by the enemy them- 
 selves. He was to go down with 
 his servant, to the enemy's camp, 
 and hear what they themselves said. 
 The result perfectly satisfied the 
 mind of Gideon ; he had no doubt 
 23* 
 
 he down with Phurah his ser- 
 vant unto the outside of the 
 armed men that were in the 
 host. 
 
 12 And the Midianites, and 
 the Amalekites, ^and all the 
 children of the east, lay along in 
 the valley like grasshoppers for 
 multitude ; and their camels 
 were without number, as the 
 sand by the sea-side for multi- 
 tude. 
 
 gch.6. 5, 33. & 8. 10. 
 
 now but that God would fulfil his 
 promise ; and in full assurance of 
 faith he instantly arranged every 
 thing for the encounter, H Ihave 
 delivered it into thine hand. It is as 
 certain as if it were already done. 
 
 10. Go thou vnth Phurah thy ser- 
 vant. Heb. ' thy young man.' His 
 being accompanied by his servant 
 would not only tend to diminish his 
 own fears, but their united testimony, 
 as to what they shoud hear, would 
 confirm the statements made to the 
 people on their return. 
 
 11. Thine hands be strengthened. 
 Thou shalt be encouraged, embold- 
 ened. God, who both inspired the 
 dream and directed Gideon's steps to 
 the spot where he might hear it re- 
 lated, knew perfectly well the effect 
 it would have upon his mind, which 
 he expressly foretells. U Unto the 
 outside of the armed men. Heb. ' to 
 the outerrao.st of the ranks by five.' 
 Of this phrase see note on Ex. 13. 18. 
 Josh. 1. 14. 
 
 13. Lay along. Heb. ' were lying 
 fallen;' i. e. lying prostrate and 
 fallen asleep. It does not refer 
 merely to the position they had cho- 
 sen for their encampment, but to the 
 bodily posture they were actually in 
 at this time. The same phrase oc- 
 curs in the same sense in the next 
 verse, where mention is made of the 
 prostration of the Midianites' tents, 
 IT Like grasshoppers. Rather, ' like 
 locusts;' as also ch. 6. 5, ^ And 
 
266 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 13 And when Gideon was 
 come, behold, there was a man 
 that told a dream unto his fellow, 
 and said, Behold, I dreamed a 
 dream, and lo, a cake of barley- 
 bread tumbled into the host of 
 Midian, and came unto a tent 
 and smote it that it fell, and over- 
 turned it that the tent lay along. 
 
 14 And his fellow answered, 
 
 their camels. That these nations, 
 especially Midian, abounded in 
 camels, see Is. 60. 6. 
 
 13. A cake of barley-bread tumbled, 
 &c. To understand this, it is ne- 
 cessary to revert to the circumstance 
 before mentioned, v. 8, viz. that Gid- 
 eon's forces were stationed on the 
 hill of Moreh, while the Midianites 
 had pitched IdbIow in the valley. 
 The barley-cake which the man saw 
 in his dream, doubtless seemed to 
 roll down the hill into the valley, 
 overturning the tent or tents with 
 which it came in contact. This 
 naturally enough connected it with 
 Gideon, while the apparent inade- 
 quacy of the cause to produce this 
 effect would strike the most casual 
 observer. If it had been a great 
 stone, the overturning of tents in its 
 progress would have occasioned no 
 wonder; but that such an effect 
 should be produced by a barley-cake, 
 seemed as little likely in human pro- 
 bability as that Gideon with his little 
 band should overthrow the vast host 
 of Midian. That it was not only a 
 cake, but a barley -tske, seems a cir- 
 cumstance designed to show more 
 strongly the insignificance of the 
 cause. The use of barley was grad- 
 ually superseded by that of wheat, 
 and barley-bread became the food 
 only of the lower orders, of convicts, 
 and of beasts. It was therefore nat- 
 urally associated with the ideas of 
 dishonor and insignificance. IT 
 Came unto a tent and smote it, &c, 
 Another instance, as we understand 
 it, of the Heb. usage by which the 
 collect, sing, is employed for the 
 
 and said, This is nothing else 
 save the sword of Gideon the 
 son of Joash, a man of Israel : 
 for into his hand hath God de- 
 livered Midian, and all the host. 
 15 IF And it was so, when 
 Gideon heard the telling of the 
 dream, and the interpretation 
 thereof, that he worshipped, and 
 returned into the host of Israel, 
 
 plural. It was not a single tent that 
 was smitten by the rolling cake, and 
 overthrown, but it came among them, 
 like a ball among nine-pins, pros- 
 trating every thing in its course. 
 
 14. This is notliing else save the 
 sicord of Gideon. That is, this means 
 nothing else than the sword, the vic- 
 torious charge and onset, of Gideon. 
 The interpretation as well as the 
 dream were doubtless both of divine 
 suggestion. ' A wise providence 
 hath prepared a dream in the head 
 of one Midianite, an interpretation 
 in the mouth of another, and hath 
 brought; Gideon to be an auditor of 
 both ; and hath made his enemies 
 prophets of his victory, encouragers 
 of the attempt, proclaimers of their 
 own confusion !' Bp. Hall. H De- 
 livered Midian and all the host. Or, 
 Heb. ' delivered Midian, even all the 
 host.' 
 
 15. The interpretation thereof. 
 Heb. 'the breaking thereof;' inas- 
 much as the solution or explication 
 of any thing obscure and difiicult is 
 like breaking the shell of a nut and 
 getting at the kernel within. T 
 He worshipped. Bowed himself in 
 a posture of reverence and adora- 
 tion, and gratefully gave thanks to 
 God for the encouragement he had 
 now been permitted to hear from a 
 source of which he little thought. 
 ' To hear himself called but a barley- 
 cake troubled him not, when he 
 heard withall that his rolling down 
 the hill should break the tents of 
 Midian. It matters not how base we 
 be thought, so we may be victorious: 
 the soul that hath received full con- 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 267 
 
 and said, Arise ; for the Lord 
 hath deUvered into your hand 
 the host of Midian. 
 
 16 And he divided the three 
 hundred men into three compa- 
 nies, and he put a trumpet in 
 every man's hand, with empty 
 pitchers, and lamps within the 
 pitchers. 
 
 17 And he said unto them. 
 Look on me, and do likewise : 
 and behold, when I come to the 
 outside of the camp, it shall be 
 that as I do, so shall ye do. 
 
 18 When I blow with a trum- 
 
 firmation of God in the assurance of 
 his salvation, cannot but bow the 
 knee, and by gestures of body tell 
 how it is ravished.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 16. Into three companies. Heb. 
 * into three heads;' i. e. three grand 
 divisions. So it is said of the rivers 
 of Eden, Gen. 2. 10, that they were 
 parted and became into four heads,' 
 i. e. four principal or distinguished 
 streams. See note in loc. The de- 
 sign of dividing them in this man- 
 ner was that they might appear to 
 surround the enemy's camp more 
 entirely, leading them to think that 
 they were environed on every side 
 by a great army. IT Put a trum- 
 pet in every man's hand. Heb. ' gave 
 trumpets into the hand of all of them.' 
 ^ Empty pitchers. Made of earthen 
 ware, so as to be easily broken. 
 They were designed to conceal 
 the lights till the proper time. TT 
 Lamps unthin the pitchers. Or, 
 Heb. ' torches, flambeaux.' Instead 
 of lamps furnished with wicks and 
 fed with oil, we are probably to un- 
 derstand, torches made of pitchy or 
 resinous billets of wood, the flame 
 of which was stronger and not so 
 liable to be extinguished by the 
 wind. 
 
 17. Look on me. Heb. ' see from 
 me ;' i. e. see from me. from my ex- 
 ample, what to do yourselves, and 
 when to do it. It is probable that he 
 
 pet, I and all that are with me, 
 then blow ye the trumpets also 
 on every side of all the camp, 
 and say, The sword of the Lord, 
 and of Gideon. 
 
 19 IT So Gideon and the hun- 
 dred men that were with him, 
 came unto the outside of the 
 camp in the beginning of the 
 middle watch ; and they had but 
 newly set the watch : and they 
 blew the trumpets, and brake the 
 pitchers that were in their hands. 
 
 20 And the three companies 
 blew the trumpets, and brake 
 
 now unfolded to them minutely 
 every step of the stratagem, so that 
 they "could all act in concert when the 
 signal was given, as otherwise the 
 strangeness of the scheme, the dark- 
 ness of the night, and the distance of 
 the men from each other, would have 
 been apt to render the whole abortive. 
 In these words he is merely agreeing 
 upon the signal. 
 
 18. The sword of the Lord and of 
 Gideon. Heb. ' for the Lord and for 
 Gideon.' The original for ' sword' 
 (Din herch) is not found in this 
 verse, though it is necessarily im- 
 plied, and occurs in the parallel pas- 
 sage V. 20. It is inserted, however, 
 in this place in the Chald. Syr. and 
 Arab. ; and in eight of Kennicott's 
 and De Rossi's manuscripts ; and is 
 probably a genuine reading. This 
 war-cry was taken from the inter- 
 pretation of the dream, to which 
 Gideon, with his usual modesty and 
 in recognition of his dependence on 
 divine succor, prefixed the name of 
 the Lord — ' The sword of the Lord 
 and of Gideon.' 
 
 19. In the beginning of the middle 
 watch. A little after midnight; for 
 the Hebrews divided the night into 
 three watches. At this time they 
 would naturally be sunk in their 
 profoundest slumbers, and of course 
 be thrown into the utmost confusion 
 on being suddenly awakened. 
 
268 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 the pitchers, and held the lamps 
 in their left hands, and the trum- 
 pets in their right hands to blow 
 withall: and they cried, The 
 sword of the Lord, and of Gid- 
 eon. 
 
 21 And they ^stood every 
 man in his place round about 
 the camp ; 'and all the host ran, 
 and cried, and fled. 
 
 22 And the three hundred 
 kblew the trumpets, and 'the 
 
 hEx. 14.13, 14. 2Chr.2U. 17. i 2 Kings 7. 7. 
 k Josli. 6. 4, 16, 20. See2Gor. 4. 7. 1 Ps. 83. y. 
 Is. 9. 4. 
 
 20. The three companies bleio the 
 trumpets, and brake the pitchers, &c. 
 Every man probably dashing his 
 pitcher against that of his comrade 
 who stood next him. The effect of 
 this, with the intermingled sound of 
 the trumpets and the shouts of the 
 assailants reverberating on every 
 side of the camp, together with the 
 sudden glare of three hundred torch- 
 es blazing on the scarcely-opened 
 eyes of the Midianites, must indeed 
 have been astounding. As the en- 
 emy could not imagine that every 
 Israelite had a trumpet and a light, 
 the noise of so many trumpets, the 
 blaze of so many lights, with the 
 crash of the broken pitchers from dif- 
 ferent quarters, must have conveyed 
 to their minds the most exaggerated 
 ideas of the numbers by which they 
 were beset. Gideon's army would 
 have been great indeed if, as the 
 Midianites must have supposed, the 
 number of the fighting men had been 
 in proportion to that of the trumpe- 
 ters. It was mainly in consequence 
 of this erroneous impression that the 
 stratagem succeeded as it did. 
 
 21. Stood every man in his place. 
 Thus the host of Midian was dis- 
 comfited without the Israelites' 
 striking a blow. They stood unmov- 
 ed in their places blowing their 
 trumpets and holding their torches, 
 as if to encourage and give light to 
 countless numbers of fighting men 
 behind, while in fact they afforded 
 
 Lord set "^ every man's sword 
 against his fellow, even through- 
 out all the host : and the host 
 fled to Beth-shittah in Zererath, 
 and to the border of Abel-meho- 
 lah, unto Tabbath. 
 
 23 And the men of Israel 
 gathered themselves together 
 out of Naphtali, and out of 
 Asher, and out of all Manasseh, 
 and pursued after the Midian- 
 ites. 
 
 mlSam. 11.20. 2 Chr. 20. 23. 
 
 light to the Midianites to slay each 
 other, though not enough to enable 
 them to distinguish friend from foe. 
 IT All the host ran, Slc. That is, ran 
 about the camp, hither and thither, 
 in wild confusion, pursuing and pur- 
 sued by their own men. The ' run- 
 ning' was thus distinguished from 
 the ' fleeing,' which was nothing else 
 than the attempt to escape from the 
 place of their encampment. The 
 panic was no doubt greatly increased 
 by the alarm and fright of their nu- 
 merous camels. IT Fled to Beth- 
 shittah, &c. The names of these 
 places occur not elsewhere in the 
 Scriptures, except that of Abel-Me- 
 holah, which was in the half-tribe of 
 Manasseh on this side Jordan. As 
 the Midianites would naturally strike 
 towards the Jordan to cross over into 
 their own country, the other places 
 here mentioned \vere doubtless in 
 that direction from the plain of Jez- 
 reel. 
 
 23. The men of Israel gathered 
 themselves together out of Naphtali, 
 &c. Including probably numbers of 
 the two and tw'enty thousand who 
 had previously withdrawn them- 
 selves, or been dismissed by Gideon 
 as lacking the requisite degree of 
 hardihood and courage for the im- 
 pending conflict. Now, however, 
 when bolder spirits had made the 
 onset and put the enemy to flight, 
 they are ready to join in the pursuit. 
 But though their timidity in the for- 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 24 IT And Gideon sent mes- 
 sengers throughout all ""mount 
 Ephraim, saying, Come down 
 against the Midianites, and take 
 before them the waters unto 
 Beth-barah and Jordan. Then 
 all the men of Ephraim gather- 
 ed themselves together, and 
 
 mer instance was not to their credit, 
 we do not know that their neutrality 
 on this occasion would have been 
 guiltless. It was probably their duty 
 to come forward to the aid of their 
 brethren and help them to a complete 
 victory. 
 
 24. Take before them the waters. 
 Take possession of the fords of what- 
 ever streams may lie in their route, 
 but more especially of the fords of 
 the Jordan, to prevent their escaping 
 into their own country. The ' wa- 
 ters' and the ' Jordan' are expressly 
 distinguished, nor can they properly 
 be considered the same, as is done 
 by many commentators. The copu- 
 lative ' and' may be regarded here, 
 as often elsewhere in the Scriptures, 
 as a particle of distinction ;— ' ocup- 
 py all the fords that lie in the way 
 till they come to Beth-barah, but 
 aJ)ove all those of the Jordan ;' or 
 with RosenmuUer, we may render, 
 ' Unto Beth-barah, even Jordan.' 
 The same precaution was taken be- 
 fore in the case of the Moabites, ch. 3. 
 28, and was the usual practice when 
 the enemy belonged to the country 
 east of the river. The Beth-barah 
 here spoken of is probably the same 
 with that mentioned John 1. 28, 
 where the Hebrews forded Jordan 
 under the direction of Joshua. 
 
 25. Sleio Oreb upon the rock Orcb, 
 Sec. These two Midianitish leaders 
 had taken shelter, one in the cavern 
 of a rock, the other in the vat of a 
 wine-press; both of which places 
 were afterwards, from this circum- 
 stance, called by their names; of 
 which Oreb signifies a raven, and 
 Zeeb, a wolf. Among ancient na- 
 tions, generals and princes often 
 
 nook the waters unto I'Beth-ba- 
 rah and Jordan. 
 
 25 And they took nwo prin- 
 ces of the Midianites, Oreb and 
 Zeeb ; and they slew Oreb upon 
 nhe rock Oreb, and Zeeb they 
 slew at the wine-press of Zeeb, 
 and pursued iVlidian, and brought 
 
 o ch. 3. 2S. p Joliii 1. 
 r Is. 10. 26. 
 
 28. q ch. 8. 3. Ps. 83. U. 
 
 took the names of birds and beasts. 
 Thus, among the Romans, we find 
 Gracchus, a jackdaio, Corvinus, a 
 crovj, Aquilinus, an eagle, &.c. IT 
 And pursued Midian. Rather, Heb. 
 ' pursued unto Midian,' i. e. to the 
 country of Midian, to their own bor- 
 ders on the other side of the Jordan. 
 And if they crossed the river in the 
 pursuit, why should they not have 
 followed them to their own territo- 
 ries, which lay near to the Jordan % 
 '^Brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb 
 to Gideon. It was anciently, and is 
 still an almost universal custom with 
 eastern nations to take oflf the heads 
 of opposing chiefs and bring them, 
 to the victorious general. It is a 
 sort of trophy, and has been regard- 
 ed as such, at one time or other, in 
 nearly all nations. David cut oft 
 the head of Goliath, probably intend- 
 ing to bring it to Saul ; and the head 
 of Saul himself was cut off by the 
 Philistines, and sent by them to "their 
 own country. At present the heads 
 of conquered chiefs and commanders 
 are transmitted to Constantinople 
 from the most distant parts of the 
 Turkish empire, to be laid at the 
 feet of the Sultan, and then to deco- 
 rate his palace gates. It is, how- 
 ever, to be presumed that the senti-^ 
 ments of a more refined civilization,, 
 and the silently meliorating influen- 
 ces of Christianity will ere long ban- 
 ish all traces of such atrocious bar- 
 barity from the earth. From the fore=. 
 going interesting narrative respec- 
 ting Gideon and his wonderful de= 
 liverance, we may learn, (1) To un- 
 dertake nothing in our own strength. 
 (2) To draw back from nothing to 
 which we are caikd. (3) To doubt 
 
270 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to 
 Gideon on the «other side Jor- 
 dan. 
 
 of nothing wherein God promises 
 his aid. (4) To take the glory of 
 nothing which God does by us, 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1. And the men of Ephr aim. Heb, 
 * and the man, or manhood, of Ephra- 
 im;' i, e. the leading men, the eld- 
 ers. See on Josh. 9. 6. This com- 
 plaint was probably uttered when the 
 heads of the two slain princes of Mi- 
 dian were brought to Gideon, but 
 whether this was before or after his 
 crossing the Jordan, it is not easy 
 to say. It is not determined bythe 
 
 expression 
 
 on the other side Jor- 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A ND ^the men of Ephraim 
 said unto him, Why hast 
 
 a Seech. V2. I. 2 Sam. 19. 41. 
 
 dan,' ch. 7. 25, for this phrase in the 
 original ("inT^b nn3>72) signifies 
 either ^Ais side or that, 2iS the case 
 may be. The probability, however, 
 we think is that our translation has 
 correctly rendered it ' from the other 
 side,' and that Gideon had now 
 passed the Jordan, but that the inci- 
 dent here related comes in somewhat 
 by anticipation, in order that what 
 relates to the Ephraimites might be 
 finished without hereafter interrupt- 
 ing the thread of the narrative. The 
 interview here mentioned, we sup- 
 pose to have taken place after Gide- 
 on's return from the pursuit of the 
 Midianites, v. 4. ^ Why hast thou 
 served us thus. Heb. ' what thing is 
 this thou hast done unto us V V 
 And thou called st us not., &c. Rather, 
 * that thou calledst us not.' Although 
 the victory of Gideon, by freeing 
 them from the tyranny of Midian, 
 had been of equal advaiitage to them 
 with the rest of their brethren, yet 
 from not having been sharers in the 
 glory of it, this tribe was ill-affected 
 in view of the result. The pique 
 which is here expressed seems to 
 have originated in a prior state of 
 jealous feeling, existing on the part 
 of Ephraim towards Manasseh. 
 Ephraim was brother to Manasseh, 
 .the tribe from which Gideon sprung, 
 
 and, probabh', priding themselves 
 on the pre-eminence assigned them 
 in the blessing of Jacob and Moses, 
 on the descent of Joshua from their 
 tribe, on their having the tabernacle 
 fixed in their inheritance, and on 
 their superior numbers, they seem 
 to have indulged a very bitter spirit 
 of rivalry towards their brethren. 
 Hence the allusion elsewhere^ Is. 9. 
 21, to the envy and mutual disafiec- 
 tion of these two tribes. In the pre- 
 sent instance, their complaiDt was 
 evidently unjust, as Gideon had acted 
 throughout under divine direction, 
 instead of ordering the services, of 
 the tribes, at his own discretion. 
 Moreover, if so disposed, they had 
 the amplest opportunities to signalize 
 themselves in behalf of the common, 
 interest. They knew their country 
 was suffering under foreign oppres- 
 sion, and that forces were raising 
 with a view to resist it and shake off 
 the yoke. What then prevented 
 them from nobly coming forward 
 and volunteering in the enterprise 1 
 But such is the perverse tempera- 
 ment of some men, that under the 
 influence of a morbid and envious 
 spirit, they construe every exaltation 
 of their neighbor, as an injury done 
 to themselves ; and nothing is more 
 common than for those who will not 
 attempt or venture any thing in the 
 cause of God, to be ready to censure 
 those who show more zeal and enter- 
 prise than themselves. How often 
 too, when the danger is past, does 
 the coward vaunt his courage 1 The 
 conduct of the Ephraimites on this, 
 and another occasion very similar, 
 which resulted in the slaughter of 
 two andjforty thousand of their num- 
 ber, ch. 12. 1—7, evinces that they 
 were a people of rash, hasty, and 
 impetuous spirit, and the incidents 
 mentioned afford a striking illustra- 
 tion of two emphatic declarations of 
 Scripture. (1.) That, ' only by pride 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 271 
 
 thou served us thus, that thou 
 calledst us not when thou went- 
 est to fight with the Midianites ? 
 and they did chide with him 
 sharply. 
 
 2 And he said unto them, 
 
 Cometh contention ;' and, (2.) That, 
 ' for every right work a man is en- 
 vied of his neighbor.' ^i Did chide 
 with him sharply. Heb. ' strongly, 
 with vehemence".' 
 
 2. 7s not the gleaning of the grapes 
 of Ephr aim better^ &.C. A metapho- 
 rical and proverbial mode of com- 
 mending the smallest action of one 
 as superior to the greatest of an- 
 other ; or of saying that the Ephraim- 
 ites, by intercepting the enemy at 
 the fords of Jordan, and slaying the 
 two princes of the Midianites, had 
 achieved more than Gideon and his 
 army. The answer was admirably 
 adapted to sooth the exasperated 
 spirits of his accusers ; it was the soft 
 answer which turneth away wrath. 
 However much we may be disposed 
 to admire great military exploits, and 
 to account men honorable; in pro- 
 portion to the victories they have 
 gained ; there is a victory over our- 
 selves that far more dignifies a 
 man, than the most extended con- 
 quests over others ; and we cannot 
 but regard Gideon's defeat of the 
 Midianitish host, with so small a 
 force, as less worthy of admiration, 
 than the self-possession he exercised 
 towards the offended and reviling 
 Ephraimites. ' He that is slow to 
 anger is better than the mighty, and 
 he that ruleth his spirit, than he that 
 taketh a city.' Thus does Solomon 
 weigh, in an even balance, the dif- 
 ferent characters above alluded to. 
 Not a word of recrimination drop- 
 ped from the mouth of Gideon. 
 Though he might, perhaps, have 
 justly said, that when the Ephraim- 
 ites knew his determination to op- 
 pose the Midianites, they had never 
 offered their services, or come for- 
 ward to assist him; but when the 
 danger was over, they were ready to 
 
 What have I done now in com- 
 parison of you ? Is not the glean- 
 ing of the grapes of Ephraim 
 better than the vintage of Abi- 
 ezer ? 
 
 3 ^God hath delivered into 
 
 b ch. 7.t23, 25. Phil. 2. 3. • 
 
 impute evils to him for omissions, 
 which were chargeable only on 
 themselves. But, instead of loading 
 his adversaries with blame, or glanc- 
 ing at any thing that might either 
 betray irritation in his mind, or 
 strengthen it in theirs, he is glad to 
 search ou: causes of commendation. 
 He magnifies their performance, and 
 gives them the credit ofdoing more in 
 the pursuit, in their gleanings, than 
 he in the battle, the vintage of Abi- 
 ezer. Instead, moreover, of saying, 
 ' If God has been pleased to honor 
 me, why should that be an offence to 
 youl' h« wisely forebore to take to 
 himself the credit that he justly 
 might, tkus bidding from them the 
 light ttat pained their eyes, and 
 casting i veil over the actions that 
 had prcvoked their jealousy. A 
 striking instance this of the 'charity 
 which /aunteth not itself, which 
 seeketh not her own.' His conduct 
 naturally leads to the remark, (1.) 
 That tie only way to appease un- 
 reasonaDle wrath is by curbing, in 
 the spiiit of meekness and forbear- 
 ance, th2 outbreak of a kindred pas- 
 sion in ourselves. Yielding paci- 
 fieth grtat offences. (2.) True hu- 
 mility not only sheds a double lustre 
 over all our gifts, graces, and attain- 
 ments, lut is a disposition tending 
 no less to the preservation of our 
 own happiness, than to the concilia- 
 tion of those who are offended at us ; 
 for if oace willing to forego the 
 honor tc which we are entitled, it 
 will appear a small thing to us to be 
 censured without a cause ; seeing 
 that such censures only reduce us to 
 the place which we were previously, 
 in our ovn minds, disposed to oc- 
 cupy. And it will almost invariably 
 be found true, that as men are ready 
 to hate tliose who arrogate honor 
 
272 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249- 
 
 your hands the princes of Midi- 
 an, Oreb and Zeeb : and what 
 was I able to do in comparison 
 of you ? Then their ^anger was 
 abated toward him, when he 
 had said that. 
 
 4 IT And Gideon came to Jor- 
 dan, and passed over, he, and 
 the three hundred men that tvere 
 with him, faint, yet pursuing 
 them. 
 
 5 And he said unto the men 
 
 to themselves, so will thej be more 
 easily reconciled to those who are 
 humble and unassuming. IT Better 
 than the vintage of Abi-eztr. That 
 is, of the Manassites, fron whom 
 the family of Abi-ezer, lo which 
 Gideon belonged, descended. Chald. 
 ' are not the feeble of the house of 
 Ephraim, better than the strong of 
 the house of Abi-ezer V 
 
 3. Their anger was ahatcl. Heb. 
 ' their spirit relaxed, remitted itself 
 from him.' How powerful to blunt 
 the edge of other men's displeasure 
 is a conduct conformed to the Scrip- 
 tural precept, ' Let nothing be done 
 through strife and vain glorj^, but in 
 lowliness of mind let each esteem 
 others better than themselves.' 
 
 4. Gideon came to Jordm, and 
 passed over. Or, Heb. ' had passed 
 over.' See on v. 1. Whet is re- 
 lated in the preceding versus seems 
 to be by anticipation. ^[ Faint, 
 yet pursuing. Much fatigued with 
 what they had already accomplished, 
 yet eager to follow up the blow, and 
 determined not to give over till the 
 victory was perfectly achieved. 
 This is often the Christian's case in 
 the prosecution of his spiritual war- 
 fare. His ' mortal spirit tires and 
 faints,' yet he struggles ou with the 
 little strength that still remains to 
 him, leaning upon omnipotence, and 
 resolved to conquer or die. 
 
 5. He said unto the men of Succoih. 
 From this we learn the precise spot 
 
 of ^Succoth, Give, I pray you, 
 loaves of bread unto the people 
 that follow me : for they he 
 faint, and I am pursuing after 
 Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of 
 Midian. 
 
 6 % And the princes of Succ- 
 oth said, ^Are the hands of Ze- 
 bah and Zalmunna now in thy 
 hand, that ^ we should give bread 
 unto thine army ? 
 
 7 And Gideon said, Therefore 
 
 d Gen. 33. 17. Ps. 60. 
 f Seel Sam. 25. 11. 
 
 e See 1 Kings 20. 11. 
 
 where Gideon crossed the Jordan. 
 It was at the point where the Jordan 
 emerges from the Lake of Genesa- 
 ret, for near to this, on the east side 
 of the river, in the tribe of Gad, lay 
 the city of Succoth, i. e. of tents or 
 booths^ so called from Jacob's having 
 here pitched his tents on his removal 
 from Mesopotamia, Gen. 43. 17. As 
 Gideon was now engaged in the 
 common cause of Israel, he had a 
 right to expect succor from the peo- 
 ple at large. This claim he hints at 
 in the close of the verse. IT The 
 people that follow me, Heb. ' that are 
 at my feet.' See on ch. 4. 10, 
 
 6. And the princes of Succoth said, 
 &c. The verb in the singular, the 
 noun in the plural, intimating that 
 some one spoke in the name of the 
 rest ; or, perhaps, rather that they 
 were all unanimous in this reply, as 
 if they had been but one man speak- 
 ing with one mouth. Comp. Num. 
 32. 25. It may seem scarcely cred- 
 ible that the inhabitants of Succoth 
 and Peniel should refuse bread to 
 their famished brethren ; but having 
 been seven years under the domina- 
 tion of the Midianites, to whom they 
 lived contiguous, they doubtless not 
 only dreaded their vengeance, but 
 deemed it highly improbable that 
 Gideon should succeed. H Are the 
 hands of Zeba and Zalmunna rioxo in 
 tliine hand 7 Are their hands bound 
 behind them as captive prisoners, 
 indicating that their persons are en- 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 273 
 
 when the Lord hnth delivered 
 Zebah and Zalniunna into my 
 hand, sthen I will tear your 
 flesh witl) the thorns of the wil- 
 derness and with briers. 
 
 8 II And he went up thence 
 •"to Penuel, and spake unto them 
 likewise : and the men of Penu 
 
 g ver. 16. h Gen. 3i. 3J. 1 Kings 12. 25. 
 
 tirely in thy power 1 A bitter and 
 mahgnant taunt, as if he were cele- 
 brating a triumph before he had ob- 
 tained the victory. ' To have ques- 
 tioned so sudden a victory, had been 
 pardonable ; but to deny it scornfully 
 was unworthy of Israelites. Carnal 
 men think that impossible to others, 
 which they themselves cannot do ; 
 hence their censures, hence their 
 exclamations.' Bp. Hall. How of- 
 ten too do those from whom we 
 might reasonably look for the most 
 cordial assistance, seek, like the men 
 of Succoth, to weaken our hands 
 and discourage our hearts 1 
 
 7. / will tear your Jiesh with the 
 thorns, &c. Or, Heb. ' will thresh.' 
 The threat probably relates to a 
 cruel method of torture used in those 
 times, for putting captives to death, 
 by laying briers and thorns-on their 
 naked bodies, and then drawing over 
 them some heavy implements of hus- 
 bandry. The opinion of Drusius, 
 that persons put to death in this man- 
 ner were laid naked on thorns and 
 briers, and then both crushed and 
 trampled together, seems to be con- 
 firmed by the force of the preposition 
 in the original (nbt), which like the 
 Latin cum, properly imports ' to- 
 gether with' una cum, rather than 
 'by.' Chald. 'I will mangle your 
 flesh upon the thorns, and upon the 
 briers.' ' Thus did Gideon threaten 
 the inhabitants of Succoth ; and thus 
 do masters, fathers, and schoolmas- 
 ters, swear they will punish those 
 who have offended them. To see 
 the force of the figure, it must be 
 kept in mind that the people (in the 
 East) are almost in a state of nudity. 
 To tear a man's naked body, there- 
 24 
 
 el answered him as the men of 
 Succoth had answered him. 
 
 9 And he spake also unto the 
 men of Penuel, saying, When I 
 icume again in peace, ^I will 
 break down this tower. 
 
 10 IF Now Zebah and Zal. 
 munna were in Karkor, and 
 
 i 1 KiiiKE22. 27. k ver 17. 
 
 fore, with briers and thorns, would 
 be no small punishment. See poor 
 travellers sometimes, who, in conse- 
 quence of a wild beast, or some other 
 cause, have to rush into the thicket; 
 before they can get out again, in con- 
 sequence of thorns, they are literally 
 covered with blood. There have 
 been instances where a master, in 
 his anger, has taken a jagged edge of 
 the palmirah branch, to tear the 
 naked body of his slave, and nothing 
 can be more common than to threaten 
 it shall be done to those who have 
 given often ce. People also often 
 menace each other with the repeti- 
 tion of the old punishment of tying 
 the na ked body in a bundle of thorns, 
 and rolling it on the ground. Bot- 
 erts. See farther respecting this 
 pimishment on v. 16. 
 
 8. Went up thence to Pemtel. A 
 city also in the tribe of Gad near the 
 brook Jabbok, and not far from Suc- 
 coth; so called by Jacob for the rea- 
 son mentioned Gen. 32. 30, 31. Tf 
 Spake unto them likewise. That is. 
 he made the same request to them 
 that he had to the men of Succoth. 
 
 9. When I come again in peace. 
 That is, according to the Heb. idiom, 
 when I return in soundness, in safe- 
 ty, in triumph; as his strong faith 
 assured him would be the ease. He 
 defers the intended vengeance for the 
 present, for fear of losing time in the 
 pursuit, and perhaps from a secret 
 hope that they might upon farther 
 reflection repent of their refusal and 
 atone for it by sending suc-cors and 
 supplies after him. II Iioill break 
 down this tower. They had probably 
 on giving their answer pointed in- 
 sultingly to a tower in which their 
 
274 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 tlieir hosts with them, about fif- 
 teen thousand men, all that were 
 left of 'all the hosts of the chil- 
 dren of the east: for there fell 
 a hundred and twenty thousand 
 men that drew sword. 
 
 11 IT And Gideon went up 
 by the way of them that dwelt 
 in tents on the east of ™Nobah 
 and Jogbehah, and smote the 
 host : for the host was "secure. 
 
 12 And when Zebah and 
 Zalmunna fled, he pursued after 
 them, and "took the two kings 
 of Midian, Zobah and Zalmunna, 
 and discomfited all the host. 
 
 13 IF And Gideon the son of 
 
 Ich. 7. 12. m Num. 32. 35, 42. n ch. 18. 27. 
 
 1 Tiiess. 5. 3. oPs. 8i. U. 
 
 chief defence lay, and intimated to 
 him that he might do his worst, for 
 they could amply defend themselves. 
 
 10. I/i Karkor. A town near the 
 east frontiers of Gad, and at no great 
 distance from the source of the sm_all 
 rix-er Jabbok. It is no where else 
 mentioned. 
 
 11. By the toay of them that dwelt in 
 tents. Probably he took an unwonted 
 and unsuspected route along the ter- 
 ritories of the Scenite or tent-dwell- 
 ing Arabs. Chald. ' Gideon went 
 up by the way of the camps of the 
 Arabians, who dwell in tents in the 
 desert.' Schmid, however, thinks 
 the allusion is to a portion of the 
 trans-jordanic Israelites who follow- 
 ed the nomade mode of life in these 
 regions, as the Arabs in the neigh- 
 borhood of Midian, being among the 
 * sons of the East,' may be supposed 
 more likely to have been confede- 
 rate with them in the expedition, 
 and not disposed to let Gideon pass 
 peaceably through their borders, 
 nr The host was secure. Heb. ' the 
 host was become security;' not only 
 secure, but in their own estimation, 
 security itself. 
 
 13. Before the sun was up. More 
 correctly rendered according to the 
 
 Joash returned from battle before 
 the sun ivas up^ 
 
 14 And caught a young man 
 of the men of Succoth, and in- 
 quired of him : and he described 
 unto him the princes of Suc- 
 coth, and the elders thereof, even 
 threescore and seventeen men. 
 
 15 And he came unto the 
 men of Succoth, and said, Be- 
 hold Zebah and Zalmunna, with 
 whom ye did nupbraid me, say- 
 ing. Are the hands of Zebah and 
 Zalmunna now in thy hand, 
 that we should give bread unto 
 thy men that are weary ? 
 
 16 "jAnd he took the elders 
 
 p ver. 6. q ver. 7. 
 
 Heb. c^nn nb"'73P^ ' from the ascen^^ 
 or height of Heres.' This rendering 
 is confirmed by the Septuagint, the 
 Syriac, and the Arabic. The ori- 
 ginal ' Heres' is never used for 
 ' sun' except in the poetical style, 
 Job, 9. 7, while express mention is 
 made of mount Heres, ch. 1. 35. 
 The writer's drift is probably to inti- 
 mate that Gideon returned by a dif- 
 ferent route from that by which he 
 went. 
 
 14. He described unto him. Heb. 
 ' he wrote for him.' He gave the 
 names in Writing of seventy persons, 
 the chief men of Succoth, who were 
 most concerned in refusing him and 
 his men the refreshment he request- 
 ed. IT And the elders thereof. Even 
 the elders thereof. The princes and 
 the elders were the same persons. 
 
 16. He took — thorns and briers of 
 the vnlderness. and with them he 
 taught the men of Succoth. Heb. 
 'made to know.' He made them 
 sensible of their crime and folly; in 
 other words, he punished them by 
 putting them to death by this mode 
 of torture. This is to be inferred 
 from the fact that their oflence was 
 the same as that of the men of Penu- 
 el, whom he certainly did put to 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 275 
 
 of the city, and horns of the 
 wilderness, and briers, and with 
 them he taught the men of Siic- 
 coth. 
 
 17 'And he beat down the 
 
 death. The probability is that their 
 naked bodies were laid in the midst 
 of a heap of thorns, briers, and prick- 
 ly brush, and then threshing sledges 
 or other heavy implements of hus- 
 bandry were drawn over them. In 
 northern nations where the body is 
 completely covered, the idea of such 
 punishments with thorns on the na- 
 ked person, seems a far-fetched de- 
 vice ; but in the East, wiiere the 
 clothing leaves much more of the 
 person expose;], rnd where, in con- 
 sequence, men are continually lacer- 
 ating their skins in passing through 
 thickets, &c., the idea of such lacer- 
 ation is always kept present either 
 by the actual experience of suffering, 
 or by the constant observation of it. 
 Hence tearing the flesh with thorns 
 comes to be a familiar idea of penal 
 infliction, and as such is popularly 
 mentioned as among the punish- 
 ments which evil-doers deserve, or 
 will obtain, not only in this life, but 
 in the life to come. — The punish- 
 ment, it mast be acknowledged, was 
 severe, but the provocation was 
 great. Considered as an act of in- 
 gratitude and inhumanity only, it 
 was exceedingly sinful; for what 
 could be more base than to refuse a 
 meal to those v/ho had, at the peril of 
 tlieir own lives, delivered the whole 
 nation from the yoke of Midian ; 
 and were now, though only three 
 hundred in number, following the 
 remaining fugitives, fif.y times as 
 numerous as themselves, in order to 
 extirpate them entirely 1 Had they 
 been mere strangers and travellers in 
 distress, their request would have 
 been reasonable and a refusal barba- 
 rous ; but considering that they were 
 their own countrymen, and fiafh'ing 
 their country's battles under the spe- 
 cial calling and direction of Heaven, 
 it was treason of the blackest dye -, it 
 
 tower of '^Peniiel, and slew the 
 naen of the city. 
 
 18 IT Then said he unto Ze- 
 bah and Zalmunria, What man- 
 ner of men icere they whom ye 
 
 si Kings 12. 25. 
 
 was the very way to prevent the ex- 
 ecution of the divine purposes, and 
 if God had not miraculously renew- 
 ed the strength of the visitors, this 
 refusal of food to them would have 
 done more to vanquish them than all 
 the hosts of Midian had been able to 
 effect. But they added insult to in- 
 jury ; they endeavored to weaken 
 his hands by deriding the vanity of 
 his attempts ; they answered him in 
 a tone of bantering and scorn, and 
 thus poured contempt upon a cause 
 which being of God was thereby 
 rendered sacred. So that taking 
 all things intoview, it cannot beques- 
 tioned that Gideon did right in ma- 
 king a fearful example of such wick- 
 ed traitors. The whole of this re- 
 markable transaction tends to inspire 
 us with confidence in God, and to 
 encourage our exertions in his 
 cause; but there are two lessons es- 
 pecially which we shall do well to 
 learn from it; (1) To prosecute our 
 spiritual AA'arfare under all discour- 
 agements ourselves; and (2) To be 
 careful to put no discouragements in 
 the way of others. God is indignant 
 with those who would weaken the 
 hands of his people. His command 
 is, ' Strengthen ye the weak hands, 
 and confirm the feeble knees; say 
 unto them that are of a fearful heart, 
 Be strong, fear not; your God will 
 come and help you.' 
 
 18. W/iat maimer of men were 
 
 they vy/iom, ye sleic at Tabor. This 
 
 question relates to an occurrence not 
 
 previously mentioned, but the infer- 
 
 I ence is, that these uterine or full 
 
 j brothers of Gideon, during the seven 
 
 year's oppression of Midian, when 
 
 ! the children of Israel had been com- 
 
 ! pelled to make themselves dens in 
 
 j the mountains, ch. 6. 2, had taken 
 
 I shelrer in mount Tabor, where they 
 
 1 were found by these two kings and 
 
278 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 slew at iTabor? And they an- ! if ye had saved them alive, I 
 
 would not slay you. 
 
 20 And he said unto Jether 
 his first-born, Up, and slay them. 
 Bui the youth drew not his sword : 
 for he feared, because he was 
 yet a youth. 
 
 swered, As thou art^ so were 
 they ; each one resembled the 
 c'lildren of a king. 
 
 19 And he said. They were 
 my brethren, even the sons of 
 my mother : as the Lord liveth, 
 
 t ch 4. fi. Ps. S9. 1-2. 
 
 bJibarously massacred in cold blood. 
 Ii may be that the event had occur- 
 red but a short time before during 
 Gideon's absence, and that he had 
 merely heard a confused account of 
 it; still it is not clear, simply from 
 the interrogative form of the address, 
 that Gideon was uncertain whether 
 his brethren had perished by the 
 hand of these two princes. He 
 may have put the question in order 
 to draw the acknowledgement of the 
 deed from their own lips, and thus 
 make his justice in their punishment 
 more conspicuous. It should not be 
 forgotten that the day is coming 
 when every secret thing will be 
 brought to light, and such conviction 
 flash on the offenders that they will 
 no longer be able to conceal their 
 guilt. ^ Each one resembled the 
 children of a king. This is an Orien- 
 talism still in use. Of a person who 
 is beautiful or of a fair complexion, 
 who is courageous, and stately in his 
 gait, it is said in the East, ' He is like 
 the son of a king ;' ' He is the son of 
 a god.' In the measures of compar- 
 ison, the king and that which be- 
 longs to him, forms the superlative 
 degree, and to say that a person or 
 thing is kingly, or like that which 
 belongs to a king, is to say that it is 
 the most excellent of its kind. From 
 the reports of travellers it would ap- 
 pear that in some way or other, the 
 royal families in the Enst are usiiai- 
 Iv remarkable for the beauty and 
 majesty of their persons; so that the 
 comparison is something more than 
 a mere complimentary phrase. 
 
 19. Mil brethren, even th". sons of my 
 mother. In countries where poly- 
 gamy is tolerated, the ties of brother- 
 hood are, as might be expected, 
 
 much more close and tender between 
 those who are born of the same mo- 
 ther, than those who are connected 
 only as the children of the same fa- 
 ther. Of this we have had and shall 
 have ample evidence in the sacred 
 history. This explains why ' son of 
 my mother' was among the He- 
 brews, as now among the Arabs and 
 others, a far more endearing ex- 
 pression than that of 'my brother,' 
 in the general sense. IF / would 
 not slay you. Which he was not 
 bound to do, inasmuch as they were 
 not Canaanites. 
 
 20. Up, and slay them. The He- 
 brews had no executioner. When 
 a man was guilty of homicide, the 
 execution devolved on the next of 
 kin, by right of blood-revenge; in 
 other cases criminals were stoned by 
 the people, the witnesses setting the 
 example : and when a king or chief 
 ordered a person to be put to death, 
 the office was performed by the per- 
 son to wiiom the command was 
 given. And this was generally a 
 person whose consideration in life 
 bore some proportion to that of the 
 person to be slain. In fact, the of- 
 fice even of a regular executioner is 
 not by any means dishonorable in 
 the East. "The post of chief execu- 
 tioner is in most Oriental courts one 
 of honor and distinction. When 
 thus there was no regular execu- 
 tioner, it came to be considered a 
 sort of honor to put a distinguished 
 person to death; and, on the other 
 hand, the death itself was honorable 
 in proportion to the rank of the per- 
 son by whom the blow was inflicted. 
 It was the greatest dishonor to perish 
 by the hands of a woman or a slave. 
 VVe see this feeling distinctly in the 
 
A, C. 1296.] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 277 
 
 21 Then Z(;bah and Zalmun- 
 na said, Rise thou, and lull upon 
 us : for as the man is, so is his 
 strength. And Gideon arose, 
 and "slew Zebah and Zalmunna, 
 and took away the ornaments 
 that v)ere on their camels' necks. 
 
 22 1[ Then the men of Israel 
 said unto Gideon, Rule thou 
 (^ver us, both thou, and thy son. 
 and thy son's son also : for thou 
 
 u Ps. 83. u. 
 
 present narrative, where the two 
 princes much prefer to die by Gide- 
 on's own hand than by that of a 
 youth who had obtained no personal 
 distinction. As to the hero's cora- 
 mi.ssioning his son to perform this 
 otiice. it was perhaps partly to honor 
 him with the distinction of having 
 slain two chief enemies of Israel ; 
 as well as because the rules of blood- 
 revenge made it necessary that the 
 execution of those who had slain his 
 own brethren, should either be per- 
 formed by himself, or by a member 
 of his own family. 
 
 21. Ax the man is, so is his strength. 
 His strength is proportionate tohis 
 rige, and therefore they would sooner 
 be dispatched, and with less piin, by 
 Gideon than by a youth. IT Took 
 away the ornamenis that 'ice re on 
 their camels'' necks. Heb, ' little 
 raoons, crescents.' Probably shin- 
 ing plates of gold or other metal 
 in the form of crescents suspend- 
 ed from the camels' necks, and 
 hanging down upon their breasts in 
 front. The heads, necks, bodies, 
 and legs, of camels, horses, and ele- 
 phants, are still highly ornamented 
 in Eastern countries. 
 
 23. Ride thou over ns, &c. That 
 is, they would have him to be king ; 
 and here it is that the Hebrews first 
 betray a desire to establish a heredi- 
 tary kingdom, forgetting the pecu- 
 liar character of their government, 
 and the high distinction which they 
 enjoyed in having Jehovah for their 
 king. But the pious hero him.self 
 24* 
 
 hast delivered us from the hand 
 of Midian. 
 
 23 And Gideon said unto 
 them, 1 will not rule over you, 
 neither shall my son rule over 
 you : ^the Lord shall rule over 
 you. 
 
 24 H And Gideon said unto 
 tiiem, I would desire a request 
 of you, that you would give 
 me every man the ear-rings of 
 
 X lS<m. 8. 7. S: 10.19. & 12. 12. 
 
 was mindful of it, replying in th^ 
 true spirit of the theocracy, ' I will 
 not rule over you, neither shall my 
 son rule over you, the Lord shall 
 rule over you.' Gideon in modest- 
 ly and piously declining the pro- 
 posal acted with a moderation and 
 wisdom worthy of himself. He 
 v.'ould do nothing that seemed to 
 trench upon the divine prerogative. 
 Though he would serve them as a 
 judge, he would not rule over them 
 as a king. His decision showed 
 how much he had in subjection the 
 motives which usually prevail with 
 men. The ambition of exalting a 
 a family is a great snare ; but a true 
 patriot, who aims not at his ov%ai, but 
 the public good, will decline rather 
 than seek those honors, and rest 
 satisfied with deserving well of his 
 country, without aspiring to rule it. 
 All his sons, however, were not of 
 his mind, and did not forget this of- 
 fer, as will appear in the sequel. 
 
 24. That ye loould give me every 
 man the car-rings of his prey. Or, 
 Heb. ' every man an ear-ring of his 
 prey.' The word in the original is 
 in the singular, and it seems more 
 likely that Gideon would have re- 
 quested a moderate contribution 
 from each man, than that he should 
 have demanded all the jewels of this 
 kind which fell to the share of his 
 followers, and which perhaps con- 
 stituted the most valuable portion of 
 their prey. The request of Gide- 
 on, though doubtless well intended, 
 was certainly unfortunate in its re- 
 
278 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1249. 
 
 his prey. (For they had golden 
 car-rings, ybecause they were 
 Ishmaelites.) 
 
 25 And they answered, We 
 will wiUingly give tlieT?i. And 
 they spread a garment, and did 
 cast therein every man the ear- 
 rmgs of his prey. 
 
 26 And the weight of the 
 golden ear-rings that he reques- 
 
 y Gen 25. 13. & 37. 'Z-J 2.-i. 
 
 sails, as the sequel clearly proves. 
 On the true import of cT: here ren- 
 dered ear-ring, see on Gen. 24.22 
 *i Because t/iei/ were Ishviaelitcs. The 
 Midianites were not properly Ish- 
 rnaeliles, being descended from an- 
 .oiher son of Abraham ; but from be- 
 ing much intermixed with them, 
 from following the same mode of 
 life, and possessing the same general 
 manners, they might well be so call- 
 ed.. Indeed the terms ' Ishmaelites' 
 and ' Midianites,' seem to have been 
 used interchangeably from a very 
 early period. Gen. 38. 25. Probably 
 all those eastern kindredtribes whose 
 way of life was similar, and were 
 much mixed with the Arabians, 
 were called Ishmaelites in a general 
 sense. It is also probable that large 
 numbers of real Ishmaelites acted 
 with the Midianites on this occasion, 
 and Boothroyd would restrict the 
 words of the text to these : — ' Those 
 slain, who were Ishmaelites. wore 
 golden pendants.' In consequence 
 of Mohammed's having prohibited 
 rings of gold, the modern Arabs do 
 not exhibit such costly ornaments 
 as the ancient Midianites. 
 
 25. We will irillingly give. Heb- 
 ' giving we will give."' The same 
 feelings which had just before 
 prompted them to offer him a crown, 
 undoubtedly disposed them now to 
 comply with his request, with the 
 utmost readiness. Though he ask- 
 ed but a single article from each, yet 
 from the total amount of the dona- 
 tioHj it would seem that in giving 
 
 ted, was a thousand and seven 
 hundred shekels of gold ; besides 
 ornaments, and collars, and pur. 
 pie raiment that was on the 
 kings of Midian, and besides the 
 chains that were about their 
 camels' necks. 
 
 27 And Gideon ^made an eph- 
 od thereof, and put it in his city, 
 even =in Oprah : and all Israel 
 
 many of them went be3'ond the letter 
 of his request, and threw in a num- 
 ber. 
 
 26. And the weight — was a thou- 
 sand and seven hundred shekels of 
 gold. Taking the shekel at half an 
 ounce weight, the sum of the gold 
 collected in ear-rings was seventy 
 three pounds four ounces; and worth, 
 as gold now rates, upwards of twelve 
 thousand dollars. U Ornaments. 
 The same word as that applied to 
 the ' ornaments' of the camels, v. 21, 
 and probably denoting articles of the 
 same form and material. TI Collars. 
 Rather, as the original fTtj^t^D 
 comes from r|i:: to drop, to distil by 
 drops, ear-drops, or pendants of 
 pearl, from their form. ^Purple. 
 See on Ex. 35. 35. The present is 
 the first indication of purple as a 
 royal color. 
 
 27. Gideon made an ephod thereof. 
 An ephod was a vestment covering 
 the shoulders and extending over 
 the breast, somewhat like a coat -with- 
 out sleeves. There were two kinds 
 of them ; one, a rich garment, pecu- 
 liar to the high priest, made of blue, 
 purple, scarlet, and twined linen, 
 curiously wrought, and embroider- 
 ed with gold. In this was set the 
 breastplate studded with precious 
 vStones, and containing the tFrim and 
 Thummim, by which the high priest 
 consulted the will of Jehovah, Ex. 
 25. 7. 28. 4. The other was made 
 after the same model, but of inferior 
 materials, being composed simply of 
 fine linen, and worn not only by the 
 
A. C. 1249.] 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 ^279 
 
 ^went thither a wlioring after it : 
 which thing became "a snare 
 unto Gideon, and to his house. 
 
 28 H Thus was Midian sub- 
 dued before the children of Is- 
 rael, so that they lifted up their 
 heads no more. ^' And the coun- 
 
 priests, but by the Levites and others 
 in divine ministrations, as we see 
 from the case of Samuel, 1 Sara. 2. 
 18, and of David, 1 Sam. 17. 16, 
 neither of whom belonged to the sa- 
 cerdotal order. The epliod made 
 by Gideon was undoubtedly design- 
 ed to be of the former kind, and was 
 thus wrought with great splendor. 
 ■His real motive in this transaction 
 is not very easily determined. Some 
 think the ephod was designed mere- 
 ly as a commemorative trophy of 
 Israel's deliverance ; but, if so, it 
 was a very strange one, having no 
 conceivable relation to such an event. 
 The more probable opinion undoubt- 
 edly is, that it was intended wholly 
 for a religious use. Gideon had, at 
 his first calling, been instructed to 
 build an altar and offer sacrifice. 
 This perhaps induced him to think 
 himself authorized to officiate in the 
 same way, occasional!}'', at his own 
 hou^e, and as'he knew that an ephod 
 was a usual appendage to such an 
 office, he might have had one form- 
 ed, and finished in sumptuous style 
 for this purpose, if this be the right 
 "conjecture, the worship performed 
 Avas doubtless in honor of the true 
 •God, but it was still unauthorized 
 and improper, however he may 
 have considered the first commissioii 
 as constituting a good warrant for 
 his continuing the -service. Even in 
 his life-time, it unquestionably had 
 the effect of withdrawing the atten- 
 tion of the people, east of the Jordan, 
 from the tabernacle at Shiloh, and 
 so far tended to pave the way for that 
 decline into positive idolatry, which 
 look place after his death. ^All Is- 
 rael went thither, &c. They made it a 
 means of practising superstition and 
 idolatry 5 they resorted to this instead 
 
 try was in quietness forty years 
 in the days of Gideon. 
 
 29 H And Jerubbaal the son 
 of Joash went and dwelt in his 
 own house. 
 
 36 And Gideon had «three- 
 score and ten sons of his body 
 
 of the true ephod to inquire the will 
 of God.5 thus gradually forsaking 
 the place which Jehovah himself 
 had ordained as the one seat of wor- 
 ship. To such disastrous conse- 
 quences may one false step of a good 
 man lead, who fails to weigh well 
 the issues of his best meant conduct. 
 The following suggestions naturally 
 arise from the narrative. (1.) In 
 God's worship htiraan' inventions 
 •are to be most carefully avoided, and 
 the inspired word strictly adhered 
 to. (2.) What may be indifferent or 
 innocent to one man, may, to a 
 weaker brother, be a dangerous 
 snare. (3.) The beginning of sin is 
 as the letting out of water. From 
 small beginniKgs arose all the pre- 
 sent horrid idolatry of the church of 
 Rome. IF Became a snare unto 
 
 Gideon, and his house. That is, be- 
 came not only a source of evil per- 
 sonally to Gideon, enticing his affec- 
 tions from the proper object, and 
 abating his zeal for tbe true worship 
 of God in his old age, but proving 
 the occasion of sin and ruin to his 
 family, as appears from the ensuing 
 chapter. 
 
 28. They lifted up their heads no 
 more. Recovered not their .former 
 strength or spirit; were not in a 
 condition again to invade or annoy 
 the Israelites in their possessions. 
 IT In quietness forty years in the days 
 of Gideon. While Gideon lived. 
 The forty years are perhaps to be 
 dated from the defeat of the Midian- 
 ites, and the consequent complete 
 recovery of the national liberty. 
 
 30. Of his body begotten. Heb. 
 ' coming out of his thigh.' Intimat- 
 ing they were his own natural sons, 
 sons by generation, and not by adop- 
 tion. 
 
280 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1209. 
 
 begotten : for he had many 
 wives. 
 
 31 ^And his concubine that 
 was in Shecbem, she also bare 
 him a son, whose name he call- 
 ed Abimelech. 
 
 32 IF And Gideon the son of 
 Joash died ein a iiood old age, 
 and was buried in the sepulchre 
 of Joash his father, ''in Oplirah 
 of the Abi-ezrites. 
 
 33 And It came to pass 'as 
 soon as Gideon was dead, that 
 the chddren of Israel turned 
 again, and "^went a whoring af- 
 ter Baalim, land made Baal- 
 berith their god. 
 
 34 And the children of Israel 
 
 fch. 9. 1. gG.;n.25. 8. Jol.5. 26. h ver -n- 
 cl). 6. 24, 1 cli. 2. 19.- k ch. 2. 17. 1 cli. 9. 4, 46. 
 
 31. His coiicubine that was in 
 Shecheni. A lawful, but secondary, 
 wife, whose children could not in- 
 herit. See on Gen. IG. 1 — 3. IT 
 Whose name he called Abimelech. 
 Heb. ' w^hose name he set, put, ap- 
 pointed, Abimelech.' The name sig- 
 nifies, ' My father a king,' and was 
 perhaps conferred out of complais- 
 ance to his concubine, who may have 
 desired it from ambitious motives. 
 The incident certainly proved of 
 evil omen, whether Abimelech was 
 prompted to the course he pursued 
 by reflecting upon the import of his 
 name or not. The influence of 
 names, in the formation of charac- 
 ter, is probably much greater than is 
 usually imagined, and deserves the 
 special attention of parents in their 
 bestowment. Children should be 
 taught that the circumstance of their 
 bearing the names of good men or 
 women, who have lived before them, 
 constitutes an obligation upon tTiem 
 10 imitateandperpetuate their viriues. 
 
 33. Baal-beriih. That is. The 
 Lord of the covenant ; so called 
 perhaps from his being considered 
 the deity that presided over compacts, 
 leagues, treaties, covenants, &c., 
 
 "'remembered not the Lord 
 their God, who had delivered 
 them out of the hands of all 
 their enemies on every side : 
 
 35 "Neither showed they 
 kindness to the house of Jerub- 
 baal, namely, Gideon, according 
 to all the goodness which he 
 had showed unto Israel. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AND Abimelech the son of 
 Jerubbaal went to Shechem 
 unto^his mother's brethren, and 
 communed with them, and with 
 all the family of the house of his 
 mother's father, saying, 
 
 2 Speak, I pray you, In the 
 
 m Ps.78. U. 42. 
 Eccles. 9. 14. 15. 
 
 1C6. 13,21 I. ch. 9. 16, n 
 cU. 8. 31. 
 
 especially to avenge the violation of 
 them. 
 
 34, 35. Remevibered not the Lord 
 their God., — Neither shov:ed they kind- 
 ness to the house of Jeriibbo^o.l. On 
 the two concluding verses of this 
 chapter, we have simply to remark, 
 (1.) That they who are kept from 
 evil, not so much by their own choice 
 as by the restraint of others, will, 
 like the slackened bow, start aside 
 the moment the string is loosed. (2.) 
 We are not to wonder if they are 
 ungrateful to us, who show them- 
 selves destitute of all gratitude to- 
 wards God. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1. Abimelech — loent to Shechem. 
 As Shechem was a city of note in the 
 tribe of Ephraim, and the Ephraim- 
 ites appear to have been a rash^ 
 high-spirited, and excitable people, 
 particularly jealous of their brethren 
 of Manasseh, and perhaps still cher- 
 ishing the memory of the fancied 
 slight put upon them by Gideon, ch. 
 8. 1 — 3, Abimelech, no doubt, pro- 
 mised himself, on this ground, the 
 speedy concurrence of the Shechem- 
 ites in his infamous designs. But 
 
A. C. 1209.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 581 
 
 ears of all the men of Shechem, 
 VVhetlier Is belter for you, either 
 that all the sons of Jerubbaal, 
 which ar€ ^threescore and ten 
 persons, reiijn over j'ou, or that 
 one reign -over you ; remember 
 also that I am "^your bone and 
 your flesh. 
 
 8 And his mother's brethren 
 
 his first step was to enlist his rela- 
 tives in his interest, and with this 
 view he applies himself to them, 
 undoubtedly, with all the arts of an 
 aspiring demagogue. 
 
 2. Tke mc.'fi-cf Skechem. Heb. ' the 
 masters of Shechem ;' implying per- 
 haps the leading men, though not 
 necessarily confined to this sense. 
 IT Whether is better ^ &c. Heb. ' what 
 is good 1 whether the ruling over 
 you of seventy persons,' &c. From 
 the authority and influence which 
 Gideon had possessed, and from the 
 acknowledged dignity of his family, 
 the presumption would naturally be. 
 That if the reins of government were 
 to be lodged in any hands, it would 
 be in those of some one of his sons, 
 or of all of them conjointly. On this 
 hypothesis Abimelech builds his 
 project. But his words convey a 
 slanderous insinuation which is not 
 obvious to the English reader. He 
 speaks of Gideon's sons 'reigning' 
 (^'Tj:>3)or exeYc\s\r\g doviination o\ex 
 their countrymen, whereas it was 
 just this species of rule which Gide- 
 on so expressly rejected both for 
 himself and his sons, ch.8. 23, as in- 
 vading the prerogative of the Most 
 High ; being content with the infe- 
 rior degree of authority usually in- 
 dicated by the term 'ct'C io judcre. 
 Nor is there any evidence, that either 
 of his sons had the least intention of 
 a:^suming a despotic sway over their 
 brethren. But Abimelech^s conduct, 
 in this particular, affords but another 
 proof that he who has a wicked pur- 
 pose to serve will not stick at a lie 
 to accomplish it, and that those who 
 design ill themselves are ever ready 
 
 spake of him in the ears of all 
 the men of Shechem all these 
 words : and their hearts inclined 
 to follow Abimelech ; for they 
 said, He is our <i brother. 
 
 4 And they gave him three- 
 score and ten pieces of silver out 
 of the house of «Baal-berith, 
 wherewith Abimelech hired 
 
 te charge similar designs upon 
 others. IT Your bene and your flesh. 
 Your kinsman, of your tribe and 
 lineage-, and therefore so much the 
 more likely to promote your inter- 
 ests. The relation indicated by 
 these words is more or Jess close ac- 
 cording to the connection in which 
 they occur. In some cases, it im- 
 plies nothing more than descent from, 
 a common ancestor, 1 Chron. 11. l; 
 in others, kindred of the same blood, 
 as Jacob and Laban, Gen. 29. 14, 
 David and Amasa, 2 Sam. 19. 13; 
 and in others again, it appears sim- 
 ply to indicate the relation {subsist- 
 ing between the inhabitants of the 
 same city or town. Perhaps this is 
 all that is to be understood in the 
 present case. But however inter- 
 preted, it was advancing a reason 
 for his election, which was never 
 contemplated in the appointment of 
 magistrates over the nation of Israel. 
 It was, in fact, directly opposed to 
 the true ends of that institution; 
 which required that persons chosen 
 to office should be selected on the 
 ground of moral qualifications, and 
 that in their administration of jus- 
 tice, they should be free from the 
 'bias natural!}'' arising from private 
 and personal regards. 
 
 3. Their hearts inclined to follow 
 Abimelech. Heb. ' their heart in- 
 clined itself after Abimelech;' spok- 
 en of as the heart of one man. The 
 reason assigned for their adherence 
 shows that his suggestions had taken 
 effect. They are prompted to sup- 
 port his claims, because from his 
 near relationship they would doubt- 
 less be raised to places of jirefenraent 
 
282 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1209. 
 
 ^vain and light persons, which 
 followed him. 
 
 5 And he went unto his fa- 
 ther's house Sax Ophrah, and 
 ''slew his brethren tiie sons of 
 Jerubbaal, being threescore and 
 
 fell. 11 3. 2Chr, 13 7. Prov.J^ll. Acts 17. S 
 gcli. 6 21. hSKi gs 11. 1,2. 
 
 under him, and their city would be 
 likely to be made the metropolis of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 4. Old of ike house of Baal-berith. 
 From this it is evident that idolatry 
 had gained ground again in some 
 places during the life-time of Gide- 
 on. The treasure deposited in this 
 temple, whieli had perhaps been 
 raised from oblations to the idol, and 
 thus consecrated to idolatrous uses, 
 is made through the divine coun- 
 sels the instrument of bringing upon 
 the idolaters deserved punishment, 
 by embroiling them in a civil war 
 that caused their ruin. Nothing is 
 more common, in the providence of 
 God, than, for the revenues of sin to 
 be made a plague and a curse to 
 those that amass them. IT Vain 
 and light persons. Worthless and 
 abandoned men ; idlers and vaga- 
 bonds, the very scum of society, per- 
 sons who were living on the public, 
 and had nothing to lose; ever the 
 most fitting instruments of tyranny 
 and cruelty. 
 
 5. Slew his brethren — threescore 
 and ten persons. The real number 
 would seem to have been sixty-eight, 
 for Jotham escaped, and Abimelech 
 himself is of course to be excepted. 
 This is on the supposition that the 
 whole number of Gideon's sons was, 
 according to ch. 8. 30, precisely 
 seventy, which however cannot be 
 positively affirmed. The presump- 
 tion is that seventy is here em- 
 ployed as a round number. We 
 have in this incident the first indi- 
 cation of a savage custom which is 
 not yet extinct in Asia, and under 
 which a new king deems it a mea- 
 sure of policy to put to death his bro- 
 thers, from "a fear that their ambi- 
 tion, or the favor of the people to- 
 
 ten persons, upon one stone : 
 notwithstatiding, yet Jotham the 
 younge.st son of Jerubbaal was 
 left ; for he hid himself 
 
 6 And all the men of Shechem 
 gathered together, and all the 
 
 wards them, might lead them to form 
 designs against his dignity or life. 
 Thus, the commencement of a new 
 reign is signalized by the same hor- 
 rible transaction as that of which 
 we here read. In Persia, where the 
 same principle operates, the new 
 monarchs have rather sought to se- 
 cure their own safety by putting out 
 the eyes of their brothers and others 
 from whom they might entertain ap- 
 prehensions. IT Upon one stone. 
 Of the precise manner in which the 
 murder was effected, we are left in 
 ignorance. It was a common mode of 
 capital punishment, in ancient times^ 
 to precipitate culprits from an emi- 
 nence upon a rock or stone ; and to this 
 our Saviour seems to allude, Mat. 21. 
 44. According to some, it was in this 
 manner that the sons of Gideon per- 
 ished on this occasion. Others sup- 
 pose that the stone was used as a kind 
 of altar, and that upon it Abimelech, 
 in conjunction with the men of Shcr 
 chem, made his unfortunate victims 
 an oblation to Baal, in revenue for 
 the sa.crifice of the bullock prepared 
 for Baal on the rock, ch. 6. 2.5, 26- 
 This crime of Gideon, as these idol- 
 aters considered it, the}'' determined 
 to expiate by the sacrifice of his sons. 
 That the men of Shechem joined in 
 this impious slaughter is indubitable 
 from V. 24, and this is rbout all that 
 can be distinctly ascertained respect- 
 ing it. It is highly probable, how- 
 ever, that Abimelech, under some 
 false pretence, as perhaps that of 
 celebrating some festival, had con- 
 vened his brethren together in one 
 place. The transaction shows, what 
 indeed has baen shown in a thousand 
 similar instances, that ruthless am- 
 bition never hesitates; that neither 
 conscience nor affection, neither the 
 
A. C. 
 
 1209.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 283 
 
 house ofMillo, and went and made 
 Abinrielech king, by the plain of 
 tiie piiiar that was in Shechem. 
 7 ^ And when they told it to 
 Jotliam, he went and stood in the 
 top of imount Gerizim, and lilted 
 
 i Dcu- 11.29. & 27.12. Jos!. 8 33 John4.20. 
 
 love of God nor the fear of man, re- 
 strains tho.se who are under its bane- 
 ful influence. 
 
 6. All ike house of Millo. Heb. 
 i^l^72 n"*:n Beth-MUlo; literally, i/ie 
 house of filling up, perhaps so called 
 from a deep pit or valley in the 
 neighborhood of Shechem being fill- 
 ed up, and a strong hold or castle 
 buiU upon it. There is a strong 
 presumption that the same place is 
 intended as that which, in v. 46, is 
 called ' a hold of the house of the 
 god Berith.' IF By the plain of the 
 pillar. Or, Heb. ' by the oak of the 
 pillar.' The allusion is perhaps to 
 the oak or oak-grove near which 
 Joshua erected a pillar, as a witness 
 of the covenant rencM-ed between 
 God and Israel, Josh. 24. 26. Schmid 
 however maintains that the original 
 ^2273 never signifies a ' pillar' or 
 'statue,' but properly a mound, or 
 artificial heap, and supposes that the 
 Shechemites raised up some lofty 
 elevation, on the summit of which 
 the ceremony of Abimelech's coro- 
 nation was performed, in order to 
 render the whole visible to a greater 
 multitude. This structure he sup- 
 poses, moreover, was situated on a 
 plain near a certain well-known oak, 
 which in memory of the transaction 
 was thenceforward called ' the oak 
 of the rising heap ;' just as Deborah's 
 ' palm-tree,' ch 4. 6, was so called 
 from her having made it a seat of 
 justice. This view of the subject 
 we are inclined to adopt. 
 
 7. Stood in the top of mount Geri- 
 zim. A mountain in the im,mediate 
 vicinity of Shechem, of which, see 
 Deut. 27. 12. Josephus says, that 
 he availed himself of the occasion 
 of a public festival, when great mul- 
 titudes Oi the people were assembled 
 together at the place specified, but 
 
 up his voice, and cried, and said 
 unto them, Hearken unto me, ye 
 men of Shechem, that God may 
 hearken unto you. 
 
 8 ''The trees went forth on a 
 time to anoint a king over them . 
 
 k St;e 2 Kings H 9. 
 
 still implying that the incident oc- 
 curred some time after the above- 
 mentioned inauguration of Abime- 
 lech as king. But to us it appears 
 more probable that Jotham's address 
 was delivered on the very same oc- 
 casion with the former event, or at 
 least before the people had dispers- 
 ed from that convention. The place 
 was the same, and from the lan- 
 guage V. 18, 19, 'ye have risen up 
 this day,' we should naturally infer 
 that the time was the same. Jotham's 
 abrupt departure also after deliver- 
 ing the parable, leads us to the same 
 conclusion. He would of course 
 entertain fears of his personal safely 
 in the midst of a body of excited ad- 
 herents of his brother, at the very 
 time when their enthusiasm was 
 wrought up to the highest pitch, and 
 after uttering his message would be 
 likely to make good his retreat as 
 speedily as possible. At another 
 time, there would have been less oc- 
 casion for so much haste. IT Hear- 
 ken unto me — that God may hearken 
 unto you. Employing, in this mode 
 ofsum.moning their attention, a kind 
 of adjuration, which would be un- 
 derstood to signify that he spoke on 
 this occasion by divine inspiration, 
 and had a special message from God 
 to deliver to them. 
 
 8. The trees went forth, &c. Heb. 
 'going, went forth;' an emphatic 
 phrase, intimating the entire unani- 
 mity and heartiness with which they 
 entered upon the measure. We 
 have in this address of Jotham the 
 oldest, and one of the most beautiful 
 parables in existence. It is the na- 
 ture of a parable or fable to give 
 ' tongues to trees,' and intelligence, 
 life, and activity to all parts of the 
 animate and maniraate creation. 
 The truth of such a parable lies in. 
 
284 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1209. 
 
 and they said^ unto the olive-tree, 
 iReign thou over us. 
 
 the instruction conveyed in- it, and 
 the feigned circumstances being 
 known to be such, are no ways in- 
 consistent Math veracity, but greatly 
 subserve the cause of truth. The 
 peculiar excellence of this mode of 
 instruction is, that it arrests the at- 
 tention more forcibly, and conveys- 
 knowledge more easily, than a train 
 of reasoning could do;, and convin- 
 ces the judgment before prejudice 
 has had time to bar the entrance of 
 truth into the mind. Accordingly 
 it has happened that in the East espe- 
 cially, where the imagination and the 
 whole mental temperament is more 
 fervid and glowing than elsewhere, 
 this veiled form of instruction has 
 always been in high repute, whether 
 in conveying wholesome truths to 
 the ear of power, or inculcating les- 
 sons of wisdom and justice and duty 
 upon the obtuse and unreasoning 
 multitude. Mr. Roberts remarks 
 that, ' The people of the East are ex- 
 ceedingly addicted to apologues, and 
 use them to convey instruction or 
 reproof, which with them could 
 scarcely be done so well in any other 
 way. Has a man been told a secret, 
 he says, in repeating it, for instance, 
 ' A tree told me this morning, that 
 Kandan offered a large bribe to the 
 Modeliar, to get Muttoo turned out 
 of his situation.' Does a man of 
 low caste wish to unite his son in 
 marriage to the daughter of one who 
 is high, the latter will say, ^Have 
 you heard that the pumpkin wants 
 to be married to the plantain tree V 
 Is a wife sterile, ' The cocoa-nut 
 tree in Viraver's garden does not 
 bear any fruit.' Has a woman had 
 children by improper intercourse, it 
 is said of her husband's garden, ' Ah, 
 the palmirah-trees are now giving 
 cocoa-nuts.' Has a man given his 
 daughter in marriage to another 
 who uses her unkindly, he says, ' I 
 have planted the sugar-cane by the 
 side of the margossa (bitter) tree.' 
 
 9^ But the olive-tree said unto 
 them, Should 1 leave my tatness. 
 
 A short fable, together with its 
 ' moral,' is more easily remembered 
 than a labored argument or the same 
 truth expressed in abstract terms, 
 and hence it is that we find this ve- 
 hicle of instruction so frequently 
 employed in the Scriptures. Fables 
 are there exemplified in all their va- 
 rious uses, whether to reprove kings, 
 to admonish multitudes, or to in- 
 struct disciples. Our Lord himself 
 did not disdain to employ them. 
 They are all perfect of their kind; 
 nearly all of them are very short ,- 
 and in most instances, as in that now 
 before us, the application is made by 
 the speaker. The general moral of 
 Jotham's parable is, (1) That weak 
 and worthless men are ever forward 
 to-thrust themselves into power, while 
 the wise and good are more prone to 
 decline it. (2) That they who un- 
 duly affect honor, and they who un- 
 justly confer it, will prove sources of 
 misery to each other. Both these 
 points are most strikingly illustrated 
 in the present fable, as compared 
 with the actual results. IT T& 
 anohit a king. From w^hich it ap- 
 pears that the ceremony of anointing 
 was in use among the neighboring 
 nations long before there w^as any 
 king in Israel ; for the scope of the 
 parable makes it necessary to sup- 
 pose that this was done in imitation 
 of foreign tribes. As the Lord was 
 their king, there was no more occa- 
 sion for the Israelites setting a king 
 over them, than there was lor the 
 trees to- appoint a protecting head 
 over them. 
 
 9. The olive-tree said, Slc. As the 
 bramble was the meanest and most 
 worthless of alt the trees of the field, 
 or forest, so the olive was the most 
 useful. This tree, naturalists ob- 
 serve, seems to have been originally 
 a native of Asia, whence it was 
 transplanted into Egypt and Barbary 
 and the south of Europe. The wood 
 is hard-grained and heavy, and not 
 
A. C. 1209.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 285 
 
 "wherewith by me they honor 
 God anil nian, and go to be pro- 
 moted over the trees ? 
 
 10 And the trees said to the 
 fig-tree, Come thou, and reign 
 over us. 
 
 11 But the fig-tree said unto 
 them. Should I forsake my sweet- 
 ness, and my good fruit, and 
 
 111 Ps. 104. 5. 
 
 liable to be injured by insects. Its 
 color is 3^ellowish, veined, and of an 
 agreeable odor, while its texture ren- 
 ders it susceptible of a fine polish. 
 The appearance of the olive-tree is 
 not unlike that of our willows, as the 
 leaves are. lance-shaped, or narrow, 
 and hoar)-. The fruit when ripe is 
 like a damson to the eye, with a soft 
 oleaginous pulp, and a hard nut in 
 the centre. In some parts of France 
 the inhabitants eat the berries of the 
 olive with their bread, and find tliem 
 an agreeable and wholesome condi- 
 ment. The oljve, in general, re- 
 quires a little preparation in brine or 
 hot water to dissipate the bitter prin- 
 ciple which it contains, though a 
 variei}', which is very uncommon in 
 France, is so sweet that it may be 
 eaten at once. It is probable that 
 the olives of Judea, when in its pros- 
 perity, were of this character, and 
 formed to the inhabitants a pleasant 
 accompaniment to the more substan- 
 tial articles of their daily food. The 
 oil of the olive is pre-eminent among 
 vegetable oils, and has not only al- 
 ways had an extensive use in culi- 
 nary purposes, but formed the men- 
 struum or vehicle of the most cele- 
 brated perfumes. H Should I 
 Leave my fatness. The form of the 
 original is peculiar, being apparently 
 so compounded as to convey at once 
 both an active and passive sense ; — 
 * Shall be persuaded to make to cease 
 (i. e. to foiego) my fatness 1' — cov- 
 ertly implying that the assumption 
 of rank and authority involves a re- 
 linquishment of one's private ease, 
 advantage, and comfort. H Where- 
 ■mith by me they honor God and man. 
 25 
 
 go to be promoted over the 
 trees? 
 
 12 Then said the trees unto 
 the vine, Come thou, and reign 
 over us. 
 
 13 And the vine said unto them, 
 Should I leave my wine '^which 
 cheereth God and man, and go 
 to be promoted over the trees ? 
 
 There was a large use of olive-oil in 
 the service of God. The priests 
 were anointed with it, the lamps in. 
 the tabernacle lighted with it, and 
 almost all the offerings of fine flour 
 cakes prepared in the pan, &c., had 
 oil mingled with them ; for which 
 reason Jotham might say that ' with 
 it they honor God.' Moreover as 
 priests, prophets, and kings were 
 anointed with it, and their office was 
 the most honorable, he might ,witk 
 propriety say, 'therewith they hon- 
 or man.' IT Go to be yrovioted 
 over the trees. Marg. ' to go up and 
 down for other trees.' Horsely, ' to 
 wave or nod ov^r the trees.' Our 
 rendering ' promoted' comes far 
 short of giving the exact force of the 
 Hebrew. The original word prop- 
 erly signifies to be moved to and fro, 
 to wander^ to stagger, to be shaken 
 and tossed. This interpretation, 
 gives a more lively image of the 
 perils, cares, and vicissitudes of 
 government, especially among a tur- 
 bulent and retractory people. 
 
 II. Should I forsake my sweetness. 
 The fruit of the fig-tree is the sweet- 
 est or most luscious of all fruits. A 
 full ripe fig, in its own climate, has 
 an indescribable sweetness ; so much 
 so, that it is almost impossible to eat 
 them, till a considerable time after 
 they are gathered from the trees, and 
 have gone through an artificial pre- 
 paration. 
 
 13. Which cheereth God and man. 
 Not that God and man are cheered 
 by the use of wine in the same way ; 
 but as it was employed in the sacri- 
 fices and offerings made to God, it 
 might in that sense be said that he 
 
286 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1209. 
 
 ] 4 Then said all the trees unto 
 the bramble, Come thou, and 
 reign over us. 
 
 15 And the bramble said unto 
 the trees, If in truth ye anoint 
 me king over you, tken come 
 and put your trust in my °sha- 
 
 was ' cheered' by it, because when 
 thus offered he was graciously pleas- 
 ed to accept of it. 
 
 14. Theti said all the trees v/nto the 
 bramble. Come thou, and reign over 
 us. The meanest and most worth- 
 less of trees, and fit only to be burn- 
 ed, though capable of annoy auce 
 from being armed with prickiy 
 spikes. The original -;':2b* atad^ 
 translated ' thorns' in Ps. 58. 9, and 
 rendered rhamnus in the Vulgate, is 
 supposed to have been a species of 
 buckthorn, a native of Syria and 
 Palestine, whence it migrated into 
 Europe in the reign of Augustus 
 Caesar. Many of the buckthorn fa- 
 mily are remarkable for the length 
 and abundance of their spines, and 
 for the very combustible nature of 
 their wood, which probably suggest- 
 ed the idea of the ' fire' that was to 
 come forth and consume the disaf- 
 fected. It is a proper emblem of a 
 base-born, impious, cruel, and op- 
 pressive king. 
 
 15. If in truth ye anoint me, &c. 
 That the bramble here represents 
 Abimelech, chosen and anointed 
 king by the Shechemites, is the gen- 
 eral opinion of commentators, both 
 Christian and Jewish ; and thus far 
 undoubiedly the opinion is correct. 
 But when it is supposed, that the 
 ■words spoken by the bramble repre- 
 sent similar words actually spoken 
 by Abimelech, it may be questioned 
 whether they have hit the true scope 
 of the passage. The real import of 
 the bramble's reply seems to be, not 
 to represent what Abimelech actuM- 
 ly said, but xvhat he justly might have 
 said in a spirit of prophecy, to the 
 men of Shechcm, intent upon his 
 elevation to the throne. The bram- 
 
 dow : and if not, Plet fire come 
 out of the bramble, and devour 
 the ''cedars of Lebanon. 
 
 16 Now therefore, if ye have 
 done truly and sincerely? in that 
 ye have made Abimelech king, 
 and if ye have dealt well with 
 
 p ver. 20. Num. 21. --8. Kzek. 19. 14. q 2 Kings 
 U. 9 Ps. im. 16. 1=. 2. 13. & 37. 24. Kze . 31. 3. 
 
 ble in answer to the proposal, does 
 not decline, but accepts, the offered 
 honor, but yet in the very terms of 
 the acceptance, moved by a prophe- 
 tic impulse, utters a prediction re- 
 specting the event, implying that so 
 far as this measure was not adopted 
 in truth, i. e. rightly, properly, ac- 
 ceptably, it M'Ould be attended with 
 disastrous consequences, and the 
 bramble, as an unjust usurper over 
 the rest of the trees, would be con- 
 sumed by a fire that should spread 
 and involve in its ravages the lofty 
 cedars of Lebanon. This was pre- 
 cisely what Abimelech should have 
 said to the men of Shechem, although 
 in point of fact, he seems to have 
 been so confident of success and a 
 favorable result, that nothing was 
 farther from his thoughts. The 
 whole drift of the passage turns up- 
 on the true meaning of the phrase 
 * in truth,' which is not here opposed 
 to falsehood, duplicity, fraud, and 
 mockery, but to conduct, which is 
 wrong, improper, not founded in 
 views of duty and obedience. Con- 
 sequently the words that follow, 'lef 
 fire come out,' &c., ought rather to 
 be rendered, ' fire shall come out,' 
 &c., as they are merely a prediction 
 of the result that would ensue, pro- 
 vided their motives had not been 
 right in what they had done. Jo- 
 tham's application in the ensuing 
 verses clearly confirms this inter- 
 pretation. U Let fire come out of 
 the bramble, &c. Understood as a 
 prophecy, the meaning is, that the 
 man represented by the bramble will 
 be a source of plagues and judgments 
 to the 'cedars of Lebanon,' i. e. to 
 the most eminent persons of the 
 land, particularly of Shechem; a 
 
A. C. 1209.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 287 
 
 Jerubbaal and his house, and 
 have done unto him "^according 
 to the deservinfT of his hands : 
 
 17 (For my father fought for 
 you, and adventured his hfe far, 
 and dehvered you out of the 
 hand of Midian : 
 
 18 ^ And ye are risen up 
 against my father's house this 
 day, and have slain his sons, 
 threescore and ten persons, upon 
 one stone, and have made Abi- 
 melech, the son of his maid-ser- 
 
 prediction which the sequel shows 
 to have been remarkably fulfilled. 
 
 16. If ye have done truly and sin- 
 cerely. Properly rendered by the 
 Vulgate, ' If ye have acted well and 
 and without sin in appointing,' &c. 
 The phrase isexegetical of ' in truth' 
 in the preceding verse. The same 
 expression occurs Josh. 24. 14. 
 
 17. Adventured his life far. Heb. 
 'cast his life from over against you.' 
 A metaphorical expression, highly 
 significant, and requiring us to con- 
 ceive that Gideon while occupying 
 a place of safety, with his life un- 
 jeoparded, heroically resolves to 
 throw it., as one would cast a spear, 
 directly towards the enemy, into the 
 very midst of peril. This he did 
 when he fell with only three hundred 
 men upon the multitudinous hosts of 
 the Midianites, Comp. ch. 5. 18, 
 and 12. 3. 
 
 18. Have slain his sons. The mur- 
 derous deed perpetrated by Abime- 
 lech is here charged upon the men 
 of Shechem, on the ground of their 
 having consented to it, approved of 
 it, and probably assisted in it. Par- 
 ticipators in crime justly share the 
 guilt of the principals. TI Son of his 
 maid-servant. His concubine ; so 
 called here by way of disparagement 
 and reproach. Maid-servants, how- 
 ever, were often adopted as concu- 
 bines, Ex. 21, 7—10. !l Because he 
 is your brother. Not because he is 
 the son of Gideon, or for any intrin- 
 
 vant, king over the men of She- 
 chem, because he is your bro- 
 ther :) 
 
 19 If ye then have dealt truly 
 and sincerely with Jerubbaal 
 and with his house this day, then 
 t rejoice ye in Abiraelech, and 
 let him also rejoice in you : 
 
 20 But if not, "let fire come 
 out from Abimelech, and devour 
 the men of Shechem, and the 
 house of Millo ; and let fire 
 come out from the men of She- 
 
 sic worth in himself, but simply from 
 his bearing a relation to you, which 
 you hope to turn to your advantage. 
 
 19, If ye have dealt truly and sin- 
 cerely — t'hc7i rejoice yc,&.c. He there- 
 fore "leaves it to the ev^ent, that is, to 
 the providence of God, to determine 
 whether they had done well or ill in 
 their choice ; q. d. ' if your conduct 
 towards the house of Gideon can be 
 justified at any bar of justice, honor, 
 or conscience, then much good may 
 you have of your king , but if you 
 have dealt basely and wickedly in 
 this matter, then never expect to 
 prosper.' 
 
 20. Let fire come out, &c. Or, 
 Heb. ' fire shall come out.' Noc 
 barely a prediction, but also an im- 
 precation or curse, as it is expressly 
 called V. 57. As the thorn or bram- 
 ble may be the means of kindling- 
 other wood, because it may be easily 
 ignited ; so shall Abimelech be the 
 cause of kindling a fire of civil dis- 
 cord among you, that shall consume 
 the rulers and great men of your 
 country. The denunciations of pro- 
 phets and good men, uttered under 
 divine prompting, were often clothed 
 with an efficiency which laid a foun- 
 dation for the character given of 
 them in what is said of the two wit- 
 nesses Rev. 11. 5, 6, ' And if any man 
 will hurt them, fire proceedeth out 
 of their mouth, and devoureth their 
 enemies. These have power to shut 
 heaveUj that it rain not, in the days 
 
288 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1206. 
 
 chem, and from the house of 
 Millo, and devour Abimelech. 
 
 21 And Jutham ran away, 
 and fli'd, and went to ''Beer, and 
 dwelt there, for fear of Abime- 
 lech his brother. 
 
 22 H When Abimelech had 
 reigned' three ye.jrs over Israel, 
 
 of their prophecy; and have power 
 — to smite the earth with all plagues, 
 as often as they will.' 
 
 21. Ran aioay and fled and v:ent. 
 This accumulation of equivalent ex- 
 pressions denotes the great haste with 
 which Jotham made his escape ; 
 confirming the view given above, v. 
 7, of the time when this address was 
 delivered. U To Beer. Beer sig- 
 nifies a loell^ and is prefixed to the 
 names of many places mentioned in 
 Scripture, from water being found 
 in their vicinity. The place here 
 designated seems to have been a city 
 of the Gibeonites, Josh. 9. 17, within 
 the boundary of the tribe of Benja- 
 min. It was situated about ten miles 
 north of Jerusalem, and not far from 
 Gibeah. Eusebius takes notice of 
 this place as being a considerable 
 village in his time; and Maundrell i 
 informs us that the modern village . 
 stands in a pleasant situation on an 
 edge of the hill, with a gentle decliv- 
 ity to the south. At the foot of the 
 hill there is an excellent spring of' 
 water, which may have given it its 
 came, and above it are the remains j 
 cf an old church built by the empress j 
 Helena. j 
 
 22. When Abhnelech had reigned \ 
 three yrars over Israel. Here again j 
 the original for ' reigned' (m'j::) is a j 
 word properly signifying to exercise : 
 despotic sway, a species of rule en- j 
 rirely different from the m.ild and ' 
 gentle ascendancy indicated by the 
 lerm'jS'u tojudoe. The legitimate j 
 rulers of Israel at this time could , 
 never be termed ^^-^y^^priyices, unless ■ 
 in conseqtience of the usurpation ofi 
 
 23 Then >'God sent an evil 
 spirit between Abimelech and 
 the men of Shechem ; and the 
 men of Shechem ^dealt treach- 
 erously with Abinelech : 
 
 24 ^That the cruelty done to 
 the threescore and ten sons of 
 Jerubbaal might come, and their 
 
 y 1 Sam. Vy. 11 & 18. 9. 10. See I Kiii« 12. 15. & 
 
 22. VZ 2Lhr. 10. 15. & 18 19, &c. K. 9. 2, 14. 
 
 7. Is 33 1 « 1 Kings 2. 3:2. £ah. 9 25 Ps. 7 16. 
 Mdit. 23. 35, 36. 
 
 a power which the primitive struc- 
 ture of their government did not 
 allow. It is probable that Abime- 
 lech's authority did not at first ex- 
 tend beyond the city of Shechem, 
 which had appointed him king. 
 But by gradual encroachments he 
 seems to have extended his sway 
 ov'er some of the adjacent towns and 
 territories, compelling them to ac- 
 knowledge his power, as we find 
 him, V. 50, going against Thebez, in 
 the tribe of Ephraim, as a rebellious 
 city that seems to have refused sub- 
 jection to him. By the phrase 
 ' reigned over Israel,' we are doubt- 
 less to understand a part of Israel, 
 i. e. such tribes as submitted to him, 
 23. God sent an evil spirit. That 
 is, permitted the evil spirit of dis- 
 cord and treachery to break out. 
 Under the direction of providence, 
 but not in consequence of any posi- 
 tive agency, jealousies M'ere suffered 
 to arise, which produced factions, 
 and these factions in" their turn pro- 
 duced insurrections, civil conten- 
 tions, and bloodshed. Comp 1 
 Kings 22. 23. Ps. 78. 49. The 
 throne of violence never stands se- 
 cure. The blood upon which it has 
 been established seldom fails to un- 
 dermine it at last. IT Dealt treach- 
 erously. The original properly im- 
 plies faithlessness, or the being want- 
 ing to one's engagements, and is es- 
 pecially applied, Jer. 3. 20, to con- 
 jugal infidelity. The Shechemites ' 
 brake their covenant with Abimelech 
 and shook off his yoke, but how far 
 they were chargeable in this with a 
 moral delinquency in the sight of 
 
A. C. 1206.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 289 
 
 blood be laid upon Abimelech 
 their brother which slew them, 
 and upon the men of Shechem 
 which aided him in the killing 
 of his brethren. 
 
 25 And the men of Shechem 
 set Hers, in wait for him in the 
 top of the mountains, and they 
 robb d all that came along that 
 
 God we pretend not to say. The 
 word perhaps in this connection does 
 not carry any such implication with 
 it. 
 
 24. Thai the cruelly, &c. That is, 
 the just rev^enge of that cruelty; in- 
 dicating the end, the scope, of the 
 sovereign permission mentioned in 
 the preceding verse. Sooner or 
 later the justice of God will make in- 
 quisition for blood, especially the 
 blood of the innocent. IT Wkic/i 
 aided him. Heb. 'which strength- 
 ened his hands.' 
 
 25. Sel Hers in toait. The writer 
 now goes on to state in what manner 
 the evil spirit of dissension before 
 spoken of began to produce its legi- 
 timate effects. The disaffection 
 which had been some time growing 
 in secret at length taking advantage 
 of Abimelech's temporary absence 
 from Shechem, assumed the charac- 
 ter of open revolt, and a conspiracy 
 was formed to make a prisoner of 
 him whom they had lately hailed as 
 prince. God is often pleased to pun- 
 ish bid men by the very persons who 
 have contributed to their elevation, 
 thus chastising them with the rods 
 which they themselves have gather- 
 ed. II Robbed all Ihat came along 
 that way Disappointed and impa- 
 tient probably by reason of Abime- 
 lech's delay in returning, those who 
 were posted in ambu h were prompt- 
 ed to enact upon others the violence 
 intended for him, and more especi- 
 ally, we may suppose, upon such of 
 his known adherents as chanced to 
 pass that way. 
 
 26. And Gaal the son of Ebcd 
 came, &c. The mention of this per- 
 son is somewhat abruptly introduced, 
 25* 
 
 way by them : and it was told 
 Abimelech. 
 
 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed 
 came with his brethren, and 
 went over to Shechem : and the 
 men of Shechem put their con- 
 fidence in him. 
 
 27 And they went out into 
 the fields, and gathered their 
 
 and we know no more of him tlian 
 is here stated. It has been conjec- 
 tured that he was a native Canaanite 
 from his courting the Shechemiies 
 into sabjection to the men of Hamor, 
 who was anciently, in the days of 
 Jacob, lord of this city. However 
 this may be, there is little doubt that 
 he was a man of rank and influence, 
 who had once been a citizen of She- 
 chem, but for reasons unknown had 
 ceased for a time to be a resident 
 there. Being however of a bold, 
 aspiring, ambitious character, and 
 finding the troubled stale of the city 
 propitious to his designs, he returns 
 accompanied with a strong party of 
 relatives, and begins plotting at once 
 to put himself at the head of affairs. 
 IT Went over to Shechem. Or, Heb. 
 ' passed by into Shechem.' That is, 
 probably, passed by the liers in wait. 
 Knowing them to l3e a party hostile 
 to Abimelech and favorable to their 
 own views, they sutTered them to 
 pass without molestation. It is not 
 unlikely that Gaal had been previ- 
 ously in correspondence with the 
 disaffected part of the Shechemites, 
 and was fully advised of the state of 
 things in the city. IT Put their 
 confidence in him. So as to make 
 him head of the faction which had 
 been organizing against Abimelech, 
 but which hitherto had lacked a suit- 
 able leader. Vulg. 'at whose com- 
 ing the inhabitants of Shechem took 
 courage.' 
 
 27. And they vmit cut, &c. Or, 
 Heb. 'and when they had gone out, 
 &c. — then they made merry.' The 
 original for ' making merry' is prop- 
 erly ' making songs, or making 
 praises,' and, refers to the custona 
 
290 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1206. 
 
 vineyards, and trode the grapes, 
 and made merry, and went into 
 "the house of their god, and did 
 eat and drink, and cursed Abi- 
 melech. 
 
 28 And Gaal the son ofEbed 
 said, "^Who is Abimelech, and 
 who is Shechem, that we should 
 serve him ? is not he the son of 
 Jerubbaul ? and Zebul his offi- 
 
 b ver 4. c I Sam. '-5. 10. I Kings 1*2 1'^. 
 
 celebrating the harvest of vintage 
 with songs of rejoicing and other fes- 
 tivities; of which see Lev. 19. 24. 
 Is. 16. 9, 10. Jer. 25. 30. nr Went 
 into the house of their god, &c. In 
 imitation of the worshippers of the 
 true God, who resorted to the sanc- 
 tuary on such occasions. IT Cursed 
 Abivielech. Loading his name with 
 the foulest reproaches and revilings, 
 and perhaps calling upon their god 
 to raiity their imprecations. The 
 excitement occasioned by wine in 
 scenes of mirth and banqueting natu- 
 rally prepares men for murders, trea- 
 son, and every evil work. 
 
 28. }Vho is Abivielech, and who is 
 SlUckcm? That is, the Shcchemites. 
 Compare them together, put this 
 base-born, worth les.s usurper by the 
 side of us native Shechemites, and 
 what reason can be assigned for our 
 subjection to him 1 IT Is he not the 
 son of Jerubbaal 7 Spoken by way of 
 disparagement and contempt, as if 
 despising his memory and prompted 
 by an indignant recollection of the 
 act on which his name was founded, 
 viz. his throwing down the altar of 
 Baal. Thus do inen of turbulent 
 and ambitious spirits ' despise domin- 
 ions, and speak evil of dignities,' and 
 thus are the most valuable services 
 of the best of men requited by the 
 vile and worthless. IT And 'Zebul 
 his officer? Heb. 'his overseer;' 
 prob b!y made governor of Shechem 
 by Abimelech in his absence. Are 
 you so mean-spirited and cowardly 
 tiiat you not only submit to the 
 tyrant himself, but suffer his very 
 servants to lord it over you, and par- 
 
 cer ? serve the men of'^Hnmor 
 tlie father of Shechem : for why 
 should we serve him ? 
 
 29 And "^vvculd to God tin's 
 people were under my hand ! 
 then would I remove Abimel- 
 ech. And he said to Abimelech, 
 Increase thine army, and come 
 out. 
 
 30 H And when Zebul the ru- 
 
 ticularly this contemptible Zebul 1 
 ^ Serve the men of Havior. The des- 
 cendants of Hamor. If ye will be in 
 subjection, call some one to author- 
 ity who is descended from the an- 
 cient and legitimate stock of She- 
 chem, instead of this ignoble alien 
 despot. This was perhaps a virtual 
 challenge to them to fix their choice 
 upon himself, as deriving his origin 
 from this source. This is confirm- 
 ed by what follows. IT The father 
 of Shechem. The father or founder 
 of the city and the race of the She- 
 chemites; the name of an individual 
 standing for the whole people. 
 
 29. Would to God this people were 
 under my hand I An exclamation 
 disclosing the hidden source which 
 usually prompts the complaints of 
 artful deinagojjues against the exist- 
 ing order of things, and their large 
 professions of concern for the public 
 welfare ; though seldom so frankly 
 declared as in the present instance. 
 His words clearly evince that his 
 real object was not so much to 
 recover the liberties of his country- 
 men, as to persuade them to a change 
 of rulers. It is not easy to set bounds 
 to the mischief that may be effected 
 by an artful leader working upon the 
 minds of an inflamed populace. IT 
 Then would I remove Abimelech. 
 Would speedily remove, dispatch, or 
 make way ; with an emplntic expres- 
 sion, implying more in Hebrew than 
 in English. fT He said to Abime- 
 lech, Increase thine army, &c. As 
 we have no evidence that" Abimelech 
 was within hearing of these words, 
 the probability is, that being heated 
 
A. C. 1206.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 291 
 
 ler of the city heard the words 
 of Gaal the son of Ebed, his an- 
 ger was kindled. 
 
 31 And he sent messengers 
 unto Abimelech privily, saying, 
 Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed, 
 and his brethren, bo come to 
 Shechcm ; and behold, they for- 
 tify the city against thee. 
 
 32 Now therefore up by night, 
 thou, and the people that is with 
 
 with wine and puffed up with arro- 
 gance, Gaal addresses and defies 
 him, in this bravado style, as though 
 actually present. Yet it may be, 
 that he sent word by some of Abim- 
 elech's friends to their master, that 
 he was willing to dispute the point 
 with him, allowing him at the same 
 time every advantage on the score of 
 numbers which he could desire. 
 Let him gather all his allies, and do 
 his worst, still he would find the son 
 of Ebed more than a match for him. 
 
 30 His anger was kindled. How- 
 ever he might have felt for his masr 
 ter's honor, it was scarcely to be ex- 
 pected that he should pass by the in- 
 sult cast upon himself It would 
 seem, v. 36, that from motives of po- 
 licy he had hitherto temporized with 
 the disaffected party at Shechem, but 
 he now becomes decided, though he 
 is still restrained from open mea- 
 sures against the insurgents. 
 
 31. Sent messengers — privily. Heb. 
 ' craftily, in fraud.' That "is, the 
 pretended object of his sending them 
 did not correspond with his real ob- 
 ject. His ' givings out' were far re- 
 moved from his ' true-meant de- 
 signs.' If he had discovered himself 
 to b'^' wholly for Abimelech, the men 
 of the city might at once have risen 
 against him and put him to death. 
 He therefore goes warily to work to 
 acquaint Abimelech with the ene- 
 mies' designs, and to put him in a 
 way to revenge the insults cast up- 
 on them both. IT They fortify the 
 city aoaiiist thee. Heb. D'^iv ^''^ be- 
 sieging, from the root -njj to besiege^ 
 
 thee, and lie in wait in the field : 
 
 33 And it shall be, that in the 
 morning, as soon as the sun is 
 up, thou shalt ri.se early, and 
 set upon the city : and behold, 
 when he and the people that is 
 with him come out against thee, 
 then mayest thou do to them as 
 thou shalt find occasion. 
 
 34 IT And Abimelech rose up, 
 and all the people that were 
 
 to press vntk siege ^ usually spoken of 
 hostile operations carried on by in- 
 vaders from without, and not without 
 great violence applied to defensive 
 measures adopted by those within a 
 city For this reason the expres- 
 sion, we suppose, is to be taken me- 
 taphorically for the influence exert- 
 ed by Gaal and his party upon the 
 minds of the citizens, in stirring up, 
 exciting, augmenting the sedition 
 that was spreading through the city. 
 They were engaged in pressing, ur- 
 ging, instigating i\].e citizens against 
 Abimelech, and therefore it was im- 
 portant for him to make haste in ad- 
 vancing upon Shechem. 
 
 33. Set upon the ciiy. We doubt 
 if this rendering gives" the true force 
 of the original, or the real policy of 
 Abimelech. He does not seem to 
 have designed, at least at present, to 
 attack the city while Gaal was in it. 
 He even abstained from this after 
 he had overcome him in the open 
 field, and nothing that we can see 
 prevented his pushing his conquest 
 into the heart of Shechem, v. 40. 
 But the triie import of the word is to 
 spread one's self, to expand, and the 
 phrase may be rendered, 'spread 
 thyself (thy forces) against or to- 
 wards the city,' i. e. with a view to 
 lure out Gaal to an engagement in 
 the open field. IT As thou shall find 
 occasion. Heb. ' as thine hand shall 
 find ;' an Hebraism, properly ren- 
 dered in our translation. Comp. j 
 Sam. 10. 7. where the same phrase 
 occurs. 
 
 34. Abimelech rose up. Addressed 
 
293 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1206. 
 
 with him, by night, and they 
 laid wait against Shechem in 
 four companies. 
 
 35 And Gaal the son ofEbed 
 went out, and stood in the enter- 
 ing of the gate of the city ; and 
 Abimelech rose up, and the peo- 
 pie that were with him, from 
 lying in wait. 
 
 36 And when Gaal saw the 
 people, he said to Zebul, Behold, 
 there come people down from 
 the top of the mountains. And 
 Zebul said unto him, Ttiou seest 
 the shadow of the mountains as 
 if they were men. 
 
 37 And Gaal spake again, 
 and said, See, there come peo- 
 ple down by the middle of the 
 
 himself to the matter before him, en- 
 tered upon the business in hand. 
 See on Josh. 1.2, 
 
 35. Laid wait. Probably in some 
 of the mountains in the immediate 
 vicinity, as is to be inferred from v. 
 36. H In four companies. Heb. 
 ' in four heads ;' a term applied to 
 the crencral divisions of any thing. 
 
 35. Gaal icent out — and stood at 
 the entering of the gate. Probably 
 not alone, but at the head of his 
 forces, either to lead them forth up- 
 on some short excursion about the 
 city, or to be prepared for whatever 
 assault might be meditated against 
 him. ' Had he been as valiant as 
 he was vigilant, it might have gone 
 better with him and his partisans.' 
 Trapp. 
 
 46. He said to Zebul, Behold, &c. 
 The familiarity existing between 
 these two individuals, under their 
 present circumstances, shows very 
 clearly that Zebul had hitherto dis- 
 sembled his real sentiments and pur- 
 poses. It is not possible otherwise 
 to account for such an interview at 
 ihis time between parties so related. 
 
 37. By the middle of the land. Heb. 
 
 land, and another company come 
 along by the plain of Meone- 
 nim. 
 
 38 Then said Zebul unto him 
 Where is now thy mouth, where- 
 with thou 'saidst, Who is Abi- 
 melech, that we should serve 
 him ? is not this the people that 
 thou hast despised 1 go out, I 
 pray now, and fight with them. 
 
 39 And Gaal went out before 
 the men of Shechem, and fought 
 with Abimelech. 
 
 40 And Abimelech chased 
 him, and he fled before Idm, and 
 many were ovei thrown and 
 wounded, even unto the entering 
 of the ^^ate. 
 
 41 And Abimelech dwelt at 
 
 ' from the navel of the land.' That 
 is, as Gesenius and other lexicogra- 
 phers explain it, from the height, the 
 most elevated suvimit, of the land. 
 IT B]i the plain of Meoneni7R. Or, 
 Heb. 'by the oak of the augurers, 
 or regarders of times;' probably a 
 tree or cluster of trees where sup- 
 erstitious auguries were performed, 
 or where certain soothsayers dM-elt. 
 
 38. Wliere is now thy mouth 7 
 Where is now thy boasting, thy vain 
 bravado, of which thou wert lately 
 so profuse 1 Does thy courage be- 
 gin to quail upon the bare sight of 
 the enemy 7 In proportion as Abi- 
 melech approached, Zebul begins to 
 speak with more eifrontery, and 
 throw off his disguise, though his 
 words still had the air of merely ex- 
 citing Gaal to go forth like a man 
 and redeem the pledge he had before 
 given. Gaal thus had proof that 
 those who are rebels themselves 
 must not expect fidelity in their as- 
 sociates. 
 
 29. And Gaal vjeni out, &c. The 
 only becoming answer to such cut- 
 ting taunts and sarcasms was to sally 
 boldly forth against the enemy. But 
 
A. C. 1206.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 293 
 
 Arumah : and Zebul thrust out 
 Gaul aiul his brethren, that they 
 should not dwell in Shechenn. 
 
 42 And it came to pass on the 
 morrow, that the people went 
 out into the field ; and they told 
 Abimelech 
 
 4-S And he took the people, 
 and divided thenn into three com- 
 panies, and laid wait in the field, 
 and looked, and behold, the peo- 
 ple were come forth out of the 
 
 the special hand of God was in the 
 event for his punishment. ' Where 
 iniquity breakfasts, calamity M'ill be 
 sure to dine.' Trapp. 
 
 41. Abimelech d-relt in Arumah 
 Heb. ' sal down in Arumah.' He 
 retired hither for the present with 
 his army, still cherishing the design 
 of gaining tarther advantages. ^ 
 Zebul thrust oiii Gaal and his bre- 
 thren. These words, it would seem, 
 are not to be taken as indicating a 
 violent expulsion. For if Zebul and 
 his party had obtained a complete 
 ascendancy in the city, why did they 
 not at once deliver up Gaal and his 
 faction to Abimelech, and receive 
 him within the walls '? The fict nn- 
 doubtedly was, that notwithstanding 
 the recent defeat, the crafty Zebul 
 saw that Abimelech's interest in the 
 city was not strong enough to justify 
 him in completely throwing off the 
 the mask, and he accordingly went 
 to work, like a skilful master of in- 
 trigue, to undermine Gaal in the af- 
 fections of the people by hypocriti- 
 cally grieving over the recent disas- 
 ter, and persuading them that it was 
 owing to the cowardice and bad 
 management of their leader. This 
 is the account Josephus gives of the 
 matter, and we think the correct one. 
 The consequence was, that Gaal 
 made an ignominious exit from the 
 city, and we hear no more of him. 
 
 42. The people went out into the 
 field. To follow their usual employ- 
 ments. As Abimelech had with- 
 
 city ; and he rose up against 
 them, and smote them. 
 
 44 And Abimelech, and the 
 company that was with him, 
 rushed lorward, and stood in the 
 e: tering of tlie gate of the city : 
 and the two other companies ran 
 upon all the people that were in 
 the fi:j|ds, and slew them. 
 
 4o And Abimelech fought 
 against the city all that day; 
 and ?he took the citv, and slew 
 
 drawn his forces, they issued forth 
 not dreaming but they were entirely 
 secure. But the wrath of a king 
 does not so easily subside. ^ They 
 told Abimelech. A Hebrew idiom 
 for 'it was told to Abimelech.' 
 
 43. And he took the people, &c. 
 We prefer to render this in the plu- 
 perfect, ' for he had taken,' &c., as 
 it seems far less likely that he should 
 set an ambush, while the people were 
 already in the field, and could easily 
 discover all his movements. More- 
 over, the last clause of the verse as 
 read in the original, ' behold, the 
 people coming forth,' plainly shows 
 that their egress from the city took 
 place after the ambush was laid. 
 
 44. A7id Abimelech and the company 
 that wos vrith hivi, &c. This verse 
 details in a more particular manner 
 the circumstance of the 'sraitting' 
 mentioned above, and at the same 
 time anticipates the question, why 
 the people attacked did not at once 
 betake themselves to the city. Be- 
 cause, says the narrative, Abimelech 
 with a strong detachment interposed 
 himself and cut off the communica- 
 tion between them and the city, that 
 they might neither make their re- 
 treat within the walls, nor receive 
 any succors from thence. ' When we 
 go out about our business, we are 
 not sure that we shall come home 
 again ; there are deaths both in the 
 citv and in the field.' Henry. 
 
 45 Took the city, &c. "Though 
 the city of his nativity, yet he fell 
 
294 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1206. 
 
 the people that was therein, and 
 ^•beat down the city, and sowed 
 it with salt. 
 
 4t) IT And when all the men 
 ofthe tower of Siiechem heard 
 thaU they entered into a hold of 
 the house iof the god Berith. 
 
 47 And it was told Abime- 
 lech, that all the men of the tow- 
 er of Shechem were gathered 
 together. 
 
 48 And Abimelech gat him 
 up to mount '-Zahnon, he and all 
 the people that were with hini; 
 and Abimelech took an axe in 
 his hand, and cut down a bough 
 from the trees, and took it, and 
 laid it on his shoulder, and said 
 
 h Deul. 29. 23- 1 Kings 12. 25. 2 Kings 3- 25. 
 i ch. 8. 33. k Ps 68. 14^ 
 
 upon it with merciless barbarity, 
 laid it in ruins, by beating down its 
 walls and buildings, and slew all the 
 inhabitants ! His sowing it wath 
 salt was in token that he designed it 
 to become a perpetual desolation. 
 The salt was not intended to render 
 it barren, for a town or city is not 
 designed for culture, but for build- 
 ing; but as salt is an emblem of in- 
 corrnplion and perpetuity, it was em- 
 ployed to perpetiiate the memory of 
 this transaction. By comparing 
 Deut. 29. 33, it would appear that 
 there was an allusion in the act to 
 the destruction of Sodom and Go- 
 morrah. Yet all his efforts did not 
 avail to make its desolation perma- 
 nent, for it was afterwads rebuilt, 
 and became so considerable a place 
 that all Israel resorted thiiher to 
 make Rehoboam king, 1 Kings 12. 1. 
 46. The men ofthe tower of Shechem. 
 Heb. ' the lords or masters of the 
 tower.' How these persons are dis- 
 tinguished from the other inhabi- 
 tants of Shechem, or how this tower 
 stood related to the city, it is ex- 
 tremely difficult to determine. It is 
 not unlikely that it was a castle be- 
 longing to the city and situated in 
 
 unto the people that were with 
 him, What ye have seen me do, 
 make haste, and do as 1 have 
 done. 
 
 49 And all the people like- 
 wise cut down every man his 
 bough, and followed Abimelech, 
 and put them to the hold, and set 
 the hold on fire upon them ; so 
 that all the men of the tower of 
 Shechem died also, about a thou- 
 sand men and women. 
 
 50 H Then went Abimelech 
 to Thebez, and encamped against 
 Thebez, and took it. 
 
 51 But there was a strong 
 tower within the city, and thi- 
 ther fled all the men and women, 
 
 its vicinity, to which a considerable 
 portion of the population had pre- 
 viously betaken themselves to escape 
 the fury of their invader. What- 
 ever it were, it was now deemed too 
 insecure an asylum to trust to, and 
 its occupants withdrew to a strong- 
 hold in the precincts of the temple, 
 where they promised themselves 
 safety if not from its strength, at least 
 from its sacredness. But in putting 
 themselves under the protection of 
 their idol, that which they hoped 
 would have been for their welfare, 
 proved to them a snare and a trap. 
 It is highly probable that this was 
 no other than the place called, v. 6, 
 ' the house of Millo,' which was to 
 be involved in the catastrophe pre- 
 dicted in Jotham's curse, v. 20, an 
 event most strikingly accomplished 
 when the place was set on fire by 
 Abimelech. 
 
 48. Mount Zalmon. A mountain, 
 in the vicinity of Shechem, so called 
 from the abundant shade caused by 
 the forests with which it was cover- 
 ed. See Ps. 68. 15. 
 
 50. Encamped against Thebez. A 
 city of Ephraim in the neighborhood 
 of Shechem, and about thirteen miles 
 
A. C. 1206.] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 295 
 
 and all they of the city, and shut 
 it to them, and gat them up to 
 the top of the tower. 
 
 52 At)d Abimelech came un- 
 to the tower, and fought against 
 it, and went hard unto the door 
 of the tower to burn it with fire. 
 
 53 And a certain woman 
 least a piece of a millstone upon 
 Abimelech's head, and all to 
 break his skull. 
 
 54 Tnen ™he called hastily 
 
 m So 1 Sam 31. 4. 
 
 west from Bethshan (Scythopolis.) 
 According to Euscbius and Jerome 
 it continued till their time, or to 
 about four hundred years after 
 Christ, but at the present day it has 
 wholly disappeared. 
 
 51. A strung tower within the city. 
 Doubtless a sort of citadel such as 
 exists in most considerable towns in 
 western Asia, and which serves the 
 people as a last retreat when the 
 town is taken by an enemy, and 
 where the people shut themselves up 
 on 'occasions of popular tumult. In 
 some parts of the East such towers 
 are to be seen in the open country, 
 where the neighboring peasantry 
 may deposit their more valuable 
 property, or themselves take refuge, 
 when the approach of an enemy or 
 of a plundering tribe is expected. 
 
 53. A piece of a rniUstone. Literal- 
 ly, 'ft piece of a, cAano^-wheel,' but 
 elsewhere applied to upper-millstones. 
 ^ And all to break his skull. In near- 
 ly all the copies of the English Bible 
 printed in England, the verb appears 
 in the past tense ' brake,' whereas in 
 all or nearly all the American edi- 
 tions the word is ' break,' as in the 
 text above. The former reading is 
 certainly the correct one. The er- 
 ror in our editions has arisen from 
 a misapprehension of the true mean- 
 ing of the phrase ' all to.' Accord- 
 ing to the present use of language, 
 this would seem rather to express 
 intention than the result of action, 
 but it really expresses the latter. 
 
 unto the young man his armor- 
 bearer, and said unto him, Draw 
 thy sword, and slay me, that 
 men say not of me, A woman 
 slew him. And his young man 
 thrust him through, and he died. 
 
 55 And when the men of 
 Israel saw that Abimelech was 
 dead, they departed every man 
 unto his place. 
 
 56 IT "Thus God rendered the 
 wickedness of Abimelech, which 
 
 nv. 24. Job 31. 3. Fs. 94. 23. Prov. 5. 22. 
 
 ' All to,' in many of the old English 
 writers, means ' altogether,' ' entire- 
 ly,' or as Johnson says, is used, ' as 
 a particle of more enforcement ;' and 
 so doubtless it is used here ; q. d. 
 'she entirely or utterly brake his 
 skull.' Not understanding this, many 
 copies of the common version, have 
 changed it to indicate intention^ by 
 substituting ' break' for 'brake.' 
 
 54. And he died. Abimelech's de- 
 vices to avoid the disgrace of perish- 
 ing by the hands of a woman, avail- 
 ed him little, for nearly three centu- 
 ries afterwards we find his death as- 
 cribed to the woman who threw the 
 piece of millstone from the wall, 2 
 Sam. 11. 21. ' There now lies the 
 greatness of Abimelech ; on one 
 stone he had slain his seventy breth- 
 ren and now a stone slays him ; his 
 head had stolen the crown of Israel, 
 and now his head is smitten. O the 
 just succession of the revenges of 
 God ! Gideon's ephod is punished 
 with the blood of his sons, the blood 
 of his sons is shed by the procure- 
 ment of the Shechemites : the blood 
 of the Shechemites is shed by Abi- 
 melech ; the blood of Abimelech is 
 spilt by a woman. The retaliations 
 of God are sure and just, and make 
 a more due pedigree than descent 
 of nature.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 56. Rendered the vnckedness. Re- 
 quitted,'recompensed the wickedness. 
 Both the fratricide Abimelech and 
 the unprincipled men of Shechem 
 had the iniquity visited upon them of 
 
296 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1183. 
 
 he did unto his father, in slaying 
 his seventy brethren : 
 
 57 And all the evil of the 
 men ofShechem did God ren- 
 der upon their heads : and upon 
 them came °the curse of Jo- 
 tham the son of Jprubbaal. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 AND after Abimelech there 
 ''arose to defend Israel, To- 
 la the son of Puah, the son of 
 Dodo, a man of Issachar ; and 
 he dwelt in Shamir in mount 
 Ephraim. 
 
 o ver 20. a ch. 2. 16. 
 
 •which they had been guilty. Man's 
 judgment may be avoided, but there 
 is no escaping from the judgment of 
 God. The recorded end of Abime- 
 lech suggests the remark, (1.) That 
 ihey who thirst for blood, God will 
 at last give ihem their own blood to 
 drink. (2.) The weak in God's hand 
 can confound the mighty, and those 
 who walk in pride he is able to 
 abase. (3.) They who in life consult- 
 ed only their pride and ambition, 
 will usually die as they live, more 
 solicitous that their honor should be 
 preserved on earth, than that their 
 souls be saved from hell. (4.) The 
 methods proud men take to secure a 
 great name, often only serve to per- 
 petuate their infamy. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1 , Arose to defend. Heb. ' arose to 
 save or deliver.' To sustain the of- 
 fice and act the part of a savior or de- 
 liverer, in case it should be necessary. 
 They were now freed from the tyr- 
 anny of Abimelech, and as far as 
 appears enjoyed prevailing peace, 
 yet they were still liable to annoy- 
 ance and incursions from the neigh- 
 "boring powers, and it was fitting that 
 they should have a head to preside 
 over their concerns, repressing in- 
 ternal discords, maintaining union, 
 
 2 And he judged Israel twen- 
 ty and three years, and died, and 
 was buried in Shamir. 
 
 3 H And after him arose Jair, 
 a Giieadite, and judged Israel 
 twenty and two years. 
 
 4 And he had thirty sons 
 that '^rode on thirty ass colts, 
 and they had thirty cities, -^which 
 are called Havoth-jair unto this 
 day, which are in the land of 
 Gilead. 
 
 .5 And Jair died, and was buri- 
 ed in Camon. 
 
 6 H And '•the children of Is- 
 
 h ch. 5. 10. & 12. 14. cDent. 3. U. d ch. 2. U- 
 &3. 7. & 4. 1. & 6. 1. & li. 1. 
 
 guarding against idolatry, and pre- 
 pared at all limes to take ilie field in 
 their defence. Ti Dicelt in Shamir, 
 in mount Ephraim. Though of the 
 tribe of Issachar, yet when raised to 
 the government, iie came and dwelt 
 in mount Ephraim, as being a more 
 central station, one to which the peo- 
 ple might more conveniently resort 
 for judgment. 
 
 4. I'hirty sons that rode on thirty 
 ass colts, &c. A very remarkable 
 indication of eastern manners, and 
 of the state of the times. It seems 
 that the people so generally went 
 about on foot, that to ride on an ass, 
 that is, to ride at all, was considered 
 a mark of wealth and distinction. 
 So w^e afterwards read of Abdon 
 another judge, ch. 12. 14, that 'he 
 had forty sons and thirty nephews 
 that rode on threescore and ten ass 
 colts.' No doubt this conveyed to 
 the ancient Hebrews the idea of as 
 much consideration as it does among 
 us to say, that a person keeps a car- 
 riage. Josephus, perhaps from 
 thinking the indication undignified, 
 changes the asses to horses. IT 
 Thirty cities — called Havoth-jair 
 unto this day. Heb. ' villages of 
 Jair.' We read in Num. 32. 41, that 
 'Jair the son of iVlanasseh went and 
 took the small towns thereof, and 
 
A. C. 1161.] CHAPTER X. 
 
 rael did evil again in tlu* sight ! 
 ofthe LoRi>, and ^served Baalim, | 
 and Aslitaroth, and '^the gods ofj 
 Syria, and the gods of eZidon, 
 and the gods oi Moab, and the 
 gods ofthe children of Ammoii, 
 and tiie gods of the Philis- 
 tines, and forsook the Lord, 
 and sewed not liim. 
 
 7 And the anger ofthe Lord 
 
 e ch. 2. 13. 1 ch. 2. Vi. ^ 1 K.i,g.i II. 33. Ps. U6 
 
 called them Havoth-jair,' from 
 Avhich some have supposed that the 
 Jair there mentioned is the same 
 person with the judge spoken of in 
 the passage before us. But the for- 
 mer was doubtless the ancestor of 
 the latter, Lliough the names of the 
 villages in question were retained 
 unaltered from the original posse.s- 
 sor. Their number, as Ave learn 
 from 1 Chron. 2. 22, was at first onl}- 
 twenty-three, but the remaining 
 seven were added in process of Lime. 
 The circumstance affords evidence 
 ofthe rank and opulence ofthe fa- 
 mily. 
 
 6. Did evil again. Heb. 'added 
 to do evil.' The defection here men- 
 tioned was undoubtedly very gross 
 and of aggravated enormity. They 
 became in a sense universal idola- 
 ters, adopting all the gods ofthe sur- 
 rounding nations. They scarcely 
 seem to have admitted the God of Is- 
 rael as one ofthe many deities they 
 worshipped, but to have cast him oif 
 altogether. ' Those that think to 
 serve both God and mammon, will 
 soon come entirely to forsake God, 
 and to serve mammon only. If God 
 hav^e not all the heart, he will soon 
 have none of it.' Henry. 
 
 7. And he sold them. See on ch. 2. 
 14. 11 Into the hands of the Philis- 
 tines and — of Amman. The one on 
 the west, the other on the east ; so 
 that they were grievously annoyed 
 on both sides. 
 
 8. That year they vexed and op- 
 pressed the. children of Israel eighteen 
 years. We know not what sense to 
 
 26 
 
 X'97 
 
 was hot against Israel, and he 
 ^s:)id them into the hands of tlie 
 Phihstines, and into the hands oC 
 the children of Amnion. 
 
 8 And that year they vexed 
 and oppressed the children of Is- 
 rael eighteen 3''ears, all the chil- 
 dren of Israel that were on the 
 other side Jordan in the land o! 
 the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 
 
 h cli. 2 U. 1 Sam 12. y. 
 
 make of this clause as it now stands, 
 which seems to bring an oppression 
 of eighteen year's continuance within 
 the space of one year. Probably the 
 solution is to render the veibs in the 
 pliTperfect, 'and that year they had 
 vexed and oppressed them eighteen 
 years;' i. e. that year completed the 
 period of eighteen years during 
 which they had proved a scourge to 
 them. The oppression commenced 
 during the administration of Jaii', 
 perhaps nearly at the same time 
 with the apostacy which caused it, 
 and at the time of his death, had con- 
 tinued eighteeen years. This last 
 event, though occurring after the 
 apostacy commenced, is mentioned 
 before it by prolepsis or anticipation, 
 than which nothing is more fre- 
 quent in the sacred writers. The 
 terms employed in the original to in- 
 dicate the severity ofthe oppression 
 are very expressive. They import 
 crushing and breaking to pieces, a 
 metaphor apparently drawn from the 
 action of two raill-stones upon the 
 substance placed between them, to 
 which Henry strikingly compares 
 the condition ofthe Israelites at this 
 time under the grinding oppression 
 of the two hostile powers on either 
 side of them, the Ammonites and the 
 Philistines. Another remark of the 
 same commentator respecting this 
 apostacy of Israel is well worthy oi 
 insertion here. ' God had appointed 
 that if any of the cities of Israel 
 should revolt to idolatry, the rest 
 should make war upon them and cut 
 Ihem off, Deut. 13. 12, et infr. Thev 
 
298 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A.C. 1161. 
 
 9 Moreover, the children of 
 Ainmon passed over Jordan, to 
 fight also against Juduh, and 
 against Benjamin, and against 
 the house of Ephraim ; so tliat 
 Israel was sore distressed. 
 
 10 ^ iAnd the children of Is- 
 rael cried unto the Lord, say- 
 ing, We have sinned against thee, 
 both because we have forsaken 
 our God, and also served Baa- 
 lim. 
 
 11 And the Lord said unto 
 the children of Israel, Did not 
 
 i 1 Sam. 12. 10. 
 
 had been jealous enough in this mat- 
 ter, almost to an extreme, in the case 
 of the altar set up by the two tribes 
 and a half, Josh. 22, but now they 
 are grown so very bad, that when 
 one city was infected with idolatry, 
 the next took the infection, and, in- 
 stead of punishing, imitated and out- 
 did it; and therefore since they that 
 should have been revengers to exe- 
 cute wrath upon them that did this 
 evil, were themselves guilty, or bare 
 the sword in vain, God brought the 
 neighboring nations upon them to 
 chastise them for their apostacy.' 
 
 9. The children of Amnion passed 
 over Jordan. The Philistines pro- 
 bably harrassed the children of Is- 
 rael in the south of Canaan, west of 
 the Jordan ; and the Ammonites the 
 two tribes and a half to the east of 
 that river. The spirit of conquest or 
 of aggression, however, soon led the 
 latter to cross the Jordan. It seems 
 probable that they rather vexed and 
 distressed the trans- Jordanic tribes, 
 than kept them in entire subjection; 
 and afterwards extended their incur- 
 sions to the west of the Jordan. 
 They were justly punished by the 
 Amorites, for they had so utterly de- 
 generated and conformed to their 
 heathen neighbors, that Ezekiel in 
 addressing the Israelitish nation, ch. 
 
 / deliver you '■from the Egyp- 
 tians, and ifrom the Amorites, 
 "'from the children of Amnion, 
 
 "and 
 
 tiie Philistines? 
 
 12 °The Zidonians also, Pand 
 the Amalekites, and the A'aon- 
 ires «Jdid oppress you ; and ye 
 cried to me, and I delivered you 
 out of their hand. 
 
 IH --Yet ye have forsaken mo, 
 and served other gf)ds : where- 
 fore I will deliver you no more. 
 
 14 Go and 'cry unto the gods 
 which ye have chosen ; let tliem 
 
 kEx. U. 30. ! Nam. 21 21, 24. '25. ni ch. S" 
 12,13. M ch. 3- 31. o h. 5. 19 p eh. 6 3. 
 
 q Ps. 106. 42,43 r Dout. 32. 15. Jlt. 2. 13. i iJewl. 
 32.37,38 2Kiiig.«3. 13 Jer. 2. 2S. 
 
 16. 3, says by a bold figure, ' Thy fa- 
 ther was an Amorite, and thy mo- 
 ther a Hittite.' 
 
 10. Both because we have forsaken, 
 &c. They specify distinctly the two 
 forms of their transgression ; first, in 
 departing wickedly from God, 
 secondly, in serving idols. Under 
 the deep impression of their guilt in 
 this conduct, they made good the 
 words of the prophet, Is. 26. 16, 
 ' Lord, in trouble have they visited 
 thee; they poured out a prayer when 
 thy chastening was upon them.' 
 The first step of a sinner's return to 
 God is the discovery of his own 
 great guilt, and a sense of his de- 
 served ruin, and this in order to be 
 available must be accompanied with 
 the most sincere and penitent ac- 
 knoioledgment of his aggravated of- 
 fences. 
 
 11. And the Lord said, &c. In 
 what manner these reproofs were 
 conveyed to the Israelites, we are 
 not informed. It Avas probably 
 through the medium of some inspir- 
 ed prophet, or of the high priest, 
 whose duty it was to learn the will 
 of heaven in all trying emergencies. 
 
 14. Go and cry unto the god's 
 which ye have chosen. Which ye 
 have not served upon compulsion, 
 but which ye have freely and volun- 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 299 
 
 deliver you in the time of your 
 tribulation. 
 
 15 IF And the children of Is- 
 rael said unto the Lokd, We 
 have sinned : 'do thou unto us 
 whatsoever seemeth good unto 
 thee ; deHver us only, we pray 
 thee, tliis day. 
 
 I 1 S..1.1. 3. IS. 2 Sam. 15. 26. 
 
 tarily chosen. The Most High does 
 not turn away his ear from their 
 prayers, nor sink them in utter de- 
 spair, yet he sends a sharp and up- 
 braiding answer, of which the im- 
 mediate effect would be to awaken 
 their consciences, and confound them 
 imder a sense of their baseness c.nd 
 ins:ratitnde. Many a time they hr.d 
 been delivered and those very op- 
 pressors subdued under them ; yet 
 they had vilely sinned against their 
 own mercies. He therefore refers 
 them for help to the gods whom they 
 had served, to rebuke their folly and 
 convince them of the weakness of 
 these lying vanities. Yet the em- 
 phatic "^declaration, ' I will deliver 
 you no more,' is to be understood 
 conditionally, in case their idols 
 were kept among them ; for the di- 
 vine threatenings always imply a re- 
 serve of mercy to the truly penitent. 
 (1.) If God appears to frown upon 
 the returning sinner, let him not de- 
 spair; it is no more than his desert, 
 indeed, if he be utterly rejected ; but 
 with the Lord there is mercy and 
 forgiveness, and a heart of over- 
 whelming kindness is sometimes 
 temporarily concealed by an aspect 
 of wrath. (2.) When we are 
 brought to a real sense of our sins, 
 we shall see the vanity and insuffi- 
 ciency of those things to make us 
 either safe or happ)'-, in which we 
 formerly trusted. 
 
 1.3. Do mdo us whatsoever seemeth 
 £ood unto thee. Heb. ' do unto us 
 "according to all (that is) good in 
 thine eyes.' 
 
 IG. They put away the strange 
 sods. Heb, ' the gods of the stran- 
 
 16 "And they put away the 
 strange gods from among them, 
 and served the Lord : and *his 
 soul was grieved for the misery 
 of Israel. 
 
 17 Then the children of Am- 
 nion were gathered together, 
 and encamped in Gilead. And 
 
 u 2 Chr. 7. 14. 4 15. 8. Jer. 18. 7, 
 44, io. Is. 63. 9. 
 
 X P3 1.6. 
 
 ger,' In coming before God not 
 only is every excuse for sin to be re- 
 nounced, and the plea of, guilly, 
 guilty, sincerely to be made, but if 
 we would approve our repentance 
 real, the sins we confess are instant- 
 ly to be discarded. When this is the 
 case, and our transgressions are 
 truly our bitterness and burden, 
 though we may stand trembling un- 
 der the black review, yet there is 
 hope. IT His soul was grieved. 
 Not that there is really any grief in 
 God, for being infinitely happy in 
 himself, he is inaccessible to any such 
 emotion ; but it is spoken after the 
 manner of men, to represent to us 
 more forcibly the abounding compas- 
 sions of his heart. He acted towards 
 his people like one who felt for their 
 sufferings, like a kind father, who 
 cannot but be grieved over the afflic- 
 tions of his children. He had pity 
 upon them, restraining his severities, 
 and giving new and merciful com- 
 plexion to his dispensations towards 
 them. The Heb. is ' shortened, con- 
 tracted, straitened ;' a term expres- 
 sive of a state of mind the opposite of 
 equanimity, long suffering, forbear- 
 ance ; implying at once a sympathy 
 with suffering and a kind of m- 
 patience in redressing it. How 
 consoling the thought that no pro- 
 digal returns to God but his pater- 
 nal heart yearns over him touched 
 with a feeling of his wretchedness, 
 and ready to embrace the most mis- 
 erable of sinners. 
 
 17.' The children of Amman were 
 gathered together. Heb. ' were cried 
 together;' "i. e. were convened by 
 means of criers sent over the country 
 
:'>00 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 tiie children of Israel asscnililcd 
 themselves together, and en- 
 camped in J'jVlizpel). 
 
 18 And the people and princes 
 ofGilcad said one to another, 
 AVhat man is he that will begin 
 to fight against the children of 
 Ammon ? he shall 'b<j head over 
 ftil the inhabitants ofGiiead. 
 
 ych. 11. 11,29. Geii. 31. 49. i ch. 11. 8. 11. 
 
 in every direction to stir up all the 
 fuemies of Lsraei. IT Encamped in 
 Mizpeh. There were several places 
 of this name, bat as the war here de- 
 scribed was waged on the east of 
 the Jordan, the Mizpeh alluded to 
 in the text was undoub:edly that in 
 the trans- Jordanic half tribe of Ma- 
 nasseh, and of which an account is 
 given Josh. 11. 3. 
 
 18. The people and the princes 
 said. Heb. 'the people the princes 
 said;' indicating by a remarkable 
 phraseolgy how closely related, not 
 to say identified, were ihe people and 
 the rulers among these eastern tribes. 
 Though the nominal distinction ex- 
 isted, yet the interests of each were 
 so completely the same, that their re- 
 spective denominations are as it 
 M'ere merged in each other. How 
 different the spectacle presented by 
 the governments of nearly every 
 European nation for the last two 
 thousand years, and cnniinued to the 
 present day ! IF Shall be head^ &c. 
 Shall not only take the conduct of 
 the present war, but when the war is 
 over shall, as a reward for his servi- 
 ces, be continued as the governing 
 head of this people. This verse 
 '-•omes in here as an introduction to 
 ihe following narrative. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1. Now Jeplhah — was a minhty 
 man of valor. More properly per- 
 haps, "' had become.' The original 
 n'^n is ^ot merely a verb of existence, 
 but denotes the transition of its sub- 
 ject, from one state to anoUier. 
 When its meaning is simply ' is,' or 
 ' was,' it is almost invariably omitted 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 "MOW -^Jephthah the Gileadite 
 was ''a mighty man of val- 
 or, and he luas the son of a 
 harlot : and Gilead beg;U Jcph- 
 thah. 
 
 2 And Gilead's wife bare him 
 sons; and his wife's sons grew 
 up, and they thrust out Jeph- 
 
 a Hel,. n. 3-2. b ch 6. 12. 2 Kines 5. I 
 
 in the original. Here, however, i^ 
 is inserted, and probably hints at the 
 process by which Jepthah had gradu- 
 ally become distinguished. IT The 
 son of a harlot. Heb. ' a woman, a 
 harlot.' Not begotten in lawful wed- 
 lock. The Jewish commentators 
 for the most part give a softeniig 
 exposition of the term here empl(»y- 
 ed, as if it imported merely a concu- 
 bine, or a gentile, i. e. a foreign or 
 strange woman, not one of the Isra- 
 elitish race, as she is termed in v. 2. 
 But without doing violence to its 
 ordinary and most legitimate sense, 
 we know not how to depart from the 
 rendering of the- text. At the same 
 time, ii is to be observed, that our 
 limited knowledge of the actual 
 state of manners and society in those 
 ancient periods prevents us from af- 
 firming, that the word conveys pre- 
 cisely the idea oi public addicted'ness 
 to degrading vice which its modern 
 acceptation imports. It may have 
 indicated a character somewhat less 
 vile and iniquitous, but the ambigu- 
 ity of the term is not sufficient to 
 cover all disgrace in Jepthah's ori- 
 gin. His extraction, however, what- 
 ever it was, was the fault and dis- 
 grace of his parents rather than of 
 himself, and a man should not be re- 
 proached with the unhappiness of 
 his birth, when his own conduct be- 
 speaks him deserving a more honor- 
 able relation. ^Gileadbegat Jepthah. 
 One of the descendants of the Gilead 
 mentioned Num. 32. 1. Josh. 17. 1, 
 3, and bearing his name. To what 
 tribe he belonged is not certain, but 
 probably that of Manasseh beyond 
 the Jordan. 1 Chron. 7. 14. 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 301 
 
 thah, and said unto him, Thou 
 shall not inherit in our father's 
 house ; for thou art the son of a 
 strani^e woman. 
 
 8 Then Jephthah fled from 
 his brethren, and dwelt in the 
 land of Tob : and there were 
 
 2. Gilead's wife. His lawful wife, 
 in contradistinction from Jepthah's 
 mother. H Thou shall not inherit, 
 &c. That he was not entitled to 
 to share in the inheritance was a 
 matter of course, for even the child- 
 ren of the lawful secondary ^Hq or 
 concubine were not admitted to this 
 privilege, Gen. 21. 10. — 25. 6, much 
 less the issue of such an illicit con- 
 nection as that in question. But 
 Jepthah's brethren were probably 
 actuated by some secret motive of 
 jealously or envy, which they would 
 fain conceal by the plea of illegiti- 
 macy and outlawry here advanced; 
 for it does not appear that his expul- 
 sion from his father's house was ne- 
 cessary simply on this account. At 
 any rate, he evidently regarded it as 
 a gross outrage upon his rights, v. 7, 
 and one which the elders and magis- 
 trates of the city connived at and 
 abetted. The pretence of legal right 
 is often a mere cover to the foulest 
 wrongs and injuries. IT Ofastrange 
 woman. Heb. 'of another woman.' 
 That is, other than his lawful wife, 
 and probably a foreigner. See on 
 Ex. 1. 8. Deut. 29. 26. Jer. 22. 26. 
 
 3. Fled from his brethren. Heb. 
 ' from the face of his brethren. 1T//i 
 the land of Tob. A region so called 
 perhaps from the name of the indi- 
 vidual who was its first or most dis- 
 tinguished inhabitant. Its precise 
 locality is not known, but from the 
 facility of communication it was 
 doubtless in the near vicinity of Gil- 
 ead, Comp. 2 Sam. 10. 6, 8. IT 
 Were gathered vain men to Jepthah, 
 and went out with him. Heb. ' emp- 
 ty men ;' that is, idle, worthless, pro- 
 fligate men, a lawless rabble. The 
 original Qip'^ is a term of great re- 1 
 
 26* 
 
 gathered "^vain men to Jephthah, 
 and went out with him. 
 
 4 IT And it came to pass in 
 process of time, that the children 
 of Ammon made war against Is- 
 rael. 
 
 5 And it was so, that when 
 
 proach, being the same with ' Raca, 
 in the New Testament. The mean- 
 ing evidently is, that Jepthah, being 
 without any inheritance or family 
 connections to afford him a subsis- 
 tance, and being expelled from his 
 native place, became an adventurer, 
 and his character having brought 
 around him a number of brave but 
 idle men, perhaps similarly circum- 
 stanced, he made predatory incur- 
 sions into the neighboring countries. 
 This is what is meant by ' going out 
 with him,' a phrase frequently ap- 
 plied to warlike and plundering in- 
 roads upon an enemy's territory. 
 Probably they went out particularly 
 into the land of the Ammonites, to 
 retaliate the incursions which the 
 latter made into Israel; and Jep- 
 thah's success or skill in these free- 
 booting expeditions acquired him so 
 much reputation, that the people 
 would naturally be led to look to him 
 when they wanted a military leader. 
 The mode of life here indicated is 
 precisely that which was followed 
 by David, when his reputation 
 brought around him men of similar 
 character to these followers of Jep- 
 thah. This kind of military robbery 
 is far from being considered dishon- 
 orable in the East. On the contrary, 
 the fame thus acquired is thought as' 
 fair as any that can be obtained 
 through any class of military opera- 
 tions. An Arab or Tartar desires 
 no higher or brighter distinction than 
 that of a sucessful military robber ; 
 and to make that fame unsullied, it 
 is only necessary that his expedition 
 should not be against his own nation 
 or tribe. 
 
 4. The children of Ammon made 
 war against Israel. Or, perhaps 
 
302 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 the children of Ammon made 
 war against Israel, the elders of 
 Gilead went to fetch Jephthah 
 out of the land of Tob : 
 
 6 And they said unto Jeph- 
 thah, Come, and be our captain, 
 that we may fight with the chil- 
 dren of Ammon. 
 
 more properly, ' had made war,' and 
 were now encamped in Gilead. We 
 are here carried back in point of 
 time to the period mentioned ch. 10. 
 17, the historian having returned 
 from his digression concerning the 
 parentage and early life of Jepthah. 
 The words ' in process of time,' 
 Heb. 'after days,' probably refer to 
 the period immediately antecedent 
 to the expulsion of Jepth?.h. Many 
 days after he had been thrust out in 
 disgrace, he was brought back again 
 with honor. 
 
 5. Went to fetch Jepthah. Heb. 
 ' to take ;' that is, to persuade to go. 
 See note on Josh. 24. 3, and on Gen. 
 2. 15. This was undoubtedly with 
 the approbation, if not with the ex- 
 press direction of Jehovah. 
 
 6. Come and be 02tr captain. The 
 manner in which God overrules the 
 ill-meant actions of men to the fur- 
 therance of his designs is here very 
 observable. If Jepthah had not been, 
 as he was, the object of his brethren's 
 unkindness he had lost the opportu- 
 nity to exercise and improve his mar- 
 tial genius, and so failed to signalise 
 himself in the eyes of his country- 
 men. So it often happens that the 
 providences which are, to appear- 
 ance, our greatest misfortune, are 
 necessary to fit us for the work for 
 which God designs us. 
 
 7. Did ye not hate me and expel me, 
 &c. Though the act of his expul- 
 sion was primarily that of Jepthah's 
 brethren, yet these elders had either 
 actively aided in it, or by forbearing 
 to prevent or punish the injury, had 
 virtually made themselves partakers 
 in the guilt of it; and with this he 
 plainly charges them. ' Magistrates 
 
 7 And Jephthah said unto the 
 elders of Gilead, ^^Did not ye 
 hate me, and expel me out of 
 my father's house ? and why 
 are ye come unto me now when 
 ye are in distress ? 
 
 8 'And the elders of Gilead 
 said unto Jephthah, Therefore 
 
 that have power to protect those that 
 are injured, if they do not do them 
 right, really do them wrong.' Henry. 
 IT Why are ye come unto me now when 
 ye are in distress ? Not that Jepthah 
 was unwilling to save his coimtry, 
 but he thought fit to give them a hint 
 of their former unkindness, that they 
 might repent of it, and in future be 
 more sensible of their obligations. 
 Thus Joseph humbled his brethren 
 before he made himself known to 
 them. The same language too may 
 be applied by Christ to impenitent 
 sinners, who after doing what in 
 them lies to expel the Saviour from 
 his inheritance in their own hearts, 
 in the church, and in the world, still 
 fly to him and supplicate him for 
 succor in the day of their distress. 
 
 8. Therefore ice turn again unto 
 thee. This cannot be meant of a 
 local turning or returning to Jepthah, 
 for the words were obviously spoken 
 at the first interview, from which 
 they had not yet retired. The phrase 
 doubtless has reference to a change 
 of mind, a turning again in the state 
 of their feelings toioards him. It is 
 as if they had said, ' We are con- 
 vinced that we have done thee wrong, 
 and that thou hast just ground of 
 complaint ; but we renounce the feel- 
 ings we have formerly cherished, 
 and we now come to acknowledge 
 our fault and to make thee full re- 
 paration. As a proof of our since- 
 rity we proSer thee this honor, which 
 shall counterbalance the dishonor 
 we have put upon thee.' The incident 
 may serve to remind us, (1.) That 
 the least we can do when we have 
 injured a fellow-being, is to confess 
 frankly our wrong, and ask his par- 
 
A. C. 116L] 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 m 
 
 we ^turn again to thee now, that 
 thou niayest go with us, and 
 fight against the children of Am- 
 nion, and be ^our head over all 
 the inhabitants of Gilead. 
 
 y And Jephthah said unto the 
 elders of Gilead, If ye bring me 
 home again to fight against the 
 children of Ammon, and the 
 
 f Luke 17. 4. g ch. 10. 18 
 
 don. (2.) That we should beware 
 of despising or trampling upon any 
 man, so as to make him our enemy, 
 for we know not how much need we 
 may have of his friendship and ser- 
 vices before we die. (3.) That men 
 of worth who are undervalued, dis- 
 paraged, and ill-treated should bear 
 it wijh meekness and cheerfulness, 
 leaving it to God to vindicate their 
 good name in his own way. Their 
 judgment shall finally come forth 
 as the noon-day. 
 
 9. If ye bring me home again. If 
 3'e recall me from the place where I 
 am now fixed, to the place from 
 whence I was expelled. ^Shall I 
 he your head ? Not only your leader 
 in this war, but permanent judge and 
 chief magistrate. Having to deal 
 with persons whom he had reason 
 lo distrust, he determines to bind 
 them to their compact by the most 
 unequivocal assurances. ' Jepthah's 
 •wi.sdom had not been answerable 
 to his valor, if he had not made his 
 match beforehand. He bargains 
 therefore for his sovereignty ere he 
 win it.' Bp. Hall. In all our agree- 
 ments it is well to be explicit and so- 
 lemn, that afterwards there may be 
 no room for subterfuge or evasion. — 
 As the service before him was one in 
 ■which he would naturally endanger 
 his life, he deems it right that he 
 should be duly rewarded, especially 
 as he seems to have thought it was 
 only in this way that he could effec- 
 tually secure himself against the 
 treacherous designs of his brethren, 
 -whose ill will and injuries he had 
 once experienced. That there might 
 also have been some tincture of am- 
 
 LoRD deliver them before me, 
 shall I be your head 1 
 
 10 And* the elders of Gilead 
 said unto Jephthah, '^The Lord 
 be witness between us, if we do 
 not so according to thy words. 
 
 11 Then Jephthah went with 
 the elders of Gilead, and the peo- 
 pie made him ihead and captain 
 
 h Jer. 42. 5. i ver. 8. 
 
 bition insinuating itself into his mo- 
 tives, is perhaps not improbable- 
 The spirit of pious dependence, how- 
 ever, on the divine blessing argues 
 strongly in favor of his general spi- 
 rit. He does not speak with confi- 
 dence of his success, but qualifies it 
 with a peradventure.— ' if the Lord 
 deliver them before me,'— as if in- 
 tending to remind his countrymen, 
 to look up to God, as he himself did 
 as the giver of victory. ' 
 
 10. The Lord be witness between us. 
 Heb. 'be the hearer between us.' 
 They confirm their promise by the 
 solemnity of an oath, appealing to 
 God's omniscience as the judge of 
 their present sincerity, and to his 
 justice as an avenger, if thev should 
 afterwards prove false to their en- 
 gagements. ' Whatever we speak, 
 it concerns us to remember that God 
 is a hearer, and to speak according- 
 ly.' Henry. ^ 
 
 11. Then Jepthah went with the 
 elders. Thus evincing a^ generous 
 forgetfulness of all their previous 
 wrongs and indignities. No injuries 
 should make us implacable; we must 
 forgive as we hope to be forgiven. 
 ^And Jepthah uttered all his words be- 
 fore the Lord in Mizpeh. Or, Heb. 'for 
 Jepthah uttered all his words, &c.' 
 That is all the words pertaining to 
 the solemn compact wlfich had now 
 been entered into. The words seem 
 to be inserted to explain how it was 
 that the people, as aflirmed in the 
 preceding clause, made him head 
 and captain over them. The ar- 
 rangement had first been concluded 
 upon at Gilead between Jepthah and 
 the elders. But this was not suffi- 
 
304 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 over them : and Jepbthah utter- 
 ed all his words ''before the 
 Lord in Mjzpeh. 
 
 12 ^ And Jephthah sent mes- 
 sengers unto the king of the 
 children of Ammon, saying, 
 What hast thou to do with me, 
 that thou art come against me, to 
 fight in m.y land '' 
 
 13 And the king of the chil- 
 dren of Ammon answered unto 
 
 It ch. 10. 17. & 20. 1. 1 Sam 10. 17. & 11. 1.5. 
 
 cient. He would have it solemnly re- 
 peated and ratified, after entering the 
 camp at Mizpeh, between . himself 
 and the whole assembled congrega- 
 tion. In order to give it the utmost 
 validity and preclude all future mis- 
 understanding, the people must con- 
 firm the act by their own choice, 
 and this is said to have been done 
 ' before the Lord,' to indicate the re- 
 ligious and solemn manner in which 
 the transaction was conducted, as if 
 under his immediate inspection and 
 iianction. See on Josh. 4. 13. 
 
 12. Jepthah sent messengers, &c. 
 A measure in the highest degree 
 honorable to the equity, prudence, 
 and piety of Jepthah, who herein 
 conformed to the rule of conduct 
 prescribed by Moses, Deut. 20. 10— 
 18, which was, not to make war with 
 nations out of Canaan, till messen- 
 gers had been sent with proposals of 
 peace. Though a mighty man of va- 
 lor, yet he delighted not in war for 
 its own sake, and was desirous, if 
 possible, to prevent the effusion of 
 blood by a peaceable accomodation. 
 How vastly difierent this from the 
 spirit of most military chieftains ! 
 They are glad to seize upon any, 
 even the slighest pretexts for an ap- 
 peal to arms. But here, though the 
 newly elected captain of Israel 
 might perhaps have been justified in 
 repelling force by force without any 
 preliminary negociations, yet if he 
 can by showing them the injustice of 
 their conduct persuade the invaders 
 to retire, he will not compel them 
 
 the messengers of Jephthah, 
 'Because Israel took away my 
 land, when they came up out of 
 Egypt, from Arnon even unto 
 "Jubbok, and unto Jordan : now 
 therefore restore those Iand& 
 again peaceably, 
 
 14 And Jephthah sent mes- 
 sengers again unto the king of 
 the children of Ammon : 
 
 15 And said unto him, Thus- 
 
 INnm. 21. 24, 25, 26. m Gen. 32. 22. 
 
 by the sword. If the children of 
 Ammon could convince him that Is- 
 rael had done them wrong, he was 
 ready to restore the rights of the Am- 
 monites ; if not, it was plain by their 
 invasion that they did Israel wrong, 
 and he should by no means submit 
 to it. This, though in an Israelite., 
 was acting under the influence of 
 that religion which teaches us to fol- 
 low peace M'ith all men, and never 
 to seek redress by forcible means 
 till every fair proposal is rejected. 
 ^ What hast thou to do with inc, that 
 thou comest against me, &c. Spoken 
 thus in the first person, in the name 
 both of God and of Israel. 
 
 13. Because Israel took away, &c. 
 One who seeks a pretext for a "quar- 
 rel will never be at a loss to find one j 
 yet it speaks much in favor of the 
 general peaceableness and inoffen- 
 siveness of Israel towards their 
 neighbors, that their enemies, when 
 intent upon hostilities against them, 
 are obliged to look three hundred 
 years back for a specious occasion. 
 If the Ammonites had been con- 
 scious of a valid claim, theirdemand 
 should have been published before in- 
 vading Israel. But we have no inti- 
 mation of this, and the claim now pre- 
 ferred was evidently trumped up to 
 serve the present occasion, as afibrd- 
 ing a colorable pretence of justice in 
 the invasion; showing that they who 
 are destitute of conscience and hon- 
 esty, are often very unwilling to ap- 
 pear so. Jepthah, however, in what 
 follows, stripped their conduct of its- 
 
A. C. 116L] 
 
 saith Jephthah, "Israel took not 
 away the land of Moab, nor the 
 land of the children of Ammon : 
 
 16 But when Israel came up 
 from Egypt, and "walked 
 through the wilderness unto the 
 Red sea, and Pcame to Kadesh ; 
 
 17 Then ^Israel sent messen- 
 gers unto the king ofEdom, say- 
 ing, Let me, I pray thee, pass 
 through thy land : ""but the king 
 of Edom would not hearken 
 thereto. And in like manner 
 they sent unto the king of Moab ; 
 but he wouM not consent. And 
 Israel ^abode in Kadesh. 
 
 18 Th^-n they went along 
 through the wilderness, and 
 
 'compassed the land of Edom 
 
 n DeiU. 2. 9, 19. o Num. 11. 2.5. Dent. 1. 10. Josh- 
 5.6. p \>in). 13.26 & 20. 1. Deut 1.46. q Num- 
 •2 J. 14. r Num. 20. 1!, 21. s Num. 20. 1. t Num. 
 IX.i. Deut. 2. 1—8. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 S05 
 
 and the land ofMoab, and "came 
 by the east side of the land of 
 Moab, ^and pitched on the other 
 side of Arnon, but came not 
 within the border of Moab : for 
 Arnon ivas the border of Moab. 
 lU And ^Israel sent messen- 
 gers unto Sihon king of the 
 Amorites, the king of Hesh- 
 bon ; and Israel said unto him, 
 'Let us pass, we pray thee, 
 through thy land unto my place. 
 
 20 '-'But Sihon trusted not Is- 
 rael to pass through his coast : 
 but Sihon gathered all his pro. 
 pie together, and pitched in Ja- 
 haz, and fought against Israel. 
 
 21 And the Lord God of Is- 
 rael delivered Sihon and all 
 
 u Num.21. 11. X Num. 21. 13. & 22. 36. y Nnm" 
 21.21. Deut. 2. 26. z Num. 21. 22 Deut. 2. V7 
 a Num. 21. 23. Deut. 2. 32. 
 
 specious disguise, and showed con- 
 clusively how false and arrogant 
 were their pretensions. ITMy land. 
 Speaking in the name both of the 
 children of Ammon and Moab, over 
 whom unitedly he seems, at this time, 
 to have reigned as king. 
 
 15. Israel took not away, &c. In 
 order to evince beyond dispute, the 
 falsehood and futility of the enemy's 
 claims upon these lands, Jepthah 
 goes into recapitulation of the lead- 
 ing circumstances of Israel's coming 
 into possession of them. He admits 
 that they had indeed taken the ter- 
 ritories in question, but they took 
 them, not from the Ammonites or 
 Moabites, whom they were expressly 
 forbidden to molest on their march, 
 but finding them in possession of 
 Sihon, king of ihe Amorites, they 
 took them from him in just and hon- 
 orable warfare, in consequence of 
 an unprovoked attack upon them. 
 It might, indeed, be true that prior 
 to Israel's arrival in the country, the 
 Amorites had taken these lands from 
 the Moabites or Ammonites, Num. 
 
 21. 26. Josh. 13. 25, but this was no 
 concern oftheirs,norwere they bound 
 to recognise the previous title of any 
 people whatever. This was his first 
 plea in support of his claims, which 
 extends to v. 22. 
 
 17. Then Israel sent messengers, 
 &c. So far v.^ere they from offering 
 the least violence to the children of 
 Esau or of Lot, that when refused a 
 passage through their countries, 
 though able, if they had chosen it, 
 to have opened their way by force, 
 they rather underwent the fatigue of 
 a long march to compass their terri- 
 tories, than to set a foot upon them, 
 much less to seize them for their 
 own use. IT In like manner they sent 
 mito the Icing of Moab. Of this de- 
 putation, however, the history no 
 where else gives us any account. 
 
 20. Trusted 7iot Israel to pass 
 through his coast. That is, through 
 his dominions; as also, V. 22. The 
 word signifies not only the borders 
 of a country, but the territory includ- 
 ed in them. Those who are them- 
 selves conscious of a disposition fa 
 
306 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 his people into the hand of Isra- 
 el, and they ^smote them : so Is. 
 rael possessed all tlie land of the 
 Amorites, the inhabitants of that 
 country. 
 
 22 And they possessed 'all 
 the coasts of the Amorites, from 
 Arnon even unto Jabbok, and 
 from the wilderness even unto 
 Jordan. 
 
 23 So now the Lord God of 
 Israel hath dispossessed the 
 Amorites from before his people 
 
 b Num. 21. 2i 25. Deul. 2. 33, 34. c Deut. 2. 36. 
 
 oppress jhe [weak and take undue 
 advantages of the simple, will gen- 
 erally give others credit for being 
 actuated by the same spirit, and con- 
 sequently withhold their confidence 
 in circumstances where ihey are 
 sensible they could not be confided 
 in themselves. 
 
 23. The Lord God of Israel hath 
 dispossessed the Amorites. Another 
 branch of Jepthah's argument in 
 proof of Israel's right to the land. 
 God gave them the country by giv- 
 ing them the victory over him who 
 possessed it. The great Proprietor 
 of the earth, the King of nations, be- 
 stowed it upon them by an express 
 and particular conveyance, such as- 
 vested in them a title that none could 
 gainsay, Deut. 2. 24, ' I have given 
 into thy hand Sihon and his land.' 
 IT Shouldest thou possess it ? Heb. 
 * shouldest thou inherit him ;' i. e. the 
 Amorite; the nation, according to 
 Heb. idiom, being taken for the 
 country which it occupied. He 
 appeals to them whether they could 
 suppose that God had given them the 
 land in such an extraordinary man- 
 ner, merely in order that they should 
 restore it again \o the Ammonites 
 or Moabites. 
 
 24. Wilt thou not possess that which 
 Chemosh thy god inveth thee. With- 
 out really attributing any divinity to 
 the Aminonitish idol, Jepthah here 
 
 Israel, and shouldest thou p<js- 
 sess it? 
 
 23 Wilt not thou possf*.ss that 
 which ''Chemosh thy god giv. 
 eth thee to possess ? So whom- 
 soever 'the Lord our God shall 
 drive out from before us, them 
 will we possess. 
 
 25 And now art thou any 
 thing better than '"Balak the son 
 of Zippor king of Moab ? did he 
 ever strive against Israel, or did 
 he ever fight against them, 
 
 d Num. 21. 29. 1 King.. 1'. 7. J^-r. 48. 7. e Den*. 
 9. 4 5. \ IS 12. Jush. 3. 10- f Ntim. 22. 2. See 
 Josh 21. 9. 
 
 argues with them on their own ad- 
 mitted principles. * It is a maxim 
 with you, as among all nations, that 
 the lands which they conceive to be 
 given by their gods, they have an 
 absolute right to, and should not re- 
 linquish to any claimant whatever. 
 You suppose that the land which 
 you possess was given by your god 
 "Chemosh, and therefore you will not 
 relinquish what you belfere yoa 
 hold by a divine right. In like 
 manner we are fully a.^sured that 
 Jehovah our God, who is Lord of 
 heaven and earth, has given the Is- 
 raelites the land of the Amorites ; 
 and therefore we wUl not give it up.' 
 The ground of Jepthah's remon- 
 strance was evidently sound and im- 
 pregnable. II Them will we possess. 
 Heb . ' him will we inherit :' f . e. his 
 or their land ; as above, v. 23. 
 
 25. Art thou any better than Ba- 
 lak? That is, probably not moral- 
 Iv better, but hast thou any better 
 title 1 Yet Balak, who was then 
 king of Moab, from whom the great- 
 est part of these lands had been tak- 
 en by the Amorites, who had most 
 interest in the matter, and was best 
 able to enforce his claim, if he had 
 thought fit — Balak did not once ob- 
 ject to our settlement then, nor offer 
 to molest us in the enjoyment of our 
 possessions. If he then acquiesced 
 in this disposition of the lands, if the 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER Xr. 
 
 307 
 
 28 While Israel dwelt in 
 sHeshbon and her towns, and in 
 ^Aroer and her towns, and in 
 all the cities that be along by 
 the coasts of Arnon, three hun- 
 dred years ? why therefore did 
 ye nut recover them within ti?.at 
 time ? 
 
 27 Wherefore I have not 
 sinned against thee, but tliou 
 doest me wrong to war against 
 nit; : tne Loud »the Judge ''be 
 
 g Num. 21. 25. li Deal. 2 36. i Gen. 18. 25. k Gen- 
 16 .5. i ol Si. I Sam. 24. 12, 15. 
 
 title of Ifirael had not been disputed 
 upon iheir first entrance upon them, 
 what grounds had the Ammonites to 
 do it now '? They had possesssd the 
 country quietly for three hundred 
 years, and even though their title 
 had been less clear at first, yet see- 
 ing no claim had been made during 
 that long period of time, they had 
 obtained a right by prescription, 
 which the law of nations would 
 clearly have acknowledged. A title 
 so long unquestioned was to be pre- 
 sumed to be unquestionable. The fol- 
 lowing therefore is the sum of Jep- 
 thah's argument, relative to the matter 
 in dispute. (1.) The Ammonites had 
 lost their lands in their contests with 
 the Amorites. (2.) The Israelites 
 conquered these lands from the 
 Amorites, who had waged an un- 
 principled war against them. (3.) 
 God, the JVIaker, Proprietor and 
 Disposer of heaven and earth, had 
 given these lands by special grant to 
 the Israelites. (4.) In consequence 
 of this, they had had possession of 
 them for upwards of three hundred 
 years. (5.) These lands were never 
 reclaimed by the Ammonites, though 
 they had repeated opportunities to 
 do it, whilst the Israelites dwelt in 
 Heshbon, in Aroer, and the coasts 
 of Arnon ; but they did not reclaim 
 them, because they knew the Israel- 
 ites held them legally. Consequent- 
 ly every subsequent claim was efiec- 
 
 judge this day between the chiU 
 dren of Israel and the chilaren 
 of Ammon. 
 
 28 Howbeit, the king ot' the 
 children of Ammon hearkened 
 not unto the words of Jephthah 
 which he sent him. 
 
 29 HThen ithe spirit of the 
 Lord came upon Jephthah and he 
 passed over Giiead and Manas, 
 seh, and passed over Mizpeh of 
 Giiead and from Mizpeh of Giiead 
 
 tually barred, and the present pre- 
 tensions of Ammon were unsupport- 
 ed and unjustifiable. 
 
 27. The Lord^ the Judge, bejvil;je 
 this day. Not by pronouncing sen- 
 tence verbally like human judges, 
 but by awarding the victory to the 
 side which he sees to be in the right. 
 In this way he leaves the controver- 
 sy to be decided. When we have 
 justice and truth on our side, we may 
 confidently appeal to the God of 
 truth for a decision in our favor. 
 
 29. The spirit of the Lord came 
 upon him. Endowing him in an ex- 
 traordinary manner for the work be- 
 fore him, and thus giving him con- 
 vincing testimony that his cause was 
 good. IT Passed over Giiead, &c. 
 Or, Heb. ' passed through ;' i. e. for 
 the purpose of collecting recruits 
 and increasing his forces to the ut- 
 most, 
 
 30. Jepthah vowed avow, &c. Vows 
 were very common under the Mo- 
 saic dispensation. They were even 
 encouraged by God himself, in or- 
 der that his people might have op- 
 portunities of manifesting the love 
 that was in their hearts, by oiferings 
 that were not enjoined, 'and services 
 that were not commanded. In cases 
 of difficulty or distress, where it ap- 
 peared of more than ordinary im- 
 portance to secure the divine favor 
 and protection, the patriarchs of old 
 had resorted to vows, and bound 
 
303 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C.116L 
 
 he passed over unto the children 
 of Ammon. 
 
 themselves, in case he should vouch- 
 safe to them the desired Dlessing, to 
 render unto him according to the 
 banefits he should cooler upon them. 
 Thus Jacob, when he had just left 
 his father and family in order to 
 seek in a foreign land a refuge from 
 his brother's vengeance, vowed, that 
 if the Lord would be with him and 
 restore him to his home in peace, he 
 would take God entirely for his God, 
 and devote to him a tenth of all that 
 he should possess, Gen. 28. 20—23. 
 In the time of Moses the whole peo- 
 ple resorted to the same measure, in 
 order to obtain success against the 
 Canaanites, Num. 21. 2. This, it 
 must be confessed, has a legal ap- 
 pearance, and looks like offering to 
 make a bargain with God ; but vows 
 may certainly be made in perfect 
 consistency with the liberal spirit of 
 the ^Gospel ; for it is intimated that 
 under the Gospel, yea even in the so 
 termed milleimial age, such a prac- 
 tice should obtain, Is. 19. 21, and we 
 know that Paul both made a vow 
 himself, Acts 18. 18, and united with 
 others in services to which, by a 
 voluntary engagement, they had 
 bound themselves. It is, however, 
 to be remarked that a vow to be ac- 
 ceptable to God, must have respect 
 to things in themselves lawful. It 
 cannot cancel a former obligation, 
 or superinduce one that is repugnant 
 to it. All our obligations to obedi- 
 ence proceed from God. He has a 
 supreme right to give laws to his 
 creatures; but if men, by entering 
 into vows, could free themselves 
 from the obligation of his laws, they 
 might then, whenever they pleased, 
 by their own act defeat his authority. 
 Whatever therefore is in itself for- 
 bidden by God, and for that reason 
 unlawful, cannot, by being made the 
 matter of a vow, become justifiable. 
 So that he who has vowed to do 
 what cannot be done without sin, is 
 so far from being obliged to perform 
 his vow, that he is, notwithstanding 
 
 30 And Jephthah •"vowed a 
 vow unto the Lord, and said, If 
 
 m Gen. 28. 20. 1 Sam. I. 11. 
 
 his vow, obliged not to perform it • 
 the original wrong of making such 
 a vow being greatly aggravated by 
 keeping it. Now in applying these 
 remarks to the case of Jepthah, no- 
 thing is clearer than that human 
 sacrifices w^ere ever an abomination 
 to the Lord, and thai he had again 
 and again interdicted them, with the 
 strongest expressions of abhorrence 
 and reprobation. Deut. 12. 31. In- 
 deed it was one of the grand reasons 
 assigned for driving out the Canaan- 
 ites, that they were in the habit of 
 offering their sons and daughters \o 
 Moloch in the fire, i. e. of making 
 burnt offerings of them, as is reason- 
 ably to be inferred. It cannot be 
 doiibted, therefore, that if Jepthah 
 really vowed such an offering to the 
 Lord, it was utterly unlawful for 
 him to perform it. His duty would 
 have been to humble himself before 
 God, and deeply repent of having 
 entertained for a moment such a cri- 
 minal purpose. But the intrinsic 
 character of such a vow, supposing 
 Jepthah made it, is one thing, and 
 its moral quality as issuing from, a 
 mind, in such a state as his then was, 
 is another. The vow itself may have 
 been unlawful, and yet in making- 
 it he may not have been aware of 
 its real nature. Though his mo- 
 tives may have been devout, and in 
 a measure acceptable to heaven, yet 
 he may have uttered it in great dark- 
 ness and ignorance. Let the cir- 
 cumstances of his case be consider- 
 ed. Let it be borne in mind that he 
 was born in a loose and degenerate 
 period of the Israelitish nation, and 
 that he was bred up beyond Jordan, 
 far from the tabernacle, and in the 
 near neighborhood of heathen tribes, 
 with whose idolatrous practices he 
 would naturally become familiar. 
 Under these circumstances, in a 
 foreign land, and associated with a 
 band of outlaws and freebooters who 
 lived by rapine and violence, is it to 
 be wondered at, that he should, pre- 
 
A. C. 1143.] 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 309 
 
 thou shalt without fail dehver 
 the children of Ammon into my 
 hands, 
 
 vioiis Jo his appointment as leader of 
 Israel, have sunk into a state of 
 semi-paganism from which he had 
 by no means recovered, everi at the 
 time of his signal victory over the 
 Ammonites ? And in this benight- 
 ed state, is it not easily conceivable 
 that he might have thought to pro- 
 pitiate Jehovah by such a kind of 
 offering as was sometimes presented 
 b}'' heathen worshippers, especially 
 if we suppose he was further influ- 
 enced by some confused recollections 
 of Abraham's intended sacrifice of 
 Isaac by divine command 1 Would 
 it bs unnatural for a man thus im- 
 perfec:ly instructed, on the eve of 
 an important battle, in an excited 
 state of mind, and under the promp- 
 tings of a blind zeal, to bind himself, 
 on condition of his success, to evince 
 his gratitude by what he conceived 
 a heroical and almost superhuman 
 act of devotion '? To us there is no- 
 thing violent or forced in the suppo- 
 sition ; nothing inconsistent wiih the 
 general tenor of the narrative -, and 
 in forming a correct estimate of his 
 conduct on the occcasion, it is ex- 
 ceedingly important, if possible, to 
 ascertain the real state of mind by 
 xokich it loas prompted ; for it is only 
 in this, that we can find an adequate 
 clew to the right interpretation of 
 his vow. Before entering, however, 
 upon the more particular explication 
 of this, it may be well to advert for a 
 moment to the different kinds of 
 vows in use among the Jews, and 
 determine, if possible, to what class 
 of them this of Jepthah properly be- 
 longed. Of these the most important 
 was the cherem (o-.n), which was 
 accompanied by an execration, and 
 answered to the aiiathevia of the 
 Septuagint and the Greek Testa- 
 ment. The person or thing thus 
 vowed unto the Lord, was said to be 
 * devoted' to him, and could not be 
 redeemed, Lev. 27. 28. When it 
 respected persons^ or animals of any 
 <w7 
 
 31 Then it shall be, that 
 whatsoever cumeth forth of the 
 doors of my house to meet me, 
 
 kind, it implied that they were devo- 
 ted to destruction ; but when it re- 
 spected things, it implied that they 
 were either to be utferly consumed by 
 fire, or to be irrevocably dedicated to 
 the Lord for religious purposes. In 
 its application to persons it seems to 
 have been restricted to heathens^ 
 aliens, and enemies of God, as the 
 Amelekites, Canaanites, &c., Judg. 
 L 17. Num. 21. 1 — 3, nor do we any 
 where read that a father or a master 
 of a family was ever authorised thus 
 to anathematize, execrate, and de- 
 vote to destruction one of his own 
 household. The utter destruction of 
 Jericho with all that it contained, 
 excepting Rahab, affords a striking 
 example of the cherem. Its grand 
 feature was, that in no case could its 
 objects, whether persons or things, 
 b3 properly redeemed from the use, 
 condition, or destiny to which they 
 had been devoted. In this respect 
 it differed from a second and milder 
 kind of vow, usually termed neder 
 ("1":)) by which one engaged to per- 
 form some particular act of piety, 
 as for instance to bring an offering 
 to God, or otherwise to dedicate any 
 thing to him. The objects of this 
 sort of vow were various, as clean 
 or. unclean beasts, lands, the tithes of 
 lands, houses, and the person of the 
 vower himself ; of all which we have 
 a detailed account. Lev. 27. These 
 various objects, with the single ex- 
 ception of clean beasts, might be re- 
 deemed at the rate, and on the condi- 
 tions specified in that chapter. Now 
 it is supposed by many critics that 
 the vow of Jepthah is to be classed 
 under this head. The sacred writer 
 in speaking of it says, -n^ "I'T'i dvA 
 he vowed a neder, not a cherem,^ and 
 consequently, they say, it was such 
 a vow as he might have redeemed 
 by paying the prescribed ransom of 
 thirty shekels, which was the fixed 
 estimation for a female, Lev. 27. 4. 
 But to this it is replied by Roien- 
 
310 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1143. 
 
 vhen I return in peace from the 
 children of Ammon, "shall sure- 
 
 n See Lev. 27. 2,3 &c. 
 
 1 Snm. 1. 11,28. & 2. 18- 
 
 muller, that the ierms nadar, to vow, 
 and neder, a vow, are generic, com- 
 prehending both the redeemable and 
 irredeemable class of vows. In 
 proof of this he cites Num. 21. 2, 
 where immediately after the words, 
 ' And Israel voiced a voiv (-i-;3 it^i) 
 unto the Lord,' &.c., it is added, 
 ' these I will utterly dealroy {•^'^^^^f^'pf) 
 their cities,' from which it plainly 
 appears that the cherem may be com- 
 prised under the neder, though every 
 neder was not a cherem. As there- 
 fore the words alone do not enable 
 us to determine satisfactorily the 
 nature of the vow, it must be gather- 
 ed from the circumstances. For our- 
 selves, after an attentive considera- 
 tion of all the incidents connected 
 with the transaction, we are brought 
 to the conclusion, that as far as Jep- 
 thah in making the vow had any 
 statute of the divine law in his mind, 
 it was rather that of the cherem 
 than of the simple neder ; that his 
 predominant idea was that of the ir- 
 revocable devoiement to death of the 
 object contemplated in his vow. But 
 after all it may well be doubted, 
 whether Jepthah had his eye upon 
 any particular precept or provision 
 of the Mosaic code. For the reason 
 before mentioned, we imagine his 
 acquaintance with the law was ex- 
 tremely limited ; that the distinction 
 between the different classes of vows 
 was a matter of which he had little 
 or no conception ; and that he was 
 prompted at the moment far more by 
 a superstitious impulse, than by a 
 zeal according to knowledge. He 
 knew in the gross that vows were 
 recogn.ised in the religious institutes 
 of his people; that there was such 
 a thing as a person's being devoted 
 without redemption to God; and 
 that such a vow, when taken, was 
 sacredly binding; and this we con- 
 ceive was about the sum of his 
 knowledge on the subject. Possess- 
 ing then this very partial degree of 
 light, and actuated by an intense 
 
 ly be the Lord's, "and I will 
 offer it up for a burnt-offering. 
 
 solicitude as to the result of the en* 
 gagement, he seems to have rushed 
 precipitately into the assumption of 
 a vow, which proved a fearful snare 
 to his soul. That he became, how- 
 ever, subsequently more enlightened 
 as to the import of the vow, and dis- 
 covered a mode of dispensation from 
 the literal execution of it, we shall 
 endeavor to show in the sequel. 
 But we are treating, at present, solely 
 of his intention at the time, which, 
 if we mistake not, was just that 
 which the reader would naturally 
 apprehend from the simple letter of 
 the text. This we trust will be still 
 more clearly illustrated in the notes 
 that follow. 
 
 31. Whatsoever comcth forth. Or, 
 Heb. ' whosoever cometh forth.' 
 The rendering given to these words 
 will no doubt be governed in great 
 measure by the translator's views of 
 the real nature of the vow uttered 
 on this occasion; as whether it had 
 reference primarily to a human being 
 or a brute animal. To us the form- 
 er appears decidedly the most prob- 
 able. Admitting that the Heb.js::r:'^n 
 which cometh forth may apply equal- 
 ly to men or animals, yet the phrase 
 ' cometh forth to meet,' seems to im- 
 ply an intelligent act, a comivs forth 
 icilh a desiirn, vrhich could scarcely 
 be predicated of any but a huiuan 
 being. Moreover, how unlikely was 
 it that any of the animals allowed 
 for sacrifice should come forth from 
 ' the doors of his house ;' to say no- 
 thing of the probability that a dog or 
 some unclean animal might meet 
 him, which could neither lawfully 
 be consecrated to the Lord, nor of- 
 fered as a burnt sacrifice. yi Shall 
 surely be the Lord's, and I will offer 
 it up for a burnt offering. As much 
 depends, in forming a judgment of 
 the real character of Jepthah's vow, 
 upon the correct explication of the 
 terms in which it was made, it will 
 be proper here to advert to the lead- 
 ing opinions of commentators on 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 A. C. 1143.] 
 
 this point. These may be ascertain- 1 
 ed iVom the four following proposed j 
 modes of rendering, each of which 
 has had its zealous advocates, whose 
 collective treatises on the subject 
 would amount to several volumes. 
 
 (1.) The first is that given above ; 
 * Wlwsoever cometh out of the doors 
 of my house to meet me, when I re- 
 turn from the children of Ammon, 
 shall be the Lord's, and I will offer 
 kira up for a burnt offering.' 
 
 (2.) The second is that adopted in 
 the text of our common English Bi- 
 bles; — ' Whatsoever cometh out of 
 the doors of my house, &c., shall be 
 the Lord's, and I will offer it up for 
 a burnt offering.' 
 
 (3.) The third is that given in the 
 margin of the English Bible ; — 
 ' Whatsoever cometh out of the doors 
 of my house, &c., shall be the Lord's, 
 or I will offer it up foi a burnt offer- 
 ing.' 
 
 (4.) The fourth was proposed about 
 sixty years since by Dr. Randolph, 
 and is this ; — ' Whosoever cometh 
 out of the doors of my house, &c., 
 shall be the Lord's, and I will offer 
 (to) Him (viz. the Lord) a burnt of- 
 fering.' 
 
 Of these, the first is that adopted 
 by the Beptuagint and Vulgate ver- 
 sions, and is undoubtedly the sense 
 which the words of the original, if 
 viewed in themselves, apart from any 
 moral considerations, do most natur- 
 ally present. That this rendering 
 supposes Jeplhah to have had a hu- 
 man sacrifice in his thoughts when 
 he made the vow, is undeniably true, 
 and without doing violence to the 
 letter we know not how to avoid this 
 conclusion. We are aware that it 
 is objected to this, that Jepthah was 
 at this time undoubtedly a pious 
 man, for it is said in the immediate 
 connection that he was under the 
 influence of the Spirit of God, and it 
 cannot be supposed that such a man, 
 under such an influence, could deli- 
 berately vow to God that he would 
 commit murder — that he would vow 
 to put to death the first person who 
 should come forth to congratulate 
 him, whether it might be man, wo- 
 
 11 
 
 man, or child, yea even if it should 
 be his own, his only, daughter. But 
 to say nothing of ihe impropriety 
 of applying the invidious term mur- 
 der to jepthah's inteiUion^ we do not 
 think much stress can be laid upon 
 the fact of his being said to be at this 
 time under the influence of the Spi- 
 rit of God, for it does not appear 
 that this phrase, as used by the Old 
 Testament writers, indicates by any 
 means such a kind of influence as is 
 intended in the New Testament by 
 one's being led, prompted, governed 
 by the Holy Spirit. In the latter 
 case it denotes mainly a moral, spir- 
 itual, sanctifying influence ; in the 
 forjjier, it simply implies the di- 
 vine bestowment of remarkable g^fts 
 w\iQi\ieT physical or intelkctufil , for 
 the performance of a particular 
 work, or the discharge of a particu- 
 lar office. The endowments indica- 
 ted by it were seated rather in the 
 head and the body, than in the heart, 
 so that taken by itself it affords us no 
 clew to the moral character or actians 
 of the subject of it. A similar train 
 of remark is applicable also to an- 
 other objection urged on the ground 
 of Jepthah's being enrolled by Paul, 
 in the eleventh of Hebrews, among 
 the eminent men who had obtained 
 a good report through faith. This 
 is supposed to afford conclusive 
 proof that he was a good man, and 
 therefore that he could not have been 
 guilty of a conduct so contrary to the 
 divine law. But it is extremely 
 doubtful whether the faith celebrat- 
 ed in that chapter, was in ever)' in- 
 stance a justifying and saving faith, 
 in relation to the individuals men- 
 tioned. The apostles's object seems 
 to be merely to illustrate the power of 
 a firm belief in the divine testivwny, 
 which may doubtless exist separate 
 from a renewed heart. We learn 
 elsewhere, from the same authority, 
 that a man might have the faith of 
 miracles so as to remove mountains, 
 and yet not be a good man. We do 
 not affirm that Jepthah was not a 
 good man, yet we derive no abso- 
 lute assurance from the simple fact 
 of his pulling a strong faith in the 
 
313 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1148- 
 
 divine promises, that he was an emi- 
 nent saint, and incapable of making 
 such a vow as we hav^e supposed 
 above. The objecdons, therefore, 
 drawn from these sources against 
 the interpretation now recited do 
 not seem to carry wiih them any 
 great weight. Jeplhah may still 
 have meant to vow that he would of- 
 fer up a human sacrifice. But that 
 such a sacrifice was aciuaUy made 
 does not, we conceive, necessarily 
 follow irom this admission. Of 
 this, however, more in the sequel. 
 
 The second rendering, which is 
 that of the translators of the English 
 Bible, is liable perhaps to no serious 
 grammatical objection, though, we 
 think, less punctiliously faithful to 
 the original than the former, for the 
 reasons stated in the previous note. 
 It is, however, the view given by 
 Josephus, who makes Jepihah pro- 
 mise to ' offer in sacrifice what liv- 
 ing creature soever should first meet 
 him,' and he affirms that the vow, in 
 that sense, was executed by him ; ' he 
 sacrificed his daughter as a burnt 
 offering, offering such an oblation 
 as was" neither conformtble to the 
 law, nor acceptable to God.' The 
 same sense is given by the Targum 
 of Jonathan, and is perhaps the sense 
 which has on its side the balance of 
 authorities, both Jewish and Chris- 
 tian. But the question, whether Jep- 
 thah actually sacrificed his daughter, 
 is still to be decided on grounds in- 
 dependent of the balance of author- 
 ity as to the literal purport of the 
 vow. 
 
 The celebrated Rabbi, David 
 Kimchi, who flourished in the twelfth 
 century, seems to have been the first 
 who p'^oposed the third translation, 
 or that given in the margin of the 
 English Bible. Accordmg to this 
 interpretation, the Heb. copulative i 
 and is to be translated or, and the 
 sense of the vow will then be; 
 ' Whatsoever cometh out of the doors 
 of my house, I will, if it be a thing 
 fil for a burnt offering, make it one ; 
 or, if not, will consecrate it to his 
 service.' This would suppose him, 
 in making the vow, to have had a 
 
 mental reserve, which would allow 
 him to act as the exigency of the case 
 might require. It gives him an al- 
 iernaiixc which by the other mode 
 of rendering is effectually precluded. 
 This construction, however, is cer- 
 tainly lioble to a very important 
 grammatical objection. Though it is 
 unqucstioucble that the particle -| is 
 sometimes used as a disjunctive, and 
 propel ly rendered ' or,' as Ex. 12. 5, 
 'hand or foot;' 21. 15, 'father or 
 mother;' 2 Sam. 2. 19, 'right hand 
 or left,' yet it may be doubted wheth- 
 er it is ever used to disjoin things 
 so completely as this translation 
 supposes. Gussetius (Cornm. Ling. 
 Ebr.) contends that to give -\ a dis- 
 junctive force, it is essential that the 
 terms between which it stands should 
 not be related as genus and species, 
 or the one merr.ber comprehending 
 the other, as otherwise it would be 
 as absurd as to say, ' Thou shalt not 
 injure a man or his head,' the one 
 term evidently including the other. 
 So in the present instance, the clause 
 ' It shall be the Lord's,' is obviously, 
 he affirms, the general, while 'It, 
 shall be offered up for a burnt offer- 
 ing,' is merely the included particu- 
 lar, indicating the special manner in 
 M'hich it shall be the Lord's. This 
 we cannot but regard as the inter- 
 pretation required on strict philolo- 
 gical principles, and if the passage 
 were rendered, ' It shall be the Lord's 
 eren I will offer it up for a burnt 
 offering,' it would come, we believe, 
 still nearer to the genuine force of 
 the original. We assent, therefore, 
 to the remark of Noble, (Plen. In- 
 spir.) that 'this rendering is ex- 
 tremely forced and harsh, and one 
 which critics haveacquiesced in on- 
 ly to get rid of what they esteemed a 
 greater difficulty. It also makes 
 the second clause of the vow entire- 
 ly unnecessary ; for if Jeplhah 
 meant to say, that whatsoever came 
 out of his house should be consecrat- 
 ed to the Lord, in such a manner as 
 was suitable to its nature, this is 
 fully conveyed in the first clause; 
 and the addition of the second, se- 
 parated by or J instead of helping to 
 
A. C. 1143.] 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 313 
 
 determine his meaning, is of no use 
 but CO perplex it.' For these reasons 
 we are compelled to reject the third 
 hypothesis, as wholly unsustained 
 by a just philological support. 
 
 The fourth and last, is Dr. Ran- 
 dolph's rendering, ' Whosoever Com- 
 eth out, &c., shall be the Lord's, and 
 I will offer (to) Him a burnt offer- 
 ing.' According to this translation, 
 Jepthah's vow will consist of two 
 parts. The first, that whatsoever 
 person or object should come forth of 
 his doors to meet him shouldsurely be 
 the Lord's ; i. e. should be dedicated^ 
 consecrated for ever to his service. 
 The second, that he would, beside 
 this, offer to Jehovah a burnt offer- 
 ing. According to the rendering in 
 in our common version, the very 
 same object or person who should 
 ' surely be the Lord's,' was to be of- 
 fered up for a burnt offering. Ac- 
 cording to that now proposed, they 
 were to be different objects. This 
 explanation appeared to Bp. Lowth 
 so signally happy and conclusive, 
 that he speaks of it as having ' per- 
 fectly cleared up a difficulty, which 
 for two thousand years had puzzled 
 all the translators and expositors, had 
 given occasion to dissertations with- 
 out number, and caused endless dis- 
 putes among the learned.' Such a 
 commendation, from such a source, 
 undoubtedly entitles the proposed 
 explanation to great respect, but it 
 has still failed to satisfy the mass of 
 commentators, and as we think for 
 very good reasons. The sense 
 hereby given to the original is not 
 warranted by common usage. The 
 Hebrew, it will be observed, is 
 nb"i5 in'^D'^bS'm where the prefixed 
 pronoun in is joined to the verb to 
 express the thing offered, and not 
 another example can be found, in 
 which verbs oi offering or sacrificing 
 are accompanied with a suflSx pro- 
 noun denoting tke Being to tu/iom 
 the offering is made. On the con- 
 trary, instances of a precisely paral- 
 lel usage to the present are of no un- 
 common occurrence. Thus 1 Sam. 
 7. 9, ' Then Samuel took a sucking 
 lamb, and offered it {for) a burnt 
 27* 
 
 offering {^'^'^'S Ifl^^^l) wholly to the 
 Lord.' See also 2 Kings 3. 27, 
 where we meet with a case exceed- 
 ingly similar to this of Jepthah. 
 What Jepthah, according to the 
 most direct import of his words, is 
 supposed to have promised to do, the 
 king of Moab, when sore pressed by 
 the kings of Israel, Judah,andEdom, 
 is affirmed actually to have done ; and 
 in precisely the same words, joined in 
 the same construction ; ' Then took 
 he his eldest son that should have 
 reigned in his stead, and offered him 
 (for) a burnt offering (n^y inv^^*^*!) 
 upon the wall.' These words differ 
 from Jepthah's only in the mood, 
 tense, and person of the verb, and in 
 the common variety in spelling of 
 the noun, the same suffix ^n and ap- 
 parently in the same relation being 
 used in each. 
 
 On the whole we are constrained 
 to dissent from this, as well as the 
 preceding interpretation, and to ac- 
 knowledge, that after all the labors 
 of the learned, nothing satisfactory 
 has yet been produced to fix a sense 
 upon the passage, which should ex- 
 clude the idea that a human sacri- 
 fice was either intended by the vow, 
 or might be its unintended result. It 
 is still undeniable that the old com- 
 mon translation, sanctioned by the 
 venerable Sepuagint version, is that 
 which naturally flows from the 
 words, if taken in their legitimate 
 construction. Certain too it is, that 
 if Jepthah had spoken English, and 
 had said, ' Whosoever cometh out of 
 the doors of my house, &c., shall be 
 the. Lord's, and I will offer him up 
 for a burnt offering;' and these 
 words had been translated from 
 English into Hebrew, they could not 
 otherwise have been exactly render- 
 ed than by the very words which 
 now stand in the Hebrew Bible. At 
 the same time, as we shall presently 
 endeavor to show, though we do not 
 doubt that this language expresses 
 fairly what was in Jepthah's mind 
 at the time of making the vow, yet 
 whether he actually executed the vow 
 I in this sense of it, admits of very seri- 
 1 ous question. See farther pn v. 39. 
 
314 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1143. 
 
 32 If So Jephthah passed 
 over unto the children of Am- 
 mon to fight against them : and 
 the Lord delivered them into his 
 hands. 
 
 33 And he smote them from 
 Aroer even till thou come to 
 pMinniih, even twenty cities, and 
 
 p Ezeif. 27. 17. 
 
 32. Jepihah passed over unto. That 
 is, passed through or over the inter- 
 mediate regions lying between him 
 and the enemy. 
 
 33. Thus the children of Amman 
 were subdued, &c. Heb. njj;::'' were 
 greatly humbled, or, if we may be al- 
 lowed to fabricate a term for the pur- 
 pose, ^ivere Canaanized,'' i. e. made 
 to share the fate of the Canaanites ; 
 which to a Hebrew ear would be 
 precisely the import of the original. 
 How far his success on this occasion 
 is to be construed as an answer to 
 his prayers, and a token of the di- 
 vine acceptance of his vow, it is not 
 possible to determine. By some it is 
 considered a strong argument in fa- 
 vor of the milder view which is tak- 
 ken of the vow. ' Would God," it is 
 asked, ' have sanctioned in this man- 
 ner a gross act of deliberate murder 1 
 Would not this have been the very 
 way to deceive his people, and to 
 make them think he was pleased 
 with such offerings as the heathen 
 presented unto Moloch 1 And when 
 in future ages, he punished his peo- 
 ple for offering human sacrifices, 
 might they not justly have pleaded, 
 that he in this instance, had both ap- 
 proved and rewarded ihemV To 
 this we answer, that the public in- 
 terest of the whole Jewish people 
 was more regarded in the bestow- 
 ment of the victory, than ihe private 
 hopes or wishes of Jepihah. Un- 
 worthy or faulty instruments were of- 
 ten employed "by the Most High in 
 effecting his kind purposes for Is- 
 rael, and we see no reason to doubt 
 that the result would have been the 
 same with the same means, even had 
 
 unto the plain of the vineyards, 
 with a very great slaughter. 
 Thus the children of Amnion 
 were subdued before the children 
 of Israel. 
 
 34 H And Jephthah came to 
 "^Mizpeh unto his house, and be- 
 hold, '"his daughter came out to 
 
 g ch. 10 17 & ver. 11. r Ex. 15. 20. 1 Sam. 18. 6* 
 
 Ps. 68. -25. Jer. 31 4. 
 
 no vow whatever been uttered. 
 Moreover, it is a high presumption 
 in weak mortals to read in the events 
 of providence a proof, thai God 
 makes himself a parly to compacts 
 of their own voluntary proposing, 
 let them be ever so well intended. 
 His counsels are a great deep, and 
 it is at our peril that we put such 
 unauthorised constructions upon his 
 dispensations. ' No man knoweth 
 either love or hatred by all that is 
 before them.' 
 
 34. With timbrels and with dances. 
 From this, and from 1 Sam. 18. 6, 
 where David's triumphal return from 
 the defeat of Goliath and the Philis- 
 tines is mentioned, it appears to have 
 been an ancient custom for women 
 to go forth to meet returning con- 
 querors with musical instruments, 
 songs, and dances. Jepthahs daugh- 
 ter, on this occasion, undoubtedly 
 came forth, not alone, but at the head 
 of a band or choir of maidens, who 
 joined with her in these joyful con- 
 gratulations. ^{ She 2fas his only 
 child. This circumstance is men- 
 tioned to point out an additional 
 cause of the poignancy of his dis- 
 tress. It is well known how intense- 
 ly anxious the Hebrews were for 
 posterity, and as Jepthah could only 
 hope for descendants through his 
 daughter, the sorrow he expressed 
 is quite natural, even under the 
 milder interpretation of his vow. IT 
 Besides her he had neither son nor 
 daughter. Or, Heb. ' there was not 
 to himself either son or daughter;' 
 implying, as some of the Jewish 
 commentators think, that though he 
 had no other children of his own, 
 
A. C. 1143.] 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 315 
 
 meet him with timbrels and with 
 dances : and she was his only- 
 child ; besides her he had nei- 
 ther son nor daughter. 
 
 35 And it came to pass, when 
 he saw her, that he n-ent his 
 clothes, and said, Alas, my 
 
 s Gen. 37. 29, 34. 
 
 daughter? thou hast brought me 
 very low, and thou art one of 
 them that trouble me : for I 
 thave opened my mouth unto the 
 Lord, and "I cannot go back. 
 
 36 And she said unto him, 
 My father, if thou hast opened 
 
 Num. 30. 2. l^s. 15. 4. Eccles- 
 
 yet his wife, the widow of a former 
 husband, had. Others take the orig- 
 inal 1372)3 with our translators as 
 used for r;:>3!0 besides her^ a view of 
 the phrase which RosenmuUer seems 
 to approve. 
 
 35. Alas, my daughter, tho^i hast 
 brought me very loio. Heb. ' bowing 
 thou bast made me to bow ;' gener- 
 ally spoken of bowing down upon 
 the knees for purposes of religious 
 reverence, or from feebleness and 
 exhaustion, especially when over- 
 come in battle. Here the idea seems 
 to be, that from being highly elated 
 by the recent victory, he had now, 
 in meeting his daughter under the 
 present circumstances, been sudden- 
 ly and wofully depressed and struck 
 doton, as it were, to the earth. His 
 ■exultation was changed to humitiation 
 and grief. His daughter had done 
 to him what the Ammonites could 
 not. The evident bitterness of emo- 
 tion which he betrayed, on meeting 
 his daughter, clearly shows that he 
 then looked upon himself as bound 
 t»y the tenor of his vow so make her 
 life a sacrifice. Although the idea 
 ef consigning her to a state of per- 
 petual celibacy and seclusion, of be- 
 ing bereft of her society, and seeing 
 the extinction of his name in Israel 
 certain, could not but greatly affect 
 the heart of a father, yet the anguish 
 which he now expressed appears too 
 intense and excruciating to be caus- 
 ed by any thing but the conviction 
 that sh« must die — die a martyred 
 victim to his precipitate vow. II 
 Thnu art one of them that trouble me. 
 Heb. ' thou hast become among my 
 troublers.' This language might, 
 in reality, have been more properly 
 addressed by the daughter to her fa- 
 
 ther, but his meaning obviously is, 
 that she had innocently and involun- 
 tarily become a source of unspeak- 
 able distress to him. ' He answers 
 the measures of her feet with the 
 knockings of his breast. Her joy 
 alone hath changed the day, and lost 
 the comfort of that victory which she 
 enjoyed to see won. It "falls out of- 
 ten, that those times and occasions 
 which promise most contentment, 
 prove most doleful in the issue ; the 
 heart of this virgin was never lifted 
 up so high as now, neither did any 
 day of her life seem happy but this"; 
 and this only proves the day of her 
 solemn and perpetual mourning. It 
 is good, in a fair morning, to think 
 of the storm that may arise ere 
 night, and to enjoy both good and 
 evil fearfully.' Bp. Hall. IT Ihave 
 opened my mouth unto the Lord. 1 
 have .«;olemnly vowed to him ; im- 
 plying that the vow was not only 
 conceived in the mind, but uttered 
 with the lips. Vows, unless they 
 were verbally enounced seem not to 
 have been regarded as binding, 
 Num. 30. 3, 7, 9, 13. Deut. 23. 23, 24. 
 Although the narrative does not re- 
 present him as informing her speci- 
 fically of the burden of the vow, yet 
 from what follows it is plain that she 
 soon became aware of it, either from 
 the extreme distress which he now 
 manifested, or from his subsequent 
 explicit disclosures. The sacred wri- 
 ters frequently omit the mention of 
 minor circumstances, contenting 
 themselves with the statement of 
 leading facts, and leaving it to the 
 judgment of the reader lo supply the 
 omitted links of the chain. ^lean- 
 not go back. I cannot recall the vow 
 myself, now that it is solemnly utter- 
 
316 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1143. 
 
 thy mouth unto the Lord, ''do to 
 me according to that which hath- 
 proceeded out of thy mouth ; 
 forasmuch as ^the Lord hath 
 
 y 2 Sam. 
 
 ed, nor can any power on earth re- 
 lease me from its obligation. 
 
 36. 3Iy father, if thou hast opened 
 thy mouth, &c. A striking pattern 
 of filial piety and obedience, and of 
 heroic zeal for what she conceived 
 the honor of God and of Israel. So 
 rejoiced was she at the victory, as 
 redounding to the good of her coun- 
 try, that she is willing to be herself 
 offered up as a thank-offering for it, 
 and thinks her life well bestowed 
 when laid down for such a purpose. 
 True indeed it is, that if her father's 
 conduct was wrong in making the 
 vow, hers, when viewed intrinsical- 
 ly in itself, could not be right in 
 concurring in it ; the same moral 
 character would attach to both ; but 
 it were vain to expect that her 
 knowledge in such a matter would 
 go beyond that of her father. How 
 can it be supposed that a youthful 
 maiden should have had clear views 
 of the import of the divine law on 
 such a subject, when her father's 
 mind was enveloped in darkness? 
 Her generous self-devotion therefore 
 is still entitled to our highest com- 
 mendation. Her involuntary igno- 
 rance excuses her infirmity, and if 
 she believed when she uttered these 
 words, that she was to be put to 
 death, neither Greece nor Rome, 
 with all their heroes and heroines, 
 can furnish an instance of sublimer 
 self-sacrifice than this of the humble 
 maid of Israel. Had it occurred 
 among these boasting people, instead 
 of the plain unvarnished tale of the i 
 sacred historian, we should have I 
 had it pressed on our admiration 
 ■vvnth all the pomp of eloquence. In- 
 deed it cannot be doubled, had but 
 jepthah and his daughter been hea- 
 thens, that the very persons, who 
 now find in the transaction nothing 
 but a pretence for vilifying the Scrip- 
 tures, would then have extolled the 
 
 taken vengeance for thee of 
 thine enemies, even of the child- 
 ren of Ammon. 
 
 37 And she said unto her fa- 
 
 whole as exhibiting the finest ex- 
 ample of the most noble constancy, 
 the most disinterested virtue. 
 
 37. Let me alone for two months. 
 The word in the original is that us- 
 ed for slacking, relaxing, loosening 
 one's hold upon any thing ; see note 
 on Josh. 1. 5. The whole narrative 
 affords nothing more obscure and 
 remarkable than this request. On 
 what custom was it founded 1 Is 
 there an intimation of any thing 
 similar in any other part of the 
 Scriptures, or in any thing relative 
 to oriental manners and usages 1 
 We know of nothing, and must sit 
 down resigned in our ignorance. 
 Yet we think the inference fair, that 
 children, both sons and daughters, 
 were occasionally dedicated by Jew- 
 ish parents to the perpetual service 
 of God at the tabernacle or temple, 
 as we know was the case with Sam- 
 uel, though he, in after life, seems 
 to have obtained a dispensation from 
 the vow of his mother. Where this 
 wax the case with youthful females, 
 it is probable the custom obtained of 
 their retiring for a season in groups 
 from domestic scenes to sequestered 
 places, in token of regret at being' 
 thereby excluded the privilege of a 
 place among the ancestors of the fu- 
 ture generations of Israel, and per- 
 haps of the Messiah. Not that we 
 can suppose that companies of un- 
 protected maidens would forsake for 
 days and weeks the habitations of 
 men, and spend their time in roving 
 about over hill and dale in the open 
 air, for they would surely stand in 
 need of food and shelter, and how 
 on this supposition were they to pro- 
 cure them % but they probably with- 
 drew to some retired places of abode, 
 remote from populous villages, 
 where imder the care of pious mat- 
 rons, they passed the allotted time in 
 the observance of such rites and 
 
A. C. 1143.] 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 317 
 
 ther, Let this thing be done for 
 me : Let ine alone two months, 
 that I may go up and down upon 
 the mountains, and bewail my 
 virginity, I and my fellows. 
 38 And he said, Go. And 
 
 ceremonies, as were appointed for 
 the purpose; occasionally perhaps 
 walking abroad in solemn and 
 mouini'ul processions. It is at least 
 difficult to conceive, in a civilized 
 and religious state of society, and 
 especially in Eastern countries, of 
 any other mode in which a com- 
 pany of youthful damsels could, 
 without a very ill appearance, spend 
 a season of retirement from their 
 usual place of residence. Let the 
 question be put to any reflecting 
 mind, in what other light can a 
 transaction of this nature be viewed. 
 Did the Jewish maidens under these 
 ■circumstances, sojourn unattended 
 for weeks and months wandering 
 up and down on the mountains'? 
 Is it conceivable that they should 
 have adopted a measure so utterly 
 abhorrent to female decorum and so 
 completely at war with the very first 
 rudiments of oriental prejudice? 
 If then, upon abandoning their own 
 homes, they must have resorted to 
 some kind of habitations, what were 
 they 1 what, but a species of abode 
 desii(n£d for l/ie purpose? For our- 
 selves, the narrated fads of the 
 Scripture allow us to come to no 
 other conclusion. If then such a 
 custom existed at the time to which 
 our narrative refers, it is very sup- 
 posable, that Jepthah's daughter on 
 an occasion like the present, with 
 her impending fate full before her, 
 should have been desirous to avail 
 herself of a usage, originally indeed 
 designed for another purpose, but 
 not inappropriate to this, and so 
 have requcL^ed a respite of a few 
 weeks from the doom that awaited 
 her. What more fitting employ- 
 ment during that dread interval, 
 than to mingle her regrets with those 
 whose lot her own in one respect so 
 
 he sent her away for two 
 months : and she went with her 
 companions, and bewailed her 
 virginity upon the mouritains. 
 
 39 And it came to pass at the 
 end of two months that she re- 
 
 much resembled, though they were 
 exempted from the destiny to which 
 she had meekly submitted 1 
 
 39. Did with her according fo H5 
 vow. Heb. ' did to her his vow.' 
 The original, if we mistake not, af- 
 fords some more latitude of con- 
 struction, in respect to the mode of 
 executmg the vow, than is allowed 
 by our present rciidering. Accord- 
 ing to the latier, we are required to 
 believe that he adhered to the very 
 letter of the vow, and actually offered 
 her as a burnt offerinv^ which we 
 have endeavored to show is the un- 
 forced legitimate sense of the vow 
 itself. According to the former, 
 which is more general and inde- 
 finite, we are not, we conceive, ab- 
 solutely shut up to the adoption of 
 this sense. The phrase, ' he did to 
 her his vow,' strikes us as not speci- 
 fying the precise manner in which 
 the vow was performed, but as leav- 
 ing us at liberty, provided the exi- 
 gency of the case requires it, to un- 
 derstand the writer as saying, that 
 he did to her what was equivalent 
 to his original vow, what was ac- 
 cepted irr lieu of it, instead the 
 identical thing which the vow con- 
 templated. The veiisimilitude of 
 this rendering will be just in propor- 
 tion to the p-obobility, derived from 
 other sources, that he did not actual- 
 ly put his daughter to death ; that ia 
 the interval of the two month's re- 
 spite which she besought, he had 
 come to a diflTerent view of the de- 
 mands of duty in the case, the amount 
 of which was, a clear conviction that 
 the literal fuljillmeiit of the vow was 
 not obligatory upon him. In sup- 
 port of this hypothesis, which we 
 think to be the true one, we offer the 
 following considerations. 
 
 (i.) It is not expressly stated that 
 
318 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 turned unto her father, who 'did 
 with her according to his vow 
 which he had vowed : and she 
 
 z yer. 31. 1 Saiu. 1. 22, 24. 4 2. 13. 
 
 she was offered up for a burnt offer- 
 ing. Instead of saying, as would 
 naturally, on that supposition, have 
 been expected in a transaction of 
 such moment, ' He did with her ac- 
 cording to his vow, and offered her 
 vpfor a burnt offering to the Lord,^ 
 the writer simply affirms, ' He did 
 to her his vow, and she tneio no 
 wan;' as if this were intended to be 
 explanatory of the vumiier in which 
 the doing of the vow was accom- 
 plished, viz, by devoting her to a 
 life of celibacy. Why else is this 
 latter circumstance mentioned, but 
 to show wherein the accomplish- 
 ment of the vow consisted 7 If she 
 were really put to death, is it not 
 strange that the fact of her death is 
 not once spoken of 1 But if she were 
 only doomed to a state of perpetual 
 virginity, the reason of the expres- 
 sion is at once obvious. It may indeed 
 be objected that no other instance of 
 devoting a person to virginity occurs, 
 nor have we evidence that parents 
 possessed any such right. This we 
 admit ; but neither, on the other 
 hand, does the Scripture afford evi- 
 dence, that parents possessed the 
 right of devoting their children to 
 death, nor exhibit, among the chos- 
 en people, an example of the fact of 
 such a devotement. The intrinsic 
 probability, therefore, is as strong on 
 the one side as the other. Nor is 
 the objection more valid, that sup- 
 posing her only devoted to God, 
 there was no reason why she should 
 remain unmarried ; since Samson 
 and Samuel, both of whom were de- 
 voted to God from the womb, were 
 both married. But the case is ex- 
 tremely different between a man and 
 a woman. The former was at liberty 
 to serve God, in any way that he 
 judged agreeable to his will ; but the 
 latter, if she had married, would 
 have been under the control of her 
 husband, who might in a variety of 
 
 knew no man. 
 custom in Israel. 
 
 [A. C. 1143. 
 
 And it was a 
 
 ways have interfered with the dis- 
 charge of the duties which the vow 
 implied. It was therefore necessary 
 that she should remain unmarried, 
 and that she should also be secluded 
 in great measure from society itself; 
 that being the way in which the ob- 
 ject of entire consecration could be 
 most effectually attained. Moreover, 
 such a sentence would come the 
 tiearest of any other to the letter of his 
 vow. She would henceforth become 
 dead to the world, and in her perpe- 
 tual celibacy the line of his posterity 
 become extinct for ever. It woald 
 therefore almost amount to a positive 
 immolation of her. 
 
 (2.) It does not appear by whose 
 hands such a sacrifice could have 
 been offered. Not by the high priest, 
 or any regular member of the priest- 
 hood, for with all the deplorable lax- 
 ness, ignorance, and degeneracy 
 that prevailed, it is incredible that 
 any officiating priest should have 
 tolerated for a moment, in the face 
 of such explicit prohibitions as Mo« 
 ses had given, the oblation of a hu- 
 man sacrifice. And not by Jepthah 
 himself, for this would have been a 
 transgression of the Levitical law,, 
 which erqoiaed that every offerings 
 should be made by the hand of the 
 priest, and at the place where the 
 tabernacle and altar stood. This is. 
 rendered still more certain by an 
 important circumstance mentioned 
 in the beginning of the next chapter.. 
 It will be remembered that the tab- 
 ernacle was at this time at Shiloh, 
 in the tribe of Ephraim. Now im- 
 mediately after the conclusion of 
 the war with the Ammonites, we 
 find Jepthah engaged in a bitter war 
 xcith the Epkraimites. This makes 
 it in the highest degree improbable 
 that he should, in the yQfy. heaL of 
 the quarrel, have gone into the heart 
 of that tribe to offer such a sacrifice, 
 even had it been iawfuL If theii 
 
A. C. 1143.] 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 319 
 
 there is the utmost reason to believe 
 tha.; such an ottering was not made 
 by the high priest or any inferior 
 priest — that it was not made by Jep- 
 Ihah himself — and that it was not 
 made at Shiloh, the appointed place 
 of sacrifice, what reason is there to 
 suppose it was made at all ? 
 
 (3.) Prom all the circumstances, 
 the probability, we think, is very 
 strong that Jepthah availed himself 
 of the provisions of the law, in re- 
 spect to devoted persons and things; 
 in other words, that during the two 
 month's interval, he had become 
 better instructed in regard to the 
 subject of vows in general under the 
 Mosaic statutes, and ascertained that 
 a dispensation, in his case, was 
 practicable. We have already re- 
 marked that vows were encouraged 
 under the law, and that besides the 
 ckeirm or anathema, persons or 
 i/iings might be devoted to God. 
 But where this was the case, the law 
 permitted that a valuation should be 
 made of the devoted person or thing, 
 and that the money should be re- 
 garded as a ransom for it, or an of- 
 fering be presented in its stead. If 
 a human being were devoted, the 
 estimation was to vary according to 
 the sex or age of the person. Lev. 
 27. 2 -13, but for an adult female, it 
 was thirty shekels of silver. Now 
 supposing that Jepthah, at the time 
 of making the vow, had no distinct 
 recollection or knowledge of this 
 law ; supposing even that the vow, 
 as it emanated from his lips, partook 
 more of the character of the cherem, 
 than the neder ; yet is it conceivable 
 that when the execution of it was 
 postponed for two months, and the 
 affair had become notorious through- 
 out the nation, and was the subject 
 of general discussion and great lam- 
 entation, that there was no person in 
 all Israel who once thought of this 
 law 1 "Would not the agonized fa- 
 ther, besides devoting to it his own 
 intensest study, consult the priests 
 on the subject 1 And would not the 
 priests acquaint him with the pro- 
 visions of the law in reference to a 
 case of casuistry like the present 1 
 
 And what would naturally be the 
 result ? Could he fail to come to the 
 conclusion, that such a sacrifice as 
 he first intended was not only unlaw- 
 ful, but in the face of the numerous 
 pointed prohibitions against it would 
 amount to nothing short of down- 
 right murder? Would he not learn, 
 that as an offering (nbll^! the term he 
 had employed in his vow) was in its 
 own nature incompatible with a 
 cherem (tjin), and that the law had 
 made no provision for the latter 
 being substituted for the former, he 
 was even, according to the very terms 
 of his vow, rightly nndersiood, not 
 only released, but' prohibited from 
 performing itl IJnder these cir- 
 cumstances, would he, could he per- 
 severe in his original intention "? Is 
 it not more probable, that after deep 
 deliberation in concert wiih the 
 authorised expounders of the law, 
 he yielded to the conviction, that 
 although his solemn pledge did not 
 originally contemplate anv such al- 
 ternative', yet it might be "embraced 
 in the provisions now alluded to — 
 that it might come under the class 
 of redeemable vom's 1 He would be 
 more encouraged to avail himself of 
 this dispensation, on the ground of 
 the darkness of his mind at the time 
 of coming under the engagement. 
 It was not an act of vilfvl disregard 
 of the divine statutes relative to this 
 point, but one rather oi misapprehen- 
 sion and itifirviity, though from its 
 rash and reckiesis character by no 
 means innocent. He was still", we 
 may suppose, ready to humble him- 
 self before God in view of his pre- 
 cipitancy, and while he paid the 
 ransom price that delivered his 
 daughter from death, piously resolv- 
 ed by way of punishing himself for 
 his rashness, to fulfil his vow in her 
 civil excision from among the living. 
 He accordingly, we conceive, con- 
 signed her henceforth to a state of 
 perpetual seclusion and celibacy — of 
 living consecration to God — and in 
 this manner 'did unto her his vow,' 
 though in a mode of execution, 
 which did not, in the first instance, 
 enter into his thoughts, — Thus, on 
 
320 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1143. 
 
 40 Thai the daughters of Is- 
 rael went yearly to lament the 
 
 the whole, after weighing aJl the 
 circumstances and all the arguments 
 bearing upon the case, we are led to 
 decide upon the much disputed point, 
 whether Jepthah really .sacrificed 
 his daughter. To our mind the evi- 
 dence for the negative clearly pre- 
 ponderates. At the same time, we 
 do not. as will be seen, deduce it 
 from the terms of the vow, or any 
 fancied contingeyicy of purpose in 
 Jepihah's mind at the time of mak- 
 ing it. We believe that it was made 
 under i\\e prevailing impression that 
 a human sacrifice would be the re- 
 sult; but that, although his conduct 
 was contrary to the Scriptural pre- 
 cept forbidding men 'after vows to 
 make inquiry,' he became subse- 
 quemly more enlightened, and by a 
 careful study of the law, aided by 
 its proper ministers, he ascertained 
 the possibility of being released from 
 the dilemma, in which he had so 
 thoughtlessly ensnared himself. Per- 
 haps the most valid objection to the 
 view given above, is that which 
 would a-^sume the form of the ques- 
 tion. Why, if such were the fact, is 
 the narrative so constructed as to 
 give rise almost inevitably to the 
 impression, that the literal immola- 
 tion of Jepthah's daughter actually 
 took place'? Without allowing that 
 an inability to answer this question 
 satisfactorily ought to be considered 
 as essentially weakening the force 
 of the arguments adduced above, 
 we may suggest in reply, that the 
 Spirit of inspiration may have fram- 
 ed the record as it now stands, mark- 
 ed by a somewhat ambiguous as- 
 pect, in order to guard against a 
 light estimate of the obligation of 
 voios. We do not affirm this to have 
 been the design, but it is certainly 
 conceivable that if it had been ex- 
 pressly stated that the vow in its li- 
 teral sense had not been performed, 
 it might have gone to relax some- 
 what of the apprehended sacredness 
 of all such votive engagements, and 
 led men to think that God himself 
 
 daugter of Jephthah the Gilead- 
 ite ibur days in a year. 
 
 might easily dispense with them. 
 Whereas, as it is now worded, and 
 i would be perhaps most naturally 
 ! understood, it would inspire far 
 other sentiments, and lead men at 
 once to be very cautious in making, 
 and very punctilious in performing 
 their vows. 
 
 39, 40. And it was a custom in Is- 
 rael. Heb. ^.j^-iiDi 'p'n *^rim- The 
 phraseology of the original is pecu- 
 liar, the verb being of the fem., the 
 noun of the masc. gender. The liter- 
 al rendering we take to be, ' and she 
 became an ordinance in Israel;' i. e. 
 her case became a precedent; it 
 gave rise to an established custom in 
 Israel. But what particular custom 
 is alluded to, whether that of dedi- 
 cating maidens to God, as Gussel 
 supposes, or that of going at stated 
 times to commemorate the fate of 
 Jepthah's daughter, asotherscontend, 
 is not clear. The latter appears on the 
 whole most probnble. H Went year- 
 ly to lament the dauishter of Jeptkah. 
 Heb. ' from days to days ;' but a day 
 in Scriptural idiom is often used for 
 a year ; for which reason the mar- 
 ginal reading is properly ' from year 
 to year.' The original for 'to la- 
 ment,' (:in;n5) is a term of very 
 questionable import. It is rendered 
 differently according to the different 
 opinions of expositors, as to the na- 
 ture of the vow, and the mode of its 
 fulfilment. Those who think that 
 she was sacrificed, are satisfied with 
 the present version ; those who dis- 
 sent from this, contend earnestly for 
 the marginal rendering, 'to talk 
 with,' — meaning that the daughters 
 of Israel went yearly to condole 
 with and to comfort her. It must be 
 admitted, that the evidence for this 
 latter sense of the word is by no 
 means slight, if we refer to the only 
 other instance in which it occurs, 
 Judg. 5. 11, where though trans- 
 lated ' to rehearse' — ' there shall they 
 rehearse the righteous acts of the 
 Lord' — yet the idea of colloquy, of 
 mutual address^ is clearly involved. 
 
A. C. 1143.1 
 
 This is confirmed by Kimchi, the 
 Jewish commentator, who thus para- 
 phrases the words before lis, ' That 
 indeed, with their friendly discourse 
 they might comfort her concerning 
 her virginity and her solitary state 
 of life.' The ancient versions, how- 
 ever, with one accord, give the 
 sense of lamentinir, beioailing, a cir- 
 cumstance undoubtedly to us of no 
 small weight, though not absolutely 
 decisive in estimating the true im- 
 port of the terra. The probability is, 
 that the word means in its most gen- 
 eral sense, ' to praise, to celebrate, 
 to commemorate,' and would there- 
 fore denote that the daughters of Is- 
 rael kept a few days' anniversary to 
 commemorate this transaction, wkat- 
 ever were its result. For aught that 
 appears from the language itself, 
 she might have been living at the 
 time. Indeed take the passage as it 
 reads ; ' The daughters of Israel 
 went to lament the daughter of Jep- 
 thah ;' and the question is, wkat in 
 her, or respecting her, did they la- 
 ment ? It is not said they lamented 
 her death ; and to affirm that they 
 did, is to beg the question. They 
 might have lamented only what they 
 ^nd Jepthah's daughter had lament- 
 ed before, viz. her virginity. On 
 the whole, though some difficulties 
 attend every interpretation hitherto 
 advanced of Jepthah's vow and its 
 consequences, yet the foregoing has 
 perhaps the fewest and the least, and 
 receives most countenance bo h from 
 philological and moral considera- 
 tions. 
 
 We may close our observations 
 on this remarkable portion of holy 
 writ by suggesting, (1.) That we be 
 cautious in maki)ig voios. ' Be not 
 rash with thy mouth, and let not 
 thine heart be hasty to utter any 
 thing before God ; for God is in heav- 
 en, and thou upon earth; therefore 
 let thy words be few.' It may some- 
 times be useful to bind ourselves 
 by solemn vows, to evince our gra- 
 titude and confirm our regard for 
 the divine glory. But such xtws 
 should be deliberately and discreetly 
 made, an should extend to those 
 28 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 321 
 
 things only that are clearly lawful in 
 themselves, and serviceable to the 
 interests of religion. Strict inquiry 
 should be made into the nature and 
 extent of the proposed engagements, 
 before we enter into them. Thus 
 Solomon declares, ' It is a snare to a 
 man to devour that which is hol}^, 
 and after vows to make inquiry.' If 
 we have rashly pledged ourselves to 
 do what the law of God prohibits, 
 we must recede from our vow, and 
 humble ourselves before our Maker 
 for our precipitance. The forty con- 
 spirators, who swore that they would 
 neither eat nor drink till they had 
 killed Paul, and Herod, who swore 
 that he would give his daughter 
 whatsoever she should ask of him, 
 had no right to bind themselves to 
 such an extent, and would have sin- 
 ned less in violating than in keeping 
 their engagements. Let their case 
 be a warning to us. (2.) That wc be 
 conscientious in performing them. 
 Where our vows are lawful and 
 practicable they should be religious- 
 ly kept. Better is it not to vow, than 
 to vovv' and not perform. So Solo- 
 mon exhorts; 'When thou vovvest 
 a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, 
 for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay 
 that which thou hast vowed.' Even 
 though the rigid observance of our 
 vows should subject us to great sacri- 
 fices, expence, and trouble, yet the ob- 
 ligation should be considered sacred, 
 and the attempt to set them aside by 
 the plea of inadvertence or of diffi- 
 culty in the performance will only 
 serve to bring upon us the heavy 
 displeasure of God. If Jeplhah, af- 
 ter having precipitately bound him- 
 self by a solemn engagement, felt 
 constrained to adhere to its sfiril, 
 though released from the letter, and 
 would not go back, notwithstanding 
 tlie sacrifice was so great, so neither 
 should we decline the performance 
 of the most difficult of our vows. 
 Let us remind ourselves of the sac- 
 redness uniformly attached in the 
 Scriptures to obligations of this sort, 
 and say with David, ' I will go into 
 rriy- house with burnt offerings; I 
 will pay thee my vows which my 
 
322 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1148. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A ND Hhe men of Ephraim ga- 
 thered themselves together, 
 and went northward, and said 
 unto Jephthah, Wherefore pass- 
 
 a See ch. 8 I. 
 
 lips have uttered, and my mouth hath 
 spoken, when I was in trouble.' 
 And who is there that has not the 
 responsibility of vows of some kind 
 resting upon him '? Who has not in 
 a time of sickness, or danger, or 
 trouble, or alarm, determined with 
 himself, that if he should be deliver- 
 ed, he would devote himself to the 
 Lord and to the pursuit of heavenly 
 things 1 Let all such look back and 
 call to mind the vows that are upon 
 them, and be admonished that Jep- 
 thah will rise up in judgment against 
 the violation of them. Especially 
 let us remember that in making a 
 profession of religion, we have vow- 
 ed to be the Lord's in a perpetual 
 covenant of love, trust, and obedi- 
 ence. We have opened our mouths 
 to him, and now we cannot go back 
 ■without the shipwreck of truth, hon- 
 or, conscience, and probably of sal- 
 vation. Again therefore we say, 
 let us be faithful to covenant engage- 
 ments. (3.) Others' sorrow should be 
 our oicn, and by partaking ive should 
 seek to alleviate them. So was it with 
 the companions of Jepthah's daugh- 
 ter, and so should it be with the sons 
 and daughters of the true Israel in 
 all ages and climes. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1. The men of Ephraim gathered 
 tliemselves toL'cther. Heb. ' were cri- 
 ed together ;' i. e. summoned together 
 by the voice of heralds passing to 
 and fro through the tribe. The pas- 
 sive voice in Heb. often has a recip- 
 rocal import, and here probably is 
 intended to convey the idea of a mu- 
 tual stirring each other up, indepen- 
 dent of the will of a superior, and 
 a consequent flocking together in 
 somewhat of a loose and tumultuary 
 manner. With this as the leading 
 idea of the passage before his mind, 
 
 edst thou over to fight against 
 the children of Amnion, and didst 
 not call us to go with thee ? we 
 will burn thy house upon thee 
 with fire. 
 
 Jerome, in the Vulgate, has render- 
 ed it ' And there arose a sedition in 
 Ephraim;' on which Rosenmuller 
 remarks, that he took the Heb. verb 
 to imply that by mutual clamor and 
 vociferation they excited themselves 
 to sedition and tumult. ^Went 
 
 ■northioard. Heb. 'passed over north- 
 ward.' Crossing the Jordan, they 
 advanced in a northerly direction 
 towards Mizpeh, where Jepthah now 
 was. This region lay to the north- 
 east, rather than directly north of 
 the territory of Ephraim." See map. 
 IT Wherefore passedst thou over, &c. 
 Not over Jordan, for he was on the 
 farther side of that river already, 
 but simply over the intermediate 
 regions between him and the scene 
 of conflict. We have here a second 
 proof of the haughty and turbulent 
 disposition of the Ephraimites. They 
 had no just ground whatever for 
 their present bitter crimination of 
 Jepthah. Their jealous and envi- 
 ous spirit towards Manasseh was the 
 only cause of the injurious charge 
 and violent threat M'hich they now 
 uttered. Although from being both 
 the sons of Joseph they were nearer 
 akin than any other of the tribes, yet 
 between none other of the tribes was 
 there such a burning spirit of rivalry 
 and disafieclion as between them. 
 The conduct of the Ephraimites on 
 this occasion, compared with their 
 complaints to Joshua and their hos- 
 tile attitude towards Gideon, clearly 
 evinces a disposition to lord it over 
 the other tribes, with an authority 
 and pre-eminence to which they were 
 certainly not yet entitled. We are re- 
 minded by the incidents of the narra- 
 tive, (1.) That quarrels between 
 brethren are usually most bitter and 
 violent. ' A brother offended is 
 harder to be won than a strong city ; 
 and their contentions are as the bars 
 
A. C. 1143.] 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 323 
 
 2 And Jeplhab said unto them, 
 I and my people were at great 
 strife with the children of Am- 
 mon ; and when I called you, ye 
 delivered me not out of their 
 hands. 
 
 3 And when I saw that ye de- 
 livered me not, I ^put my life in 
 
 b ISam. 13. 5. « 28. 21. Job 13 14. Ps. 119. 109 
 
 of a castle.' (2.) They who have 
 done the greatest t-ervice to the cause 
 of God, are not secure from the 
 greatest insults, even sometimes 
 from the pretended friends of that 
 cause. The most spotless characters 
 are often the chosen marks for the 
 fangs of env^y to fasten upon. 
 
 2. And Jepthah said unto ihem, &c. 
 Jepthah's answer, at once firm but 
 temperate, shows that their charge 
 was as false as malicious ; that he 
 had called them, and they refused to 
 come. The greatest boasters and 
 loudest pretenders are usually the 
 greatest cowards ; and they who are 
 themselves most in fault, are often 
 prone to shield themselves by accus- 
 ing the innocent. IT/ aiid nmj people 
 were al great strife, &c. Heb. ' I was 
 a man of strife, and my people, and 
 the children of Amnion greatly.' As 
 if he had said, ' Although the quar- 
 rel was chiefly between us Gileadites 
 and the Ammonites, and not between 
 you and them, yet out of respect to 
 you as brethren and confederates, I 
 gave you an invitation to join our 
 forces, yet you declined.' In reality 
 therefore, he had more cause to con- 
 demn them for their indifference to 
 the fate of their brethren, than they 
 him for taking the field without 
 them. Reason is very apt to forsake 
 those who renounce right. IT Ye 
 delivered me not out of tkeir hands. 
 That is, ye strove not, ye attempted 
 not, ye did not what in you lay, to 
 deliver me. See note on Gen. 37. 21. 
 It is not to be supposed that his deli- 
 verance and success were suspended, 
 entirely upon their efforts in his be- 
 half 
 3. Jp^it my life in my hands. Heb. 
 
 my hands and passed over 
 against the children of Ammon, 
 and the Lord delivered them in- 
 to my hand : wherefore then are 
 ye come up unto me this day, 
 to fight against me 1 
 
 4 Then Jephthah gathered to- 
 gether all the men of Gilead, 
 
 ' in my palm.' A strong orientalism' 
 implying, 'I risked my life m a 
 seemingly desperate undertaking.' 
 ' j he Hindoos use the same figure; 
 and the idea seems to be taken from 
 a man carrying something very pre- 
 cious in his hands, and that under 
 circumstances of great danger. 
 When a son who has been long ab- 
 sent returns home, his father says, 
 ' My son has returned from the far 
 country with his life in his hand; 
 which 'means, he has passed through 
 many dangers. ' Last night as I 
 went home through the place of evil 
 spirits, I put my life in my hands.' 
 ' The other day in passing through 
 the forest, I put my life in my hands, 
 for the beasts were near to me in 
 every direction.' 'Danger! truly 
 so ; i put my life in my bosom.' ' O 
 that divine " doctor ! my son was at 
 the point of deah, but he brought his 
 life in his hand.' Roberts. The 
 same phrase occurs 1 Sam. 19. 5, 
 and 28. 21. Job 13. 14. Ps. 119. 109. 
 IT Wherefore then are ye come up unto 
 me this day, to fight against me? If 
 God was pleased togive me the victory 
 without you, and so far to make use 
 of me for his glory, why should you 
 be offended 1 Should not your re- 
 senimeni rather become gratitude, 
 that you were spared both labor and 
 danger 1 Have you any reason to 
 fight against me % Is it not in effect 
 to sin against God, in whose hand I 
 have been only an unworthy instru- 
 ment ? 
 
 4. Then Jepthah gathered together, 
 &c. Finding all his remonstrances 
 vain, and the Ephraimites intent up- 
 on a quarrel, he was prompted, per- 
 haps under the influence of undue 
 
824 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1143. 
 
 and fought with Ephraim : and 
 the men of Gilead smote Ephra- 
 im, because they said, Ye Gil- 
 eadites "are fugitives of Ephraim 
 amons: the Ephraimites, and 
 the Manassites. 
 
 5 And the Gileadites took the 
 ''passages of Jordan before the 
 Ephraimites : and it was 50, that 
 when those Ephraimites which 
 
 e See I Sam. 23. 10. Ps. 78. 9. d Josh. 22. 11- 
 
 Ch. 3 2S. &7. 24. 
 
 excitement, to undertake to chastise 
 their insolence, It is, at any rate, 
 extremely difficult to justify such a 
 signal rev'enge, though it be admit- 
 ted that the provocation was very 
 great. Even good men often lack 
 the self-command, which would en- 
 able them to bear with becoming 
 calmness the ingratitude and cal- 
 umny of others, and in a just cause 
 are apt to be hurried on by their 
 passions to unwarrantable lengths. 
 IT Ye Gileadites are fugitives of 
 Ephraim., &c. From the ambiguity 
 of the original, it is not easy to as- 
 certain precisely where the point of 
 this reproach lies. According to the 
 present translation, it is an insulting 
 intimation that the Gileadites were 
 the very scum and refuse of the two 
 tribes here mentioned ; but the fol- 
 lowing may be proposed as a more 
 correct rendering of the Hebrew; 
 ' And the men of Gilead smote 
 Ephraim, because they (the Gilead- 
 ites) said. Ye are fugitives of Ephra- 
 im;' i. e, a mere party, a remnant 
 of the whole tribe, who have come 
 .hither v/ithout being sent to molest 
 and insult us, whereas the majority 
 of the tribe would be more just and 
 generous than to treat us in this 
 manner. The ensuing words, n::>'^3 
 nC:!0 '^It^j D'^ISH '^irz, Gilead u-as 
 inlermcdiate between Ephraim and 
 Manassch, are probably to be enclos- 
 ed in a parenthesis, intimating that 
 Jepthah's army had taken a position 
 between their own territory, and that 
 of Ephraim, prob:'bly at the fords of 
 the Jordan, in order to cut off iheir 
 
 were escaped, said, Let me go 
 over; that the men of Gilead 
 said unto him, Art thou an 
 Ephraimite ? If he said, Nay ; 
 
 6 Then said they unto him, 
 say now Shibboleth : and he 
 said Sibboleth : for he could not 
 frame to pronounce it right. 
 Then they took him and slew 
 him at the passages of Jor- 
 
 the next verse, as we would translate 
 the words ; ' J'or the Gileadites had 
 taken the passages of the Jordan,' &c. 
 As the successive companies of the 
 Ephraimites approached the banks 
 of the stream, lo pass over into their 
 own country, we suppose they were 
 addressed in the manner above men- 
 tioned by the Gileadites. Still the 
 clause is one of very dubious im- 
 port. 
 
 5. Those Ephraimites which were 
 escaped. Heb. 'the fugitives of 
 Ephraim ;' precisely the same phrase 
 with that occurring in the verse 
 above, and confirming the interpre- 
 tation there given. We consider 
 the drift of the writer in v. 5, 6, to 
 be, to state in fuller detail, and with 
 some additional particulars, the cir- 
 cumstances of the slaughter men- 
 tioned V. 4, 
 
 6. Say now Shibboleth ; and he 
 said Sibboltth. The original differs 
 only in the first ]eUei,'c samcchyin- 
 stead of 'j sheen. It is well known 
 that several nations cannot pro- 
 nounce certain letters. The sound 
 ofth, so familiar to English organs, 
 cannot be pronounced by the people 
 of some European countries, nor by 
 the Persians, though a common 
 sound among the Arabians. To this 
 day, many of the German Jews can- 
 not articulate this sound in reading 
 their own Hebrew Scriptures, but 
 substitute ss, as ' ^^^55 for baith, a 
 house, bereshiss for bereskith, the be-' 
 ginning. It has been remarked at- 
 ko that 5,^., which is entirely wanting 
 
A. C. 1137.] 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 325 
 
 dan. And there fell at that time 
 of the Ephraimites forty and 
 two thousand. 
 
 7 And Jephthah judged Israel 
 six years : then died Jephthah 
 
 in many languages, is of peculiarly 
 difficult pronunciation to persons 
 whose organs have not in childhood 
 been inured to it. The word chosen 
 by the Gileadites as a test-word sig- 
 nifies o,n ear of corn, and also a 
 stream, and was, perhaps, suggested 
 by being the name of the object im- 
 mediately before them, the river on 
 the banks of which they stood. ' Sib- 
 boleth,' on the other hand, denotes 
 a burde7i, and how these different 
 objects were distinguished in the 
 pronunciation of the Ephraimites, it 
 is difficult to say. Differences of 
 pronunciation, however, even among 
 those speaking the same language, 
 or the same dialect are nothing ex- 
 traordinary. In later times, Peter 
 was easily distinguished as a Gali- 
 lean in Pilate's hall by his pronun- 
 ciation, Mark 14. 70, and travellers 
 in the East inform us, that the Ara- 
 bic of Cairo, of Aleppo, and of Bag- 
 dad, is so different, that one who has 
 made himself master of this lan- 
 guage in one of these cities, cannot, 
 without great difficulty, understand 
 or be understood in the others. Eng- 
 land itself offers considerable variety 
 both of dialect and modes of pronun- 
 ciation, and so probably does every 
 other country. ^\He covld not frame 
 to pronounce it right. Heb. ' he did 
 not direct to speak it so :' i. e. so as 
 he was required. The original does 
 not say that he could not, but that he 
 did not ; because, perhaps, not sus- 
 pecting the design, he may have ut- 
 tered it rapidly in his usual mann er. 
 Still the present translation is by no 
 means a bad one. IT And slew him. 
 The predominant usage of the ori- 
 ginal is in reference to that kind of 
 slaughter which was common in the 
 case of animal victims offered upon 
 the altar; i. e. by cutting the throat, 
 jugulatiori ; as if they made the ina- 
 bility of the organs of speech in the 
 28* 
 
 the Gileadite, and was buried in 
 one of the cities of Gilead. 
 
 8 H And after him Ibzan of 
 Beth-lehem judged Israel. 
 
 9 And he had thirty sons and 
 
 throat to utter certain sounds, a pre- 
 tence for putting them to death in 
 this manner. IT There fell— forty 
 and two thousand. Heb. D'^S'IS^ii^ 
 rbs* t:"':"i:31- As the Hebrew mode 
 of enumeration is peculiar, the co- 
 pulative 1 vati here may perhaps im- 
 ply simplv addition, so that the sum 
 will be 2040 instead of 42,000. At 
 the last census, Num. 26. 37, the 
 whole tribe of Ephraim only amoun- 
 ted to 32,500, compared with which 
 the last number appears far too great ; 
 especially as it is reasonable to be- 
 lieve that only a part of the tribe 
 crossed the Jordan on this expedition. 
 7. Was buried in one of the cities 
 of Gilead. Heb. ' in the cities of 
 Gilead.' A curious specimen of 
 Rabbinical conceit and of the not 
 unfrequent style of their exposition, 
 is afforded in Raschi's remarks up- 
 on these words. From him we learn 
 that the ancient Jewish doctors main- 
 tained that Jepthah, as a punishment 
 for putting his daughter to death, was 
 visited by a disease that loosened 
 the joints of the different limbs and 
 members of his body, and caused 
 them to fall off one after another, 
 from time to lime as he was passing 
 to and fro over the country, and that 
 they were buried separately, where- 
 ever they happened to drop, so that 
 when he died, it could be said, from 
 this general distribution of his mem- 
 bers, that he was ' buried in the cities 
 of Gilead r But how a man could 
 be in a travelling condition, while 
 his body was thus falling to pieces, 
 is a part of the story which is wisely 
 passed over in silence. The phrase- 
 ology is doubtless idiomatic, the 
 plural being pat for the singular, as 
 Gen. 19. 29, where Lot is said to 
 have dwelt' in the cities,'' i. e. in one 
 of the cities. So Jonah 1. 5, the sides 
 of the ship appears to denote one of 
 the sides. 
 
326 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1112. 
 
 thirty daughters wliom he sent 
 abroad, and took in thirty daugh- 
 ters from abroad for his sons : 
 and he judged Israel seven years. 
 
 10 Then died Ibzan, and was 
 buried at Beth-lehem. 
 
 11 H And after him Elon, a 
 Zebulonite, judged Israel, and he 
 judged Israel ten years. 
 
 12 And Elon the Zebulonite 
 died, and was buried in Aijalon 
 in the country of Zebulun. 
 
 8. Ibzan of BetMehcm. The Beth- 
 lehem here mentioned, if we may 
 believe Josephiis, was that in the 
 iribe of Judah, and not that ir. Zebu- 
 lun, of which see Josh. 19, 5. The 
 Jewish critics, for the most part, 
 consider this Ibzan to have been the 
 same person with Boaz, spoken of 
 in the book of Ruth ; but the opinion 
 rests upon conjecture alone. No- 
 thing memorable is related of him, 
 except the circumstance mentioned 
 in the next verse. 
 
 9. Had thirty sons and thirty 
 daughters. Where polygamy was 
 practised, such a numerous progeny 
 is not surprising. Parallel instances 
 in modern times are recited in abun- 
 dance by eastern travellers. !! 
 Whom he sent abroad. Or, Heb. 
 'out of doors.' That is, disposed of 
 in marriage to other families. 
 Hence the Vulg. paraphrastically, 
 but not incorrectly, ' Whom he send- 
 ing abroad gave to husbands;' and 
 so in the ensuing clause, ' Took 
 wives for his sons of the same num- 
 ber, bringing them into his house.' 
 Ibzan's lot, in this respect, contrasted 
 strikingly with that of his predeces- 
 sor Jepthah. 
 
 14. Thirty nephews. That is, 
 grandsons ; Heb. ' sons' sons.' On 
 the opulence and dignity implied in 
 riding upon white asses, see ch. 5. 
 10, and 10. 4. 
 
 15. In the mount of the Amalekites. 
 For a probable account of the reason 
 why this place was so called, see on 
 
 13 H And after him Abdon 
 the son of HiUel, a Pirathonite, 
 judged Israel. 
 
 14 And he had forty sons and 
 thirty nephews, that ^rode on 
 ttiree-score and ten ass colts: 
 and he judged Israel eight years. 
 
 15 And Abdon the son of Hil- 
 lel, the Pirathonite died, and was 
 buried in Pirathon in tb.e land of 
 Ephraim, ^in the mount of the 
 Amalekites. 
 
 c ch 5. 10. & 10. 4. f ch. 3. 13, 27. & 5. 14. 
 
 ch. 5. 14. It does not appear certain 
 that any th ing remarkable took place 
 in the civil state of the Israelites, 
 during the time of these latter judges, 
 though Lightfoot supposes, with 
 some plausibility, that the forty 
 years' oppression of the Philistines 
 commenced in the days of Elon the 
 Zebulonite, and was gradually wax- 
 ing more and more severe through 
 the subsequent administrations. Pre- 
 vious, however, to the birth of Sam- 
 son, it had not gained sufficient head 
 to make it worthy of particular re- 
 cord in the inspired narrative. But 
 it has been well remarked, that the 
 happiest life of individuals, and the 
 happiest state of society, is that which 
 affords the fewest remarkable events. 
 The people, in the main, enjoyed 
 peace without, and freedom from 
 discord and sedition, though still the 
 leaven of their idolatrous propen- 
 sities was secretly working and pre- 
 paring them for new troubles in the 
 end. As to these several judges, the 
 principal fact mentioned in regard 
 to each is, that he lived, acted as 
 judge, and died. Death, the lot of 
 man, at last claims his due of the 
 great and the good, and whatever 
 else we may hear of any man, we 
 are sure to hear one thing — that' he 
 died: unless indeed our own depar- 
 ture hence anticipates his. 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 827 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A ND the children oflsrael ^did 
 evil aiTain in the sight of the 
 Lord; and the Lord delivered 
 them '^'into the hand of the Phil- 
 istines forty years. 
 
 2 •[ And there was a certain 
 man of "^Zorah, of the family of 
 the Danites, whose name was 
 
 a ch. 2. II. & 3. 7. & 4. 1. & 6. 1. & lU. 6. b 1 Sara. 
 U. 9. c.lo;,h. 19. 41. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1. Did evil again. Heb. ' added 
 to commit ;' i. e. by apostatizing 
 from God's pure worship and falling 
 into idolatry. See on ch. 3. 7. — 6. 
 11. — 10. 6. IT Delivered them into 
 the hand of the Philistines forty 
 years. This period is not to be un- 
 derstood as con.stituting an interreg- 
 num between Abdon and Samson, 
 for this would not consist with the 
 chronology given 1 Kings, 6. 1, or 
 with the intimation v. 5 below, that 
 the Israelites were already sutfering 
 under the rod of the Philistines when 
 Samson was raised up for a deliv- 
 erer. The probability is, as Samson 
 is said to have 'judged Israel twenty 
 years in the days of the Philistines,^ 
 i. e. during the period of their as- 
 cendancy, that the other twenty is to 
 be taken out of the limes of the pre- 
 vious judges, Avhich will carry us up 
 at least to the time of Elon, as sug- 
 gested by Lightfoot, ch. 12. 15, for 
 the commencement of their oppres- 
 sion. In order to gain a still fuller 
 view of the chain of events here re- 
 corded we must revert back to ch. 
 10. 6, 7, where it is said that the 
 Lord was angry with his people, 
 ' and sold them into the hands of the 
 Philistines and into the hands of the 
 children of Ammon,' Of these two 
 servitudes, the last with the deliver- 
 ance from it by Jepthah, is treated 
 first. This occupies the two preced- 
 ing chapters. Having dispatched 
 that, the historian now returns back 
 and takes up the history of the other 
 oppression, and brings It down to the 
 death of Samson. 
 
 Manoali ; and his wife was bar- 
 ren, and bare not. 
 
 3 And the ^angel of the Lord 
 appeared unto the woman, and 
 said unto her, Behold, now thou 
 art barren, and bearest not: 
 but thou . shalt conceive, and 
 bear a son. 
 
 4 Now therefore beware, I 
 
 dch. 6. 12. Luke 1. II, 13, 28, 31. 
 
 2. A certain man of Zora. Of the 
 city of Zora; a town in the tribe of 
 Judah, but afterwards given to Dan, 
 being situated near the confines of 
 each tribe. Josh. 15. 33. IT Of 
 the family of the Danites. That is, 
 of the tribe of Dan. The Avord is 
 properly a colleciive singular for the 
 plural. IT Was barren and bare 
 not. An emphatic repetition in va- 
 ried phrase ; of frequent occurrence 
 in the sacred writers. Thus Gen. 
 11. 30, ' But Sarai was barren ; she 
 had no child.' John. 1. 3, ' All things 
 were made by him, and without him 
 was not any thing made that was 
 made.' v. 20, 'And he confessed, 
 and denied not.' ' If Manoah's wife 
 had not been barren, the angel had 
 not been sent to her. Afflictions 
 have this advantage, that they occa- 
 sion God to show that mercy to us, 
 whereof the prosperous are incapa- 
 ble.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 3. The angel of the Lord. The 
 uncreated angel, the Angel Jeho- 
 vah, so often spoken of in the pre- 
 ceding narrative, and who appeared 
 to Moses, to Joshua, to Gideon, and 
 others. Evidence of this will dis- 
 close itself as we proceed. 
 
 4. Ben-are— drink not icine, &c. 
 As the child, whose birth was now- 
 announced, was to be a Nazarite from 
 the womb, the mother herself was to 
 be subjected to the law of the Naza- 
 rites, that the sanctification of her son 
 might commence from herself. She 
 must, during the period of gestation 
 and nursing, abstain from wine and 
 every inebriating liquor, and all 
 kinds of forbidden food Things 
 
328 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 pray thee, and 'drink not wine, 
 nor strong drink, and eat not 
 any unclean thing : 
 
 5 For lo, thou shalt conceive, 
 and bear a son; and no ^razor 
 sliall come on his head : (or the 
 child shall be sa Nazarite unto 
 God from the womb : and he 
 shall ''begin to deliver Israel out 
 of the hand of the Philistmes. 
 
 ever H Num. 6.2, 3. Luke 1. 15. I Num. 6 5. 
 ISam. 1 11. g ."^um. 6. 2. h See 1 Sam. 7. 13 
 2 Sam. S. 1. 1 < hr. 13. 1. 
 
 6 IF Then the woman came 
 and told her husband, saying, 
 ia man of God came unto me, 
 and his '"'countenance was like 
 tiie countenance of an angel of 
 God, very terrible : but I lasked 
 him not whence he icas, neither 
 told he me his name: 
 
 7 But he said unto me. Be- 
 ! hold, thou shalt conceive, and 
 
 that would be lawful at another time, 
 were to be refrained from now. The 
 nourishment of her child would par- 
 take of the qualities of her own, and 
 this future deliverer of Israel must 
 be in the strictest manner and through 
 every period an example of separa- 
 tion "and consecration lo God. As it 
 was designed also that he should be 
 a person of superhuman strength, 
 there was perhaps a fitness in the 
 mother's temperance as a natural 
 means to produce this result, though 
 a miraculous agency was requisite 
 over and above all other means what- 
 ever. ' The mother must conceive 
 the only giant of Israel, and yet must 
 drink bul: water; neithe,r mu.st the 
 child touch any other cup. Never 
 wine made so strong a champion as 
 water did here. He that gave that 
 power to the grape, can give it to the 
 stream. O God, how justly do we 
 raise our eyes from our tables unto 
 thee, which canst make water nour- 
 ish and wine enfeeble us !' Bp. Hall. 
 IT Eat not any unclean thing. Un- 
 clean meats were forbidden to all Is- 
 raelites at all times; but especially 
 and pre-eminently so to the Nazarite, 
 Lev. 11. 1 — 47. It was perhaps sole- 
 ly for this reason that the precept 
 was repeated at this time and on this 
 occasion ; though ScoU supposes, 
 not unreasonably, that the distinction 
 of meats was not strictly observed at 
 this time, as otherwise she would 
 scarcely have needed such a caution. 
 5. No razor shall come on his head. 
 Heb.* shall go up on his head,' The 
 
 i Deui 33. I. 1 Sam 2 27. & 9. 6. 1 Kings 17. 24. 
 k Mali. S8. 3. Luke 9. 29. Acls 6. 1.5. 1 ver. 17. 
 18. 
 
 hair of his head shall neither be 
 shorn nor shaven. Of this part of 
 the Nazarite's vow, see on Num. 6. 
 IT For the child shall be a Nazarite 
 unto God from the womb. For a full 
 account of this peculiar feature of 
 the Mosaic institute, see on Num. 6. 
 — Oriental usage at the present day 
 affords a striking parallel to what is 
 here recorded. ' All who are mar- 
 ried in the East.' says Mr. Roberts, 
 ' have an intense desire for children. 
 It is considered disgraceful, and a 
 mark of the displeasure of the gods, 
 to have a childless house. Under 
 these circumstances, husbands and 
 wives perform expensive ceremo- 
 nies ; and vow that should the gods 
 favor them with a son, ' no razor 
 shall come upon his head' (i. e. ex- 
 cept upon the ' corners,') until he 
 shall be ten or twelve years of age. 
 In all schools, boys may be seen with 
 elf-locks of ten or twelve years' 
 standing, giving" a testimony to the 
 solicitude, superstition, and affection 
 of the parents, and a memorial of the 
 favor of the gods.' H He shall begin 
 to deliver Israel. This intimated 
 that Israel's oppression should en- 
 dure long; for deliverance from it 
 was not so much as to begin, not 
 even the first step to be taken, till 
 this child, now unborn, should grow 
 up to years of maturity and become 
 capable of undertaking it. And even 
 then he was not to complete the de- 
 liverance; he was only to begin it; 
 for the yoke of the Philistines was 
 not fully shaken off the neck of Is- 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 329 
 
 bear a son ; and now drink no 
 wine nor strong drink, neither 
 eat any unclean thing : for the 
 child shall be a Nazarite to God 
 from the womb to the day of his 
 death. 
 
 8 IT Then Manoah entreated 
 the Lord, and said, O my Lord, 
 let the man of God which thou 
 
 rael till ihe time of David. Thus 
 ' God carries on his work gradually, 
 and by sev^eral hands. One lays ihe 
 foundation of a good work, another 
 builds, and perhaps a third brings 
 forth the top-stone.' Henry. Christ 
 on the othor hand, the great counter- 
 part of Samson, both begins and per- 
 fects his people's salvation ; he is at 
 once the Author and Finisher of 
 faith. 
 
 6. A man of God. So called be- 
 cause he appeared in human form, 
 leading her to suppose him merely 
 a prophet sent from God. So after- 
 wards V. 8, 10, 11. She seems, how- 
 ever, to have had a strong suspicion 
 that he was something more than 
 human. IT Very terrible. Rather; 
 perhaps, venerable, awful, full of 
 majesty; such as at once to inspire 
 the deepest respect and reverence; 
 so that according to every idea she 
 could form on the subject his coun- 
 tenance very much resembled that 
 of an angel. 
 
 8. Let the man of God- — come again 
 iinto 11$, and teach us, &c. Josephus 
 represents the second appearance of 
 the angel as essential to Manoah's 
 peace of mind, as his excessive at- 
 tachment to his wife, made him jeal- 
 ous of her conversation with a stran- 
 ger. But the narrative contains no- 
 thing to warrant such an insinua- 
 tion. On the other hand, his request 
 appears to have been prompted by a 
 strong faith and a high esteem of 
 the promised blessing, and a sincere 
 desire to receive farther intimations 
 of duty. He may have thought it 
 possible too that his wife's joy for the 
 promise should have made her forget 
 §ome part of the charge which the 
 
 didst send come again unto us, 
 and teach us what we shall do 
 unto the child that shall be born. 
 9 And God hearkened to the 
 voice of Manoah ; and the angel 
 of God came again unto the wo- 
 man as she sat in the field : but 
 Mar.oah her liusband ivas not 
 with her. 
 
 angel connected with it. On this 
 point he would be fully informed; 
 he dreads the possibility of a mistake 
 ' When 1 see the strength of Ma- 
 noah's faith, 1 marvel not that he had 
 a Samson to his son ; he saw not the 
 messenger, he heard not the errand, 
 he examined not the circumstances; 
 yet now he takes thouglu, not 
 whether he should have a son, but 
 how he shall order the son which he 
 must have. Zecharias had the same 
 message, and craving a sign lost the 
 voice wherewith he craved it: Ma- 
 noah seeks no sign for the promise, 
 but counsel for himself. Happy are 
 they that have not seen, yet believed: 
 true faith takes all for granted, yea, 
 for performed, that is promised.' 
 Bp. Hall. The petition of Manoah 
 reminds us also that the care of chil- 
 dren is a great concern, and that those 
 who have the parental relation in 
 prospect can make no more suitable 
 prayer at the throne of grace than 
 that of the pious Danite on this oc- 
 casion. Who upon the eve of be- 
 coming parents has not need to say, 
 ' Teach us what we shall do to the 
 child that shall be born.' 
 
 9. And God hearkened — a7id the 
 a7igel of God came again. The 
 phraseology here is worthy of notice. 
 The sacred writer does not say, 
 ' And God hearkened to the voice of 
 Manoah, and sent his angel,' but, 
 ' God hearkened to the voice of Ma- 
 noah and the angel of God came 
 again,' implying that it was the God 
 who hearkened to the voice of his 
 servant that came in the person of 
 his Son. He perhaps appeared to 
 Manoah's wife a second time rather 
 than to Manoah himself, because she 
 
330 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 16 And the woman made 
 haste, and ran, and showed her 
 husband, and said unto him, Be- 
 hold, the man hath appeared 
 unto me, that came unto me the 
 other day. 
 
 11 And Manoah arose, and 
 went after his wife, and came to 
 the man, and said unto him, Art 
 thou the man that spakest unto 
 the woman ? And he said, I am. 
 
 12 And Manoah said. Now 
 let thy words come to pass. 
 
 was more especially interested both 
 in the blessing and the charge than 
 he was. He may also have had o:her 
 reasons unknown to us. The divine 
 condescension in granting a repeti- 
 tion of the visit is loo striking to be 
 overlooked. How clearly does it 
 prove that nothing is more accepta- 
 ble to God than a sincere desire to 
 know our duty, and that sooner than 
 our prayers to that etfect shall go un- 
 answered, a heavenly messenger 
 shall be sent for our instruction. 
 But thanks be to God, with the Bible 
 and the Holy Spirit for our guides 
 we have no need of angelic instruc- 
 ions to direct us what to do. 
 
 10. And ike v-oman made haste, and 
 ran, &c. Doubtless after humbly 
 entreating the messenger to stay, and 
 obtaining his consent. Those who 
 have met with a refreshing visit from 
 God cannotbut instinctively exclaim, 
 'Return O God of hosts, return;' 
 and when the favor is granted, how 
 ardently do they long thatttjose who 
 are near and dear to" them may also 
 share in the comfort and sweetness 
 of their divine communion. What 
 is the fellowship of husbands and 
 wives if it extend not to a mutual 
 communication of each other's reli- 
 gious experiences, of their hopes and 
 fears, joys and sorrows'? 
 
 12, Let thy words, come to pass. 
 This clause as it reads in our trans- 
 lation is simply the expression of an 
 earnest wish, that the promise gra- 
 
 How shall we order the child, 
 and how shall we do unto him. 
 
 13 And the angel of the Lord 
 said unto Manoah, Of all that I 
 said unto the woman, let her be- 
 ware. 
 
 14 She may not eat of any 
 thing that cometh of the vine, 
 '"neither let her drink wine or 
 strong drink, nor eat any un- 
 clean thing : all that I command- 
 ed her let her observe. 
 
 15 IT And Manoah said unto 
 
 ciously made to his wife may be ful- 
 filled. It is a kind of pious amen to 
 the angel's previous announcement j 
 and this was probably his real feel- 
 ing ; but the Heb. may properly be 
 rendered, ' and now thy words shall 
 come to pass,' intimating his most 
 implicit confidence in the promise. 
 'Lord, 1 lay hold upon what thou 
 hast said, and depend upon it with 
 the most unwavering assurance/ 
 TI Hoiv shall we order the child and 
 horv shall we do unto him ? Heb. 
 ' what shall be the rule, prescription, 
 institution (toSiaTi) in regard to the 
 child, and what our doing ("inD5>?2) 
 towards him V That is, what shall 
 be his training 1 how shall we edu- 
 cate hhiil The former term, which 
 is usually trains\sLled judgment or or- 
 dinance, seems to imply the divine 
 disposition or purpose in regard to the 
 child, and the latter the proper mode 
 of executing or accomplishing it on 
 their part. Though the literal ren- 
 dering of in:U5>?a is his icork or doing, 
 yet the import is obviously 2t-hat is 
 done to or towards him, just as in Gen. 
 50. 4, the phrase ' days of his mourn- 
 ing' means the days of mournins for 
 him. So also Job, 41.9. ' The hope 
 of him (the leviathan) is vain,' i. e. 
 the hope of taking him. 
 
 13. And the angel of the Lord said, 
 &c. It might seem at first view that 
 the angel's answer was not pertinent 
 to the question. Manoah inquired 
 what conduct they should observe ia 
 
A. C. 1181.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 331 
 
 the anjrel of the Lord, I pray 
 thee, "let us detain thee, until 
 we shall have made ready a kid 
 for thee. 
 
 16 And the angel of the Lord 
 said unto Manoah, Though thou 
 detain me, I will not eat of thy 
 
 regard to the child ; the angel in his 
 reply merely reiterates the charge he 
 had before given in respect to the 
 mother. In explanation we may re- 
 mark, that the child to be born was 
 to be a Nazarite set apart and conse- 
 crated to God Until the period of 
 his birth, therefore, and while at the 
 breast, she was, for his sake, to ab- 
 stain from all the things inhibited 
 above. But if it was solely for the 
 child's sake that these commands 
 were laid upon her, the inference 
 would be very fair, that he also was 
 to be taught to govern himself by the 
 same rules, and it was the duty of 
 his parents to see that this was the 
 case. In fact it was this that consti- 
 tuted the very essence of his Naza- 
 rite state. The directions, therefore, 
 relative to the child were really in- 
 volved in those that had respect to 
 the mother, and it would require no 
 far-fetched construction so to under- 
 stand them. The divine injunctions 
 are not always given in the most di- 
 rect form, but to a heart rightly dis- 
 posed they are always intelligible. 
 
 15. Until ice shall have made ready 
 a kid for thee. Heb. ' before thee!' 
 Not yet aware of the true character 
 of his visiter. Manoah proposed this 
 as an act of hospitality. 
 
 16. I vill not eat of thy bread. As 
 the proffer of Manoah was to serve 
 up for the angel a dish of kid's flesh, 
 the term, ' bread' here must be taken 
 ■with some latitude to signify food in 
 general ; a sense which it evidently 
 bears 2 Kings, 6. 22, 23. Matt. 6. 11. 
 IT And if thou milt offer a burnt-offer- 
 hig. Rather, ^but if thou wilt offer,' 
 &c., To us this part of the angel's 
 answer seems to be made, not so 
 much to what Manoah actually said, 
 
 was an angel 
 
 bread : and if thou wilt offer a 
 hurnt-offering tliou must offer it 
 unto the Lord. For Manoah 
 knew not that he 
 of the Lord. 
 
 17 And Manoah said unto the 
 angel of the Lord, What is thy 
 
 as to what he was inwardly revolv- 
 ing in his own mind. If we mistake 
 not, he had by this time began to en- 
 tertain suspicions that the personage 
 with whom he was conversing was 
 truly divine ; and if so, he could not 
 but he aware that a sacrificial offer- 
 ing was a more suitable expression 
 of the sentiments with which he 
 ought to regard him, than a common, 
 meal ; and as the tradition of Gide- 
 on's offering under similar circum- 
 stances at a former period, and the 
 manner of its reception, had doubt- 
 less come down to him, he appears 
 to have been at this time wavering in 
 his own mind like his renowned 
 predecessor as to what should be the 
 real character of the offering that he 
 now proposed to make. The angel 
 perceiving this answers him accord- 
 ingly. He does not forbid him to 
 present a burnt-offering, but he 
 would have him do it intelligently; 
 he would have him assured as to the 
 true character of the object of his 
 worship. In saying, ' If thou wilt 
 offer a burnt-ofi'ering, thou must offer 
 it unto the Lord,' he does not deny 
 that he was himself Jehovah, or inti- 
 mate that he would decline the honor 
 which Manoah intended, any more 
 than our Saviour wouldintimate that 
 he was not good, when, being ad- 
 dressed by the title ' good master,' 
 he replied, 'there is none good but 
 God.' In both cases his answer has 
 reference to the state of mind of the 
 speaker, or to the light in v^hich they 
 regarded him. Here he merely in- 
 tended to say, that though he might 
 offer him a common meal as a man, 
 yet it would not do to offer him a 
 sacrifice as such, or while he was 
 not in possession o[ full evidence ihaX 
 
332 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 name, that when thy sayings 
 come to pass, we may do thee 
 honor ? 
 
 18 And the angel of the Lord 
 
 the being he thus proposed to honor 
 was indeed divine. This evidence 
 lie had not yet gained, and therefore 
 it is immediately added, 'For Ma- 
 noah knew not (had not a clear con- 
 viction) that it was an angel (rather, 
 the angel) of the Lord;' i. e. the 
 Angel-Jehovah ; but he was soon 
 to be assured that he was. The 
 whole address of the angel appears 
 to be framed wi^h reference to the 
 manifestation wnich he was just 
 about to make. 
 
 17. Wliat is thy name? Heb. 
 ' who is thy name?' Name in refer- 
 ence to the Supreme Being is in 
 Scripture style very much the same 
 as nature ; and we suppose this to 
 be the real drift of Manoah's ques- 
 tion, to learn the nature, the essen- 
 tial character, of the mysterious 
 being whom he addressed; for that 
 he regarded him as a superhuman 
 personage cannot, we think, be 
 doubted from an attentive examina- 
 tion of the passage. At any rate, the 
 answer of the angel, as we shall see, 
 ■was adapted to such a scope in Ma- 
 noah's interrogation. That he was 
 prompted by somewhat of an unhal- 
 lowed curiosity in making the in- 
 quiry is indeed supposed by many 
 commentators, but we see nothing in 
 the text to warrant it. On the other 
 hand, we know no reason to doubt 
 that he was really actuated by the 
 motive assigned, a disposition to ren- 
 der him due honor and thanks when 
 the promise should be fulfilled. 
 
 18. Why askest thou thus after my 
 name, seeing it is secret 7 This has 
 at first blush the air of a rebuke for 
 putting such a question ; but compar- 
 ing it with what follows we imagine 
 it is such in appearance only. A re- 
 buke supposes something criminal 
 or censurable in him who is the sub- 
 ject of it. But what offence could 
 attach to a respectful and reverential 
 
 said unto him, °Why askest thou 
 thus after my name, seeing it is 
 secret ? 
 
 19 So ]Manoah took a kid, 
 
 o Gen. 32. 29. 
 
 question of this kind"? Why was the 
 mere secrecy of the name a reason for 
 its not being asked "? Was it not in 
 fact for this very reason that he did 
 ask if] We admit, indeed, that if 
 Manoah ha.&\)Qen previously inform- 
 ed that the name was ineffable — that 
 it was designed to be kept a profound 
 secret — he would have been guilty 
 of high presumption in demanding 
 it. But we see no evidence of this in 
 any part of the sacred text, and con- 
 clude therefore that the angel made 
 use of this interrogative form of 
 speech merely in order to introduce 
 in the most suitable and impressive 
 manner the declaration that follows 
 constituting the real point of his re- 
 ply. ' It is secret;' — or rather as in 
 the margin, ' It is wonderful,' for so 
 the original (n^^^^t:,) properly implies, 
 and so is it expressly rendered. Is. 9. 
 6, ' His name shall be called Wonr- 
 derful (i^^c);' i- e. his nature, his 
 character shall be wonderful ; pro- 
 perly implying that kind of wonder 
 which is the natural effect of mira- 
 cles, of marvellous and superhuman 
 works. In apparently declining 
 therefore to reveal his name he does 
 in fact make known one of his most 
 august and glorious titles, one which 
 went far towards conveying an idea 
 of the divine attributes of his nature, 
 and one which was therefore emi- 
 nently appropriate to the drift of 
 Manoah's question. The implica- 
 tion probably is, ' You have scarcely 
 any real occasion to inquire as to 
 my name (nature;) it is obvious 
 from the words, promises, and ac- 
 tions already witnessed and yet fur- 
 ther to be displayed, that lam, and 
 am therefore to be called, Peli, the 
 Admirable One, the great Worker of 
 wonders, the Master of miracles.' 
 The origial "15^^!: has the form of a 
 proper'name, but the force of an appel- 
 lative. Whether he lully understood 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 with a meat-offering, Pand offer- 
 ed it upon a rocli: unto the Lord ; 
 and the angel did wondrously, 
 and Manoah and his wife looked 
 
 on. 
 
 20 For it came to pass, when 
 the flame went up toward heaven 
 from off the altar, that the an- 
 gel of the Lord ascended in the 
 
 p ch. 6. 19, 20. 
 
 its entire import is perhaps to be 
 doubted; but whether he did or not, 
 the declaration is to us, considered iri 
 one point of view, immensely impor- 
 tant; for by assuming a title which 
 unquestionably belongs to the pro- 
 mised Messiaii, he identifies himself 
 with that divine personage, and con- 
 sequently puts it beyond a doubt who 
 it is that is meant by the term ' Angel' 
 or ' Angel of the Lord,' so frequent- 
 ly occuring in the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, in connection with mi- 
 raculous appearances and revela- 
 tions. It is plain that it is no other 
 than the Angel- Jehovah, so empha- 
 tically alluded to Ex. 23. 20, 21, 
 ' Behold I send an Angel before 
 thee, to keep thee in the way, and to 
 bring thee into the place which I 
 have prepared. Beware of him, and 
 obey his voice, provoke him not ; for 
 he will not pardon your transgres- 
 sions ; for my name is in him ;' i.e. 
 my nature is in him; he possesses 
 true and essential divinity. The ex- 
 alted character, therefore, which he 
 claimed by the assumption of this 
 title he proceeded to display still 
 more fully in the incident that fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 19. Manoah took a kid — and offer- 
 ed it, &c. He had by this time be- 
 come so far satisfied as to the real 
 character of his guest, that he no 
 longer doubled in what manner to 
 express his grateful and reverential 
 feelings towards him. He deter- 
 mines to do this by offering the kid 
 as a holocaust accompanied with the 
 usual meal or flour-ofiering (erro- 
 neously rendered 'meat-offering') 
 29 
 
 flame of the altar, and Manoah 
 and his wife looked on it, and 
 qfell on their faces to the ground. 
 
 21 But the angel of the Lord 
 did no more appear to Manoah 
 and to his wife. ''Then Manoah 
 knew that he was an angel of 
 the Lord. 
 
 22 And Manoah said unto his 
 
 q Lev. 9. 24. 1 Chr. 21. 16. Ezek. 1. £8. Matt. 17. 6. 
 r cli. 6. 22. 
 
 which the law prescribed. For this 
 purpose he selects a rock, as did Gid- 
 eon upon a like occasion, ch. 6. 20. 
 21, instead of an altar. Large mas- 
 ses of stone, of various forms, some 
 of which are well adapted to such a 
 use, frequently occur in the plains 
 and valleys of Judea, and other hilly 
 countries. Some of tbese are seen in 
 their natural position, rising out of 
 the ground, while others appear as 
 detached fragments, thrown down 
 from the rocky eminences. To such 
 insulated masses of rock there are 
 repeated references in the Scriptures. 
 IT And the angel did tcondrously. 
 Heb. i^'i^S^ maphlia; in correspon- 
 dence with [he name which he had 
 before attributed to himself. Being 
 ioo?iderful, he performed wonderful 
 things; probably causing fire to arise 
 out of the rock, and consume the 
 sacrifice ; and we are expressly told 
 that he afterwards ascended in the 
 flame. The word ' angel' it is true, 
 does not occur in the original, but 
 from the tenor of the narrative there 
 can be no doubt who is intended. 
 
 2L Then Manoah knew that he was 
 an angel of the Lord. Rather, ' that 
 he was the angel;' the divine un- 
 created angel ; the Angel- Jehovah. 
 He was now fully and undoubtingly 
 assured. This put the finishing 
 stroke to the process of conviction 
 which from the commencement of 
 the interview had been going on in 
 Manoah's mind. 
 
 22. We shall surely die, because we 
 have seen God. Perceiving that the 
 personage Avho had now appeared to 
 him was no other than God in human 
 
334 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 116L 
 
 wife, 'We shall surely die, be- 
 cause we have seen God. 
 
 23 But his wife said unto him, 
 If the Lord were pleased to kill 
 us, he would not have received 
 a burnt-offering and a meat-of- 
 fering at our hands, neither 
 would he have showed us all 
 
 s Gen. 32. 30. Kx. 33. 
 
 Deut 5. 26. ch. 6. 22. 
 
 shape, he conceived, according to 
 popular belief, that both he and his 
 wife must die. This idea was not 
 without some foundation ; for when 
 Moses had entreated the ' Lord to 
 show him his glory, he answered, 
 * Thou canst not see my face ; for 
 there shall no man see me and live ;' 
 and for this very reason God put 
 him into a cleft of a rock, and per- 
 mitted him to see, as it were, only 
 ' his back parts,' a very partial dis- 
 play of his glory. So when Jacob 
 had been favored with a visit from 
 the same divine person in the shape 
 of an angel, he expressed his aston- 
 ishment, that ' his life was preserv- 
 ed,' Gen. 3-2. 29, 30. From these 
 passages we may learn the grounds 
 of the prevailing impressions on the 
 subject. But while we do not won- 
 der at the apprehensions of Manoah, 
 we the more admire the composure 
 of his wife. She argued in a direct- 
 ly different way. She considered 
 the mercies already vouchsafed to 
 them as tokens for good; for why 
 should God confer such singular 
 honor upon them, if he intended to 
 kill theml Why did he accept the 
 burnt-offering at their hands 1 Why 
 stoop to impart to them such infor- 
 mation *? Why give them such gra- 
 cious promises'? Was all this done 
 to mock them'? Indeed, if he should 
 kill them, how could the promises be 
 fulfilled'? or for what purpose were 
 they given'? The honor of the divine 
 veracity therefore required that they 
 should be preserved. This was a 
 just mode of arguing ; for such mer- 
 cies were both evidences and pledges 
 of his love; and therefore were 
 
 these things^ nor would as at 
 this time have told us such things 
 as these. 
 
 24 IT And the woman bare a 
 son, and called his name ^Sam- 
 son. And "the child grew, and 
 the Lord blessed him. 
 
 25 ^And the Spirit of the 
 
 t Heb. 11. 32. u 1 Sam. 3. 19. Luke 1. 80. & 2. 52 
 X ch. 3. 10. 1 Sam. 11. 6 Mati. 4. 1. 
 
 rather to be considered as earnests 
 of future blessings, than as harbin- 
 gers of ill. The woman in this 
 show^ed herself not only the strong- 
 est believer, but the wisest reasoner. 
 The incidents related may teach us, 
 (1.) That in times of dark and dis- 
 couraging providences or sore temp- 
 tations we should remember the past 
 experience of God's goodness as a 
 ground of present support. ' Account 
 the long suffering of God to be salva- 
 tion.' He that hath so kindly helped 
 us and dealt with us hitherto means 
 not to destroy us at last. (2.) That 
 the sinner oppressed with a sense of 
 his deserts has no reason to despair. 
 Let him remember what Christ has 
 done for him by his bloody sacrifice, 
 and read in it a sure proof, that he 
 does not design his death. 
 
 23. Nor would as at this time, &c. 
 Or, Heb. 'at this time.' The ex- 
 pression is perhaps designed to be 
 emphatical, implying that God's 
 mercy was greatly enhanced by 
 being afforded to them at this partic- 
 ular time, a time of general calamity, 
 when the word of the Lord was pre- 
 cious, and there was no open vision. 
 1 Sam. 3. 1. 
 
 24. Called his name Samson. Heb. 
 *]1":j)2ffi Shimshon. The root is un- 
 doubtedly t3>2a Shem^sh, the sun, bu' 
 what relation the name was intended 
 to bear to this object, we are no 
 where informed. Schmid conjec- 
 tures that it was in allusion to the 
 shining countenance of the angel 
 when he first appeared to Manoah's 
 wife. Perhaps, or a still more proba- 
 ble supposition is, that it was in mem- 
 ory of the resplendent brightness in 
 
A. C. 1141.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 335 
 
 Lord began to move him at 
 times in the camp of Dan, y be- 
 tween Zorah and Eshtaol, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A ND Samson went down "^to 
 
 -^ Timnath, and ^saw a wo- 
 
 man in Timnath of the daughters 
 
 of the Philistines. 
 
 y Josh. 15. 33. ch 18.11. a Gen. 38. 13. Josh 
 15. 10. b Gen. 34. 2. 
 
 •which his whole person may for a 
 moment have been arrayed just as he 
 departed from their sight. IT And 
 the Lord blessed him. Gave evident 
 proofs that the child was under his 
 peculiar protection; blessed him by 
 qualifying him both in body and 
 mind for something great and extra- 
 ordinary. 
 
 25. The Spirit of the Lord began 
 to move him at times. To stir him 
 «p to bold exploits; inspiring him, 
 in view of the degrading bondage of 
 his countrymen, with an ardent zeal 
 to do something towards their deliv- 
 erance. Under this supernatural 
 impulse he was led from time to time 
 to put forth astonishing specimens of 
 valor and strength, such perhaps as 
 his slaying the lion, ch. 14. 6 ; achiev- 
 ments which clearly evinced his de- 
 signation of heaven for the work to 
 which be was called and set apart. 
 The import of the original (oj/'sb) 
 for 'moved' is peculiar. As^sj^the 
 radical form signifies an anvil, the 
 metaphor is probably drawn from the 
 re^e<2/e<^ and somewhat violent s^roZres 
 of the workman with his hammer. 
 It implies therefore a peculiar ur- 
 gency, an impelling influence on the 
 part of the Spirit, which made its sub- 
 ject invincible, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1. Samson went down t» Timnath. 
 A frontier town of Dan, lying close 
 upon the borders of the Philistines' 
 country. It originally belonged to 
 Judah, but was afterwards assigned 
 to Dan. It was situated about twenty 
 jailee west of Jerusalem, and about 
 
 2 And he came up, and told 
 his father and his mother, and 
 said, I have seen a woman in 
 Timnath of the daughters of the 
 Philistines : now therefore •'get 
 her for me to wife. 
 
 3 Then his father and his mo- 
 ther said unto him, Is there never 
 a woman among the daughters 
 
 c Gen. 21. 21. 4 34. 4. 
 
 twelve north-east of Eshtaol. There 
 evidently had been some remissness 
 on the part of Israel in driving out 
 the Philistines from this place, but 
 as the latter had now the upper hand, 
 it is not surprising that they dwelt in. 
 the cities of the former, whom they 
 had probably put under tribute, and 
 although the two races were in an 
 attitude of hostility towards each 
 other, yet it seems not at this time to 
 have interrupted all intercourse be- 
 tween them. Indeed the terms on. 
 which the Israelites lived and min-^ 
 gled with their devoted neighbors the 
 Canaanites, as is evident from many 
 parts of their history, were such as 
 we should scarcely have expected 
 from people so related. But 'the 
 holy seed' in all ages has been too 
 prone to cultivate intimacies and 
 form alliances with the world of the 
 ungodly. 
 
 2. Get her for me to wife. That is, 
 take measures for that purpose; en- 
 deavor to bring it about. No part of 
 the Scripture has afforded more oc- 
 casion for the doubts of skeptics or 
 the scoffs of infidels than the history 
 of Samson. His character is indeed 
 dark and almost inexplicable. By 
 none of the judges of Israel did God 
 work so many miracles, and yet by 
 none were so many faults committed. 
 He is enrolled by Paul in the list of 
 ancient worthies in the eleventh of 
 Hebrews, which affords a strong pre- 
 sumption, though not, we conceive, 
 a positive proof, of his being a truly 
 pious man. It must be recollected, 
 however, that his history is very 
 short, and that the peculiarity of the 
 
336 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 of'^thy brethren, or among all 
 my people, that thou goest to 
 take a wife of the «uncircumcis- 
 
 d Gen. 24. 3, 4. e Gen. 31. 14. Ex. 34. 16. Deut 
 7.3. 
 
 dispensation under which he lived, 
 may account for many things, which, 
 if done at this lime and without the 
 special appointment of Heaven, 
 would be highly criminal. Besides, 
 there may have been in him many 
 exercises of true piety, which, if re- 
 corded, would have reflected a differ- 
 ent light upon his character. In the 
 present instance it must be admitted 
 that his conduct in suffering his af- 
 fections to be ensnared by a Phil- 
 istine woman, had an ill appearance. 
 Marriage connections with the Phil- 
 istines who were not of the devoted 
 nations, were not indeed prohibited 
 to the Israelites by the letter of the 
 law, though by its spirit they un- 
 doubtedly were. The danger of 
 being enticed to idolatry was the rea- 
 son of the law as it respected allian- 
 ces with the Canaanites, and this rea- 
 son we cannot but suppose was 
 equally applicable to conneciions 
 with the Philistines. Still the law 
 was merely ceremonial, and if God 
 saw fit to dispense with it in regard 
 to any of his servants, he could do so 
 unimpeached. That this was the 
 case in the present instance, there are 
 strong grounds, from the actual event 
 to believe. At least,we do not feel at li- 
 berty, from a view of the facts record- 
 ed to pronounce positively a sentence 
 of condemnation on this part of Sam- 
 son's conduct. But whatever judg- 
 ment we may form of the measure 
 on the whole, his mode of procedure 
 was in one respect highly deserving 
 of commendation. He took no step 
 towards forming the connexion, not 
 even so much as paying his ad- 
 dresses to her, without first making 
 his parents acquainted with the mat- 
 *€r, and obtaining their consent. In 
 his example we read an admonition 
 that addresses itself to all children in 
 similar circumstances. Next to the 
 sanction of heaven, the concurrence 
 of parents is requisite to render that 
 
 [A. C. 1141. 
 
 ed Philistines ? And Samson 
 said unto his father, Get her for 
 me ; for she pleaseth me well. 
 
 relation a source of comfort and hap- 
 piness to the parties concerned. 
 Consulting them is consulting our 
 own welfare, as well acting up to the 
 spirit of the divine injunction in the 
 fifth commandment. 
 
 3. 75 there never a woman., &c. 
 His parents, awareof the divine pro- 
 hibitions relatire to foreign alliances, 
 and also of the high and solemn de- 
 signation of their son, of course re- 
 monstrate with him and endeavor to 
 dissuade him from what they con- 
 ceived so imprudent and unbecom- 
 ing a connexion. They inquire 
 whether among the daughters of his 
 ' brethren,' i. e. of the tribe of Dan, 
 he could not find a more suitable ob- 
 ject of choice. If not, there was the 
 whole nation of Israel — ' all my peo- 
 ple' — that afforded him a field of se- 
 lection. Why then should he have 
 occasion to goto the daughters of a 
 heathen race 1 ' I wish,' says an old 
 divine, ' that Manoah and his wife 
 could speak so loud that all our Is- 
 rael should hear them.' By nothing 
 is the heart of a pious parent naore 
 grieved than by the prospect of the 
 unequal yoking of their children 
 with profane or irreligious partners j 
 for he knows that nothing is so 
 likely to prove injurious to their spi- 
 ritual interests, and subject them to 
 heart-rending trials. IT For she 
 pleaseth me itell. Heb. ITTiZji s^"ifi 
 iiijJlQ she is right in mine eyes. Tak- 
 ing these words in connection with 
 what is said in the next verse, we 
 very much doubt whether our pre- 
 sent translation does full justice to 
 Samson's motives. According to 
 this, he urges no stronger reason for 
 the step proposed than that the wo- 
 man pleased his fancy, and for aught 
 that appears from the rendering it 
 was on this ground alone that his pa- 
 rents acceded to his request. But if 
 they conceived the measure to be di- 
 rectly contrary to the precepts of the 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 337 
 
 4 But his father and his mo- 
 ther knew not that it was ^of the 
 
 fJosh. 11. 20. I Kin. 12. IS. 2 Kin. 6. 33. 2 Chr. 
 10. 15. & 2-i. 7. & 25 20- 
 
 law, how could they, as true believ- 
 ers and obedient servants of God, 
 yield their consent and co-operation, 
 merely to gratify the headstrong pas- 
 sion of their son, unless they had 
 some intimation that God himself 
 had authorized in this instance a de- 
 parture from his established ordi- 
 nance 1 Should we look for such a 
 concession to human infirmity from 
 the pious pair who had so devoutly 
 entertained a messenger from hea- 
 ven, and listened to his commands'? 
 The fact is, if we mistake not, Sam- 
 son does not intend mainly to say in 
 these words, ' she is well-pleasing in 
 my sight,' for the original word is 
 not an adjective, having the sense of 
 beautiful, engaging, attractive, but 
 a verb conveying indeed the idea 
 of rig?d, but of right relative to an 
 end, purpose, or object ; in other 
 words, oi fitness or adaptation. See 
 Gussetius on the root "iT"") ^^^ com- | 
 pare the use of it 2 Sam. 17. 4. 
 1 Kings. 9. 12. 2 Chron. 30. Num. 
 23. 27. This then we conceive af- 
 fords the true clue to Samson's 
 meaning ; ' She is right in my eyes ;' 
 i. e. adapted to the end which I have 
 in view; she may be used, she is 
 available for a purpose entirely ulte- 
 rior to the immediate connexion 
 which I propose. That Samson, 
 however, entertained a genuine af- 
 fection for the woman, and was not 
 influenced solely by views of policy 
 in the transaction, we see no reason 
 to doubt. But that he intended at the 
 same time to make this alliance sub- 
 servient to to the great purpose of 
 delivering his country from oppres- 
 sion, there are very strong grounds 
 for believing. 
 
 4. But his father and his mother 
 Jcneio not, &c. These words appear 
 to be inserted parenthetically for the 
 purpose of intimating the reason to 
 which it was owing, that Samson's 
 parents declined giving their consent 
 to the proposed marriage. They did 
 29* 
 
 Lord, that he sought an occasion 
 a(?ainst the Philistines : for at 
 
 not know God's puropses in respect 
 to it. Had they known them, the im- 
 plication is thai their decison would 
 have been different ; and as we leara 
 from the next verse that their objec- 
 tions were overruled, and that they 
 went with their son to Timnath in 
 reference to the object of his suit, the 
 inference is fair, that in some way 
 they did become acquainted with the 
 divine counsels. Their going is to be 
 considered, we think, rather in the 
 light of an acquiescence in the will 
 of heaven, than of a yielding to the 
 mere importunities of their son. In 
 what particular manner they became 
 enlightened in respect to tbe"^ ultimate 
 bearings of the measure, we are not 
 informed, and must of course be left 
 to mere conjecture. To us it ap- 
 pears most probable that Samson 
 frankly laid open to them all his 
 mind, and that in these disclosures 
 they saw satisfactory evidence that 
 he was moved by the Spirit of God 
 in this transaction in a way that they 
 did not dare to resist. IF That he 
 sought an occasion against the Phil- 
 istines. That is, an occasion of 
 avenging the wrongs inflicted by the 
 Philistines on the Israelites. It is 
 worthy of note that the Hebrew, in- 
 stead of ' against the Philistines,' has 
 ' of or from the Philistines ;' clearly 
 implying that the occasion sought 
 should be one that originated on the 
 side of the Philistines. The sense 
 exhibited by our common rendering 
 is not indeed essentially different 
 from this, but we prefer to express 
 the exact shade of the original where- 
 ever it can be done. As far as the 
 grammatical construction is concern- 
 ed, there is nothing to prevent this 
 being understood of the Lord him- 
 self as the proper subject of the verb. 
 But it seems on the whole more na- 
 tural and plausible to understand it 
 of Samson — that he .sought occasion 
 against the Philistines — though at 
 the same time M'ith the connivance 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1161. 
 
 that time &the Philistines had do- 
 minion over Israel. 
 
 g ch. 13. 1. Deul. 28. 48. 
 
 and under the prompting of the Most 
 High, who saw fit in this indirect 
 tvay to bring about the accomplish- 
 ment of his designs of retribution to- 
 wards his enemies. If it be asked 
 why infinite wisdom chose to adopt 
 this peculiar method of compassing 
 the object, although our inability to 
 answer the question would not at all 
 afl?ect the claims of the sacred narra- 
 tive, yet it may be suggested, that the 
 reason is perhaps to be drawn from 
 the special design of God in raising 
 .up Samson as a deliverer. His 
 leading purpose in this seems to have 
 been to baffle the poioer of the whole 
 Fhilistine nation by the prowess of a 
 single individual.' The champion 
 of Israel therefore was not appointed 
 so much to be the leader of an army 
 like the other judges, as to be an army 
 in himself. In order then that the 
 contest might be carried on in this 
 way, it was necessary that the entire 
 opposition of the Philistines should 
 be concentrated, as far as possible, 
 against the person of Samson. This 
 would array the contending parties 
 precisely in such an attitude as to 
 illustrate most signally the power of 
 God in the overthrow of his enemies. 
 But how could this result be brought 
 about except by means of some pri- 
 vate quarrel between Samson and the 
 enemy with which he was to contend 1 
 and who can say that the scheme 
 now projected was not the very best 
 that couid have been devised for ac- 
 complishing the end which God had 
 in viewl To what extent Samson 
 foresaw all the events that were to 
 grow out of this tran.saction, or how 
 far he had a plan distinctly laid cor- 
 responding with the results that ac- 
 tually ensued, it is difficult to deter- 
 mine. The probability, we think, is, 
 that he had rather a general strong 
 impression, wrought by the Spirit of 
 God, than a definite conception, of the 
 train of events that were to transpire. 
 It was however a conviction as to 
 
 5 IF Then went Samson down, 
 and his father, and his mother, 
 
 the issue sufficiently powerful to 
 warrant both him and his parents in 
 going forward with the measure. 
 They were in some way assured that 
 they were engaged in a proceeding 
 which God would overrule to the fur- 
 therance of his designs of mercy to 
 his people and of judgment to their 
 oppressors. God foresaw, though 
 they did not, how basely and perfid- 
 iously his wife's friends and rela- 
 tions would act towards Samson, and 
 what just grounds of war would on. 
 this account arise. In all this, how- 
 ever, they would act freely and with- 
 out compulsion, so that there would 
 be no injustice in their punishment ; 
 and what should prevent the right- 
 eous Lord God from availing him- 
 self of his omniscience in working 
 out to his enemies the due recom- 
 pense of their deeds 1 ^ For at that 
 time the Philistines had dominion over 
 Israel. Added in order to intimate the 
 general moving cause which prompt- 
 ed Samson to exert himself in be- 
 half of his people. They were suf- 
 fering under the despotic and tyran- 
 nical sway of their oppressors. It was 
 in this fact that a justification was 
 to be sought for the commencement 
 of hostilities. Schmid, however, ex- 
 presses the belief that a still deeper 
 sense is couched under these words, 
 viz. that they are intended to as- 
 sign a reason why Samson should 
 have felt it necessary to seek any oc- 
 casion at all for entering upon war- 
 like operations. His curious conceit 
 on the subject is as follows ; — The 
 Philistines, although they were now 
 cruelly oppressing the Israelites, yet 
 by the acknowledged rights of war, 
 they had justly acquired this domin- 
 ion over them, and such is God's ab- 
 horrence of all rebellions and insur- 
 rections against existing powers, that 
 they were not at liberty, on the sim- 
 ple plea or pretence of" tyranny, to 
 endeavor to shake off' the yoke. 
 Consequently some just occasion was 
 
A. C. 1161.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 339 
 
 to Timnath, and came to the vine- 
 yards of Timnath : and beTiold,a 
 young lion roared against him. 
 
 to be sought as a warrant for the at- 
 tempt, and unless such a plausible 
 pretext should arise our commenta- 
 tor would have us understand that 
 the hdiTe fact of the Philistines' hav- 
 ing the ascendency over Israel was 
 a sufficient reason for their abstain- 
 ing from all efforts to regain their 
 liberties. This he supposes to be the 
 genuine drift of the illative ' for' in 
 the clause before us. Samson sought 
 an occasion against the Philistines, 
 for (because) at that time the Philis- 
 tines had dominion over Israel,' and 
 therefore it would be unlawful to rise 
 against them loithout such an occa- 
 sion ! In connection with this expo- 
 sition he quotes with applause the 
 remarks of Brent, commending the 
 singular prudence andmoderation of 
 Samson, that although he had ample 
 grounds in the divine commission 
 implied in the very fact of his being 
 raised up and set apart as a national 
 deliverer, yet to avoid offence, he 
 will not undertake the work till a 
 just and legitimate cause of war oc- 
 curs. All this reasoning, savoring 
 as it does so strongly of the doctrine 
 ofpassive obedience, we leave it to the 
 reader to estimate according to its 
 worth; but we believe a much more 
 correct view of the reason of Sam- 
 son's 'seeking an occasion against 
 the Philistines is given in a prece- 
 ding note. If a general movemeni 
 had been made by the Israelites for 
 the assertion of their liberties, an 
 e(\Mdi\\Y ge7ieral attempt to crush it 
 would of course have been made on 
 the other side. But God designed 
 that Samson personally should be the 
 butt of the enemies' wrath and machi- 
 nations, that he might display his 
 own glory in conquering them by the 
 might of a single arm, 
 
 5. Then ivent Samson doiun, and 
 his father and his mother. Having 
 changed their minds; having yielded 
 to the evidence that he was under a 
 
 6 And Hhe Spirit of the Lord 
 came mightily upon him, and he 
 rent him as he would have rent 
 
 h ch. 3. 10. & 13. 
 
 divine prompting in the measure 
 proposed. IT Behold a young lion 
 roared against him. Heb. ' behold, a 
 young lion of the lionesses roaring'in 
 his meeting.' From v. 6 it is obvi- 
 ous that his parents were not with 
 him when this remarkable incident 
 occurred. ' He was all alone in the 
 vineyards, whither he had rambled 
 from his father and mother (who 
 kept the high road) probably to eat 
 grapes. Children consider not that 
 they expose themselves to the roaring 
 lion that seeks to devour, when, out 
 of a foolish fondness for liberty, they 
 wander from under the eye of their 
 prudent, pious parents. Nor do 
 young people consider what lions 
 lurk in the vineyards, the vineyards 
 of red wine, as dangerous as snakes 
 under the green grass.' — Henry. It 
 is to be observed that 'young lion' 
 does not here mean a 'whelp, for 
 which the Hebrews has quite a dif- 
 ferent word, but a young lion arrived 
 at its full strength and size, when it 
 is far more fierce than at a later pe- 
 riod. It is evident from this and 
 other passages of Scripture, that 
 lions formerly existed in Judea. 
 We do not know that they are now 
 to be met with in that country; but 
 this is not surprising, as numerous 
 instances might be cited of the dis- 
 appearance of wild animals, in the 
 course of time, from countries where 
 they were once well known. 
 
 6. The Spirit of the Lord came 
 mightily upon him. Well rendered 
 from the original, which is in nu- 
 merous instances employed to sig- 
 nify a supernatural influence raising 
 the bodily or mental powers to an 
 unwonted pitch of energy, clothing 
 one with courage, fortitude, skill, 
 wisdom, and strength, and enabling 
 him to perform achievments to 
 which his unassisted powers would 
 be entirely unequal. The expression 
 seems to denote an occasional illapse 
 
340 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1141. 
 
 a kid, and he had nothing in his 
 hand : but he told not his father 
 or his mother what he had done. 
 7 And he went down, and 
 talked with the woman ; and she 
 pleased Samson well. 
 
 of this kind of influence, and it may- 
 be doubted whether even Samson 
 was able ordinarily to display these 
 prodigies of valor and prowess which 
 he from lime to time put forth, 
 though perhaps habitually a stronger 
 man than others. U Told not his 
 father or his mother. An instance of 
 singular discretion, modesty, and 
 self-control, view it in whatever 
 light we may. How few people are 
 there in the world, who, if they had 
 performed such an exploit as this, 
 would have suffered it to remain hid 
 from their dearest friends. But the 
 presumption is, that before this Sam- 
 son himself was not fully aware of 
 the extent to which ' the power of 
 the Highest rested on him,' and with- 
 out a distinct foresight of the events 
 that followed, he may still have con- 
 cluded that to divulge the possession 
 of such astonishing strength would 
 be likely to defeat the ends to which 
 it might be applied. He would not 
 therefore betray so important a se- 
 cret, — not even to his own parents, 
 lest a premature disclosure, by put- 
 ting his enemies on their guard, 
 should render the endowment com- 
 paratively useless. 
 
 7. And talked with the woman. 
 Rather accordmg to the Heb. "laTii 
 JlTTitb ' talked concerning the woman.' 
 Marriages in the East from the earli- 
 est periods have always been arran- 
 ged by parents in behalf of their 
 children. It was doubtless so in the 
 present case. Indeed for what other 
 purpose did his parents go down'? 
 According to the letter, indeed, the 
 talking is referred to Samson, and 
 he undoubtedly had a voice in it, but 
 not, we imagine, to the exclusion of 
 his father and mother. The whole 
 three negotiated the matter with the 
 parents of the young woman. 
 
 8 H And after a time he re- 
 turned to take her, and he turn- 
 ed aside to see the carcass of the 
 lion : and behold, there was a 
 swarm of bees and honey in the 
 carcass of the lion. 
 
 8. After a time he returned to take 
 her. An interval of some time, usu- 
 ally ten 01 twelve months, elapsed 
 between the ceremony of espousals 
 and the marriage. During this time 
 the betrothed bride remained with 
 her parents, that she might provide 
 herself with nuptial ornaments suit- 
 able to her station ; after which the 
 bride-groom came to fetch her home 
 and take her fully as his w ife. The 
 Jews still keep up this custom ; the 
 parties being betrothed at least six or 
 twelve months before marriage. 
 During this interval, oriental usage 
 appears to have allowed to the par- 
 ties but slight communication with 
 each other. Yet what little inter- 
 course they had at all previous to 
 marriage seems to have been restrict- 
 ed to this term. For ' in point of 
 fact we apprehend,' says the editor 
 of the Pictorial Bible, 'that the be- 
 trothed was considered necessary to 
 enable a young man to pay to a wo- 
 man even that limited degree of par- 
 ticular attention which eastern man- 
 ners allowed.' This suggestion still 
 further confirms the idea advanced 
 above respecting the ' talking' there 
 alluded to. It is quite improbable 
 that it should have taken place be- 
 tween Samson and the young woman 
 herself. The kind of intimacy ex- 
 pressed by the word ' courtship/ and 
 so familiar to European manners, 
 appears to have been from remote 
 antiquity entirely unknown in the 
 East. ^ Turned aside to see the 
 carcass of the lion. Heb. * the ruins, 
 the fallen heap.' '"Whilst Samson 
 concealed the event from others, he 
 pondered it in himself; and when he 
 returned to Timnath, went out of the 
 way to see his dead adversary, and 
 could not but recall to himself his 
 danger and deliverance; 'Here the 
 
A. C. 1141.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 341 
 
 9 And he took thereof in his 
 hands, and went on eating, and 
 came to his father and mother, 
 and he gave them, and they 
 did eat : but he told not them 
 that he had taken the honey 
 
 beast met me; thus he fought; thus 
 I slew him!' The very dead lion 
 taught Samson thankfulness. The 
 mercies of God are ill bestowed upon 
 us, if we cannot step aside to view 
 the monuments of his deliverances. 
 As Samson had not found his honey- 
 comb, if he had not turned aside to 
 see his lion, so we shall lose the 
 comfort of God's benefits, if we do 
 not renew our perils by meditation.' 
 Bp. Hall. IT A swarvi of bees and 
 honey in the carcass. In one respect 
 the preceding note is strikingly con- 
 firmed by the present text. It is evi- 
 dent that several months must have 
 elapsed between the first and second 
 visit to Timnarh, in order to allow 
 time for the carcass of the lion to be- 
 come reduced to a dry naked skele- 
 ton. The cleanly habits of bees, and 
 their repugnance to impure smells 
 would not otherwise have permitted 
 them to select it as a habitation. 
 The beautiful episode in the fourth 
 Georgic of Virgil proves that the an- 
 cients believed that bees might be en- 
 gendered in the dead body of an ox. 
 9. And he took thereof in Ms hands. 
 Heb. *\-^^^'^ from nTl to subdue, a 
 very peculiar term to be applied to 
 the act of taking' a quantity of honey 
 from its place of deposit, be that what 
 it might. The most common He- 
 brew word for ' take' is npb, and if 
 nothing more is meant in the present 
 case than the simple act so denomi- 
 nated, why is not the usual term em- 
 ployed 1 We adopt the suggestion of 
 Schmid in reply, that a word was 
 purposely chosen which should im- 
 ply some resistance and difficulty in 
 getting possession of the prize; that 
 it was not without an encounter, and 
 a species of subjugation, that he suc- 
 ceeded in wresting the honey from 
 the bees; such at any rate is the im- 
 
 out of the carcass of the lion. 
 
 10 IT So his father went down 
 unto the woman : and Samson 
 made there a feast ; for so used 
 the young men to do. 
 
 11 And it came to pass, when 
 
 port of the word, whatever be the 
 reason of its use. 
 
 10. His father went down unto the 
 woman. Rendered by the Chal. 
 ' went down relative to the aflfair of 
 the woman;' a sense of the words 
 decidedly approved by the Jewish 
 critic David Kimchi. From the 
 connexion it appears moreover quite 
 evident that Samson's father here is 
 not to be understood exclusive of 
 Samson himself The probability 
 is, that both his father and mother 
 and a company of friends attended 
 him on the occasion, but the father 
 alone, as the natural head of the 
 party, is mentioned. Compare with 
 this the note on v. 7. H And Sam^ 
 son made there a feast. A wedding 
 feast, such as is customary all over 
 the East, as w^ell as in most other 
 countries, during which every spe- 
 cies of merriment prevails. This 
 nuptial festivity used to continue 
 seven days, as we see from v. 12 
 compared with Gen. 29. 27. After 
 this the bride was brought home by, 
 or to her husband. We must under- 
 stand probably, in conformity with 
 existing usages in the East, that 
 Samson made his feast at the house 
 of some acquaintance, or in one hired 
 for the occasion, as his own house 
 was distant ; while at the same time 
 the woman entertained her female 
 friends and relatives at her father's 
 house. The different sexes never 
 feasted together on these or any other 
 occasions, and the bride and bride- 
 groom did not even give their respec- 
 tive entertainments in the same 
 house, unless under very peculiar 
 circumstances. In reading this nar- 
 rative we must not forget that Sam- 
 son was a mere sojourner at Tim- 
 nath. IT So used the young men to 
 do. ' I do not hear Samson plead his 
 
342 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1141. 
 
 they saw him, that they brought 
 thirty companions to be with him. 
 12 IF And Samson said unto 
 them, I will now 'put forth a 
 riddle unto you : if ye can cer- 
 tainly declare it me ''within the 
 seven days of the feast, and find 
 it out, then I will give you thirty 
 
 i 1 Kings 10. 1. Ei. 17. 2. Luke 14. 7. k Gen. 
 
 29.27. 
 
 Tiazarit ism for a color of singularity ; 
 it is both lawful and fit, in things not 
 prohibited, to conform ourselves to 
 the manners and rites of tho.se with 
 whom we live.' God never misliked 
 moderate solemnities (festivities) in 
 the severest life.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 11. It came to pass when they saw 
 him. That is, when they (the citi- 
 zens) observed or considered him, 
 "when they noted his stature, form, 
 countenance and bearing. IT They 
 brought thirty companions to be with 
 him. A class of persons called else- 
 where in the Scriptures ' friends of 
 the bridegroom' or ' children of the 
 bride-chamber,' Mat. 9. 15, John. 3. 
 29. Although these companions 
 were brought to him with a show of 
 paying him respect and honor in con- 
 formity to custom, yet it was un- 
 doubtedly with the secret purpose of 
 stationing spies about his person. 
 A remarkable something in his ex- 
 ternal appearance told them that he 
 was a man to be watched ; and jeal- 
 ous as they now were of him, they 
 would have been still more so, had 
 they known of his exploit in killing 
 the lion, which he had industriously 
 kept from them. ' The favors of 
 Philistines have often some mischief 
 or other designed in them.' Henry. 
 
 12. / will now put forth a riddle 
 unto you. It was a very ancient cus- 
 tom among different nations to re- 
 lieve their entertainments by propo- 
 sing diflicult and obscure questions, 
 to the solution of which a reward 
 was usually annexed, while a pro- 
 portionate forfeiture was the conse- 
 quence of a failure. They were 
 particularly common among the 
 
 sheets and thirty ^change of 
 garments : 
 
 13 But if ye cannot declare 
 it me, then shall ye give me 
 thirty sheets and thirty change 
 of garments. And they said 
 unto him, Put forth thy riddle, 
 that we may hear it. 
 
 1 Gen. 45. 22. 2 Kiogs S. 22. 
 
 Greeks, who were accustomed to call 
 riddles contrived to puzzle and per- 
 plex by, the name of 'banquet-rid- 
 dles,' or 'cup-questions.' Devices 
 of this sort were especially necessary 
 for amusement and pastime in a fes- 
 tival of seven days' continuance like 
 the present. IT Thirty sheets and 
 thirty change of garments. The 
 original word Gi;'ino sediniin, from 
 which comes the Greek 'LipSojv, Sin- 
 don, fine linen, probably denotes a 
 kind of body linen, more like our 
 shirts than sheets. ' It cannot easily 
 be imagined they were what we call 
 sheets, for Samson might have slain 
 thirty Philistines near Askelon, and 
 not have found one sheet; or if he 
 slew them who were carrying their 
 beds with them on their travels, as 
 they often do in present times, the 
 slaughter of fifteen had been suffi- 
 cient, for in the East, as in other 
 countries, every bed is provided with 
 two sheets ; but he slew just thirty, in 
 order to obtain thirty sedinim, or 
 shirts. If this meaning of the term 
 be admitted, the deed of Samson 
 must have been very provoking to 
 the Philistines; for since only peo- 
 ple of more easy circumstances wore 
 shirts, they were not thirty of the 
 common people that he slew, but 
 thirty persons of figure and conse- 
 quence. The same word is used by 
 the prophet Isaiah, in his description 
 of the splendid and costly dress in 
 which people of rank and fashion 
 then delighted, rendered in our trans- 
 lation fine linen ; which seems to 
 place it beyond a doubt that they 
 were persons of rank that fell by 
 the hand of Samson on that occa'» 
 
A. C. 1141.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 343 
 
 14 And he said unto them, 
 Out of the eater canie forth 
 meat, and outof the strong came 
 forth sweetness. And they could 
 not in three days expound the 
 riddle. 
 
 15 And it came to pass on the 
 seventh day, that they said un- 
 to Samson's wife, '"Entice thy 
 
 sion.' Paxlon. Bythe' thirty change 
 of garments' is probably to be under- 
 stood the upper vestments or tunics 
 common in the East usually called 
 caftans^ and answering nearly to our 
 cloaks. The idea of the passage 
 .«;eems to be, that Samson offered 
 thirty dresses, which there is reason 
 to suppose consisted only of a shirt 
 and upper garment. 
 
 14. Out of the eater came forth 
 meat, &c. "Or, Heb. ' came "forth 
 food.' The antithesis in the first 
 clause is sufficiently obvious, viz. 
 that an all-devouring creature, con- 
 trary to what might naturally be ex- 
 pected, should afford food to others. 
 But ^n the second, it is less plain ; 
 for the opposite of stre^igth is not 
 sweetness, but weakness. If it had 
 been, ' Out of the sharp or bitter 
 came forth sioeetness,'' the opposition 
 would have been perfect. Bochart, 
 however, has very plausibly shown 
 that the original for bitter is occa- 
 sionally used for strong, and sharp 
 for both. So in the Arabic, Mirra, 
 strength, and Marir, strong, robust, 
 come from the root Marra, which 
 signifies to be bitter. Thus too in the 
 Latin, Acer, sharp, applied to a man 
 denotes one who is valiant, who 
 eagerly engages his enemy; and 
 •what is worthy of notice, this very 
 term is employed by Ovid as an epi- 
 thet for lions ; — ' Genus acre leo- 
 num,' the sharp or fierce kind of 
 lions.' The true antithesis of the 
 riddle, therefore, may be stated thus : 
 — ' Food came from the devourer, 
 and sweetness from that which is 
 sharp^ i. e. eager, fierce, violent. 
 The Syr. and Arab, both render th« 
 
 husband, that he may declare 
 unto us the riddle, "le.st we burn 
 thee and thy father's house with 
 fire : have ye called us to take 
 what we have ? is it not so ? 
 
 16 And Samson's wife wept 
 before him and said, °Thou doest 
 but hate me, and lovest me not : 
 thou hast put forth a riddle unto 
 
 original by bitter instead of strong, 
 and some copies of the Gr. Sept. in- 
 stead of niTo la-^vpov from the strong, 
 exhibit the reading ano -rriKpovfrom the 
 bitter. Josephus gives the enigma 
 in this form,.' A great devourer pro- 
 duced sweet food out of itself, though 
 itself was very disagreeable.' Pro- 
 bably to a Hebrew ear, when the rid- 
 dle was found out, the terms would 
 be as expressive and suitable as any 
 that could have been chosen. This 
 enigma, though soluble, was one 
 well calculated to task their ingenu- 
 ity to the utmost, notwithstanding 
 Henry's remark, that ' if they had 
 but so much sense as to consider 
 what eater is most strong, and what 
 meat is most sweet, they would have 
 found i'out the riddle: and neither 
 lions nor honey were such strangers 
 to their country, that the thoughts of 
 them needed to be out of their way.' 
 But the point was, not to conceive of 
 these objects separately, but in a pe- 
 culiar relation to each other, and the 
 difficulty of this arose from the fact 
 that they would naturally conceive 
 of the eater as still alive. It was, 
 however, well adapted to the purpose 
 for which Providence designed it 
 should be overruled. 
 
 15. On the seventh day. That is, 
 of the week, being the fourth of the 
 feast, as appears from comparing 
 V. 14 and 17. IT Have ye called us 
 to take that we have 7 Have ye in- 
 vited us to the feast for the purpose 
 of impoverishing us by taking away 
 what we have '? 
 
 16. Wept before him. Heb. 'wept 
 upon him.' The sequel showed, 
 however, that they were crocodile 
 
344 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1141. 
 
 the children of my people, and 
 hast not told it me. And he 
 said unto her, Behold, I have not 
 told it my father nor my mother, 
 and shall I tell it thee ? 
 
 17 And she wept before hhn 
 the seven days, while their feast 
 lasted ; and it came to pass on 
 the seventh day, that he told 
 her, because she lay sore upon 
 him : and she told the riddle to 
 the children of her people. 
 
 tears which she shed on this occa- 
 sion. H I have not told it to my fa- 
 ther, nor my mother. Though I have 
 had more experience of their fidelity, 
 and more reason to trust their taci- 
 turnity than in thine. ' In all parts 
 of the world, I believe, people are 
 pretty much alike, as to their capa- 
 bility of keeping secrets. The Hin- 
 doos, however, improperly retlect 
 upon the female sex in their proverb, 
 ' To a loonian tell not a secret.' That 
 secret must be great indeed which 
 will prevent a son or daughter from 
 telling it to the father or mother. 
 The greatest proof of confidence is 
 to say, ' I have told you what I have 
 not revealed to my father.' In proof 
 of the great affection one has for an- 
 other, it is said, ' He has told things 
 to him that he would not have relat- 
 ed to his parents.' ' My friend, do 
 tell me the secret.' — ' Tell you 1 yes, 
 when I have told my parents.' Ro- 
 berts. ^ The seven days. That is, 
 the rest of the seven days. IT Lay 
 sore upon him. Rather, Heb. ' strong- 
 ly urged, solicited, or pressed him.' 
 U She told the riddle. The meaning 
 of the riddle. When we trust a 
 secret out of our own breast, we 
 must not expect it will long continue 
 such. It was not the mark of a wise 
 man in Samson to suppose that an- 
 other would be more faithful to him 
 than he was to himself. 
 
 18. What is sweeter than honey? 
 tohat is stronger than a lion 1 This 
 must be understood merely as a com- 
 
 18 And the men of the city 
 said unto him on the seventh 
 day before the sun went down, 
 What is sweeter than honey? 
 and what is stronger than a 
 lion ? And he said unto them, 
 If ye had not ploughed with my 
 heifer, ye had not found out my 
 riddle. 
 
 19 II And Pthe Spirit of the 
 Lord came upon him, and he 
 went down to Askelon, and slew 
 
 pch.3. 10. & 13.25. 
 
 pend of the solution of the riddle > 
 for it was not simply the two distinct 
 objects, the lion and the honey, which 
 constituted its point, but the ' coming 
 out' of the one from the other, and 
 unless the manner of this was stated, 
 we do not see how the riddle could 
 properly be considered as solved. 
 IT Ij ye had not floughed with my 
 heifer, &c. A proverbial expression, 
 intimating that the Philistines could 
 not have obtained the solution of the 
 riddle without availing themselves 
 of the assistance of his wife. Sam- 
 son might justly have disputed the 
 point with them, inasmuch as they 
 did not find out the riddle themselves, 
 but gained the knowledge of it by 
 treachery ; nevertheless he generous- 
 ly determined to abide by the forfeit. 
 19. The Spirit of the Lord came 
 upon him. See on v. 6. II Went 
 down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men 
 of them, &c. Ashkelon was a city 
 possessed at this time by the Philis- 
 tines, and one of their five lordships, 
 though it had previously been taken 
 and for some time held by Judah, 
 ch. 1. 18. It was situated fifteen 
 miles north of Gaza, nine north of 
 Ashdod, and about forty west from 
 Jerusalem. The divine predictions 
 respecting it have been so literally 
 fulfilled, that there is not, says 
 Richardson, an inhabitant within its 
 walls ; its lofty towers lie scattered 
 on the ground, and the ruins within 
 its walls do not shelter a human be- 
 ing. Samson's .going to this distant 
 
A. C. 1141.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 345 
 
 thirty men of them, and took 
 their spoil, and gave change 
 of garments unto them which 
 expounded the riddle. And his 
 anger was kindled, and he 
 
 city and taking the lives of thirty of 
 its inhabitants can only be justified 
 on the general ground of his being 
 raised up to be a judge and deliverer 
 of his people, and to avenge their 
 Philistine oppressors. The inference 
 is reasonable, that the Spirit of the 
 Lord came upon him not only to 
 enable^ but also to authorise him to 
 perform the deed here mentioned. 
 ' It is just with God to destine what 
 enemies he pleases to execution. It 
 is not to be inquired, why this man 
 is stricken rather than another, when 
 both are Philistines.' Bp. Hall. IT 
 Took their spoil. Their apparel ; 
 the garments which they had on, 
 and of which he stripped their dead 
 bodies. Express mention, it is true, 
 is not here made of the sheets or 
 shirts^ but they are evidently implied 
 from V. 13. The Jewish critics 
 make it a question how Samson, 
 being a Nazarite, and consequently 
 forbidden to touch a deadbody, Num. 
 6. 6, could, without pollution, have 
 possessed himself of the raiment of 
 these slain Philistines. The ques- 
 tion is one of no great moment, as 
 the facts in the case force us to the 
 conclusion, either that this prohibi- 
 tion was binding only upon the tem- 
 porary., and not upon the perpetital 
 Nazarites, or that God through his 
 Spirit acting in and by Samson, 
 granted him a dispensation in this 
 particular; as the same authority 
 which binds has power also to loose, 
 in regard to ceremonial observances. 
 IT His answer was kindled. Against 
 his perfidious wife and his thirty 
 companions, whose treatment of him 
 had been so treacherous and unprin- 
 cipled. IT He went up to his fa- 
 therms house. Abandoning for the 
 present his new-married wife, but 
 not, we think, with the design of 
 a permanent desertion. It was 
 probably with a view, in a mild way, 
 30 
 
 went up to his father's house. 
 20 But Samson's wife "^was 
 given to his companion, whom, 
 he had used as ""his friend. 
 
 q ch. 15. 2. r John 3. 29. 
 
 to signify his displeasure at her re- 
 cent conduct, and to bring her to the 
 expression of a suitable regret. The 
 result, however, was different from 
 what he anticipated. 
 
 20. Samson's wife urns given to 
 his companion, &c. Heb. 'became to 
 his companion.' The consent and 
 agency of her parents in this dispo- 
 sal of her are not expressed but im- 
 plied. It is probable that they were 
 by this time, on further acquaintance 
 with Samson, quite willing to have 
 the connection broken up, and to be 
 rid of one whose intimate relation to 
 them augured no good, and accord- 
 ingly seized the colorable pretence 
 of his temporary withdrawment to 
 make the separation lasting. ' What 
 pretence of friendship soever he 
 make, a true Philistine will soon be 
 weary of an Israelite.' Bp. Hall. 
 IT Wiioyn he had used as his friend. 
 With whom he had been upon the 
 most intimate terms. This person, 
 technically termed the paranymph^ 
 was probably what is called in the 
 New Testament the ' friend of the 
 bridegroom.' He was a trusted 
 friend, and charged with a peculiarly 
 delicate and confidential ofiice. He 
 devoted himself for a time almost 
 entirely to the affairs of the bride- 
 groom ; before the day of marriage, 
 he was usually the medium of com- 
 raanjcation between the bridegroom 
 and the bride ; during the marriage 
 festivity, he was in constant attend- 
 ance, doing his best to promote the 
 hilarity of the entertainments, and 
 rejoicing in the happiness of his 
 friend. Nor did his duties terminate 
 with the completion of the marriage, 
 but he was considered the patron 
 and confidential friend of both par- 
 ties, and was usually called in to 
 compose any differences that might 
 arise between them. Samson's 
 friend must, as his paranymph, have 
 
346 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1140. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 "DUT it came to pass within a 
 "^ while after, in the time of 
 wheat-harvest, that Samson visit- 
 ed his wife with a kid ; and he 
 said, I will go in to my wife into 
 the chamber. But her father 
 would not suffer him to go in. 
 
 2 And her father said, I veri- 
 ly thought that thou hadst utter- 
 
 had peculiar facilities for forming 
 an acquaintance with the woman, 
 and of gaining her favorable notice; 
 and the treachery of one whom he 
 had so largely trusted, must have 
 been peculiarly distressing to him. 
 Wrongs done by a friend wound the 
 spirit more deeply than any others. 
 * It was thou my friend,' says David. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1. In the time of loheat harvest. 
 Which in that country was in April 
 and May. The time of the visit is 
 specified in reference to the exploit 
 subsequently mentioned, v. 4, 5. IF 
 Visited his icife loith a kid. Carry- 
 ing a kid in loken of reconciliation. 
 Time had now cooled his resent- 
 ments, and probably not knowing 
 that she had meanwhile been given 
 to another, he was willing to make 
 the first overtures of returning ami- 
 ty. ' The wisest, though offended, 
 will be the first to seek peace, and 
 the readiest to pass by a transgres- 
 sion.' Haioeis. IT He said, 1 will 
 go in, &c. He said to himself; he 
 proposed ; he formed the purpose. 
 IT Into the chamber. Into the interior 
 apartments appropriated to the wo- 
 men ; the harem. 
 
 2. I verily thought that thou hadst 
 utterly hated her. Heb. ' saying, I said, 
 that thou,' &c. I said in my heart, I 
 certainly concluded. The excuse was 
 very frivolous, for it does not appear 
 that Samson was long absent, and at 
 any rate, he had no right to bestow 
 her again in marriage without first 
 apprising him of his intention. 
 The act of repudiation in the East 
 
 ly *hated her ; therefore I gave 
 her to thy companion : is not 
 her younger sister fairer than 
 she ? take her, I pray thee, in- 
 stead of her. 
 
 8 HAnd Samson said concern- 
 ing them, Now shall I be more 
 blameless than the Philistines, 
 though I do them a displeasure. 
 
 4 And Samson went and 
 
 was always supposed to originate 
 with the husband and not with the 
 wife. ^ Is not her younger sister 
 fairer than she ? Heb. ' better than 
 she.' Words expressive of moral 
 qualities are in Hebrew and other 
 languages, frequently applied to per- 
 sonal endowments. Thus in English 
 we have ' good-looking' for hand- 
 some. IT Take her. Heb. ' let her 
 be to thee.' Thus, in fact, proposing 
 what would have been to Samson an 
 incestuous marriage. Lev. 18. 18, 
 however the Philistines regarded it. 
 
 3. Samson said co7icerning them. 
 Said to himself. It is very improb- 
 able that he wduld have announced 
 verbally to any one the purpose 
 which he had now conceived in his 
 mind. In forming this resolalion, 
 he acted rather in a public than a 
 private capacity. Had he aimed to 
 avenge only his personal injuries, it 
 would have been sufficient to have 
 chastised his rival and his father-in- 
 law only : but as the slight which 
 excited his indignation had no doubt 
 been put upon him because he was 
 an Israelite, he determines as an Is- 
 raelite to seek revenge. He had 
 done what was proper in endeavor- 
 ing by a present to effect a reconcili- 
 ation'with his wife, but as his over- 
 tures had been repulsed, no one could 
 blame him if he now showed hisjust 
 resentments. When we have done 
 our best to prevent a quarrel, we 
 cannot be charged with the conse- 
 quences of it. 
 
 4. Went and caught three hundred 
 foxes. Not that he did this in one 
 day, or that he did it alone. In the 
 
A. C. 1140.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 347 
 
 caught three hundred foxes, and 
 took fire-brands, and turned tail 
 to tail, and put a fire-brand in 
 the midst between two tails. 
 
 Scripture idiom, a person is continu- 
 ally described as doing that which 
 he orders to be done, and no doubt 
 such a person as Samson could easi- 
 ly command whatever assistance he 
 required. Nor is it to be supposed 
 that the scene of devastation was 
 confined to one particular place. 
 From the subsequent narrative it 
 would appear that the destruction of 
 the cornfields extended wndely over 
 the territories of the Philistines. 
 Comp. V. 6. As to the kind of ani- 
 mal employed on this occasion, there 
 has been no small controversy 
 among expositors. The Heb. word 
 t'^bS'iiIJ Skualim, is now generally 
 agreed to have included in its mean- 
 ing not only ' foxes,' but also 'jack- 
 als,' an animal rightly described as 
 something between the wolf and the 
 fox, and hence sometimes termed by 
 naturalists ' the wolf-fox.' These 
 animals, which w^ere very numerous 
 in Palestine, associate together in 
 large herds or packs, sometimes to 
 the amount of two or three hundred ; 
 differing in this respect from the fox, 
 which is not gregarious, and is far 
 more cunning. Like foxes, however, 
 they live in holes, which ihey form 
 under ground, and they are particul- 
 arly prone to resort to ruined towns, 
 not only because they there find nu- 
 merous secure retreats ready made, 
 but because the same facilities at- 
 tract to such places other animals, 
 on whose dead bodies they prey. 
 From this circumstance, the pro- 
 phets in describing the future desola- 
 tion of a city, say it shall become 
 ' the habitation of jackals,' a predic- 
 diction verified by the actual condi- 
 tion ot many places to which their 
 prophecies apply. Thus it is said by 
 travellers that the ruins of Ascalon 
 in particular afford habitation to 
 great numbers of these animals. 
 The bowlings of these packs of jack' 
 sds are frightful, and give great , 
 
 5 And when he had set the 
 brands on fire, he let them go 
 into the standing corn of the 
 Philistines, and burnt up both 
 
 alarm to travellers ; whence they 
 are also called in Heb. t-ii^^ Ayim, 
 holders, improperly rendered ' wild 
 beasts of the islands.' Is. 13. 22. 
 Jer. 2. 39. But it appears that the 
 common fox is also of frequent oc- 
 currence in Palestine, and as both 
 are included under the common 
 term Shual, it must generally be left 
 to the bearing of the context to deter- 
 mine when the jackal and when the 
 fox are respectively denoted. That 
 the jackal is intended in the text 
 now before us, we may infer from 
 the number of animals taken by 
 Samson, which must have been 
 easier with creatures prowling in 
 large droves, than with a solitary 
 and very wily animal like the fox. 
 IT Took firebrands, Rather, Heb. 
 iD'^lCb torches. K firebrand, in such 
 a position, if sufficiently ignited to 
 kindle a blaze in the shocks of corn, 
 would soon have burnt itself free 
 from the tails of the foxes, or have 
 been extinguished by being drawn 
 over the ground. A torch or flam- 
 beau, on the other hand, made of re- 
 sinous wood or artificial materials, 
 being more tenacious of flame, would 
 have answered a far better purpose ; 
 and such is the legitimate import of 
 the original. \And turned tail to 
 tail. I'his was doubtless intended 
 to prevent them from making too 
 rapid a retreat to their holes, or, in- 
 deed, from going to their holes at 
 all. They were probably not so tied 
 that they should pull in different di- 
 rections, but that they might run de- 
 viously and slowly, side by side, and 
 so do the more effectual execution. 
 Had he put a torch to the tail of 
 each, the creature, naturally terrified 
 at fire, would instantly have betaken 
 itself to its hole or some place of re- 
 treat, and thus the design of Samson 
 would have been wholly frustrated. 
 But by tying two of them together 
 by the tail ihey would frequently 
 
348 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1140. 
 
 the shocks, and also the stand- 
 ing corn, with the vineyards a7id 
 olives. 
 
 6 IT Then the Philistines said, 
 Who hath done this ? And they 
 answered, Samson, the son -in- 
 law of the Timnite, because he 
 had taken his wife, and given 
 her to his companion. ''And 
 the Philistines came up, and 
 
 thwart each other in running, and 
 thus cause the greater devastation. 
 If it be asked why Samson resorted 
 to such an expedient at all, instead 
 of firing the cornfields with his own 
 hand, which would have been a 
 much simpler and easier method of 
 compassing his object, we may say 
 perhaps in reply, that by the mean- 
 ness and weakness of the instru- 
 ments employed he designed to put 
 a more signal contempt upon the 
 enemies with whom he contended, 
 thus mingling ridicule with revenge. 
 6. And they answered, &c. ' The 
 mention of the offence draws in (that 
 of) the provocation; and now the 
 wrong to Samson is scanned and re- 
 venged; because the fields of the 
 Philistines are burned for the wrong 
 done to Samson by the Timnite in his 
 daughter, therefore the Philistines 
 burn the Timnite and his daughter. 
 The tying of the firebrand, between 
 two foxes was not so witty a policy, as 
 the setting of a fire of dissension be- 
 twixt the Philistines.' Bp. Hall. IT 
 Burnt her and her father withjire. A 
 most inhuman and barbarous act, on 
 the part of its perpetrators, yet won- 
 derfully overruled in the Providence 
 of God to chastise the guilty. The 
 Philistines had threatened Samson's 
 wife that if she did not obtain and dis- 
 close her husband's secret, they would 
 burn her and her father's house with 
 fire. She, to save herself and oblige 
 her countrymen, betrayed her hus- 
 band ; and now by so doing brought 
 upon herself the very doom which 
 she so studiously sought to avoid! 
 
 burnt her and her father with 
 fire. 
 
 7 IT And Samson said unto 
 them. Though ye have done this, 
 yet will I be avenged of you, 
 and after that I will cease. 
 
 8 And he smote them hip and 
 thigh with a great slaughter. 
 And he went down and dwelt 
 in the top of the rock Etam. 
 
 To seek to escape suffering by sin, 
 is the surest way to bring it upon us I 
 ' The fear of the wicked, it shall 
 come upon him.' 
 
 7. Though ye have done this, &c. 
 Though you have thought by this 
 act of cruelty to my wife and kin- 
 dred, to make amends for the injury 
 done to me, yet flatter not yourselves 
 that I am thereby appeased, and that 
 I shall forbear farther hostilities. 
 He doubtless saw that his wife and 
 her family were victims to a hasty 
 indignation occasioned by their own 
 losses, rather than the "subjects of 
 a righteous and well-considered re- 
 tribution, and that accordingly there 
 was no reason for him, as a public 
 judge called and appointed of God 
 to deliver his country from oppres- 
 sion, to cease to prosecute that work. 
 
 8. Smote them hip and thigh. Heb. 
 ' smote them leg upon thigh.' Ap- 
 parently a proverbial expression, 
 implying, according to Gesenius, 
 that he cut them in pieces, so that 
 their limbs, their legs and thighs, 
 were scattered and heaped promis- 
 cuously together ; equivalent to say- 
 ing, that he totally destroyed them. 
 Whether this be the genuine inter- 
 pretation admits of some doubt, but 
 as we have nothing more plausible 
 to propose, it is left to the readers's 
 judgment, as one of the cases where 
 entire satisfaction as to the writer's 
 meaning, is unattainable. That a 
 signal overthrow and a great slaugh- 
 ter is intended, seems to be unques- 
 tionable. IT Dn-elt in the top of the 
 rock Etam. Rather, according to 
 
A- C. 1140.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 349 
 
 9 IT Then the Philistines went 
 up, and pitched in Judah, and 
 spread themselves ''in Lehi. 
 
 10 And the men of Judah said, 
 Why are ye come up against 
 us ? And they answered, To 
 bind Samson are we come up, 
 to do to him as he hath done to 
 us. 
 
 11 Then three thousand men 
 of Judah went to the top of the 
 
 the Heb. ' in a cleft, in a fissure of the 
 rock.' Of the exact position of this 
 place, or of Samson's motive In resort- 
 ing thither, we are not informed. It 
 wasprobablyanatural fortress, afford- 
 ing peculiar advantages for defence, 
 of which Samson no doubt foresaw, 
 that he would soon be in need of a vail- 
 ing himself Their recent defeat 
 would naturally rouse the wrath of 
 his enemies and bring them upon 
 him in all their force. It seems al- 
 together likely from his words in 
 the concluding part of v. 7, that he 
 had accomplished his present pur- 
 poses of revenge, and designed no 
 farther annoyance to the Philis- 
 tines unless provoked to it by new 
 aggressions on their part. If they 
 then will rouse the sleeping lion, let 
 them expect to pay dear for their 
 temerity. 
 
 9. Pitched in Judah and spread 
 themselves in Lehi. Etam, the strong 
 hold, to which Samson had now 
 betaken himself was in the tribe of 
 Judah, and the Philistines probably 
 intended by suddenly appearing with 
 a large army in their borders to in- 
 timidate that tribe, and make them 
 subservient to their design of cap- 
 turing Samson. ' Lehi' is so called 
 here by anticipation, as it received 
 that name from the slaughter with 
 the jaw-bone, which had not yet 
 taken place. 
 
 10. To bind Samson are loe come 
 up, &c. From the sequel it would 
 appear that their answer included 
 also a demand upon the men of Judah 
 
 30* 
 
 rock Etam, and said to Samson 
 Knowest thou not that the Phil- 
 istines are "^rulers over us? what 
 is this that thou has done unto 
 us ? And he said unto them, 
 As they did unto me, so have I 
 done unto them. 
 
 12 And they said unto him, 
 We are come down to bind thee, 
 that we may deliver thee into 
 the hand of the Philistines. And 
 
 for their services and co-operation 
 in making a prisoner of Samson, 
 
 11. Knowest thou not that the Phil- 
 istines are rulers over us. A most 
 degrading confession to come from 
 the lips of an Israelite, and plainly 
 showing that they had become con- 
 tented slaves, more fearful of ofiend- 
 ing the Philistines than anxious to 
 assert their independence. But their 
 spirits were broken by the base 
 bondage which their iniquities had 
 brought upon them, and instead of 
 bravely setting Samson at their 
 head to fight for their liberty, they 
 meanly resolve to make a sacrifice 
 of him to his enemies ! preferring 
 ignominious servitude to a generous 
 struggle for their country. Instead 
 of honoring him for his courage, 
 they blame him for his rashness, 
 and desire him peaceably to submit 
 to their bonds I IT Swear unto me, 
 that ye will not fall upon me your- 
 selves. Though he had abundant 
 occasion to expostulate with them 
 on account of their ingratitude, and 
 to upbraid them with their cowardice 
 and infatuation, yet he generously 
 forbears reproaches and merely de- 
 mands assurance that he should re- 
 ceive no harm at their hands. He 
 does not make this stipulation for 
 fear of them, for he could as easily 
 have freed himself from the hands 
 of his brethren as from those of the 
 Philistines, but he would avoid the 
 necessity of acting towards them as 
 enemies. His motive for consenting 
 thus readily to be bound and deliver- 
 
350 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1140. 
 
 Samson said unto them, Swear 
 unto me, that ye will not fall 
 upon me yourselves. 
 
 13 And they spake unto him, 
 saying, No ; but we will bind 
 thee fast, and deliver thee into 
 their hand : but surely we will 
 not kill thee. And they bound 
 him with two new cords, and 
 brought him up from the rock. 
 
 14 IF Ajicl when he came unto 
 Lehi, the Philistines shouted 
 against him : and nhe Spirit of 
 the Lord came mightily upon 
 
 ch. 3. 10. & 14. 6. 
 
 ed up to the Philistines undoubtedly 
 was, that he knew the issue of it 
 would be to afford him a new occa- 
 sion of inflicting vengeance upon 
 that oppressive race. ' Samson 
 abides to be lied by his own country- 
 men, that he may have the glory of 
 freeing himself victoriously. Even 
 so, O Saviour, our better Nazarite, 
 thou, which couldst have called to 
 thy father, and have had twelve le- 
 gions of angels for thy rescue, 
 wouldst be bound voluntarily that 
 thou rnighiest triumph ! So the 
 blessed martyrs were racked and 
 would not be loosed, because they 
 expected a belter resurrection. If 
 we be not as well ready to suffer ill,, 
 as to do good, we are not fit for the 
 consecration of God.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 13. Brought him up from the rock. 
 From the cleft or cave of the rock 
 in which he had taken shelter. See 
 on V. 8. From hence he was brought 
 to Lehi, where the Philistines had 
 pitched their camp. 
 
 14. Became as flax that uw.s burnt. 
 A flaxen or hempen cord that has 
 been burnt in the fire will still re- 
 tain its form when taken out, but it 
 has no strength ; it is henceforth a 
 mere cinder and falls to pieces at the 
 slightest touch. Such, in point of 
 weakness, were the cords with which 
 Samson was now bound. In the 
 ensuing clause, 'his bands loosed 
 
 him, and the cords that were up- 
 on his arms became as flax that 
 was burnt with fire, and his 
 bands loosed from ofT his hands. 
 
 15 And he found a new jaw. 
 bone of an ass, and put forth his 
 hand, and took it, and ^slew a 
 thousand men therewith. 
 
 16 And Samson said, With 
 the jaw-bone of an ass heaps 
 upon heaps, with the jaw of an 
 ass have I slain a thousand 
 men. 
 
 17 And it came to pass when 
 
 fch. 3. 31. Lev. 526. 8. Josh. 23. 10. 
 
 (Heb. melted),' the figure is varied 
 and the bands represented 2ls flowing 
 off his limbs like a liquid substance. 
 
 15. Found a neto jaw-bone of an 
 ass. Heb. n"^ii2 gt'f^^ti or moist, i. e. 
 the jaw-bone of an ass recently dead. 
 The bones of any animal in such a 
 state, would not so easily break as 
 when ihey had become dry. 
 
 16. Heaps upon heaps. Heb 'an heap, 
 two heaps.' The original contains 
 a peculiar play upon the sound of the 
 words which cannot be transferred 
 into any other language. The same 
 word in Hebrew ^^)*^ chamor, sig- 
 nifies both an ' ass' and a ' heap,' thus 
 forming an elegant paranomasia, 
 and representing the Philistines fall- 
 ing as tamely as asses. Some have 
 considered this short pean of Samson 
 as faulty in not ascribing his victory 
 more directly and unequivocally to 
 God, who had enabled him to accom- 
 plish it. The words it is true con- 
 tain no express mention of the name 
 of Jehovah, but it cannot, we think, 
 be fairly inferred that the recogni- 
 tion of the divine power was not 
 present to his thoughts, or that he 
 intended to ascribe the result to the 
 prowess of his own arm. It is per- 
 haps rather to be understood as an 
 exclamation of grateful and adoring 
 wonder, that he, who was in himself 
 a poor, weak worm, should have 
 been enabled with such a contemp- 
 
A. C. 1140.] 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 351 
 
 he had made an end of speaking, 
 that he cast away the jaw-bone 
 out of his hand, and called that 
 place Ramath-lehi. 
 
 18 IT And he was sore athirst, 
 and called on the Lord, and 
 said, &Thou hast given this great 
 deliverance into the hand of 
 thy servant : and now shall I 
 die for thirst, and fall into the 
 hand of the uncircumcised ? 
 
 g Ps. 3. 7. 
 
 tible instrument, to effect so signal 
 an overthrow of his enemies. 
 
 17. Called that place Ramath-lehi. 
 And by contraction ' Lehi;' as was 
 usual with proper names, as Salem 
 for Jerusalem, Sheba for Beersheba, 
 and many others. The exact im- 
 port of the original ^nb ti)2''\ Ram- 
 ath-lehi is not easily determined. It 
 may mean either ' the casting away 
 of the jaw-bone,' ' the lifting up of 
 the jaw-bone,' or ' the hill of the jaw- 
 bone.' The last is most consistent 
 with grammatical structure, and 
 unites in its support the suffrages of 
 the greatest number of modern 
 critics. 
 
 19. God clave a hollow place. That 
 is, so clave the ground or the rock 
 as to make a holloio place. Thus Ps. 
 74. 15, ' Thou didst cleave the foun- 
 tain ;' i. e. thou didst cleave the rock 
 so as to cause a fountain to spring 
 up in it. Thus Is. 47. 2, ' Take the 
 millstones and grind meal;' i. e. 
 grind corn into meal. Judg. 16. 30, 
 ' The dead which he slew at his 
 death,' &c., i. e. those who became 
 dead by his slaying them. The ori- 
 ginal for ' hollow-place' elsewhere 
 signifies a mortar, and here denotes 
 undoubtedly that a cavity was now 
 made in the earth of the form of a 
 mortar, on which account Horsely 
 not unaptly renders it, ' clave a mor- 
 tar-hole in Lehi.' ITTM^was in 
 thejaio. An unfortunate rendering, 
 as is now almost universally conced- 
 ed. The writer undoubtedly meant 
 to say, that God clave a hollow place 
 
 19 But God clave a hollow 
 place that was in the jaw, and 
 there came water thereout ; and 
 when he had drunk, ''his spirit 
 came again, and he revived. 
 Wherefore he called the name 
 thereof En-hakkore, which is in 
 Lehi unto this day. 
 
 20 And he judged Israel 'in 
 the days of the Philistines twen- 
 ty years. 
 
 h Gen. 45. 27. 
 
 which was in Lehi, and not in the 
 jaw-bone. Indeed the propriety of 
 this reading is evident from the con- 
 text ; for if we have 'jaw' or 'jaw- 
 bone' here, we ought to retain it in 
 the concluding clause of this verse, 
 and instead of saying, 'which is in 
 Lehi unto this day, say, 'which is 
 in the jaw-bone unto this day.' The 
 fact that the Hebrew word for ' jaw- 
 bone' and for ' Lehi' is the same, and 
 a fondness for multiplying miracles, 
 probably led several of the ancient 
 versions to understand Lehi here as 
 denoting the jaw-bone of the ass 
 rather than the place so called. IT 
 His spirit came again. His strength 
 and spirits, exhausted by the exces- 
 sive fatigue of the recent encounter, 
 were effectually revived. IT He 
 called the name thereof En-hakkore. 
 That is, ' the fountain of him that 
 called or prayed.' Geddes, ' invoca- 
 tion-well.' Instead of ' he called,' 
 the proper rendering undoubtedly is, 
 ' it was called,' i. e. this became its 
 popular appellation, as it seems to 
 have become henceforward a peren- 
 nial spring. According to the dis- 
 tinction of the Hebrew accents the 
 whole clause is to be translated thus ; 
 ' And the name thereof was called 
 unto this day En-hakkore, which is 
 in Lehi.' 
 
 20. Judged Israel in the days of the 
 Philistines twenty years. His ad- 
 ministration is supposed not to have 
 been strictly universal or extended 
 over the whole of Israel, but limited 
 rather to the southwestern district of 
 
353 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1120. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 npHEN went Samson to Gaza, 
 "^ and saw there a harlot, and 
 went in unto her. 
 
 Palestine, where the oppression of the 
 people was most severe. The phrase, 
 'in the days of the Philistines,' is 
 peculiar, implying the days or the 
 period during which the Philistines 
 had the upper hand of Israel ; leav- 
 ing us to infer that Samson's efforts 
 did not avail entirely to crush, but 
 only to restrain, limit and weaken 
 the power of the oppressors. The 
 Lord did not grant a full deliverance, 
 because his people were not yet suf- 
 ficiently chastised for their sins. 
 Indeed it was not till the days of 
 David that the Philistine yoke was 
 completely shaken off. 2 Sam. 3. 18. 
 Of the adjustment of the period of 
 twenty years here mentioned, see 
 ch. 13. 1. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 1. Then went Samson to Gaza. 
 This place was the capital and the 
 most important of the five Philistine 
 principalities, and was situated about 
 fifteen miles south of Ascalon, sixty 
 miles southwest from Jerusalem, and 
 between two and three miles from 
 the sea. It was a very ancient city, 
 and is always spoken of in the Old 
 Testament as a place of great impor- 
 tance. In more modern times it has 
 undergone a great variety of changes 
 occasioned by the fortunes of war, 
 till at present it has declined to a 
 trading village of .some three or four 
 thousand inhabitants. It stands upon 
 a hill of about two miles circumfer- 
 ence at the base, surrounded by val- 
 leys, and overlooking a prospect of 
 much beauty. Environed by and in- 
 terspersed with gardens and planta- 
 tions of olive and date trees, the town 
 has a picturesque appearance, to 
 which its numerous elegant minarets 
 not a little contribute. The build- 
 ings being mostly of stone, and the 
 streets moderately broad, the interior 
 answers expectaiioa better than most 
 
 2 And it was told the Gazites, 
 saying, Samson is come hither. 
 And they "compassed him in, 
 and laid wait for him all night 
 
 a 1 Sam. 23. 26. Ps. 118. 10, 11, 12. Acts 9. 24. 
 
 Other towns of Syria, and affords ac- 
 commodations far superior to most 
 places in Egypt. The suburbs, how- 
 ever, are composed of miserable mud 
 huts ; but all travellers concur with 
 Sandys in admiring the variety and 
 richness of the vegetable productions, 
 both wild and cultivated, of the en- 
 virons. The inhabitants have man- 
 ufactures of cotton and soap, but de- 
 rive their principal support from the 
 commerce between Egypt and Syria, 
 which must all pass this way. 
 Scarcely any of its ancient remains 
 are now to be found. Those of 
 which travellers gave an account a 
 century or two ago, have nearly all 
 disappeared. — The real motive by 
 which Samson was prompted in this 
 visit to Gaza, it is in vain to attempt 
 to discover. "We can scarcely, how- 
 ever from the sequel resist the im- 
 pression that his spiritual affections 
 had suffered a serious decline, that 
 he had relaxed the vigilance and cir- 
 cumspection of his walk as a Naza- 
 riie, and that he ventured uncalled 
 among the uncircumcised. Consid- 
 ering the relation in which he stood 
 to the Philistines, and the light in 
 which he was regarded by them, it 
 was certainly a step full of personal 
 danger, provided he went thither 
 openly and without disguise. But 
 from the context it would rather ap- 
 pear, that he entered the gates with- 
 out the citizens being at first ap- 
 prised of the fact. His being there, 
 however, was soon noised abroad, 
 and his enemies were at once on the 
 alert with their machinations to get 
 him in their power, and what secu- 
 rity for safety have they who wander 
 unbidden from the path of duty 1 IT 
 And saio there an harlot^ &c. The 
 seeing this lewd woman v as not per- 
 haps the moving cause of his going 
 to Gaza, but being there he accident- 
 ally fell in with her, and was unhap- 
 
A. C. 1120.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 353 
 
 in the gate of the city, and were 
 quiet all the night, saying, In the 
 morning when it is day we shall 
 kill him. 
 
 3 And Samson lay till mid- 
 night, and arose at midnight, 
 and took the doors of the gate of 
 the city, and the two posts, and 
 went away with them, bar and 
 all, and put them upon his shoul- 
 
 pily ensnared by the sight of his eyes. 
 How have the strongest in grace oc- 
 casion to pray, Lead us not into 
 temptation ! 
 
 2. And it was told the Gazites, say- 
 ing^ &.C. The original word ^:|-\-i 
 corresponding to the Italics are so 
 essential to the completion of the 
 sense here, that there can be little 
 doubt that it has by some accident 
 been omitted. This is confirmed by 
 the fact that the ancient versions for 
 the most part exhibit its equivalent. 
 IT They compassed him in. Heb. 
 ' they went round about.' With the 
 utmost activity they traversed the 
 city to and fro, conversing with each 
 other, concerting plans, and adopting 
 measures to make a captive of their 
 most formidable foe. Their princi- 
 pal precaution, it seems, was to sta- 
 tion sentinels at the gates to appre- 
 hend him as he should attempt to 
 pass out in the morning. IT Were 
 quiet all the night. Heb. ' kept them- 
 selves silent;' as if by special con- 
 straint. They would do nothing, 
 make no disturbance, create no 
 alarm, that would endanger the suc- 
 cess of their schemes. 
 
 3. Took the doors of the gate. 
 Heb. ' laid hold of, seized ' Not the 
 great gate itself, but the two smaller 
 doors or leaves, constructed within 
 the large gate, and which alone were 
 opened on ordinary occasions. The 
 posts, bar, &c., of these were differ- 
 ent from the more solid and massy 
 fixtures of the great gate, which of 
 course he could not think of remov- 
 ins:. It was indeed an instance of 
 
 ders, and carried them up to the 
 top of a hill that is before He- 
 bron. 
 
 4 IF And it came to pass after- 
 ward, that he loved a woman in 
 the valley of Sorek, whose name 
 was Delilah. 
 
 5 And the lords of the Philis- 
 tines came up unto her, and 
 said unto her, ^Entice him, and 
 
 b ch. 14 15. See Prov. 2. 16—19. & 5. 3—11. & 6 
 24, 25,26. & 7. Ul, 22, 23. 
 
 divine forbearance at which Samson 
 had occasion to wonder that his su- 
 pernatural strength was yet continu- 
 ed to him, notwithstanding his ag- 
 gravated offence. We should have 
 thought that his very convictions of 
 conscience would have unnerved his 
 arm, and rendered him all but abso- 
 lutely powerless. But God may 
 have wise reasons for deferring the 
 punishment of those sins which yet 
 do by no means pass with impunity. 
 Samson is reprieved but not pardon- 
 ed. ^ A hill that is before Hebron. 
 Rightly understood and rendered by 
 the Sept. ' which looketh towards 
 Hebron ;' for the town of Hebron 
 was twenty miles distant from Gaza. 
 4. It came to pass afterward, that 
 he loved a woman, &c. It is to be 
 feared that Samson's impunity, at 
 least for the present, in the former 
 instance, emboldened him to give 
 way a second time to unhallowed de- 
 sires. ' Custom of success makes 
 men confident in their sins, and 
 causes them to mistake an arbitrary 
 tenure for a perpetuity.' Bp. Hall. 
 The same idea is more emphatically 
 expressed by Solomon : — ' Because 
 sentence against an evil work is not 
 executed speedily, therefore the 
 he^rt of the sons of men is fully set 
 in them to do evil.' It is not indeed 
 expressly affirmed that this woman 
 was a harlot, like the former, but 
 from the tenor of the ensuing narra- 
 tive, it is scarcely to be questioned 
 that she was. She is no where 
 called his wife ; he did not take her 
 home to his house ; and the whole 
 
354 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1120. 
 
 see wherein his great strength 
 lieih, and by what means we 
 may prevail against him, that 
 we may bind him to afflict him ; 
 and we will give thee every one 
 of us eleven hundred pieces of 
 silver. 
 
 6 IT And Delilah said to Sam- 
 son, Tell me 1 pray thee, where- 
 
 tiain of her negotiations with her 
 countrymen go to prove that she was 
 a mercenary and perfidious courte- 
 zan, governed in her conduct towards 
 Samson by interest instead of affec- 
 tion, if indeed it be not profaning the 
 term affection to use it in connection 
 wi h such an illicit and degrading 
 intercourse. Of the position of the 
 valley of Sorek nolliing certain is 
 known, — As to the name of this vile 
 woman ' Delilah,' its import is that 
 oi hurabling, abasing, bringing down, 
 and like hundreds of other names in 
 the Scriptures, originating in events, 
 may have been derived from the evil 
 influence which she exerted upon 
 Samson. 
 
 5. Entice him, and see, &c. ' The 
 princes of the Philistines,' as Bp. 
 Hall shrewdly remarks, ' knew al- 
 ready where Samson's 'weakness lay, 
 though not his stre7igth, and there- 
 fore they would entice his harlot 
 with gifts to entice him.' These five 
 satraps made common cause on this 
 occasion, considering Samson a pub- 
 lic enemy whom it equally concern- 
 ed them all to crush if possible. 
 IT Wherein his great strength lieth. 
 Rather, Heb. ' whereby, or for what 
 cause, his strength is (so) great' 
 (bni^ IHD n?2a.) Perhaps imagin- 
 ing it was the effect of some charm, 
 spell, or amulet, which he carried 
 about with him, and that if they could 
 get possession of this, they would 
 soon have him in their power. IT 
 That we ma.y bind him to afflict him. 
 Or, Heb. ' to humble, to depress, to 
 bring him low.' They do not say 
 expressly ' to kill him,' though this 
 was their ultimate intention, but they 
 
 in thy great strength lieih, and 
 wherewith thou mightest be 
 bound to afflict thee. 
 
 7 And Samson said unto her, 
 If they bind me with seven green 
 withs, that were never dried, 
 then shall I be weak, and be as 
 another man. 
 
 8 Then the lords of the Phil- 
 
 no doubt saw that the plain avowal 
 of such a bloody purpose would 
 shock too much whatever feelings 
 of woman yet remained in the bosom 
 of Delilah, and would thus defeat 
 their plan; besides, it is clear from 
 the event that they designed by a 
 series of aggravated insults and in- 
 juries to torture and break down his 
 spirit, and thus prolong their triumph 
 before putting the finishing stroke to 
 it in his death. IT Eleven hundred 
 pieces of silver. These pieces of 
 silver were probably shekels, and the 
 total sum according to our computa- 
 tion would amount to upwards of 
 S2000, a vast bribe f:r the lime and 
 country. 
 
 6. Delilah said to Samson, Tell 
 me, &.C. It can scarcely be supposed 
 that this question was so bluntly and 
 nakedly propounded as here stated, 
 as in tiiat case her treacherous de- 
 sign could not well have failed to be- 
 tray itself. It is the general usage 
 of the sacred writers merely to give 
 the leading incidents, the prominent 
 outlines, of the events which they re^ 
 late, leaving the details to be sup- 
 plied by the reflection of the reader. 
 In this case she undoubtedly plied all 
 her arts of blandishment and persua- 
 sion, and by taking advantage of his 
 yielding moods, and expressing her 
 admiration of his wonderful exploits, 
 aimed to throw him off his guard, 
 and thus win his secret from him 
 unawares. But as yet he retained 
 sufficient self-possession to elude her 
 cunning. 
 
 7. // they bind me vnth seven green 
 withs, &c. How Samsons veracity 
 in this reply is to be vindicated, wq 
 
A. C. 1120.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 355 
 
 istines brought up to her seven 
 green withs, which had not been 
 dried, and she bound him with 
 them. 
 
 9 (Now there were men lying 
 in wait, abiding with her in the 
 chamber.) And she said unto 
 
 know not. Probably the same ob- 
 tuseness of conscience which made 
 him insensible to the guilt of one 
 species of sin, rendered him reckless 
 of another. How fearful the effects 
 of suffering the moral sense to be 
 deadened by a single case of willful 
 transgression! As the word transla- 
 ted ' withs' (-irri yeiher) is a general 
 word for rope or cord^ we learn by 
 the use of the epithet ' green,' that 
 the ropes in use among the Hebrews, 
 like those employed in many other 
 countries and formed of osiers, 
 hazles, &c., were made of crude veg- 
 etable materials, such as vines, ten- 
 drils, pliable twisted rods, or the 
 tough fibres of trees. AndJosephus 
 expressly says that the ropes with 
 which Samson was bound were 
 made of the tendrils of the vine. 
 Such ropes are still used in the East, 
 and while they remain green are 
 stronger than any other. In India 
 the legs of wild elephants and buf- 
 fuloes newly caught are commonly 
 bound with bonds of this sort ; those 
 of hemp and flax being rarely found 
 there . Except some that are formed 
 of hair or leather they are gener- 
 ally made of the fibres of trees 
 (particularly of the palm tree), of 
 roots, of grasses, and of reeds and 
 rushes. They are in general toler- 
 ably strong, but in no degree com- 
 parable to our own hempen ropes. 
 Though light, yet wanting in com- 
 pactness, they are much thicker than 
 those employed by us, and are gen- 
 erally rough and coarse to the eye. 
 The Septuagint, however, by trans- 
 lating the Hebrew by vcvpan vypan, 
 and the Vulgate by tierviceis funibus, 
 understand these bonds to be cords 
 made of the sinews of cattle, or per- 
 haps out of raw hides, which ,make 
 
 him, The Philistines he upon 
 thee, Samson. And he brake 
 the withs as a thread of tow is 
 broken when it toucheth the fire. 
 So his strength was not known. 
 10 And Delilah said unto 
 Samson, Behold, thou hast mock- 
 
 exceedingly strong cords. But the 
 objection to this rendering is, that 
 animal sinews or hides wheu 
 ' green.' i. e. humid, recent, have less 
 strength than when throughly dried. 
 The former is doubtless the true in- 
 terpretation. H Be as another man. 
 Heb. ' as one man,' i. e. as any man. 
 
 8. And she bound him with them. 
 Perhaps in dalliance, in a sportive 
 way, as though she were only half 
 in earnest, or at any rate wished 
 only to gratify her own curiosity, 
 and see if what he had told her was 
 true. 
 
 9. Now there were men hjing in 
 icait, abiding loith her in the chamber. 
 Heb. ' and the Her in wait (collect, 
 sing, for plur.) sal for her in an in- 
 ner apartment.' Our translation 
 very erroneously represents the Hers 
 in wait as abiding in the same cham- 
 ber where she and Samson now 
 were; but if so, how could he but 
 have been aware of their presence 7 
 That which we have given is the 
 true rendering. The Heb. nb is 
 not ' with her,' but ' to or for her,' 
 i. e. subservient to her designs. H 
 The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. 
 Are at hand to surprise and take 
 thee ; probably the concerted signal 
 for the men lying in wait to rush in- 
 to the room, and if the experiment 
 succeeded, and his limbs were effect 
 tually manacledj to make him pri- 
 soner at once. IT When it toucheth 
 the fire. Heb. ' when it smelleth the 
 fire ;' i. e, when it perceiveth, feel- 
 eth, or hath a sensation of the fire; 
 metaphorically spoken. The use of 
 the term ' smell' in this sense in 
 the Hebrew is somewhat peculiar. 
 Thus Job, 14. 9, speaking of a tree 
 cut down, ' Yet through the scent of 
 water it will bud:' i. e, through the 
 
356 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1120. 
 
 ed me and told me lies : now 
 tell me, I pray thee, wherewith 
 thou mightest be bound. 
 
 11 And he said unto her, If 
 they bind me fast with new 
 ropes that never were occupied, 
 then shall I be weak, and be as 
 another man, 
 
 ; 1*2 Delilali therefore took new 
 ropes, and bound him therewith, 
 and said unto him, The Philis- 
 tines he upon thee, Samson. 
 (And there were Hers in wait 
 abiding in the chamber.) And 
 he brake them from off his arms 
 like a thread. 
 
 perception of water. Ps. 59. 9, ' Be- 
 fore your pots can feel the thorns.' 
 Heb. can smell the thorns. Dan. 3. 
 27, ' Neither were their coats chang- 
 ed, nor the smell of fire had passed 
 on them ;' i. e. the feeling, the per- 
 ception of fire. 
 
 10. And Delilah said unto Samson, 
 &c. After the lapse of some con- 
 siderable lime, when she saw that 
 her blandishments had given her an 
 advantage over him; lor to renew 
 the attempt to worm out of him his 
 secret, immediately after her failure 
 would of course have been bad po- 
 licy. 
 
 11. If they bind me fast with new 
 ropes. Heb. a'in35> from ^y$ to 
 wreathe, braid, twist together, to make 
 thick by wreathing, and implying 
 ropes or cords of the thickest and 
 strongest description, probably ans- 
 wering nearly to the idea of our 
 modern cables. The material, how- 
 ever, may have been the same with 
 that of the Qi'in"* mentioned above. 
 IT That never were occupied. Heb. 
 * wherewith work hath not been 
 done.' 
 
 13. The seven locks of my head. 
 Heb. * the seven braids or plaits ;' in- 
 to which probably the hair of Sam- 
 son was braided. As seven, how- 
 ever, is a usual term in the Scrip- 
 
 13 And Delilah said unto 
 Samson, Hitherto thou hast 
 mocked me, and told me lies : 
 tell me wherewith thou mightest 
 be bound. And he said unto 
 her. If thou weavest the seven 
 locks of my head with the web. 
 
 14 And she fastened it with 
 the pin, and said unto him, The 
 Phihstines be upon thee, Samson. 
 And he awaked out of his sleep, 
 and went away with the pin of 
 the beam, and with the web. 
 
 15 IF And she said unto him, 
 =How canst thou say, I love 
 thee, when thine heart is not 
 
 tures for completness ox universality, 
 it may here be equivalent simply to 
 ' all my locks.' His strength, he tells 
 her, would be weakened if these were 
 interwoven with the warp which 
 was in a loom hard by, perhaps in 
 the same room ; which might be the 
 place where Delilah used to weave. 
 This verse seems to end abruptly, 
 but the supplementary clause, ' Then 
 shall I be like another man,' is easily 
 supplied from the context. 
 
 14. And she fastened it with the pin. 
 Rather, she fastened it with a pin. 
 Heb. nn*'3 "pnn. Both the origi- 
 nal words occur in the account of 
 Jael's driving (jjpnn) the^i7i(Tn'^n) 
 into Sisera's temples, and the prob- 
 ability is, that the web, with Sam- 
 son's lock interwoven, was in some 
 way secured by being fixed to a 
 strong pin which was driven either 
 into the ground or into the wall, as 
 the Septuagint understands it. Or 
 rather, as the looms at that period 
 were very simple, the words may 
 import that the loom itself was more 
 firmly secured by means of the pin 
 driven into the ground. IT With 
 the pin of the beam, &c. But what 
 was ' the pin of the beam T No in- 
 telligible sense is afforded by the 
 phrase, nor from our ignorance of 
 the exact structure of the ancient 
 
A> C. 1120.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 357 
 
 with me? Thou hast mocked 
 me these three times, and hast 
 not told me wherein thy great 
 strength lieth. 
 
 loom is it perhaps possible to assign 
 one. The literal rendering of the 
 original seems to be, ' He went away 
 with the pin, the weaving imple- 
 ments, and the web ;' in other words, 
 he took' away the whole apparatus 
 together. We doubt if any thing 
 more definite can be elicited from the 
 words. 
 
 15. Wlieii ihine heart is not with, 
 me. When thou dost not lay open 
 thy heart to me; when thou canst 
 not trust me with its secrets. An 
 important practical truth lies at the 
 foundation of this remonstrance of 
 Delilah. It is true, that ' they only 
 have our love, who have our hearts 5' 
 and the remark holds eminently in 
 regard to love to God. If we pro- 
 fess to love Him while the warmth 
 of our affection is Avithholden, and a 
 cold reserve takes the place of that 
 free, filial, and unreserved inter- 
 course which is the privilege of his 
 people, what is to be inferred from 
 It, but that we are deceiving our- 
 selves with an empty show"? His de- 
 mand is, ' My son give me thy heart.' 
 
 16, 17. When she pressed him daily 
 — he told her all his heart. Alas! 
 how are the mighty fallen ! What 
 an affecting exhibition of the weak- 
 ness of human nature even in its 
 best estate. Well could Samson now 
 adopt the language of Solomon ; — ' I 
 find more bitter than death the wo- 
 man whose heart is snares and nets, 
 and her hands are bands : whoso 
 pleaseth God shall escape from her ; 
 but the sinner shall be taken by her.' 
 Wearied out by the ceaseless up- 
 braidings of hisVile paramour, and 
 enslaved by the violence of his pas- 
 sion, the fatal secret is at length ex- 
 torted from him, and the mighty 
 Nazarite remains scarcely a common 
 man ! So perfectly captivated and 
 intoxicated had he become, notwith- 
 standing repeated warnings, by the 
 vehemence of his affection, that, 
 
 bl 
 
 16 And it cam^i to pass when 
 she pressed him daily with her 
 words, and urged him, so that 
 his soul was vexed unto death ; 
 
 ' like the silly dove without heart,' 
 he rushed upon his ruin ! Had he 
 not been completely infatuated, he 
 would have seen before that no alter- 
 native remained to him but to break 
 away at once and at all hazards from 
 the enchantress, and quit the field 
 where it was so evident that he could 
 not keep his ground. But no chains 
 are stronger than those woven by 
 illicit love, and with him who be- 
 comes their prisoner, reputation, life, 
 usefulness, yea, even God's glory, 
 and the salvation of the soul, are put 
 to peril in obedience to its unhal- 
 lowed dictates. But the righteous 
 judgment of God is not to be over- 
 looked in this fearful fall of the 
 champion of Israel. Having so long 
 presumptuously played with his ruin, 
 Heaven leaves him to himself as a 
 punishment for his former guilty in- 
 dulgence. He is made to reap as he 
 had sown, and consigned to the 
 hands of his enemies for ' the de- 
 struction of the flesh that the spirit 
 might be saved in the day of the 
 Lord Jesus.' But it becomes not us 
 to exult over the apostacy of the 
 fallen. 'We wonder that a man 
 could possibly be so sottish, and yet 
 we ourselves by temptation become 
 no less insensate. Sinful pleasures, 
 like a common Delilah, lodge in our 
 bosoms ; we know they aim at no- 
 thing but the death of bur soul ; we 
 will yield to them and die. Every 
 willing sinner is a Samson; let us 
 not inveigh against his senseless- 
 ness, but our own : nothing is so gross 
 and unreasonable to a well-disposed 
 mind, which temptation will not re- 
 present fit and plausible. No soul 
 can, out of his own strength, secure 
 himself from that sin which he most 
 detesteth.' Bp. Hall. Let us learn 
 hence, (1.) That fidelity is never to 
 be expected from those who show an 
 utter unfaithfulness to God, and have 
 stifled and triumphed over the in- 
 
358 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1120. 
 
 17 That he ^told her all his 
 heart, and said unto her, *There 
 hath not come a razor upon my 
 head ; for I have been a Nazarite 
 unto God from my mother's 
 womb : if I be shaven, then my 
 strength will go from me, and I 
 shall become weak, and be like 
 any other man. 
 
 18 And when Delilah saw 
 that he had told her all his heart, 
 
 d Mic. 7. 5. e Num. 6. 5. cli. 13 5. 
 
 ward warning voice of conscience, 
 (2.) That when the heart is infatua- 
 ted by unlawful desire, repeated 
 warnings of danger will be disre- 
 garded. (3.) That they who feel 
 themselves unable to resist the im- 
 portunity of their tempters should in- 
 stantly fly from their dangerous pre- 
 sence. IT / have been a Nazarite 
 unto God from my mother's, wovib. 
 What a confession to be made in the 
 lap of a vile Delilah ! What a com- 
 mentary upon his words was afforded 
 by his present condition ! Strange 
 that the utterance of a sentence be- 
 traying such a glaring inconsistency 
 in his conduct should not have awak- 
 ened him from the spell by which he 
 was bound, and made him break 
 away with his secret but half divulg- 
 ed ! Strange, that when his own 
 voice thus pronounced his condem- 
 nation he should have remained as 
 insensible as the nether mill-stone! 
 IT If I be shaven^ then my strength will 
 go from me, &c. Not that his strength 
 lay in his hair, for this in fact had 
 no natural influence upon it, one 
 way or the other. His strength 
 arose from his peculiar relation to 
 God as a Nazarite, and the preserva- 
 tion of his hair unshaven or unshorn 
 was the mark or sign of his Naza- 
 riteship, and o. pledge on the part of 
 God of the continuance of his mirac- 
 ulous physical powers. If he lost 
 this sign, the badge of his consecra- 
 tion, he broke his vow, and conse- 
 quently forfeited the thing signified. 
 God abandoned him, and he was 
 
 she sent and called for the lords 
 of the Philistines, saying. Come 
 up this once, for he hath shewed 
 me all his heart. Then the 
 lords of the Philistines came up 
 unto her, and brought money in 
 their hand. 
 
 19 *^And she made him sleep 
 upon her knees ; and she called 
 for a man, and she caused him 
 to shave off the seven locks of 
 
 f Prov. 7. 26. 27. 
 
 thenceforward no more, in this 
 respect, than a common man ; at 
 least was deprived of supernatural 
 strength. 
 
 18. When Delilah saio^&LC. When 
 she became satisfied by the serious 
 tone in which he spake, and by the 
 various tokens to be read in his coun- 
 tenance, air, general manner, &c., 
 that he had told her the truth. 
 
 19. Made him sleep upon her knees. 
 A custom very common in the East. 
 ' It is very amusing to see a full- 
 grown son, or a husband, asleep on 
 his mother's or wife's knees. The 
 plan is as follows : the female sits 
 cross-legged on the carpet or mat, 
 and the man having laid himself 
 down, puts his head in her lap, and 
 she gently taps, strokes, sings, and 
 soothes him to sleep.' — Roberts. IT 
 Caused him to shave off. Heb. 
 'shaved off;' that is, by the agency 
 of another, as well rendered in our 
 common version. That a man 
 should be able not only to cut, but to 
 shave off the hair, on which, during 
 all Samson's life, razor had never 
 before come, implies either that Sam- 
 son slept very soundly, or that the 
 man was very dexterous in his craft. 
 In fact the Oriental barbers do their 
 work with so much ease, as to render 
 the shaving of the head (the head is 
 usually shaven in the East) rather 
 grateful than unpleasant. The most 
 delicate sleeper would scarcely be 
 awakened by it ; and even those who 
 are awake are scarcely sen.sible of 
 the operation which they are under- 
 
A. C. 1130.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 359 
 
 his head ; and she began to af- 
 flict him, and his strength went 
 from him. 
 
 20 And she said, The Phihs- 
 tines he upon thee, Samson. And 
 he awoke out of his sleep, and 
 said, I will go out as at other 
 
 going, {Pict. Bible.) TT Began 
 to afflict him. That is, from this act 
 of hers commenced that series of in- 
 sults, injuries, and humiliations, 
 which his enemies had before v. 5, 
 announced their intention to bring 
 upon him. He had hitherto sported 
 thoughtlessly upon the brink of the 
 precipice of degradation and ruin, 
 and now his fall can no longer be de- 
 layed. As the next step in his down- 
 ward career his miraculous strength 
 forsakes him. IT Hissircngthweyit 
 frovi him. Having now violated the 
 conditions of his Nazarite vow, on 
 which it depended. ' He that sleeps 
 in sin must look to wake in loss and 
 weakness.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 20. Aiooke out of his sleep, and 
 said. That is, said to himself, 
 thought, resolved. IT Will go out 
 — and shake myself. Shake myself 
 free from the fetters with which I 
 am bound, and rid inyself of the en- 
 emies that would be upon me. It is 
 not indeed expressly stated that he 
 was bound at this time, but the pro- 
 bability is that such was the case, 
 that Delilah had slyly tied his hands 
 while he was asleep. IT Wist not 
 that the Lord was departed from him. 
 Being newly awakened out of sleep 
 he knew not that his head had been 
 shaven of its locks, and therefore did 
 not suspect that God had wi'hdrawn 
 his special influences from him. 
 This circumstance may serve as a 
 striking illustration of what often 
 happens to those who have provoked 
 God by their transgressions. By a 
 righteous dereliction he leaves them ; 
 he withdraws his favorable presence ; 
 and yet like Samson they are not 
 aware of the desertion. They feel 
 not the loss they have sustained ; at 
 
 times before, and shake myself. 
 And he wist not that the Lord 
 swas departed from him, 
 
 21 IT But the Philistines took 
 him, and put out his eyes, and 
 brought him down to Gaza, and 
 bound him with fetters of brass ; 
 
 gNura. 14 9, 42, 43. Jo5h 1. 12. I Sara. 16. 14' 
 & 18. 12. &28 15, 16. 2Chroii. 15 2. 
 
 least till they begin to be sensible by 
 frustrated schemes and adverse 
 providences that it is not with them 
 as in days that are past. Though 
 their souls languish and grow weak, 
 and their gifts as well as their graces 
 wither, and others perceive their 
 spiritual decline, yet a strange delu- 
 sion is upon them ; they know not 
 their real state; they fancy them- 
 selves in health and prosperity when 
 the sources of both are effectually 
 undermined within them. 'God is 
 departed from him' expresses one of 
 the most fearful forms of the divine 
 judgments. 
 
 21. Put out his eyes. Heb. ' bored 
 out.' ' With the Greeks and Asia- 
 tics, the way of putting out the eyes, 
 or blinding, was not (always) by 
 pulling or cutting out the eyes, as 
 some have imagined ; but by draw- 
 ing, or holding a red-hot iron before 
 them. This method is still in use 
 in Asia. According to Chardin, 
 however, the pupils of the eyes were 
 more frequently pierced and destroy- 
 ed on such occasions. But The- 
 venot says, ' that the eyes in these 
 barbarous acts are taken out whole, 
 with the point of a dagger, and car- 
 ried to the king in a basin.' He 
 adds, that, ' as the king sends whom 
 he pleases to do that cruel office, 
 some princes are so butchered by un- 
 skilful hands, that it costs them 'their 
 lives.' In Persia it is no unusual 
 practice for the king to punish a re- 
 bellious city or province by exacting 
 so many pounds of eyes; and his 
 executioners accordingly go and 
 scoop out from every one they meet, 
 till they have the weight required.' — 
 Burder. Thus was the lust of the 
 eye in Ipoking after ajid gazing upon 
 
JUDGES 
 
 [A. C. 1120. 
 
 and he did grind in the prison- 
 house. 
 
 22 Howbeit the hair of his 
 
 strange women punished. The of- 
 fending organ that he had refused to 
 pluck out was in effect plucked out 
 for him in the righteous providence 
 of God. IF Bound him with fetters 
 of brass. A proof that iron, though 
 now well known, had not yet come 
 into general use ; as otherwise we 
 should doubtless have found Samson 
 bound with fetters of that material. 
 The emphasis here is not on brass, 
 as distinguished from any other 
 metal ; but to show that his fetters 
 were of metal, and that he was not, 
 like the common class of offenders, 
 bound with ropes or thongs of leath- 
 er. IT He did grind in the prison- 
 house. Of course with mill-stones 
 worked by the hands, this being still 
 the usual method of grinding corn in 
 the East. It is an employment, how- 
 ever, which usually devolves on wo- 
 men; and to assign it to such a man 
 as Samson was doubtless with a view 
 to reduce him to the lowest state of 
 degradation and dishonor. To grind 
 com for others was, even for a wo- 
 man, a proverbial term expressing 
 themost degraded and oppressedcon- 
 dition; and how much more for 
 Samson, who seems to have been 
 made grinder-general for the prison- 
 house. 
 
 ' Ask for this great deliverpr now, and find him 
 Eyeless at Guia, at the mill wiih slaves.' 
 
 MUton. 
 
 The champion and avenger of Israel 
 is now become the drudge and the 
 sport of the Philistines. The crown 
 is fallen from his head, and his honor 
 laid in the dust. We are ready to 
 pity the degraded judge of Israel, 
 when we see him reduced to such a 
 state of misery by his enemies; but 
 while we pity the vian, Ave congrat- 
 ulate the sinner, to whose final sal- 
 vation these heavy trials were made 
 subservient. Let us not however 
 lose sight of the solemn lesson which 
 his misery teaches us. What a 
 warning to those who ' yield their 
 
 head began to grow again after 
 he was shaven. 
 
 23 Then the lords of the 
 
 members instruments of iniquity.' 
 They will find their bondage biuer 
 and unbearable when they are final- 
 ly bound with the chains which their 
 sins have forged for them. 
 
 22. The hair of his head began to 
 grovj again, after he ivas shaven. 
 Rather, Heb. 'according as it had 
 been shaved ;' i.e. in ihe same pro- 
 portions as it had been cut off. This 
 circumstance, though in itself incon- 
 siderable, is mentioned by way of 
 suitable preface to what follows. 
 The letting the hair grow was a 
 prominent circumstance in the con- 
 dition of a Nazarite; and the extra- 
 ordinary strength of Samson was not 
 a matter of thews and sinews, but 
 was conferred upon him as a special 
 gift of God, on condition of his re- 
 maining in the state of Nazariteship. 
 The loss of his hair did not in itself 
 deprive him of strength ; but the loss 
 of his hair involved ihe loss of his 
 strength, because it took from him 
 the condition of a Nazarite, with 
 which his extraordinary physical 
 powers were inseparably connected. 
 Accordingly when we find him 
 again growing strong after the re- 
 newed growth of his hair, we are 
 bound to believe that it was not be- 
 cause his hair grew ; but because he 
 repented of his past misconduct. 
 God was pleased, therefore, having- 
 hereby become leconciled to his of- 
 fending servant, to accept the re- 
 newal of his vow of Nazariteship, 
 including the consecration of his 
 hair, and in consequence of that ac- 
 ceptance re-invested him, as his hair 
 grew, with the powers which he had 
 before lost. In the language of Bp. 
 Hall, 'his hair grew together with 
 his repentance, and his strength with 
 his hair.' The practical reflections 
 of the same writer on this part of 
 Samson's historyare equally striking 
 and just. ' It is better for Samson to 
 be blind in prison, than to abuse his 
 eyes in Sorek; yea, I may safely 
 
A. C. 1120.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 361 
 
 Philistines gathered them togeth- 
 er, for to offer a great sacrifice 
 unto Dagon their god, and to 
 rejoice : for they said. Our god 
 hath delivered Sannson our ene- 
 my into our hand. 
 
 24 And when the people saw 
 him, they i^praised their god: 
 for they said, Our god hath de- 
 livered into ou r hands our enemy, 
 and the destroyer of our coun- 
 try ; which slew many of us. 
 
 25 And it came to pass, when 
 their hearts were 'merry, that 
 
 h Dau. 5. 4. i ch. 9. ?7. 
 
 say, he was more blind when he saw 
 licentiously, than now that he sees 
 not; he was a greater slave when he 
 served his affections, than now in 
 grinding for the Philistines. The 
 loss of his eyes shows him his sin, 
 neither could he see how ill he had 
 done till he saw not.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 23. Trie lords of the Philistines 
 gathered them together^ &c. This 
 great festival scene had evidently 
 been some time delayed, as appears 
 from the fact of Samson's hair 
 having had time to grow in the in- 
 terval ; but perhaps the necessary 
 preparations for so grand an occa- 
 sion consumed considerable time, or 
 it miy have been the second anni- 
 versary of the deliverance of their 
 enemy into their hands. If Unto 
 Dason their god. A deity of the 
 Philistines generally represented as 
 having the head and upper parts hu- 
 man, while the rest of the body re- 
 sembled a fish. It was called Der- 
 ceto among the heathens, though the 
 Heb. word ' Dagon' comes from 
 ' Dag' afish. The Philistines living 
 on the sea coast, they had a sea- 
 idol. IT Our god hath delivered, 
 &c. Though they knew that he was 
 betrayed into their hands by Delilah, 
 yet they foolishly attribute it to their 
 god. The circumstance however 
 affords a hint worth taking. If even 
 a Philistine ascribes his victories to 
 31* 
 
 they said, Call for Samson that 
 he may make us sport. And 
 they called for Samson out of 
 the prison-house ; and he made 
 them sport : and they set him 
 between the pillars. 
 
 26 And Samson said unto 
 the lad that held him by the 
 hand, Suffer me that I may feel 
 the pillars whereupon the house 
 standeth, that 1 may lean upon 
 them. 
 
 27 Now the house was full 
 of men and women : and all the 
 
 his idol gods, how much more are 
 we bound to pay a similar tribute to 
 our God, and give him the glory of 
 every great and good work done by 
 us, in us, or for us. IT Which slew 
 many of us. Heb. ' which multiplied 
 our slain.' 
 
 25. When their hearts loere merry. 
 Heb. ' when their hearts were good.' 
 A parallel usage occurs Ruth, 3. 7. 
 1 Sam. 25. 3G, and elsewhere. H 
 That he may make us sport. That 
 is, passively, that he may be a sub- 
 ject of sport and merriment to us; 
 that we may make ourselves merry 
 at his expense. It is quite improb- 
 able, we think, that Samson, a poor 
 blind prisoner, should be required 
 actively to engage in any thing that 
 should make sport to his enemies. 
 The idea doubtless is simply, that he 
 should be brought out to become a 
 laughing-stock to them, a butt for 
 their scoffs, mockeries, and insults. 
 Accordingly the Sept. version of 
 the next clause has, ' And they buf- 
 feted him ;' and Josephus says, he 
 was brought out, ' that they might 
 insult him in their cups.' But their 
 triumphing was short, and their joy 
 but for a moment. ' Nothing fills 
 the measure of the iniquity of any 
 person, or people faster than mock- 
 ing or misusing the servants of God, 
 yea, though it is by their own folly 
 that they are brought low. Those 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1120. 
 
 lords of the Philistines t^cre there ; 
 and there were upon the •'roof 
 about three thousand men and 
 women, that beheld while Sam- 
 son made sport. 
 
 know not what they do, nor whom 
 they affront, that make sport with a 
 good man.' Henry. 
 
 27. Upon the roof about three thou- 
 sand men and ivoyn'en. The house or 
 temple itself was full of the princi- 
 pal people below ; while about three 
 thousand, probably of the lower or- 
 ders, had stationed themselves upon 
 the roof, the roofs of eastern build- 
 ings, as is well known, being gener- 
 ally flat. In ansM'er to the question, 
 Howthis large number of persons on 
 the roof could have seen Samson 
 while made the subject of mirth be- 
 low 1 — it may be remarked, that we 
 are to form our ideas of the scene 
 from the style of building common to 
 the East. The edifice in question un- 
 doubtedly formed a part of a quad- 
 rangular pile of buildings and walls, 
 having a court or area in the centre, 
 where Samson might be exhibited 
 with ease to the whole assembled 
 multitude. The principal building 
 in such structures generally occu- 
 pies that side of the inclosure which 
 faces the entrance, and is advanced 
 considerably out of the line of the 
 square. It is, moreover, usually 
 constructed Mnth an open front to 
 afford a clear view of what is going 
 on in the court, having curtains to 
 be drawn up or let down at pleasure, 
 and supported by two or more pillars 
 either in the front or in the centre. 
 Samson probably after having been 
 for some time paraded about the 
 area, where every one could see him, 
 requested to be conducted within the 
 part of the edifice now described, 
 that he might rest himself against 
 its pillars, see on v. 29. 
 
 28. Samson called unto the Lord, 
 and said, &c. It is scarcely to be 
 presumed that this prayer was ut- 
 tered audibly. It was rather, we 
 may suppose, a mental petition, 
 
 28 And Samson called unto 
 the Lord, and said, Lord God, 
 1 remember me, I pray thee, and 
 strengthen me, I pray thee, only 
 this once, O God, that I may be 
 
 1 Jer. 15. 15. 
 
 breathed forth from the depths of a 
 broken heart, where godly sorrow 
 had been doing its perfect work. 
 But though the voice of his prayer 
 was not heard of man, yet it was 
 graciously heard and answered of 
 God, and though he himself did not 
 live to recite or record it, yet God, 
 by revealing it to the inspired pen- 
 man, provided for its being register- 
 ed for ihe benefit of the church. 
 Whether it is to be considered as 
 embracing all that he inwardly ut- 
 tered, or merely the general drift, 
 the substance of it, is uncertain; 
 probably the latter, according to 
 prevailing usage in the Scripture 
 style of narration. By praying that 
 God would once more remember 
 and strengthen him, he virtually ac- 
 knowledged that all the wonderful 
 exploits he had hitherto performed 
 were owing to a strength given him 
 from above, and that he would be 
 powerless for the present achieve- 
 ment unless the same divine aid were 
 granted him. True it is, if we regard 
 the bare letter of his petition, it has 
 the air of being prompted mainly by 
 a spirit of revenge ; but from God's 
 accepting and answering the prayer, 
 ii cannot be doubted, that he looked 
 upon himself in this transaction, not 
 as a private but as a public person, 
 extraordinarily called to be the in- 
 strument of a signal act of vengeance 
 to the enemies of Israel and of God. 
 The indignities heaped upon him- 
 self had indeed been great and griev- 
 ous, and such as would be in fact 
 worthily punished in the catastrophe 
 which he meditated. But this was 
 not his leading motive. The con- 
 sideration of his personal sufferings 
 was merged in a holy zeal for the 
 Lord of hosts, the vindication of 
 whose glory was of infinitely more 
 consequence than the avengement 
 
A. C. 1120.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 363 
 
 at once avenged of the Philistines 
 for my two eyes. 
 
 29 And Samson took hold of 
 the two middle pillars upon 
 which the house stood, and on 
 which it was borne up, of the 
 
 of his own wrongs. In putting out 
 his eyes, they had ' touched the 
 apple' of God's eye, and this was not 
 to be done with impunity. Under 
 the influence of this feeling, combin- 
 ed with the consciousness that his 
 own past misconduct would be no 
 more than justly visited by a painful 
 end, he cheerfully devotes himself 
 to death. 
 
 29. Took hold of the two middle 
 pillars upon vjhich the house stood. 
 To this it has been objected, How 
 could a roof capable of accommoda- 
 ting three thousand persons be sup- 
 ported upon tioo pillars'? But it is 
 not said that there were no more 
 than two. There might have been 
 several others not standing in the 
 middle or central part of the build- 
 ing, which contributed to the support 
 of the roof, when at the same time 
 the removal of the two in question, 
 would, more than all the rest, endan- 
 ger the fall of the whole edifice. 
 The celebrated architect Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren says, that in consider- 
 ing what kind of fabric it must be 
 that could with one pull be demolish- 
 ed, he conceived to himself a vast 
 roof of cedar beams resting at one 
 end upon the walls, and centering at 
 the other upon one short architrave 
 that united two cedar pillars in the 
 middle. ' One pillar would not be 
 sufficient to unite the ends of at least 
 one hundred beams that tended to 
 the centre ; therefore, I say, there 
 must hav« been a short architrave 
 resting upon two pillars, upon which 
 all the beams tending to the centre 
 might be supported. Now if Sam- 
 son, by his miraculous strength 
 pressing on one (or both) these pil- 
 lars, moved ii from its basis, the 
 whole roof must of necessity fall.' 
 iHewkWs Bible.) H On which it 
 
 one with his right hand, and of 
 the other with his left. 
 
 30 And Samson said, Let me 
 die with the Philistines. And 
 he bowed himself with all his 
 might ; and the house fell upoH 
 
 was borne up. This idea had been 
 already expressed in the words im- 
 mediately preceding, nor does the 
 original so M'ell admit this render- 
 ing. The Heb. firT^^y "j?20'^l may 
 we think be more correctly trans- 
 lated, ' he leaned or stayed himself 
 upon them.' 
 
 30. Let me die. I am content to 
 die, if the glory of God requires it ; 
 as at once a suitable punishment to 
 me, and means of judgment to the 
 Philistines. Heb. ' let my soul die;' 
 i. e. according to Hebrew usage, let 
 my life become extinct. As to his 
 ' soul,' as we understand the terra, 
 he would of course pray that that 
 might live. Samson's death is no 
 warrant for suicide, as it does not 
 appear that he directly sought it, or 
 designed to bring it about any far- 
 ther than as it might be the inevit- 
 able consequence of destroying so 
 many of the enemies of his people. 
 He may be considered therefore as 
 having perished in the same way as 
 if he had fallen in battle like Josiah, 
 2 Chron. 36. 23, 34, resisting the in- 
 vaders of his country. ^He bowed 
 himself with all his might, and the 
 house fell, &c. With arms extended 
 he grasps the massy pillars, and feel- 
 ing an answer to his prayer in the 
 renewed strength bestowed upon 
 him, he bends himself forward with 
 all his force; the pillars rock, the 
 building totters, the roof encumber- 
 ed with the weight of the spectators, 
 rushes down, and death in every tre- 
 mendous shape appears. Crushed 
 under the load or dashed to pieces 
 in ihe fall, thousands expire. Their 
 music ie now changed to dying 
 groans, and shrieks of agonizing 
 pain, instead of songs of triumph fill 
 the air. Thus dies the mighty Sam- 
 son, triumphant in his fall, and more 
 
364 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 the lords, and upon all the peo- 
 ple that were therein. So the 
 dead which he slew at his death 
 were nnore than they which he 
 slew in his life. 
 
 31 Then his brethren and all 
 the house of his father came 
 down, and took him, and brought 
 him up, and '"buried him between 
 
 m ch. 13. 25. 
 
 the Philistines in his 
 even during his life. 
 
 terrible to 
 death than 
 
 Who can in this but be reminded 
 of that adorable Saviour, who ' tri- 
 umphed over principalities and pow- 
 ers upon the cross, and by death 
 overcame him that had the power 
 of death, and delivered those who 
 through fear of death were all Iheir 
 lifetime subject to bondage.' 
 
 31, Then his bretkren — came doion 
 and took him. The overwhelming 
 catastrophe which had destroyed the 
 lives of so many of the lords and in- 
 ferior rulers of the people, seems to 
 have been such a crush to the Phil- 
 istine power, that they troubled Is- 
 rael no more for several years, and 
 did not even attempt to hinder Sam- 
 son's relations from taking away 
 and burying his dead body. It was 
 selected out from heaps of the slain, 
 brought honorably to his own coun- 
 try, and interred in the sepulchre of 
 of his fathers. — Thus terminates the 
 history of one of the most remark- 
 able personages that ever distin- 
 guished the annals of the Jewish 
 or any other people. We may learn 
 from it, that great gifts are often 
 connected with great imperfections. 
 The champion of Israel possessed 
 courage and strength, and did signal 
 service to his country in contending 
 with its enemies ; but he had little 
 self-government, and affords a mel- 
 ancholy proof how little corporeal 
 prowess avails when judgment and 
 prudence are wanting, and how dan- 
 gerous, in fact, are all such gifts in 
 the hands of any one, who has not 
 his passions under proper discipline 
 and the fear of God continually be- 
 
 Zorah and Eshtaol in the bury- 
 ing-place of Manoah his father. 
 And he judged Israel twenty 
 years. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A ND there was a man of 
 mount Ephraim, whose name 
 was Micah. 
 
 fore his eyes. While as a Nazaritc 
 he was careful to abstain from strong 
 drink, he took little heed to cultivate 
 that purity of sentiment and conduct 
 which is a crown to every other ex- 
 cellence, and the want of which 
 never fails to sully the lustre of the 
 brightest characters. — It may here 
 be remarked, that from the history 
 of Samson it is generally supposed 
 was derived that of the Hercules of 
 the pagan mythology, and M. De 
 Lavour, an ingenious French writ- 
 er, has drawn out the parallel at full 
 length, an abridgement of which 
 may be seen in Dr. A. Clark's com- 
 mentary. The coincidences are 
 certainly very striking, and to most 
 minds would perhaps afford an ad- 
 ditional proof of how much the 
 heathens have been indebted to the 
 Bible. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 That the events related in the re- 
 maining chapters of this book did 
 not occur in the order in which they 
 stand in the sacred narrative, is uni- 
 versally admitted. They constitute 
 a regular appendix to the book, 
 which is inserted here that it might 
 not interrupt the previous history of 
 the Judges. The events themselves 
 occurred long before the time of 
 Samson, and probably in the inter- 
 val that ensued after the death of 
 Joshua and the elders who outlived 
 him, and while the government was 
 in a very unsettled state. In chron- 
 ological order the proper place for 
 these chapters would undoubtedly 
 be between ch. 2 and 3, as remarked 
 on ch. 3. 11. The history compre- 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 365 
 
 2 And he said unto his moth- 
 er, The eleven hundred shekels 
 of silver that were taken from 
 thee, about which thou cursedst, 
 and spakest of also in mine ears, 
 behold, the silver is with me ; I 
 took it. And his mother said, 
 ^Blessed he thou of the Lord, my 
 
 hended in the'present and the follow- 
 ing chapter is obviously connected 
 with ch. 1. 34, where the reasons of 
 the emigration of a part of the tribe 
 of Dan to the northern quarter of 
 Canaan are stated. ' The Amorites 
 forced the children of Dan into the 
 mountain; for they would not suffer 
 them to come down to the valley.' 
 The consequence was, they sought 
 a more enlarged inheritance, and 
 while in the course of possessing 
 themselves of this, the events here 
 related, resulting in the establish- 
 ment of idolatry in that tribe, oc- 
 <iurred. The sad story of the Le- 
 vite's concubine and the war wiih 
 Benjamin occupies the remaining 
 part of the appendix. These inci- 
 ^ients are expressly said, ch. 20. 28, 
 to have occurred while Phineas, the 
 grandson of Aaron was high-priest, 
 and must therefore be assigned to 
 about the same period. 
 
 1, Aman of mount Ephraim^whose 
 name was Micah. Heb. irT'5"'>D 
 Michayehu, (i. e. who is like Jeho- 
 vah "?) but in the subsequent narra- 
 tive ihe name is uniformly contract- 
 ed into tl'D'^Jz Micah. This the Jew- 
 ish writers say is owing to the fact 
 of his having become an idolater, 
 after which event the sacred pen- 
 man, they affirm, regarded it as a 
 profanation of the name Jehovah to 
 have it connected in any manner 
 'With his. By ' mount Ephraim' here 
 is meant, as usual, the mountainous 
 farts of Ephraim. 
 
 2. About which thou cursedst. 
 Pronouncedest an imprecation upon 
 the thief; or, perhaps, didst adjure 
 
 8 And when he had restored 
 the eleven hundred shekels o^ s\\- 
 ver to his mother, his mother 
 said, I had wholly dedicated the 
 silver unto the Lord from my 
 hand for my son, to ^make a 
 graven image and a molten 
 image : now therefore I will re- 
 store it unto thee. 
 
 or put under oath all the family to 
 discover the money. It is not un- 
 likely that Micah, hearing this, was 
 alarmed and restored the money, 
 lest the curses should fall on him. 
 Although not sufficiently restrained 
 by moral principle to forbear the 
 theft, yet his conscience had not 
 yet become so hardened as to allow 
 him to keep what he had stolen in 
 despite of his mother's imprecations. 
 This shows that he was a novice, 
 and not a veteran, in sin; as other- 
 wise he would not have scrupled to 
 deny, excuse, or defend it, as he 
 saw fit. 
 
 3. I had wholly dedicated the silver 
 unto the Lord. A striking illustra- 
 tion of the mistaken ideas which 
 had arisen in Israel, and which gra- 
 dually led them on to downright 
 idolatry. Micah and his mother 
 seem to have intended to honor the 
 true God by their proceedings, which 
 were nevertheless so contrary to the 
 law, as really to expose them to be 
 punished by death. What they did 
 seems to have been to set up a little 
 religious establishment similar to 
 that at Shiloh, with an imitation of 
 the ark, cherubim, priestly dresses, 
 &c., and finally crowning the whole 
 by obtaining a Levite to officiate as 
 priest; and all the while they 
 thought they were doing God ser- 
 vice! So blind and deluded in all 
 ages have been those who have add- 
 ed their human inventions to God's 
 perfect system of worship. ' If re- 
 ligion might be judged according 
 to the (professed) intention, there 
 should scarce be any idolatry in the 
 world.' Bf. Hall. 11 Now there 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 FA. C. 1406. 
 
 4 Yet he restored the money 
 unto his mother ; and his mother 
 «took two hundred shekels of 
 silver, and gave them to the 
 founder, who made thereof a 
 graven image and a molten 
 image : and they were in the 
 house of Micah. 
 
 5 And the man Micah had 
 
 fore Iicill restore it unto thee. The 
 apparent confusion in what is said 
 in this and the ensuing verse of the 
 * restoring' of the money, affords no 
 little plausibility to the rendering of 
 this clause proposed by Schmid, ^And 
 tJien I will restore it unto thee,' i. e. 
 after it has passed through the hands 
 of the founder and been converted 
 to the proposed images. Ot these it 
 would seem from the letter of the 
 text that there were t^''o, one sculp- 
 tured of wood or stone, and then 
 plated with silver, the other made of 
 the solid metal cast in a mould. The 
 original however will perhaps ad- 
 mit of the rendering, 'a graven 
 image, ere^i a molten image ;' i. e. 
 an image in the first place graven 
 or sculptured, and then molten, or 
 spread over with a layer of silver. 
 The latter we think the preferable 
 sense, especially as in ch. 18. 30, 31, 
 mention is made only of the graven 
 image, and in the final clause of v. 
 4, of this chapter, it is said in the 
 original, * And it was in the house 
 of Micah,' though in our version 
 arbitrarily and erroneously render- 
 ed, ' And they were in the house.' It 
 will be remarked, moreover, that 
 she appropriated only two hundred 
 out of the eleven hundred shekels to 
 this purpose, which would hardly 
 have been sufficient for the con- 
 struction of even one image of any 
 size ; whereas if the silver were em- 
 ployed in plating or gilding, the 
 quantity would have been ample for 
 a good sized statue. The remain- 
 ing nine hundred shekels were pro- 
 bably laid out in the procurement of 
 
 a house of gods, and made an 
 ''ephod, and "teraphim, and con- 
 secrated one of his sons, who be- 
 came his priest. 
 
 6 f In those days there was no 
 king in Israel, shut every man 
 did that which was right in his 
 own eyes. 
 
 7 IT And there was a young 
 
 dchS. 27. e Gen. 31 19, 30. Hos. 3. 4. fell* 
 18. 1. & 19 1. & 31. 25. Deul. 33. 5. g Deuu 12. 8. 
 
 various other articles necessary to 
 complete their sacred apparatus, 
 particularly the ephod andteraphim. 
 
 5. And thi man Micah had a house 
 of gods. Heb. ' and as to the man 
 Micah, there was to him a house of 
 God,' as the closing phrase may be 
 rendered. It is spoken of as the re- 
 sult of the whole transaction; q. d. 
 ' Thus they managed the matter, 
 and lo! the ina7i, the humble indi- 
 vidual, Micah, became possessed of 
 a house of God, a sanctuary!' im- 
 plying not that it was really such, 
 but that it was such in his estima- 
 tion. The words convey a latent 
 touch of sarcasm or irony, and 
 ought properly to constitute a period 
 by themselves; thenext clause would 
 then begin with the repetition of the 
 person, ' and he made,' &c., i. e. 
 procured to be made. Of the Ephod, 
 see on Ex. 28. 4 ; of the Teraphira, 
 on Gen.21. 19, 30; and of the import 
 of the Heb. word for 'consecrate,' 
 Ex. 29. 9, 41. Lev. 7. 37. 
 
 6. Ill those days there was no king 
 in Israel^ &c. Intimating the reason 
 to which it was owing that such 
 gross enormities as tho.se here men- 
 tioned should have occurred. There 
 was no king, judge, or controlling 
 power to take cognizance of them ; 
 no one to give orders for destroying 
 the images; no one to convince 
 Micah of his error and guilt in 
 making them, or to punish his of- 
 fence; no one, in fine, to arrest in 
 the outset an evil which was likely 
 to spread and infect the whole na- 
 tion. ' Every man did that which 
 was right in his own eyes, and then 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 man out of '^Beth-lehem-judah of 
 the family of Judah, who was a 
 Levite, and he sojourned there. 
 
 8 And the man departed out 
 of the city from Beth-lehem-ju- 
 dah, to sojourn where he could 
 find a place : and he came to 
 mount Ephraim to the house of 
 Micah, as he journeyed. 
 
 9 And Micah said unto him, 
 Whence comest thou? And he 
 
 h See Josh. 19- 15. ch. 19. 1. Ruih 1. 1, 2. Mic- 
 5.2. Matt. 2. 1, 5, 6 
 
 they soon did that which was evil in 
 the sight of the Lord.' Henry. IT 
 Did that which was right in his own 
 eyes. The original term -i^-i ya- 
 shar, is the same as that applied by 
 Samson, ch. 13. 3, to the Philistine 
 woman whom he urged his parents 
 to procure for him, 'She is right 
 in my eyes,' on which see note. 
 
 7. A yomig man of Bethlehem-Ju- 
 dah. So called to distinguish it from 
 another Bethlehem in the tribe of 
 Zebulun. Josh. 19. 15. IT Of the 
 family of Judah. This is doubtless 
 to be understood, not of the young 
 man, but of the city. He was of that 
 city Bethlehem which pertained to 
 the family (i. e. tribe) of Judah, thus 
 distinguishing the place with still 
 greater accuracy. Otherwise the 
 words are scarcely intelligible ; for 
 how could a Levite be at the same 
 time of the family of Judah 1 '^And 
 he sojourned there. Sojourned rather 
 than permanently dwelt; for Beth- 
 lehem was not a Levitical city, and 
 therefore not the appropriate resi- 
 dence of one of the priestly tribe. 
 But it is probable that a good deal of 
 liberty was allowed in this respect, 
 and that especially in times of gen- 
 eral laxness and confusion, the Le- 
 vites were dispersed in a very irre- 
 gular manner over every part of the 
 land. 
 
 8. And the man departed^ &c. 
 Prompted either by fancied neces- 
 sity from the difficulty of obtaining 
 a livelihood, or by the impulse of a 
 roving mind ; or rather perhaps from 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 367 
 
 said unto him, I am a Levite of 
 Beth-lehem-judah, and I go to 
 sojourn where 1 may find a 
 place. 
 
 10 And Micah said unto him, 
 Dwell with me, 'and be unto me 
 a i^father and a priest, and I will 
 give thee ten shekels of silver by 
 tiie year, and a suit of apparel, 
 and thy victuals. So the Levite 
 went in. 
 
 i eh. 18. 19. k Gen.:45. 8. Job 29. 16. 
 
 the influence of both these causes 
 combined. The times were un- 
 doubtedly sadly degenerate and the 
 whole Levitical order reduced to 
 straits, yet it is scarcely conceivable 
 that a Levite, for whom the law had 
 made such express provision, Deut. 
 12. 19, saying, ' Take heed to thyself 
 that thou forsake not the Levite as 
 long as thou livest upon the earth,' 
 should actually have been forced to 
 wander for a maintenance. It was 
 probably rather owing to a native 
 waywardness of disposition. Nor is 
 there any thing related of this in- 
 dividual calculated to shield him 
 from such an imputation. IT He 
 came to the house of Micah, as he 
 jouriieyed. Heb. ' to make his way.' 
 'That is, without the design of tarry- 
 ing. He merely ' turned aside as a 
 wayfaring man to tarry for a night,' 
 and contrary to his expectation 
 found an opening of which he rash- 
 ly concluded to avail himself. 
 
 10. Be unto me a father and a 
 priest. That is, be unto me a father 
 even 'a priest, a spiritual father, a 
 teacher, guide, or overseer in reli- 
 gious things; in which sense the 
 word, ' father,' repeatedly occurs in 
 the sacred writers. See 2 Kings 6. 
 21.— 8. 9.— 13. 4. Is. 22. 21. ' He 
 pretends reverence and submission 
 to him, and what is wanting in 
 wages, he pays him in empty titles.' 
 Poole. IT A suit of apparel. Heb. 
 ' an order of garments ;' Coeceius, 
 ' a fitting out of garments,' i. e. such 
 as would be suitable to wear on or- 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 11 And the Levite was con- 
 tent to dwell with the man ; and 
 the young man was unto him as 
 one of his sons. 
 
 12 And Micah iconsecrated 
 the Levite ; and the young man 
 
 1 Ter. 5. 
 
 dinary occasions, and such as he 
 should need in his official ministra- 
 tions. IT So the Levite went hi. By 
 no means the exact import of the ori- 
 ginal, which is ni*^1 o,nd he went or 
 walked, whereas the appropriate term 
 for ' went in' is fc^^*^-]. They were 
 doubtless already in the house,'when 
 the bargain was concluded. Either 
 the sense given to the words by 
 Jarchi, ' And he we7it after his coun- 
 sels,' i. e. Micah's; or that assigned 
 by Kimchi. ' And he went about the 
 duties of his office,^ comes undoubt- 
 edly much nearer the scope of the 
 writer. For the use of ' walk' in the 
 sense of ministerial service, see 
 1 Sam. 2. 30, 35. and also note on 
 Gen. 5. 22. 
 
 11. The Levite was content to dwell. 
 The original implies a peculiar com- 
 placency in dwelling with his em- 
 ployer. Being kindly treated and 
 receiving respvTctable wages for the 
 times, he thought himself happy in 
 lighting upon so eligible a situation. 
 
 12. Consecrated the Levite. Heb, 
 ' filled his hand;' furnished him with 
 the proper offering which he was to 
 present on his inauguration. The 
 act, however, was wholly unlawful. 
 Micah had no right even to under- 
 take to set apart a person to the 
 priestly office, nor had the Levite 
 any right to think of accepting such 
 a dignity, even had the occasion been 
 lawful, for it appears from ch. 18. 
 30, that this young man, whose name 
 was Jonathan, was not of Aaron's 
 family, but the son of Gershom, 
 another branch of the same tribe. 
 
 13. Now know I that the Lord 7oill 
 do me good, seeing, &c. Having 
 provided an epitome of the taber- 
 nacle, with models of its various fur- 
 niture, such as the ark, the mercy- 
 
 "" became his priest, and was in 
 the house of Micah. 
 
 13 Then said Micah, Now 
 know I that the Lord will do me 
 good, seeing 1 have a Levite to 
 my priest. 
 
 seat, the cherubim, &c., and having 
 procured the proper sacerdotal vest- 
 ments, with a Levite to wear them 
 and officiate, he takes it for granted 
 that all will now be well, and that 
 he may confidently expect the divine 
 blessing. His delusion in this was 
 very gross, and yet how strikingly 
 does it represent the false confi- 
 dences of ungodly men in every age. 
 The fact of his having put away his 
 son from the priesthood of his estab- 
 lishment, and appointed one of the 
 Levitical order, seems to have ban- 
 ished all his doubts and fears as to 
 the issue, though his graven image 
 still remained. In like manner, 
 thousands flatter themselves that a 
 partial reformation of conduct, or 
 the correction of a single fault will 
 atone for persisting in multitudes 
 of others, and that a decent obser- 
 vance of the prescribed forms of re- 
 ligion will answer in the place of 
 spirituality of mind and real purity 
 of heart. Though they retain their 
 idols, they will still cleave to their 
 altar and priest, and, serving God 
 according to such rules as they have 
 laid down for themselves, have no 
 fears but that all will be well with 
 them both in this world and the next. 
 And yet how often is it the case, 
 that the very deeds of self-righteous- 
 ness, in which they rely as com- 
 mending them to God's favor, are 
 precisely the ones which he most 
 abhors, and which most effectually 
 incur his wrath. Let us then re- 
 nounce every vain confidence. Let 
 us not promise ourselves exemp- 
 tion from ill on the mere ground 
 of external privileges, or sacred re- 
 lations. The Jews could boast of 
 having Abraham to their father, and 
 the temple of God for their place of 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 369 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 TN ^those days there was no 
 
 king in Israel : and in those 
 days 4he tribe of the Danites, 
 sought them an inheritance to 
 dwell in ; for unto that day all 
 their inheritance had not fallen 
 unto thern annong the tribes of 
 Israel. 
 
 2 And the children of Dan 
 sent of their family five men 
 from their coasts, men of valor 
 from ^Zorah, and from Eshtaol, 
 ''to spy out the land, and to 
 search it ; and they said unto 
 them, Go, search the land : who 
 when they came to mount 
 
 a ch. 17. 6. & 21. 25 bJosli. 19 47. c ch. 13. 
 25. (1 Num. 13. 17. .losh. 2 1. 
 
 worship, and esteem this a sufficient 
 ground of hope, though living in 
 constant violation of every known 
 duty. Thus loo it is certain thai 
 many from the fact of being born of 
 pious parents, dwelling in praying 
 families, enjoying a valuable min- 
 istry, and being a.ssociated with the 
 excellent of the earth, build a hope 
 that all will be well with them, 
 though they are heedless of cultiva- 
 ting the graces of the Spirit, and 
 of laying hold of eternal life. All 
 such fancied security is but ex- 
 emplifying the infatuation of Micah 
 when he said, ' Now know I that the 
 Lord will do me good, seeing that I 
 have a Levite to my priest.' 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1. la those days there 2cas no king 
 in Israel. That is, about the time 
 mentioned in the.preceding chapter, 
 and not long after the death of Josh- 
 ua. M The tribe of the Danites. 
 Not the whole, but a part of this 
 tribe, some families of it, to the num- 
 ber of six hundred men of war with 
 their households, v. 16, 21. 'HUnto 
 that day all their inheritance had not 
 fallen unto them among the tribes of 
 Israel. Not but that the tribe of Daii 
 32 
 
 Ephraim,to the ^house of Micah, 
 they lodged there. 
 
 3 When they were by the 
 house of Micah, they knew the 
 voice of the young man the 
 Levite : and they turned in thith- 
 er, and said unto him. Who 
 brought thee hither? and what 
 makest thou in this place? and 
 what hast thou here 1 
 
 4 And he said unto them, 
 Thus and thus dealeth Micah 
 with me, and hath ^ hired me, 
 and I am his priest. 
 
 5 And they said unto him, 
 ^Ask counsel, we pray thee, '^of 
 God, that we may know wheth- 
 
 ech. 17. 1. fch. 17. 10. gl Kings 22. 5. Is. 
 3U. 1. Hos. 4. 12. h See ch. 17. 5. & ver. 14. 
 
 had had an inheritance assigned to 
 them as well as the other tribes, 
 Josh. 19. 40, but up to this time they 
 were not in the actual enjoyment of 
 their possession. In consequence of 
 their culpable remissness in expell- 
 ing the old iuhabiiants, they lost the 
 advantages they might otherwise 
 have gained over ihem, and not only 
 so, but as appears from Josh. 19. 47, 
 (where see note) a part of their ter- 
 ritories had actually been wrested 
 out of their hands, leaving them so 
 straitened for room, that a portion of 
 the tribe was indnced to migrate to 
 a distant section of the land in quest 
 of ampler accommodations. See a 
 brief account of this, Josh. 19. 47. 
 
 2. Men of talor. Heb. ' sons of 
 valor.' ^ They lodged there. Not 
 in the house, but by it, as is evident 
 from the next verse. IT Knew the 
 voice of the young man. Either re- 
 cognised him in this way as an old 
 acquaintance, or perceived by his 
 dialect, his mode of pronunciation, 
 that although now residing at mount 
 Ephraim he w^as yet of a different 
 stock; for we have already seen that 
 the Ephraimites had a pronunciation 
 peculiar to themselves, ch. 12. 6. 
 IT Jfliat makest thou 7 Rather, what 
 
870 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 er our way which we go shall 
 be prosperous. 
 
 6 And the priest said unto 
 them, iGo in peace: before the 
 Lord is your way wherein ye 
 go. 
 
 doest thou. U What hast thou here ? 
 Hast thoa a family with thee, and 
 what are thy means oi subsi6tence 1 
 
 5. Ask cuunsel, I pray thee, oj God. 
 We see irom this circumstance how 
 deep was the degeneracy of the 
 times. Had these men of Dan pos- 
 sessed the spirit of true Israelites, 
 they would have been indignant to 
 learn that a rival sanctuary to that 
 of Shiloh had been set up, and that 
 a renegade Levite had sacrilegious- 
 ly assumed the functions of the sac- 
 red ottice. But the circumstance, 
 instead of giving rise to censure or 
 remonstrance, seems rather lo have 
 ministered occasion for drawing out 
 the latent idolatrous propensities of 
 their own hearts. Probably con- 
 scious of having neglected at the 
 outset of their expedition to consult 
 the Most High and implore his 
 blessing, they determined to avail 
 themselves of the professed oracle at 
 hand, and learn from the Teraphini 
 what they ought to have learned 
 from the Urim. So much more 
 prone is man's depraved nature to 
 idolatrous superstiiion than lo real 
 piety. II Whether our way which 
 we gO) &c. Whether our enter- 
 prise which we have undertaken 
 shall succeed. On this import of 
 the word ' way,' as including not the 
 journey only, but every thing per- 
 taining it, see on ch. 4. 9. 
 
 6. Go in peace. That is, go and 
 prosper. This being strictly no 
 more than the expression of a friend- 
 ly loish, did not commit his foresight 
 as a prophet. IT Your vmy is before 
 the Lord. An ambiguous expres- 
 sion, capable of being interpreted, 
 according to the event, either in a 
 good or bad sense, and thus bearing 
 the equivocal character of the res- 
 ponses of all the ancient heathen 
 
 7 IT Then the five men de- 
 parted, and came to '■Laish, and 
 saw the people that were therein, 
 ihuw they dwelt careless, after 
 the manner of the Zidcnians, 
 quiet and secure ; and there was 
 
 oracles. Its prevailing sense in the 
 Scriptures is undoubtedly that of ap- 
 probation on the part of God, and so 
 in the present case he intended it 
 should be understood. Yet it has 
 not exclusively this import. When 
 rigidly weighed it amounts only to 
 the general iruth elsewhere affirmed, 
 that ' The ways of man are before 
 the eyes of the Lord, and he pon- 
 dereth all his goings.' If, therefore, 
 the event should be propitious, he 
 would of course gain the credit of a 
 true prophet, whereas if it were ad- 
 verse, he would at once take shelter 
 under the ambiguity of the expres- 
 sion. While we recognise the sub- 
 tlety of Satan in this reply, we may 
 still gather from the incident the 
 importance of bespeaking the divine 
 direction and blessing at the outset 
 of all our ways. We may go com- 
 fortably and cheerfully forward in 
 them, if they are only such as he 
 approves. His smile is success, his 
 frown disaster. 
 
 7. Ca7ne to Laish. Made sanguine 
 and confident by the Levite s pre- 
 diction, they set forward on their 
 journey and came to Laish, or Les- 
 hem, as it is called by Joshua, 19. 47, 
 and afterwards Dan, v. 29. The in- 
 habitants of this place are supposed 
 to have been a colony of the Zido- 
 nians, or Sidonians,ata very consid- 
 erable distance from the parent 
 country. ^Drvelt careless after the 
 maimer of the Zidonians. The ha- 
 bitual security of the Zidonians pro- 
 bably arose mainly from their posi- 
 tion and pursuits. They lived in a 
 flourishing sea-port town and were 
 chiefly addicted to commerce, and 
 not being included in the seven de- 
 voted nations of Canaan, they prob- 
 ably give themselves but little con- 
 cern about the wars and conquests 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 371 
 
 no magistrate in the land, that 
 might put them to shame in any 
 thing ; and they were far from 
 the Zidonians, and had no busi- 
 ness with any man. 
 
 8 And they came unto their 
 brethren to "'Zorah and Eshtaol : 
 and their brethren said unto 
 them, What say ye 1 
 
 that were going on around them. 
 In this respect the people of Laish 
 resembled them. Conscious of no 
 ill design themselves, and free 
 from the apprehension of being mo- 
 lested by others, they dwelt at ease 
 in their rich and fertile valley, v. 28, 
 their gates left open, and their walls 
 neglected. But the grasping cupid- 
 ity of man leaves nothing secure 
 on earth, and the peaceful abodes 
 of rural life are often visited by 
 calamities that populous cities and 
 the crowded marts of commerce 
 would have more reason to dread. 
 IT A'^o ma,gislrate in the land, &c. 
 Heb. 'no heir, or possessor, of re- 
 straint.' It is not absolutely certain 
 that what is here said of the people 
 of Laish is to be understood by way 
 of reproach, as the original, ' heir of 
 restraint,' may simply mean that 
 there was no hereditary government 
 exercised among them, but that they 
 lived under a free republic, and yet 
 so peaceably and harmoniously that 
 there was no one disposed to 
 * shame,' i. e. to injure, to vex, to 
 put indignity upon, his neighbor or 
 fellow citizen. And all this may be 
 stated as mere matter of fact respect- 
 ing their political condition, and 
 perhaps with the design of intimat- 
 ing the cruelty of the Danites in 
 barbarously invading and putting to 
 the sword such an inolfensive com- 
 munity. At the same time, the evi- 
 dence in favor of the common inter- 
 pretation, which makes the words to 
 convey a reflection upon the lawless 
 and dissolute state of things among 
 them, is perhaps still stronger, and 
 
 9 And they said, "Arise, that 
 we may go up against them : 
 for we have seen the land, and 
 behold, it is very good : and 
 are ye "still? be not slothful to 
 ^o, and to enter to possess the 
 land. 
 
 10 When ye go, ye shall 
 come unto a people Psecure, and 
 
 n Num. 13. 30. Josh. 2. 23,24. ol Kings 22. 3. 
 p ver. 7. 27. 
 
 we incline to abide by it. IF Were 
 far froDi the Zidonians. Conse- 
 quently far from succor in case of a 
 sudden attack. IT Had no business 
 with any man. No treaties of alli- 
 ance, no commercial intercourse, no 
 established connection of any kind. 
 Depending upon their own resources, 
 and feeling little need of foreign 
 luxuries, they lived in an insulated 
 state in respect to the rest of the 
 world. The words of themselves 
 convey no impeachment of their 
 character on the score of industry 
 or activity, and yet taken in connec- 
 tion with the whole passage, they 
 may perhaps warrant the inference 
 drawn from them by most commen- 
 tators, that the Laish ites were an in- 
 dolent and idle people. Still a posi- 
 tive affirmation cannot be built upon 
 the premises. 
 
 9. Are ye still? Heb. 'silent;' 
 i. e. inactive. On the peculiar use of 
 Heb. terms for ' silence,' see on Josh. 
 10.12. The spirit of this report may 
 be applied to a higher theme. Heav- 
 en is a good land, made sure by pro- 
 mise to all believers, and if we have 
 a heart to travel thither, boldly fa- 
 cing the dangers in the way, we shall 
 find every want supplied for ever. 
 Yet so insidious and powerful an 
 enemy is sloth to the soul in its jour- 
 ney heavenward, that we have need 
 to exhort one another daily to arise 
 and be doing. No one knows how 
 much comfort he loses here, or how 
 much glory hereafter, by sinful neg- 
 ligence. 
 
 10. Where there is no want of any 
 thing that is in the earth. Probablj 
 
372 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 to a large land : for God hath 
 given it into your hands ; '^a 
 place where there is no want of 
 any thing that is in the earth. 
 
 11 IF And there went from 
 thence of the family of the Dati- 
 ites, out of Zorah and out of 
 Eshtaol, six hundred men ap- 
 pointed with weapons of war. 
 
 12 And they went up, and 
 phched in "-Kirjath-jearim, in Ju- 
 dah : wherefore they called that 
 place n\Iahaneh-dan unto this 
 day : behold, it is behind Kirjath- 
 jearim. 
 
 13 And they passed thence 
 unto mount Ephraim, and came 
 unto Uhe house of Micah. 
 
 l'4 11 "Then answered the 
 
 q Dent 8. 9 r Josh. 15. 60. s cli. 13. 25. t ver. 2. 
 u I Sam. U. £8. 
 
 the more correct rendering is, 'in 
 the land,' i. e. the land of Canaan. 
 No part of the land of promise held 
 out greater advantages; r.one was 
 on any account more eligible. This 
 is the usual sense of the original. 
 
 11. Of ike family of the Danites. 
 Meaning, of the tnbe of the Danites; 
 the aggregate of the families; col- 
 lect, sing, for plur. as often before. 
 •fT Appointed ivith weapons of war. 
 Heb. 'girded.' 
 
 12. Pitched in Kirjath-jearim. 
 Not in the city itself, but in its im- 
 mediate vicinity, as is clear from 
 the final clause. See on Josh. 10. 
 10. IT M'thaneh-dan. That is, ' the 
 camp of Dan ,' so called from the 
 circumstance of this expedition en- 
 camping there. By comparing ch. 
 13. 25, it appears quite obvious that 
 this transaction occurred previous 
 to the days of Samson. ff Behind 
 Kirjath-jearim. Westward of Kir- 
 jath-jearim ; for as the face is always 
 supposed to be turned to the east 
 when the sacred writers speak of 
 the points of the compass, the west 
 of course falls behind one. Thus 
 
 five men that went to spy out 
 the country of Laish, and said 
 unto their brethren, Do ye know 
 that ^there is In these liouses an 
 ephod, and teraphim, and a gra- 
 ven image, and a molten image ? 
 now therefore consider what ye 
 have to do. 
 
 15 And they turned thither- 
 ward, and came to the house 
 of the young man the Levite, 
 even unto the house of Micah, 
 and saluted him. 
 
 16 And the >six hundred men 
 appointed with their weapons of 
 war, whicn were of the children 
 of Dan, stood by the entering of 
 the gate. 
 
 17 And nhe five men that 
 
 xch. 17. 5. y ver. 11. . z ver. 2, 11. 
 
 Deut. 11. 24, the Mediterranean, or 
 western, sea, is called the hinderviost 
 sea (p-ini^n TD1"'n), as the east on 
 the other hand, is designated by a 
 term (o-ih kedcni) which has the 
 sense of before or anterior. 
 
 14. Then answered. Then spake. 
 An idiom both of the Hebrew and 
 the Greek, by which this word is 
 usea f< r addressed, accosted. See 
 1 Kings 1. 28. Ezra 10. 2. Is. 14. 10. 
 H Consider ichat ye have to do. Con- 
 sider what ye shall do; it is a point 
 worth deliberating whether this 
 priest and his oracle, of the truth of 
 whose responses we have had ex- 
 perience, will not be a valuable ac- 
 quisition to us in our new settle- 
 ment. Their subsequent actions are 
 the best commentary on these words. 
 
 15. And saluted him. Heb 'asked 
 him of peace;' i. e. inquired respect- 
 ing his Avelfare, which is rrsually ex- 
 pressed by the term _pe«ce. See Gen. 
 43.27. Ex. 18.7. 
 
 17. The five men — came in thither. 
 Entered into what might be called 
 the sanctuary, the chapel, of Micah's 
 house. From its being said that 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 373 
 
 went to spy out the land went 
 up, and came in thither, and 
 took nhe graven image, and the 
 ephod, and the teraphim, and the 
 molten image : and the priest 
 stood in the entering of the gate 
 with the six hundred men that 
 were appointed with weapons of 
 war. 
 
 18 And these went into Mi- 
 cah's house, and fetched the car- 
 ved image, the ephod, and the 
 teraphim, and the mohen image. 
 Then said the priest unto them, 
 What do ye ? 
 
 19 And they said unto him, 
 Hold thy peace, ^lay thy hand 
 
 ach. 17. 4,5. b J6b. 21. 5. & 29.9. & 40.4. 
 Prov. 30. 32 Mio. 7. 16. 
 
 they ' went up' (i^j'i) for this pur- 
 pose, Rosenmuller conjectures that 
 it was an upper apartment, and ad- 
 duces Dan. 6. 10, in confirmation. 
 IT The priest stood in the entering of 
 the gate. Where the other party no 
 doubt detained and held him in talk, 
 while their comrades effected the 
 abduction of the gods with all their 
 appurtenances, ' See what little care 
 this sorry priest took of his gods ; 
 while he was sauntering at the gate, 
 his treasure (such as it was) was 
 gone. See how impotent these 
 wretched gods were, that could not 
 keep themselves from being stolen.' 
 Henry. The whole scene, including 
 the conduct of all parties, is a singu- 
 lar mixture of the impious and the 
 ludicrous, 
 
 18. These went into MicaKs house. 
 The five men mentioned above went 
 in, while the six hundred armed 
 men stood at the gate. 
 
 19- hay thy hand upon thy mouth. 
 A well known token of silence 
 among all nations. Comp. Job 21. 5. 
 Prov. 30. 32. 
 
 19. That thou he a priest unto a 
 tribe and a family in Israel. That 
 is, ' to a triiae, even a collection of 
 families.' From the narrated facts 
 
 32* 
 
 upon thy mouth, and go with us 
 ■^and be to us a father and a 
 priest : Is it better for thee to be 
 a priest unto the house of one 
 man, or that thou be a priest un- 
 to a tribe and a family in Israel ? 
 
 20 And the priest's heart was 
 glad, and he took the ephod, and 
 the teraphim, and the graven im- 
 age, and went in the midst of the 
 people. 
 
 21 So they turned and depar- 
 ted, and put the little ones, and 
 the cattle, and the carriage be- 
 fore them. 
 
 22 IT And when they were a 
 good way from the house of Mi- 
 
 of the case it is evident that a whole 
 tribe could not have been intended. 
 
 20. The priest's heart loas glad. 
 Swayed wholly by self-interest and 
 unmindful of the claims of gratitude 
 and of truth, he forsakes his former 
 employer merely from the motives 
 of covetousness and ambition. But 
 who can be surprised to find him 
 false and treacherous to men who 
 has been convicted of the grossest 
 perfidy towards God 1 IT Went in 
 the midst of the people. Or, Heb. 
 ' went into the midst of the people.' 
 Took his place in the centre of the 
 company, both to secure him from 
 the pursuit of Micah, and in imita- 
 tion of the order of Israel's march 
 through the wilderness, in which 
 the ark and the priests moved in the 
 middle of the host. 
 
 20. The carriage before them. Heb. 
 miDi kebudah, the loeight, i. e. the 
 luggage or baggage, the various 
 moveables which a body of emi- 
 grants would naturally carry with 
 them. No allusion whatever is had 
 to wheel-carriages, as these vehicles, 
 even to this day, are entirely un- 
 known as a means of travelling in 
 that country. The arrangement 
 here mentioned was a precautionary 
 
374 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C.140 6 
 
 cah, the men that were in the 
 houses near to Micah's house 
 were gathered together, and 
 overtook the children of Dan. 
 
 23 And they cried unto the 
 children of Dan. And they 
 turned their faces, and said unto 
 Micah, What aileth thee, that 
 thou comest with such a com- 
 pany ? 
 
 24 And he said, Ye have ta- 
 ken away my gods which I made, 
 
 measure designed to guard against 
 the consequences of an attack on ihe 
 part of Micah, which, should he see 
 fit to make one, would naturally be 
 upon the rear. 
 
 23, What aileth thee, that thou 
 comest with such a covipany 1 Heb. 
 ' what to thee, that thou art gathered 
 together'?' An individual of course 
 could not be said to be ' gathered to- 
 gether;' but the Heb. idiom by 
 which the leader or head of a multi- 
 tude is put for the multitude itself, 
 is of very frequent occurrence. See 
 note on Gen. 14. 15. 
 
 24. Ye have taken away my gods, 
 which Imade, &c. That is, the whole 
 apparatus of my images, teraphim, 
 &c. made as representatives of di- 
 vine things, and symbols of the di- 
 vine presence. With all his gross 
 superstition, it is not conceivable 
 that a native Israelite should have 
 become at this time so besotted by 
 his idolatrous propensities as to sup- 
 pose that the fabrication of his own 
 hands was really the great Jehovah 
 that made heaven and earth. IT 
 Wiat have I more. What have you 
 left me worth having, compared with 
 the image and the priest of which 
 you have so perfidiously deprived 
 me'? Such ardent, but infatuated 
 and wicked zeal could Micah evince 
 in respect to the objects of his idol- 
 atry. How many that bear the 
 name of Christians are shamed by 
 such an instance of deep bat guilty 
 devotion 1 How lightly do they 
 bear the loss or the absence of the 
 
 and the priest, and ye are gone 
 away : and wliat have I more ? 
 and what is this that ye say 
 unto me, What aileth thee? 
 
 25 And the children of Dan 
 said unto him, Let not thy voice 
 be heard among us, lest angry 
 fellows run upon thee, and thou 
 lose thy life, with the lives of thy 
 household. 
 
 26 And the children of Dan 
 went their way : and when Mi- 
 most precious spiritual privileges 
 compared with that of their worldly 
 possessions '? It is when they are 
 bereft of these, and not of the light of 
 God"s countenance and the hidden 
 joys of the Spirit, that they exclaim, 
 What have I more '? 
 
 25. Lest angry felloii's. Heb. 'men 
 bitter of spirit.' The genuine lan- 
 guage of lawless banditti, who an- 
 swer the plea of right, with no other 
 argument than the exhibition of su- 
 perior might. By this we are re- 
 minded, (1.) That 'hey who dare to 
 commit theft will be easily induced, 
 if needful to secure their ill-gotten 
 spoil, to commit murder also. (2.) 
 'That where power is with unprin- 
 cipled oppressors, to complain of in- 
 justice is often only to provoke far- 
 ther injury. 
 
 26. He turned and went back unto 
 his house. It is to be hoped, a wiser 
 and better man; having now had 
 experimental proof of the vanity of 
 the idols with which he is compelled 
 to part. But whatever the event 
 may have taught him, it is pregnant 
 with instruction to us. In the straits 
 to which Micah was driven, we per- 
 ceive a striking illustration of the 
 issue of the fatal delusions of ungod- 
 ly men. Their false confidences 
 will be abolished, their refuges of 
 lies all swept away. The religion in 
 which they now so sanguinely trust 
 will be proved a baseless fabric. 
 No foundation will then stand but 
 that which God himself has laid, nor 
 will any superstruciure endure but 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 375 
 
 cah saw that they 7vere too strong 
 for him, he turned and went back 
 unto his house. 
 
 27 And they took the tilings 
 which Micah had made, and ttie 
 priest which he had, and "^came 
 unto Laish, unto a people that 
 were at quiet and secure : *and 
 and they smote them with the 
 edge of the sword, and burnt the 
 city with fire. 
 
 28 And there was no deliv- 
 erer, because it was ^far from 
 
 d ver. 7, 10. Deut. 33. 22. e Josh. 19. 47. f ter. 7" 
 
 that which is able to abide a fiery- 
 ordeal. The law which they were 
 disposed to reduce to their own 
 standard will then be found to be 
 immutable, and the religion of the 
 Bible, which in Us true sense they 
 have rejected, the only means of "a 
 sinner's acceptance with God. Their 
 forced interpretations of the sac- 
 red text, and their self-complacent 
 schemes of salvation will avail 
 them nothing. As a necessary con- 
 sequence, their destitution and mi.s- 
 ery will then be complete. ' Ye 
 have taken away my gods, and what 
 have I left V may then be consider- 
 ed as the bitter lamentation of every 
 deluded soul. In vain now is the 
 ready plea, ' I thought I was right.' 
 Why did they rest in vain conjec- 
 tures'? Why did they presume to 
 substitute a system of their own in 
 place of that which God had reveal- 
 ed'? Why would they not submit 
 to be saved in God's own way '? Al- 
 as! it is now too late to rectify their 
 error. They have gone down to dark- 
 ness ' leaning on a lie,' They have 
 walked in the light of the sparks 
 which they themselves have kindled, 
 and as a recompense in the same, 
 they lie down in sorrow. Let us away 
 then with all systems of man's de- 
 vice in the great matter of salvation. 
 Let us at once and cordially embrace 
 the whole true gospel of the grace 
 of God, and we have a portion of 
 
 Zidon, and they had no business 
 with any man ; and it was in the 
 valley that lieih sby Beth-rehob. 
 And they built a city, and dwelt 
 therein. 
 
 29 And ^they called the name 
 of the city ^Dan, alter the name 
 of Dan their father, who was 
 born unto Israel : howbeit the 
 name of the city was Laish at 
 the first. 
 
 30 IT And the children of Dan 
 set up the graven iiTiage : and 
 
 g Num. 13.21. 2Sam. 10.6. h Josh. 19 47. iG«r. 
 l4. 14. ch. 20. 1. 1 Kings 12. 29, 30. & 15. 20- 
 
 which we can never be robbed. 
 Who can spoil us of our God"? or 
 what can we want if we have him 
 for our friend"? 
 
 27. Came unto Laish, unto a peo- 
 ple, &c. Rather, came upon Laish 
 (p5) not ^5^), upon a people ; i. e. in 
 a hostile manner, making a fierce 
 attack upon them. IT Burnt the 
 city with fire. That is, probably, a 
 part of it not the whole ; as the 
 phrase clearly implies elsewhere. 
 See on Josh. 8. 8. This measure 
 was doubtless adopted to strike a 
 greater terror into the inhabitants, 
 and to make their conquest more se- 
 cure. 
 
 28. And they built a city. Heb. 
 ' and they built the city ;' i. e. rebuilt 
 it ; or at least so much of it as was 
 destroyed by the fire. 
 
 29. Called the name of the city Dan. 
 To be a witness for them that they 
 were Danites by birth, though re- 
 mov^ed to so great a distance from 
 their brethren. As this fact might 
 possibly in after times be called in 
 question, they would make the very 
 name of their place a ground on 
 which to establish their claim to re- 
 lationship. ' We should be con- 
 cerned not to lose the privilege of 
 our relation to God's Israel, and 
 therefore should take all occasionsto 
 own it, and preserve the remem- 
 brance of it to ours after us.' Henry. 
 This city became afterwards very 
 
376 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 Jonathan, the son of Gershom, 
 the son of Manasseh, he and his 
 sons were priests to the tribe of 
 
 remarkable as one of the extremities 
 of the promised land. The extent 
 of the Israelitish territory from its 
 northern to its southern border was 
 generally expressed by the phrase, 
 'From Dan to Beersheba,' 
 
 30. The children of Dan set up the 
 graven image. Thus was idolatry 
 first publicly established in Israel. 
 It began in the tribe and city of Dan, 
 from which it gradually spread like 
 an evil contagion, and though 
 checked from time to time by pious 
 rulers, yet it eventually infected 
 nearly the whole nation. As a mark 
 of the divine indignation towards the 
 prime agents of this wickedness, 
 Lighlfoot suggests that in the mys- 
 tical sealing of the tribes mentioned 
 Rev. 7, that of Dan is entirely omit- 
 ted. It may also be supposed that 
 having had the precedent now set, 
 Jeroboam was encouraged after- 
 wards to establish the idolatrous 
 worship of one of his golden calves 
 at this very place. IT Jonathan, the 
 son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh. 
 It is conjectured by many expositors 
 that instead of Manasseh (i-;2:D?2) the 
 true reading is Moses (nu:?3)) which 
 differs it will be perceived only by a 
 single letter; and this letter (;), it is 
 supposed, the Jews have interpolated 
 in order to save the credit of their 
 great lawgiver and prophet. The 
 singular name of Gershom, the name 
 of one of Moses' sons and the date of 
 the transaction concur, it is said, in 
 establishing this view. Accordingly 
 the Vulgate and some copies of the 
 Septuagint actually exhibit the name 
 of 'Moses' instead of 'Manasseh.' 
 The interpolation, however, has 
 been very timidly executed. The 
 letter 3 was originally placed above 
 the line of the other letters (as it now 
 appears in the printed Hebrew 
 Bibles,) as if rather to suggest, than 
 to make an alteration ; but in process 
 of time the letter sunk down into the 
 
 Dan "^until the day of the captiv- 
 ity of the land. 
 
 31 And they set them up Mi. 
 
 k ch. 13. 1. 1 Sam. 4. 2, 3, 10, 11. Ps. 78. 60, 61. 
 
 body of the word. The Hebrew 
 writers themselves admit this ; and 
 say that the intention was to veil 
 this disgrace in the house of Moses, 
 by suggesting a figurative descent of 
 Jonathan from Manasseh, the idol- 
 atrous king of Judah nho lived about 
 eight hundred years afterwards ! Bp. 
 Patrick and others are disposed to 
 rank this among the idle conceits of 
 the Jewish critics, but for ourselves, 
 without positively adopting the opin- 
 ion, we think it by no means improb- 
 able. The most excellent charac- 
 ters are often but badly represented 
 by their descendants. Children are 
 not always the crown of old men, 
 any more than fathers are always the 
 glory of their children. The point, 
 however, is one of little importance. 
 IT Until the day of the captivity of the 
 land. Probably the captivity of the 
 ten tribes by Shalmaneser king of 
 Assyria. If so, this passage is to be 
 considered as an addition made by a 
 later hand, of which there are nu- 
 merous acknowledged instances in 
 the books of the Old Testament. 
 
 31. All the time that the house of 
 God was in Shilo. Not that its con- 
 tinuance there was limited to the 
 period now specified, as this would 
 be inconsistent with what is affirmed 
 in the preceding verse ; but it seems 
 to be stated as a remarkable and dis- 
 creditable fact, that even during all 
 the time that the true tabernacle and 
 altar were standing at Shilo, and not- 
 withstanding the reforming efforts 
 of all the .Tudges, yet here was a 
 rival establishment of an idolatrous 
 character subsisting in the face of 
 aJl the injunctions made against it! 
 Probably the remote situation of Dan 
 on the extreme borders of the coun- 
 try put it in a measure out of the 
 reach of those influences which 
 would otherwise have gone to extir- 
 pate the abominations which it cher- 
 ished. 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 377 
 
 cah's graven image which he 
 made, 'all the time that the house 
 of God was in Shiloh. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 A ND it came to pass in those 
 -^^ days, ''when there was no 
 king in Israel, that there was a 
 certain Levite sojourning on the 
 side of mount Ephraim, who took 
 to him a concubine out of ''Beth- 
 lehem judah. 
 
 2 And his concubine played 
 the whore against him, and went 
 away from him unto her father's 
 house to Beth-lehem-judah, and 
 was there four whole months. 
 
 3 And her husband arose, and 
 went after her, to speak friendly 
 unto her, and to bring her again, 
 having his servant with him, and 
 a couple of asses : and she 
 brought him into her father's 
 house : and when the father of 
 the damsel saw him, he rejoiced 
 to meet him. 
 
 1 Josh. 18 1. ch 19. 18. & 21. 12. a ch. 17. 6. & 
 18. 1. & n. 25. b ch. 17 7. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 1. Ajid it came to pass, &c. The 
 tragical tale that follows seems to be 
 inserted here in order to afford a 
 melancholy illustration of the dis- 
 orders which sprung from the lack 
 of due restraint. In the absence of 
 an efficient magistracy, confusion 
 and every evil work prevailed. IT 
 l^ook to him a co7icubine. Heb. ' a 
 woman, a concubine,' or * a wife, a 
 concubine;' or, as Geddes renders 
 it, ' a concubine-wife ;' i. e. a lawful 
 but a secondary wife ; as in v. 3, he 
 is expressly called her 'husband,' 
 and V. 4. her father his father-in- 
 law. Such connections were not 
 disreputable in those times, being 
 tolerated in the law and connten- 
 aaced by the practice of the best of 
 
 4 And his father-in-law, the 
 damsel's father, retained him ; 
 and he abode with him three 
 days : so they did eat and drink, 
 and lodged there. 
 
 5 H And it came to pass on 
 the fourth day, when they arose 
 early in the mornino-, that he 
 rose up to depart : and the dam- 
 sel's father said unto his son-in- 
 law, "^Comfort thy heart with a 
 morsel of bread, and afterward 
 go your way. 
 
 6 And they sat down, and did 
 eat and drink both of them to- 
 gether : for the damsel's father 
 had said unto the man, Be con- 
 tent, I pray thee, and tarry all 
 night, and let thy heart be 
 merry. 
 
 7 And when the man rose up 
 to depart, his father-in-law urged 
 him : therefore he lodged there 
 again. 
 
 8 And he arose early in the 
 morning on the fifth day to de- 
 
 c Gen. 18. 5. 
 
 men. It is a great mistake to con- 
 ceive of a concubine as a harlot. 
 
 3, To speak friendly unto her. 
 Heb. ' to speak to her heart;' that is, 
 to conciliate her affection, to re- 
 kindle her tenderness, and to entreat 
 her to return to the home she had 
 left cheerless. Comp. Gen. 34. 3. — 
 50.21. Ruth 2 13. The phrase is 
 commonly applied to speaking com- 
 fortably to one that is in distress or 
 sorrow, and may perhaps here im- 
 ply that the woman was penitent 
 and grieved for her offences. ^Re- 
 joiced to meet him Hoping that now 
 a complete reconciliation would be 
 effected between his daughter and 
 her husband. 
 
 4. And lodged there. That is, the 
 Levite and his servant. It would 
 
378 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 part : and the damsel's father 
 said, Comfort thy heart, I pray 
 thee. And they tarried until af- 
 ternoon, and they did eat both of 
 them. 
 
 9 And when the man rose up 
 to depart, he, and his concubine, 
 and his servant, his father-in-law 
 the dams( Ts father, said unto 
 him, Behold, now the day draw- 
 eth toward evening, I pray you 
 tarry all night ; behold, the day 
 groweth to an end, lodge here, 
 that thy heartmay bemerry; and 
 to-morrow get you early on your 
 way, that thou mayest go home. 
 
 10 But the man would not 
 tarry that night, but he rose up 
 
 scarcely be said of the falher-in-law 
 that he lodged in his own house. 
 
 5, Comfort thine heart with a mor- 
 sel of bread. Heb. ' strengthen thine 
 heart;' i e. refresh thy spirits. 
 
 8 They tarried until afternoon. 
 Heb. ' till the day declined.' The 
 original for ' tarried' (in?3r:):rn) 
 implies a reluctant delay, a forced 
 compliance with urgent solicitations, 
 and the issue of the affair teaches 
 us very impressively the daager, 
 as well as the weakness of suf- 
 fering ourselves to be overcome 
 by pressing importunity against the 
 convictions of our better judgment. 
 The hospitable entertainment and 
 agreeable society of friends is indeed 
 a strong inducement to protract a 
 visit, but no man should forget that 
 he has calls at home of paramount 
 claim, and that there is a limit be- 
 yond which complaisance is at war 
 ■wiih duty, and where we should 
 turn a deaf ear to the most urgent 
 requests. The warm-hearted and 
 friendly entertainer too should re- 
 member that his intended kindness 
 when too far urged may prove a 
 real injury to its objects, ana should 
 
 and departed, and came over 
 against ''Jebus, which is Jerusa- 
 lem : and there were with him 
 two asses saddled, his concubine 
 also was with him. 
 
 11 And when they were by 
 Jebus, the day was far spent ; 
 and the servant said unto his 
 master. Come I pray thee, and 
 let us turn in unto this city ^of 
 the Jebusites, and lodge in it. 
 
 12 And his master said unto 
 him, We will not turn aside 
 hither into the city of a stranger, 
 that is not of the children of Isra- 
 el ; we will pass over ^to Gib- 
 eah. 
 
 13 And he said unto his ser- 
 
 ri Josh. 18. 28. • Josh. 15. 8, 63. ch. 1. 21. 2 Sam. 
 5.6. f Josh. 18.23. 
 
 therefore moderate its promptings 
 by reason and religion. It is alto- 
 gether probable that the fearful ca- 
 lamity which overtook this unfor- 
 tunate couple would have been 
 avoided had they been less urged, 
 or, when urged, had they acted with 
 more decision. 
 
 9. The day draweth towards even- 
 ing. Heb. ' the day is weak, is be- 
 come relaxed, remiueth itself The 
 phrase points to a time of day the 
 opposite of what is termed. Gen 29. 
 7, ' high day,' i. e. the hour when 
 the heat of the day has attained its 
 utmost intensity, when it has reach- 
 ed the meridian. IT The day grow- 
 eth to an end. Heb. tr\'^r[ rHj)! ' it 
 is the pitching time of day ;' i. e. it 
 is near the time when travellers or- 
 dinarily pitch their tents and take 
 up their lodging for the night. IT 
 Mayest go home. Heb. ' to thy tent.' 
 
 12. Into the city of a stranger. 
 That is, of a strange or foreign peo- 
 ple ; for though the city of Jerusa- 
 lem had been before taken by Caleb, 
 ch. 1. 8, yet the strong-hold of Zion 
 was still in the hands of the Jebu- 
 sites, who were not fully dispossess- 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 379 
 
 vant, Come, and let us draw 
 near to one of these places to 
 lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in 
 eRamah. 
 
 14 And they passed on and 
 went their way ; and the sun 
 went down upon them when they 
 were by Gibeah. which belongeth 
 to Benjamin. 
 
 15 And they turned aside 
 thither, to go in and to lodge in 
 Gibeah : and when he went in, 
 he sat him down in a street of 
 the city : for there loas no man 
 that htook them into his house to 
 lodging. 
 
 g Josli. IS. 25. h Matt. 25. 43. Heb 13 2. 
 
 ed till the days of David. The event, 
 however, showed that he could 
 scarcely have fared loorse. among 
 the most barbarous hordes of Ca- 
 naanites than he did among his own 
 brethren. In all probability he 
 would have done better to have fol- 
 lowed his servant's advice. 
 
 13. In, Gibeah or in Rainah. These 
 places were both north or rather 
 north-west from Jerusalem, and dis- 
 tant, the former about four miles, 
 the latter about six. 
 
 15. No man that took them into his 
 house to lodging. Heb. '^:i5^ p5< 
 
 ClDH^O ^^ '^^^i gathering. On the 
 expressive import of this phrase see 
 on Josh. 6. 9. It seems that up to 
 this time no caravansaries or inns, 
 in which travellers now obtain lodg- 
 ings in the East, existed. At least 
 we have met with no certain traces 
 of the existence of such accommoda- 
 tions. Strangers, therefore, relied 
 entirely on private hospitality for 
 entertainment in the places to which 
 they came, as is still the case in 
 many parts of the East. Under 
 these circumstances such an inhos- 
 pitable reception as that which the 
 Levite now experienced is of very 
 rare occurrence, and can only be 
 explained on the ground of the pre- 
 
 16 IT And behold, there came 
 an old man from 'his work out 
 of the field at even, which was 
 also of mount Ephraim ; and he 
 sojourned in Gibeah ; but the 
 men of the place were Benja- 
 mites. 
 
 17 And when he had lifted up 
 his eyes, he saw a wayfaring 
 man in the street of the city : 
 and the old man said, Whither 
 goest thou ? and whence comest 
 thou ? 
 
 18 And he said unto him, We 
 are passing from Beth-lehem-ju- 
 dah toward the side of mount 
 
 eminently vile and abandoned char- 
 I aciei of the citizens ^f G'beah. The 
 general cuui ieousncss uf the Orien- 
 tals in this respect is well set forth 
 in the language of Job, 31. 32. ' The 
 stranger did not lodge in the street; 
 but I opened my doors to the travel- 
 ler.' 
 
 16. There came an old man from 
 his work out of the field at even. Had 
 all the inhabitants of Gibeah been of 
 the stamp of this good old Israelite, 
 in whom we see such a pleasing 
 specimen of patriarchal times, as he 
 returns at evening from his daily 
 toil, so gross and horrid a deed of 
 wickednesss would not have dis- 
 graced their city. But it may well 
 be doubted whether he were not the 
 only laborer whom this evening 
 brought home from the field, and as 
 the virtues usually go together, ' he,' 
 as Henry remarks, ' who was hon- 
 estly diligent in his business all day, 
 was disposed to be generously hos- 
 pitable to these poor strangers £t 
 n ight.' IT Which was also of mow, t 
 Ephraim. ' Gibeah was a second Sod- 
 om ; even there also is another Lot ; 
 which is therefore so much more hos- 
 pitable to strangers, because himself 
 was a stranger. The host, as well 
 as the Levite, is of mount Ephraim; 
 each man knows best to commis- 
 
380 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 Ephraim ; from thence a7n I : 
 and 1 went to Betb-lehem-judah, 
 but i am now going to Hha house 
 of the Lord ; and there is no 
 man that receiveth me to house. 
 19 Yet there is both straw 
 and provender for our asses ; 
 
 k Josh. 18. 1. ch. 18 3" & 20. 18. 1 Sam. 1 3, 7. 
 
 erate that evil in others which him- 
 self haih passed through. All that 
 profess the name of Christ are coun- 
 trymen and yet strangers here below. 
 How cheerfully should ve enter- 
 tain each other, when we meet in 
 the Gibeah of this inhospitable 
 world.' Bp. Hall. 
 
 18. No vmii that receiveth mc to 
 house. Heb. iri^i^ qDi*72 ^'^^^ S^^^- 
 eth me ; the same phrase with that 
 above, v. 15. 
 
 19. Both sfrav) and provender, &c. 
 Intimating that it was not necessary 
 for him to tax the hospitality of any 
 one except for lodging. He had 
 abundance of provision of his own, 
 both for himself and his asses. In 
 entering upon a journey, the Orien- 
 tals lay in a supply of food for the 
 beasts with which they travel as well 
 as for themselves. This food is of 
 different t-.inds. They make little 
 or no hay in these countries, and are 
 therefore very careful of their straw, 
 which they cut into small bits, with 
 an instrument which at the same 
 time threshes out the corn ; (grain) 
 this chopped straw, with barley, 
 beans, and balls made of bran and 
 barley meal, or of the pounded ker- 
 nels of dates, is what they feed them 
 with. ' People (in the East) still 
 carry provisions with them in a 
 journey, even through a peopled 
 country. No one calculates on ob- 
 taining, unless in very great towns, 
 more than house-room, with the 
 chance of being able to buy bread 
 and fruit. It is not certain that even 
 biead can be procured, and not to 
 leave the matter entirely to chance, 
 the traveller usually takes from one 
 great town to another, so much bread 
 as will serve him intermediately. If 
 
 and there is bread and wine also 
 for me, and for thy handmaid, 
 and lor the young man which is 
 with thy servants : there is no 
 want of any thing. 
 
 20 And the old man said, 
 iPeace he with thee ; howsoever, 
 
 1 Gen. 43. 23. ch. 6. 23. 
 
 he desires better fare than he is like- 
 ly thus to ob.ain, he takes with him 
 cooking utensils, rice, vegetables, 
 preserved meat, butter, &c., and at 
 the resting place for the day has a 
 warm meal prepared by a servant or 
 himself, from his own stores and 
 with his own utensils. We have 
 known a single traveller accompa- 
 nied by a mule, exclusively laden 
 with his bedding, provisions, and 
 cooking vessels. It is within the 
 writers own experience, that in a 
 journey of more than a fortnight 
 through a comparatively well-peo- 
 pled part of Western Asia, it was 
 not possible more than twice (in two 
 great towns) to obtain other food than 
 bread and fruit, and often this not 
 without much difficulty, and some- 
 times not at all.' {Pict. Bible. 
 
 20. Let all thy wants lie upon me. 
 This is not inconsistent with the 
 Levite's assertion in the preceding 
 verse that there was 'no want of any 
 thing.' The original signifies de- 
 fect, lack, and the Levite said, that 
 although he was .supplied with every 
 thing else, yet he did lack a lodging 
 place. His kind entertainer here 
 tells him to dismiss all care, for he 
 would take it upon him to see that 
 his deficiency in this and every other 
 respect should be supplied, q. d. 
 Keep your bread and wine, your 
 straw and provender for your own 
 and your asses' use; you may need 
 them before you finish your journey ; 
 I will provide for all your wants 
 this night; therefore do not think of 
 lodging in the street.' Thiswasgen- 
 erosiiy worthy of an Israelite. IT 
 Lod<re not in the street. Unless they 
 had "bedding, which travellers often 
 carry with them, this would not have 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 381 
 
 let all thy wants lie upon me ; 
 '"only lodge not in the street. 
 
 21 "So he brouo;ht him into 
 his house, and gave provender 
 unto the asses : "and they washed 
 their feet, and did eat and drink. 
 
 2i H Now as t[)ey were 
 making their hearts merry, be- 
 hold, Pthe men of the city, cer- 
 tain ^sons of Belial, beset the 
 Iiouse round about, and beat at 
 the door, and spake to the mas- 
 ter of the house, the old man, 
 saying, ■'Bring forth the man 
 that came into thy house, that 
 we may know him. 
 
 23 And Hhe man, the master 
 
 m Gen. 19 2. n Gen 24 32. & 43. 24. o Gen 
 18.4. Jo,,, 13 5. pG-n IJ 4. cli. 20 5. Hos. 
 9. 9. & 10. 9. q Deiil. 13. 13. r Gen. 19. 5. Rom 
 1. 26,27. sGtn. 19 6, 7. 
 
 been convenient ; and it would be 
 thoiighl disgraceful to the character 
 of a town, to allow a stranger accom- 
 panied by his wife, to do so even 
 then. But in other respects, lodging 
 in the streets of a town, is a less sin- 
 gular circumstance in the East than 
 it would seem to us in England. 
 When the Bedouin Arabs visit a 
 town, they usually prefer sleeping 
 at night in the street to sleeping in a 
 house. So also, when a person walks 
 through the streets of Malta in the 
 nights of summer, he finds the foot- 
 pavements obstructed by beds, occu- 
 pied by married couples and single 
 people. These belong to shop-keep- 
 ers and others, who rent the ground- 
 floors, and having no right to take 
 their beds to the roof, bringthem out 
 into the street to enjoy the luxurv of 
 sleeping in the cool open air.' {Pict. 
 Bible.) 
 
 22 Making their hearts merry. 
 Refreshing themselves with the pro- 
 visions set before them. It does not 
 necessarily convey the idea of ban- 
 queting and revelry. IT Sons of 
 Belial. Vile, abandoned, profligate I 
 
 of the house, went out unto them , 
 and said unto them. Nay, my 
 brethren, nay, I pray you, do 
 not 50 wickedly ; seeing that 
 this man is come into my house, 
 tdo not this folly. 
 
 24 " Behold, here is my daugh- 
 ter, a maiden, and his concubine ; 
 them I will bring out now, and 
 ^humble ye them, and do with 
 them what seemeth good unto 
 you ; but unto this man do not 
 so vile a thing. 
 
 25 But the men would not 
 hearken to him : so the man 
 took his concubine, and brought 
 her forth, unto them ; and they 
 
 t2Sam 13 12, u Gen. 19- 8. x Gen. 31. 2. 
 
 Deut. 21. 14. 
 
 on Deut. 13 13. IF Beat at the 
 door. Rendered ' beat ' in order to 
 imply something more than simply 
 knocking. The origin I has the 
 import of an earnest, eager, violent 
 assault of the door. ^\ Bring forth 
 the man, &c. This demand, and 
 indeed the whole of the incidents 
 here mentioned, have a striking re- 
 semblance to the affair of Lot and the 
 Sodomites. Under the ambiguous 
 term ' know' these sons of Belial in 
 each instance, convey a sense in the 
 last degree abominable and brutal, 
 and in each instance the father 
 makes a proposal which the ex- 
 tremest ca.se could not justify, 
 
 25. The man took his concubine , 
 and brought her forth. The conduct 
 of the Levite in this transaction is 
 utterly inexplicable. His going 
 after her to her father's house would 
 indicate that he still cherished to- 
 wards her a real affection, and he 
 appears thus far along the journey 
 to have treated her with every kind- 
 ness. Yet now in the hour of dan- 
 ger, apparently to save his own life, 
 he determines to sacrifice her. He 
 
 fellows ; men lost to all sense of i suffered her to be brought out and 
 right, honor, and decency. See note | exposed to these fiends in huma^ 
 33 
 
382 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 yknew her, and abused her all 
 the night until the morning : and 
 when the day began to spring, 
 they let her go. 
 
 26 Then came the woman in 
 the dawning oC the day, and f^ll 
 down at the door of the man's 
 house where her lord was, till it 
 was light. 
 
 27 And her lord rose up in 
 the morning, and opened the 
 doors ot the house, and went out 
 to go his way : and behold, the 
 
 y Gen. •}. \. 
 
 shape, while he, it would seem, se- 
 cure from harm either sits down or 
 lies down in calm indifference to her 
 faie. We infer this from its not 
 being intimated that he made the 
 least inquiry respecting her during 
 the night, but ' rose up' — (could it be 
 from his bed 7) — 'in the morning, 
 and opened the doors of the house, 
 and went out to go his way,' as if he 
 did not once think what had become 
 of his unhappy companion, but de- 
 signed to set forward alone ! It would 
 seem that it was only by stumbling 
 upon her lifeless corpse at the door 
 that he was reminded of there being 
 such a person either living or dead 
 And even admitting he thought her 
 alive as she lay prostrate on the 
 ground, how unfeeling, how inhu- 
 man his address ! ' Up, and let us be 
 going.' Cmdd he thus rudely accost 
 a tender female who, for his sake, 
 had submitted through the live-long 
 night to the most savage brutalities, 
 if he possessed the common feelings 
 of a man'? Suppose he thought her 
 asleep; yet we ask, would he have 
 felt no emotions of surprise, of grief, 
 of pain, to find her sleeping in svxh 
 a place and in s^tch a posture 1 
 Would he not anxiously and tenderly 
 have awakened her, and inquired of 
 her welfare'? The man's conduct 
 throughout is a riddle, which we 
 know not how to solve. One thing 
 however is certain. When the at- 
 tack was made on the house, the 
 
 woman his concubine was fallen 
 down at the door ol the house, 
 and her hands were upon the 
 threshold. 
 
 28 And he said unto her, Up, 
 and let us be going. But Hione 
 answered. Then the man took 
 her uj) upon an ass, and the man 
 rose up, and gat him unto his 
 place. 
 
 29 IT And when he was come 
 into his house, he took a knife, 
 and laid hold on his concubine. 
 
 duty of the inmates was to have 
 thrown themselves upon the protec- 
 tion of Providence without yielding 
 an iota to the demandsot the detesta- 
 ble ruffians without. If they could 
 not have withstood their violence, 
 but must have been overpowered by 
 superior numbers, they had better 
 have died calling upon God for 
 mercy than to have basely jeoparded 
 the lives of feeble women to appease 
 a ferocious rabble. That would 
 have been the pious chivalry of true 
 Israelites. The probability we think 
 is, that Omnipotence would in some 
 way have interposed for their rescue, 
 27. Was jo lien down at the door of 
 the house. While we cannot but be 
 moved with deep compassion in view 
 of the hard lot and the miserable end 
 of this unhappy woman, yet the 
 righteous judgment of God is not to 
 be overlooked in this her closing 
 scene. She had sinned, and she now 
 suffers. Though her father and her 
 husband had both forgiven her, yet 
 God remembered against her her 
 fault when she was consigned to the 
 hands of these ruthless monsters. 
 We may hope, however, though it be 
 almost hoping against hope, that her 
 soul was touched with penitence at 
 the eleventh hour, and that when she 
 fell with outstretched arms upon the 
 threshold it was with a fervent sup- 
 plication for the divine forgiveness. 
 But the justice of God in this melan- 
 1 choly event does by no means exten- 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 383 
 
 and '^divided her, together with 
 her bones, into twelve pieces, and 
 sent her into all the coasts of 
 Israel. 
 
 30 And it was so, that all that 
 saw it, said, There was no such 
 deed done nor seen from the day 
 that the children of Israel came 
 
 a ch. 20. 6. See 1 Sam. 11. 7. 
 
 up out of the land of Egypt unto 
 this day : consider of it, ''take 
 advice, and speak your minds. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 'pHEN -all the children of Is- 
 ■■" rael went out, and the con- 
 gregation was gathered together 
 
 b ch. 20 7. Prov. 13 10. a Deut. 13. 12. Josh. 
 22.12 ch. 21. 5. ISara. 11. 7. 
 
 uate the enormous wickedness of ihe 
 men of Gibeah in executing it, than 
 which nothing could be more barba- 
 rous and inhuman. 
 
 29. Divided her — into tiuelve pieces, 
 and sent her, &c. It is to be pre- 
 sumed that with the pieces he sent to 
 each tribe a circumstantial account 
 of the barbarity of the men of Gibeah, 
 which had deprived him of his wife. 
 To our ideas there is something 
 peculiarly shocking in the proce- 
 dure, but it was doubtless in accord- 
 ance with the notions of the times, 
 and as there was no supreme magis- 
 trate to whom to appeal for redress, 
 it was probably the most effectual 
 method of rousing the nation to take 
 up the Levite's cause as one that 
 concerned them all. It was a meas- 
 ure in fact that seems to have been 
 considered as putting the twelve 
 tribes under an anathema, and sol- 
 emnly binding them, on pain of 
 being themselves dealt with in the 
 same manner, to avenge the horrible 
 outrage. The whole nation accord- 
 ingly instantly understood it as a 
 universal anathema, and entered into 
 an indissoluble covenant to see jus- 
 tice done to the injured Levite. 
 This appears from the fact of the 
 tribes actually taking up arms, as 
 they did—from their swearing before 
 the ark not to return to their tents or 
 into their houses, till they had pun- 
 ished the offenders, ch.20. 8,9 — from 
 their putting to the sword all that 
 remained in Gibeah, both man and 
 beast, and burning all the cities and 
 towns of Benjamin, ch. 20. 48 — from 
 their swearing with an imprecation 
 not to give their daughters in mar- 
 
 riage to the sons of Benjamin, and 
 cursing him who should do so, ch. 
 21. 1—18— and finally from their en- 
 gaging themselves by a terrible oath, 
 to kill every Israelite who should 
 not take arms against the Benjamites, 
 ch. 21. 5. These are all marks of a 
 solemn act of anathema, and in no 
 other light can the transaction be 
 rightly viewed. See ' Scripture 
 Illustrations,' p. 146 
 
 30. There v:as no such deed done nor 
 seen, &c. Its enormity was unpar- 
 alleled, and they were struck dumb 
 and confounded, as it were, at the 
 bare mention of it. It seems accord- 
 ingly to have passed into a proverb ; 
 — ' They have deeply corrupted 
 themselves as in ihe days of Gibeah,^ 
 Hos. 9. 9. IT Consider of it, take 
 advice, and speak your minds. Heb. 
 ' put it to yourselves, take counsel 
 upon it, and speak.' This was the 
 prelude to the council held and the 
 measures adopted, which are recited 
 in the following chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1. From Dan even to Beersheba, 
 ivilh the land of Gilead. From the 
 utmost borders of the land in every 
 direction. By the land of Gilead is 
 meant the trans-Jordanic region, 
 where were planted the tribes of 
 Reuben and Gad and the half tribe 
 of Manasseh. The convention 
 seems not to have been summoned 
 together by any superintending head, 
 but by the consent and agreement, 
 as it were, of one common heart, 
 prompted by a holy zeal for the Lord 
 of hosts and the honor of Israel. 
 H U7U0 the Lord in Mizpeh. The 
 
384 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 as one man, from ^Dan even to 
 Beer-sheba, with the land of Gi- 
 lead, unto the Lord "in Mizpeh. 
 2 And the chief of all the 
 people, even of all the tribes of 
 Israel, presented themselves in 
 the assembly of the people of 
 God, four hundred thousand foot- 
 men ^that drew sword. 
 
 li ch. 18. 29. 1 Sam. 3. 20. 2 Sam. ?. 10. & 24. 2- 
 c hidg. iO. 17. & 11. 11. 1 Sdin. 7. 5. & 10. 17. d ch. 
 h. 10. 
 
 usual import of the phrase nin"^ ^i^ 
 to ike Lord is the same with -n^c^ 
 mn"' before the Lord, i. e. before the 
 tabernacle, or in the presence of the 
 ark of the covenant, where God was 
 wont to be inquired of by his people. 
 But as the ark was now at Shiloh 
 and not at Mizpeh, it has been sup- 
 posed by many commentators that 
 tlie phrase ' unto or before the Lord,' 
 may signify simply meeting in the 
 name of the Lord, to consult him and 
 offer up prayers and supplications. 
 But although it is true that God is 
 wherever his people are piously as- 
 sembled in his name, yet so uniform 
 throughout the Scriptures is the 
 sense of the phrase given above, that 
 Ave are averse to departing from it 
 in this instance. By comparing v. 
 18, it would appear that they did not 
 immediately resort to the tabernacle, 
 but assembled fir.st at Mizpeh and 
 thence went up to the house of the 
 Lord either at Shiloh or Bethel. 
 The expression however ' were gath- 
 ered unto the Lord' is warranted by 
 the fact, that it formed apart of their 
 flan to consult the oracle in refer- 
 ence to their present expedition. 
 The Mizpeh here mentioned was a 
 place in the borders of Judah and 
 Benjamin and therefore semetimes 
 spoken of as belonging to the one 
 and sometimes to the ofher, Josh. 15. 
 38 and 18. 26. It was but a short 
 distance from Shiloh. 
 
 2. The chief of all the people, even 
 of all the tribes of Israel. The orig- 
 inal exhibits a very remarkable 
 phraseology; — 'The corners (ri"i:& 
 
 3 (Now the children of Ben- 
 jamin heard that the children of 
 Israel wfii'Q gone up to Mizpeh.) 
 Then said the children of Israel, 
 Tell us, how was this wicked- 
 ness ? 
 
 4 And the Levite, the husband 
 of the woman that was slain, 
 answered and said, *I came into 
 
 pinnolh) of the people, all the tribes 
 of Israel,' where the 'corners' or 
 chiefs of the people are identified 
 with the tribes themselves, instead 
 of being distinguished from them as 
 is erroneously done in our transla- 
 tion by the gratuitous insertion of 
 the word ' of before ' all the tribes.' 
 This is evident from its being im- 
 mediately said that they w^ere as- 
 sembled to the number of four hun- 
 dred thousand, which certainly can- 
 not be meant of the chiefs alone. 
 See on ch. 10. 18. The leaders of a 
 community, as the Scriptures re- 
 present government, are merely 
 the executive organs of the mass 
 of the people, having no inter- 
 est or will separate from theirs. 
 The term ' corners' here employed 
 is a metaphor taken from the corn- 
 er-stones of a building, which are its 
 main support. What these corner- 
 stones are to a material fabric, the 
 chiefs of the tribes were to the tribes 
 themselves. Comp. 1 Sam. 14. 38, 
 Is. 19. 13. U /« the assembly of the 
 people of God. Heb. ^(-;p,Gr.£*fv>>7j«a, 
 the usual word for church, as if from 
 the object of their meeting they had 
 convened ecclesiastically, or as a 
 rclisious assembly. Th is is coniirm- 
 ed by the qualifying adjunct, 'peo- 
 ple of God.' Though the occasion 
 was a very exciting one, and they 
 were in danger of giving way to un- 
 hallowed passion, yet they did not 
 forget that they came together as 
 ' the people of God,' and were bound 
 to demean themselves accordingly. 
 Christians sometimes lose sight of 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 385 
 
 Gibeali that helongetli to Benja- 
 min, I and my concubine to 
 lodge. 
 
 5 ^And the men of Gibeah 
 rose against me, and beset the 
 house round about upon me by 
 night, and thought to have slain 
 me : "and my concubine have 
 they forced, that she is dead. 
 
 6 And '^I took my concubine, 
 and cut her in pieces, and sent 
 her throughout all the country 
 of the inheritance of Israel : for 
 they ihave committed lewdness 
 and folly in Israel. 
 
 7 Behold, ye are all children 
 of Israel ; ■'give here your advice 
 and counsel. 
 
 8 IT And all the people arose 
 as one man, saying. We will not 
 any of us go to his tent, neither 
 will we any of us turn into his 
 house : 
 
 f ch. 19 22. g ch. 19. 25, 26. h ch. 19. 29. i Ji 
 7. 15, k ch. 19. 30. 
 
 the 
 Gi- 
 lot 
 
 9 But now this shall be 
 thing which we will do to 
 beah : we will go up by 
 against it ; 
 
 10 And we will take ten men 
 of a hundred throughout all the 
 tribes of Israel, and a hundred 
 of a thousand, and a thousand 
 out of ten thousand, to fetch 
 victual for the people, that they 
 may do, when they come to Gi- 
 beah of Benjamin, according to 
 all the folly that they have 
 wrought in Israel. 
 
 11 So all the men of Israel 
 were gathered against the city, 
 knit together as one man. 
 
 12 ^ lAnd the tribes of Israel 
 sent men through all the tribe 
 of Benjamin, saying, What wick- 
 ednes is this that is done among 
 
 you 
 
 this in their public assemblies, and 
 consequently act very much out of 
 character. 
 
 3. The children of Benjamin heard, 
 &c. But they paid little or no at- 
 tention to it. Though they had 
 probably received a formal sum- 
 mons like the rest of their brethren, 
 yet they heeded it not ; they took no 
 steps towards healing the breach 
 that had occurred, and preventing 
 the consequences that ensued ; on 
 the contrary, they were rather har- 
 dened and exasperated than other- 
 wise by the proceedings of the 
 other tribes. IT Then said the 
 children of Israel, Tell us, &c. Heb. 
 ' tell ye us,' pi. a general challenge 
 to any one, or to all who vjere ac- 
 quainted with the facts, to come for- 
 ward and testify to them. 
 
 4. And the Levite. Heb. ' and the 
 man, the Levite.' He and his ser- 
 vant, and the old man his host were 
 
 <J3* 
 
 13 Now therefore deliver us 
 
 IDeut. 13. 14. Josh. 22. 13, 16. 
 
 undoubtedly all present, prepared to 
 uniie in the same statement. The 
 Levite's narration of facts, made 
 'without preface or passion,' is re- 
 markable for its brevity and direct- 
 ness. He speaks like a man who 
 felt that he had no need to employ 
 oratorical arts to work upon the 
 feelings of his hearers and excite 
 their just indignation. The bare 
 recital of the facts themselves would 
 be sufficient. 
 
 5. Thought to have slain me. In 
 case I should refuse to accede to 
 their vile wishes, IT Forced. Heb. 
 * humbled.' 
 
 8. We will not any of us ge to his 
 tent. We will have satisfaction for 
 this wickedness before we return 
 home. 
 
 10. To fetch victual for the people. 
 A tenth part of them were selected 
 to provide food and forage for the 
 army, which might thus be wholly 
 
386 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 the men, «»the children of BeHal. 
 which are in Gibeah, that we 
 may put them to death, and 
 "put away evil from Israel. 
 But the children of Benjamin 
 would not hearken to the voice 
 of their brethren the children of 
 Israel : 
 
 14 But the children of Benja- 
 min gathered themselves togeth- 
 er out of the cities unto Gibeah, 
 to go out to battle against the 
 children of Israel. 
 
 15 And the children of Ben- 
 jamin were numbered at that 
 time out of the cities twenty and 
 
 six thousand men that drew 
 sword, besides the inhabitants of 
 Gibeah, which were numbered 
 sc^ven hundred chosen men. 
 
 16 Among all this people 
 there were seven hundred chosen 
 men ^left-handed ; every one 
 could sling stones at a hair- 
 hreadth, and not miss. 
 
 17 And the men of Israel, be- 
 sides Benjamin, were numbered 
 four hundred thousand men that 
 drew sword : all these were men 
 of war. 
 
 18 H And the children of Is- 
 rael arose, and Pwent up to the 
 
 tm Deui. 13. 13. cli. 19. 22. 
 
 ;|n. 12. 
 
 o ch. 3. 15. 1 Chr. 12. 2. 
 
 occupied in punishing the inhabi- 
 tants of Gibeah. 
 
 13. Tke children of Benjamin 
 v-ould not hearken. Thus in effect 
 bringing the whole tribe to be par- 
 takers of the guilt of the men of 
 Gibeah. Bj' thus refusing to com- 
 ply with the just and reasonable re- 
 quisition of their brethren they 
 virtually said ; ' We will stand by 
 them in what they have done ; nay, 
 we would ourselves have acted the 
 same part had we been present.' It 
 is difficult to conceive a case of 
 more hardened and aggravated de- 
 pravity than this. ' Who would not 
 have looked that the hands of Ben- 
 jamin should have been first on 
 Gibeah ; and that they should have 
 readily sent the heads of the offend- 
 ers for a second service after the 
 fragments of the concubine 1 But 
 now instead of punishing the sin, 
 they patronize the actors, and will 
 rather die in resisting justice, than 
 live and prosper in furthering it ! 
 The abetting of evil is worse than 
 the commission ; this m.ay be on in- 
 firmity, but that must be on resolu- 
 tion. Easy punishment is too much 
 favor to sin ; connivance is much 
 worse; but the defence of it, and 
 that unto blood, is intolerable,' Bp. 
 Hall. 
 
 16. Left handed. Heb. ' shut or 
 obstructed of the right hand.' See 
 note on ch. 3. 15. It is somewhat of 
 a curious circumstance, that Benja- 
 min, which signifies the son of the 
 right hand, should have had so much 
 of a left handed posterity. m And 
 not miss. Heb. ^tLTl^ i^21- Gr. koc 
 
 ovK €^ai.iapTavovr£i and liot sin : thuS 
 
 affording a clue to the true import of 
 the word sin, viz. missing the mark, 
 erring from one's scope. This is 
 well expressed in the New Testa- 
 ment by afiaprafw, from a (Gr.) nega- 
 tive, and napTTTM, to hit the viark. To 
 love, serve, and enjoy God is 'our be- 
 ing's end and aim,^ which the sinner 
 his course of transgression, misses, 
 and too often, alas ! to his final un- 
 doing. 
 
 18. The children of Israel arose 
 and iijent iip to the house of God. 
 Heb. ^t^-rr^n Bethel, which some 
 expositors take to be the place so de- 
 nominated, supposing that the ark 
 had been removed thither on this 
 occasion from Shiloh. And it must 
 be admitted that there is some force 
 in the remark of RosenmuUer, that 
 the habitation of the ark is elsewhere 
 uniformly called t'^n^i^u rT^S and 
 in no other instance ^j^ r"i^ as here. 
 Still, as we can see no sufficient rea- 
 son for such a transfer of the taber- 
 
A. C. 1406.] CHAPTER XX. 
 
 house of God, and ''asked coun- 
 sel of God, and said. Which of 
 us shall go up first to the battle 
 against the children of Benja- 
 min ? And the Lord said, Judah 
 shall go up first. 
 
 19 And the children of Israel 
 rose up in the morning, and en- 
 camped against Gibeah. 
 
 20 And the men of Israel 
 went out to battle against Benja- 
 
 qNum. 27.21. ch. 1, I, 
 
 387 
 
 min ; and the men of Israel put 
 themselves in array to fight 
 against them at Gibeah. 
 
 21 And --the children of Ben- 
 jamin came forth out of Gibeah, 
 and destroyed down to the 
 ground of the Israelites that day 
 twenty and two thousand men. 
 
 22 And the people, the men 
 of Israel, encouraged themselves, 
 and set their battle again in 
 
 r Gen. 49. 27. 
 
 nacle at this time, we abide by the 
 sense given in our translation, and 
 suppose that the ' house of God' at 
 Shiloh is intended. This place was 
 very near to Mizpeth, where they 
 were now assembled, and the enter- 
 prise in which they were now en- 
 gaged was altogether too important 
 to allow them to think of engaging 
 in it without previously taking coun- 
 sel of God. But the defective man- 
 ner in which this was done will ap- 
 pear very strikingly in the sequel. 
 IT Which of us shall go up first, &c. 
 It will be observed that they do not 
 ask whether they shall go up at all, 
 which undoubtedly ought to have 
 been their first inquiry on an occa- 
 sion of so much importance. But 
 eontiding in the justness of their 
 cause, they take it for granted that 
 all is right in resorting to arms 
 against their brethren, and merely 
 inquire who should take the lead in 
 the expedition, about which it is not 
 unlikely there had been some con- 
 tention in the assembly. For wise 
 reasons the Most High was pleased 
 to leave them to learn their error, 
 or at least their precipitance in this 
 respect, by the event. He says in 
 reply, not as our tran.slation has it, 
 ' Judah (shall go up) first,' but simp- 
 ly ninnii nnrT^ Judah (is) i?i the 
 precedency, q. d. ' Judah has already, 
 ch. 1. 2, been con.stituted leader of 
 the tribes, the pre-eminence in 
 every important point has been be- 
 fore assigned to that tribe; of what 
 use then is inquiry on that head 
 
 now V This answer, instead of be- 
 ing rightly construed as implying 
 the divine approbation of their pro- 
 ceedings, is rather to be regarded as 
 a sovereign connivance in their rash- 
 ness. Designing undoubtedly to 
 bring about the punishment of the 
 mass of the people for their guilty 
 toleration of the idolatry established 
 in Dan, he is pleased for the present 
 to ' choose their delusions.' It may 
 be admitted that apart from their de- 
 linquency in sparing the Danites, 
 they had justly incurred defeat by 
 their precipitate entrance upon the 
 war, but God in his righteous pro- 
 vidence often makes a lesser sin the 
 occasion of punishing a greater, and 
 yet no iniquity can be laid to his 
 charge, A decaying tree, which 
 has withstood the violence of many 
 a tempest, may at last be blown 
 down by the merest breath of wind. 
 Let no sinner from long forbearance 
 promise himself final impunity. 
 ' Man knoweth not his time ; as the 
 fishes that are taken in an evil net, 
 and as the birds that are caught in 
 the snare ; so are the sons of men 
 snared in an evil lime, when it fall- 
 eth suddenly upon them.' 
 
 22 The men of Israel encourag- 
 ed themselves. Heb. ' strengthened 
 themselves;' i. e. assumed fresh 
 courage. Attributing the recent de- 
 feat to some misconduct which they 
 conceive themselves able to remedy, 
 they are altogether sanguine in view 
 of the result of another engagement. 
 IT In the place where they put them- 
 
888 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 array in the place wliere they 
 put themselves in array the first 
 day. 
 
 23 (^And the children of Is- 
 rael went up and wept before the 
 Lord until even, and asked coun- 
 sel of the Lord, saying, Shall I 
 go up again to battle against 
 the ^ children of Benjamin my 
 
 selves in array the first day. Deter- 
 mined, it would seem, to retrieve the 
 disgrace of their failure on the very 
 spot where it had been incurred. 
 Should they succeed in a second con- 
 flict under the same circuvistances, it 
 would effectually wipe away the 
 ignominy contracted by the issue of 
 the first. 
 
 23. Went up and wept before the 
 Lord. Yet all their arrangements 
 for battle had been previously made, 
 and they seem now to have consulted 
 God, as some men consult the Scrip- 
 tures, to establish a previously formed 
 o-pinion. It was not to learn their 
 duty in the first instance, but to ob- 
 tain sanction for a measure upon 
 which they had already resolved. 
 They should have deferred making 
 their preparations till after they had 
 made their confession and taken 
 counsel. Their tears and lamenta- 
 tions under these circumstances 
 availed them nothing; at least, did 
 not secure them from defeat ; and as 
 in their self-confidence, they made 
 no inquiry as to success, nor invok- 
 ed assistance, God gave them no pro- 
 mise on that score. IF And the Lord 
 said, Go up against him. As if he 
 had said, ' You have good cause for 
 going up against them, they have 
 justly rendered themselves liable to 
 punishment ;' and yet the result 
 plainly proves, that he did not design 
 hereby to convey to them any inti- 
 mation that his blessing or protec- 
 tion would accompany them, so long 
 as they were not duly humbled and 
 penitent for their sins, and ihws pre- 
 pared for success. The permission, 
 
 brother ? And the Lord said, Go 
 up against him.) 
 
 24 And the children of Israel 
 came near against the children 
 of Benjamin the second day. 
 
 25 And tBenjamin went forth 
 against them out of Gibeah the 
 second day, and destroyed down 
 to the ground of the children of 
 
 therefore, to go up was similar to 
 that given to Balaam to go with the 
 elders of Moab — a mere tolerance, 
 not an approbation, of the step, as 
 vicived in connection loith the motives 
 by which it was prompted. Seeing 
 them resolved to go forward at all 
 events, he w'as pleased to exercise his 
 prerogative and return to them an 
 answer apparently coinciding with 
 their wishes, and capable of being so 
 understood, as to mislead them, in 
 case the perverseness of their hearts 
 should put such a construction upon 
 it. But there was no necessity for 
 their misinterpreting the oracle, and 
 God is still to be accounted righ- 
 teous, though his words or his ways 
 may prove an occasion of stumbling 
 to those whose hearts are already 
 predisposed to it. He is under no 
 obligation to correct the erroneous 
 impressions of those who ' draw 
 near to him with their lips while 
 their hearts are far from him.' 
 
 25. Destroyed — again eighteen 
 thousand men. The remarks already 
 made above will serve to throw light 
 upon the reasons of this disastrous 
 issue of a cause in itself good. God 
 had ulterior designs to effect beyond 
 the merited punishment of the Ben- 
 jamites. He had great moral les- 
 sons to teach, not to the men of that 
 age only, but to the most distant gen- 
 erations. Especially may we sup- 
 pose that he proposed by such a re- 
 sult to impress upon our minds the 
 conviction, that the success of any 
 cause depends not solely upon its in- 
 trinsic goodness, but also upon its 
 being conducted with a right spirit 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 889 
 
 Israel again eighteen thousand 
 men ; all these drew the sword. 
 26 If Then all the children of 
 Israel, and all the people, "went 
 up, and came unto the house of 
 God, and wept, and sat there be- 
 fore the Lord and fasted that day 
 
 and by proper means. Israel had 
 ample grounds for proceeding to ex- 
 tremities against their offending 
 brethren, and yet from not going for- 
 ward in an acceptable manner they 
 met with a terrible rebuke when they 
 least expected it; and not only so, 
 for a time the cause of the wicked 
 seemed to triumph. The Prophet 
 Hosea, eh. 10. 9, in allusion to this 
 event says, ' The battle in Gibeah 
 against the children of iniquity did 
 not overtake them,' i. e. did not ai 
 first overtake them, and any one 
 who should have witnessed the two 
 defeats of Israel would have been 
 ready to conclude that the cause for 
 which victory had decided was 
 right. But we are not to judge from 
 events. Righteousness is not always 
 triumphant in this world. It may 
 be oppressed, and the supporters of 
 it for a long time foiled in their la- 
 bors and apparently trodden under 
 foot; but though cast down, they 
 shall not be destroyed ; a day is at 
 hand when God will vindicate his 
 own cause, and evince the equity of 
 all his dispensations. In the mean 
 time, let us make the unalterable 
 word of God the rule of our judg- 
 ment as well as of our actions, and 
 we can never go far amiss. 
 
 26. Went up, and came unto the house 
 of God. and wept, &c. Confounded 
 by these repeated strokes of adverse 
 providence, they are led at length to 
 * accomplish a more diligent search' 
 into the true causes of the sad dis- 
 aster which had befallen them. 
 They see now that they had trusted 
 too much to the goodness of their 
 cause and the superiority of their 
 numbers. They are now convinced 
 that they ought to have begun at the 
 
 until even, and ofTered burnt-of- 
 ferings and peace-offerings be- 
 fore the Lord. 
 
 27 And the children of Israel 
 inquired of tlie Lord, (for ''the 
 ark of the covenant of God was 
 there in those days, 
 
 1 Sam. 4. 3, 4. 
 
 outset with repentance and refor- 
 mation, with solemn sacrifices and 
 earnest supplications, instead of 
 rushing forward with unhumbled 
 hearts, reckless of their own apos- 
 tacies, and prompted by a zeal for 
 God in which was largely mingled 
 the ' strange fire' of human resent- 
 ment. The consequence is, that in 
 deep affliction they now compass 
 God's altar, abasing their souls un- 
 der the sense of conscious guilt, re- 
 jecting every vain confidence, be- 
 wailing not so much iheir losses as 
 the unworthiness which had caused 
 them, and devoutly imploring that 
 aid which they had before so rashly 
 taken for granted. This was the 
 right method of procedure, and the 
 happy fruits of their weeping and 
 fasting begin at once to appear. 
 Being brought to a proper frame of 
 spirit they are prepared to receive 
 the blessing, and the Most High ac- 
 cordingly gives them positive assu- 
 rance of success; ' Go up, forto-mor* 
 row I will deliver them into thine 
 hand.' Whenever a soul, in true 
 humiliation, is brought low before 
 God, the end of its calamities is at 
 hand; the day of deliverance has 
 already dawned. ^Sat there before 
 the Lord. Implying either that they 
 assumed the usual posture of mour- 
 ners. Lam. 1. 1. Ps 137. I, or that 
 they abode there, as the same phrase 
 is rendered ch. 21. 12, during the 
 whole day, in the exercise of un- 
 feigned contrition of spirit, or per- 
 haps more properly both. Every 
 thing in th'e phraseology conveys 
 the idea that their repentance was 
 deep, thorough, and sincere. Ex- 
 traordinary cases require extraor- 
 dinary acts of self-abasement and 
 
390 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 28 >'And Phineas the son of 
 Eleazar, the son of Aaron, 'stood 
 before it in those days,) saying, 
 Shall I yet again go out to battle 
 against the children of Benjamin 
 my brother, or shall I cease? 
 And the Lord said, Go up ; for 
 to-morrow I will deliver them 
 into thy hand. 
 
 29 And Israel '^set liers in 
 wait round about Gibeah. 
 
 30 And the children of Israel 
 went up against the children of 
 Benjamin on the third day, and 
 put themselves in array against 
 Gibeah, as at other times. 
 
 y Josh 24. 33. z Deut 10. 8. & 18. 5. a osh. 8. 4. 
 
 31 And the children of Benja- 
 min went out against the people, 
 and were drawn away from the 
 city ; and they began to smite of 
 the people, and kill, as at other 
 times, in the highways, of which 
 one goeth up to the house of 
 God, and the other to Gibeah in 
 the field, about thirty men of Is- 
 rael. 
 
 32 And the children of Ben- 
 jamin said, They are smitten 
 down before us, as at the first. 
 But the children of Israel said, 
 Let us flee, and draw them from 
 the city unto the highways. 
 
 godly sorrow. Men are often but 
 little aware how deep their spiritual 
 wounds need to be probed in order 
 to effect a perfect cure. We are apt 
 to heal the hurts of our souls too 
 slightly. Probably one great design 
 of this narrative was to leach us that 
 God often sees beneath a fair ex- 
 terior an amount of corruption, 
 which an ordinary or superficial re- 
 pentance will not avail to remove. 
 
 28. Phineas — stood before it in 
 those days. Or, Heb. ' before him,' 
 i. e. God. ' Standing,' or ' standing 
 before' any one, is a Scriptural term 
 for mhiisierinq, as appears from 
 Deut. 10. 8.— 18. 7. Prov. 22. 29. 
 Jer. 52. 12, compared with 2 Kings 
 25. 8, in the former of which the 
 original for ' served' is 'stood before.' 
 This was the same Phineas who 
 so remarkably signalized his zeal 
 for the glory of God on a former 
 occasion, Num. 25. Had this war 
 occurred after the death of Sam- 
 son, Phineas must now have been 
 upwards of 300 years old; but it fell 
 out between the death of Joshua and 
 the first judge. 
 
 29. Israel set liers in wait. Not- 
 withstanding the express promise 
 which had been given them of suc- 
 cess, yet they expected it not without 
 the use of the proper means, Divine 
 
 assurances rightly received, instead 
 of leading to remissness and pre- 
 sumption, will never fail to inspire 
 every prudent precaution. "The 
 management of the stratagem here 
 employed is very largely described 
 in the' ensuing verses, but it is suf- 
 ficient to say that in its general fea- 
 tures it was very similar to that em- 
 ployed with so much success by 
 Joshua in the taking of Ai, Josh. ch. 
 8. 1—29. ' When God hath used 
 Benjamin to execute his justice 
 against Israel for not punishing 
 idolatry ; he then useth Israel to 
 punish Benjamin, for not delivering 
 Gibeah up to justice.' Lightfoot. 
 
 31. Were drawn aioay from the 
 city. By the feigned flight of a por- 
 tion of the invaders. ^ Began to 
 smite of the people, and kill, as at 
 other times. Heb. ' began to smite of 
 the people wounded, as at other 
 times;' i. e. to smite so as mortally 
 to wound them; a Hebraic idiom 
 of not uncommon occurrence. See 
 on ch. 15. 19. H In the high- 
 
 ways. That is, perhaps, ' in the 
 meeting of the ways.' The subse- 
 quent phrase,' in the field,' instead 
 of being connected with Gibeah, 
 ought, we imagine, to be connected 
 with ' highways,' implying that this 
 junction of ways or roads was at 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 391 
 
 33 And all the men of Israel 
 rose up out of their place, and 
 put thennselves in array at Baal- 
 tamar : and the liers in wait of 
 Israel came forth out of their 
 places, even out of the meadows 
 of Gibeah. 
 
 34 And there came against 
 Gibeah ten thousand chosen men 
 out of all Israel, and the battle 
 was sore ; '^but they knew not 
 that evil was near them. 
 
 35 And the Lord smote Ben- 
 jamin before Israel : and the 
 children of Israel destroyed of 
 the Benjamites that day twenty 
 and five thousand and a hundred 
 men : all these drew the sword. 
 
 36 So the children of Benja- 
 min saw that they were smitten : 
 •^for the men of Israel gave place 
 to the Benjamites, because they 
 trusted unto the liers in wait 
 which they had set beside Gib- 
 eah. 
 
 37 d\nd the liers in wait 
 hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah ; 
 
 bJosh. 8. 14. Is. 47. 11. c Josh. 8. 15. d Josh. 8. 19. 
 
 considerable distance from the city 
 of Gibeah. It isdithcult to conceive 
 what is meant by ' Gibeah in the 
 field,' as the city so called was un- 
 doubtedly situated on a hill, and we 
 have no intimation of any other 
 place of the same name situated ' in 
 the field.' 
 
 33. Out of the meadows of Gibeah. 
 Heb. 533 ni5>?2>3 more properly 
 rendered ' caves of Gibeah,' for how 
 could an ambuscade be placed in 
 meadows'? The details of the nar- 
 rative, included v. 31 — 43, are ex- 
 tremely perplexed, and we despair 
 of being able by any explanation to 
 simplify them. The general drift of 
 the writer, however, is evident, and 
 to understand that is perhaps surii- 
 cient. 
 
 and the liers in wait drew the7n' 
 selves along, and smote all tlie 
 city with the edge of the sword. 
 
 38 Now there was an ap- 
 pointed sign between the men of 
 Israel and the liers in wait, that 
 they should make a great flame 
 with smoke to rise up out of the 
 city. 
 
 39 And when the men of Is- 
 rael retired in the battle, Benja- 
 min began to smite and kill of 
 the men of Israel about thirty 
 persons : for they said, Surely 
 they are smitten down before us, 
 as in the first battle. 
 
 40 But when the flame began 
 to arise up out of the city with 
 a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites 
 ^looked behind them, and behold 
 the flame of the city ascended up 
 to heaven. 
 
 41 And when the men of Is- 
 rael turned again, the men of 
 Benjamin were amazed : for they 
 saw that evil was come upon 
 them. 
 
 35. The Lord smote, &c. In this 
 verse the sacred writer relates the 
 event of the battle in general terms. 
 In the sequel he resumes the story, 
 giving the particulars of the battle, 
 and the consequences of the victory 
 more in detail. 
 
 37. Drevj themselves along. Ex- 
 tended themselves. "We have only 
 to conceive of a dense mass of men 
 hitherto confined to a narrow com- 
 pass suddenly stretching themselves 
 out in a long train, and rapidly urg- 
 ing their way to the city. 
 
 38. A great fiame loith smoke. 
 Heb. ' a great elevation of smoke.' 
 So also V 40. 
 
 40. The jiame of the city ascended 
 up. Heb. ' the whole, the entireness 
 of the city abcended.' The general 
 
392 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 42 Therefore they turned 
 their backs hefore the men ot 
 Israel unto the way of the wil- 
 derness ; but the battle overtook 
 them ; and them which came 
 out of the cities they destroyed 
 in the midst of them. 
 
 43 Tkus they enclosed the 
 Benjamites round about, and 
 chased them, and trode them 
 down with ease over against 
 Gibeah toward the sun-rising. 
 
 44 And there fell of Benjamin 
 eighteen thousand men ; all these 
 were men of valor. 
 
 45 And they turned and fled 
 
 sense, but not the exact meaning of 
 the Hebrew, is preserved in our 
 translation. 
 
 42. Turned their backs before the 
 vtieii of Izracl, &c. Undoubtedly an 
 erroneous rendering. As we read 
 the original, instead of turning their 
 backs they turned their faces towards 
 the enemy. Seeing their city on fire 
 and all hope cut off in that quarter, 
 they again face the eiiemy with a 
 determination, if possible, to cut a 
 passage through them, and escape 
 to the wilderness. But while at- 
 tempting this, the ambcjsh from the 
 city (here according to a Hebrew 
 idiom, ch. 12. 1. called ' cities') fell 
 upon them in the rear ; so that they 
 were properly said to be 'destroyed 
 in the midst of them,' i. e. between 
 the two divisions. 
 
 45. They turned and Jled towards 
 the wilder Jiess unto the rock of Rivi- 
 vum. A small remnant escaped, 
 notwithstanding every effort to pre- 
 vent it, and fled to the rock of Rim- 
 mon, supposed to lie in the wilder- 
 ness of Judah. about twenty-six 
 miles southwest of Jerusalem. IT 
 Gleaned of them, in the hitfhways. 
 Cut off all the stragglers that they 
 found scattered here and there over 
 the country. The metaphor is high- 
 ly expressive, implying that they 
 
 toward the wilderness unto the 
 rock of fRimmon : and they 
 gleaned of them in the highways 
 five thousand men ; and pursued 
 hard after theni unto Gidom, and 
 slew two thousand men of them. 
 
 46 So that all which fell that 
 day of Benjamin were twenty 
 and five thousand men that drew 
 the sword ; all tuese were men 
 of valor. 
 
 47 -But six hundred men 
 turned and fled to the wilderness 
 unto the rock Rimmon, and 
 abode in the rock Rimmon four 
 months. 
 
 fjosh. 15. 32. gch.21. 13. 
 
 were cut off as clean as a field or a 
 vineyard that has been gleaned after 
 the harvest or the vintage has been 
 gathered in. 
 
 46. Tioe/ity and Jive thousand. 
 The additional hundred mentioned 
 V. 35 is here omitted, and merely the 
 round number retained. There 
 lacks also another thousand to make 
 out the whole force of the Benja- 
 mites as given v. 15, but these are 
 suppo.sed to have fallen in the two 
 former battles, and so are omitted 
 here, where he speaks only of those 
 slain in the third day. 
 
 47. The rock of Rimmon. This 
 was doub.less some strong rocky 
 hold or fastness, but where situated 
 is uncertain. It is probr:ble, how- 
 ever, that it was near, and took its 
 name from the village of, Rimmon, 
 mentioned by Eusebius, fifteen miles 
 north from Jeru.salem. It appears 
 that rocks are still resorted to in the 
 East as places of .security, and some 
 of them are even capable of sustain- 
 ing a siege. De la Roque .says, that 
 the Grand Seignior, wishing: to 
 seize the person of the Emir (Fak- 
 addin, prince of the Drnzes), gave 
 order.s to the pacha to take him pri- 
 soner; he accordingly came in search 
 of hini with a new army, in the dis- 
 trict of Cheuf, which is part of 
 
1406.- 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 393 
 
 48 And tlie men of Israel 
 turned again upon the children 
 of Benjamin, and smote them 
 with the edge of the sword, as 
 well the men of every city, as 
 the beast, and all that came to 
 hand : also the}^ set on fire all 
 the cities that they came to. 
 
 mount Lebanon, wherein is the 
 village of Gesin, and close to it the 
 rock which served for a retreat to 
 the emir. The pacha pressed the 
 emir so closely, that this unfortu- 
 nate prince was obliged to shut him- 
 self up in a cleft of a great rock with 
 a small number of his officers. The 
 pacha besieged them for several 
 months ; and was going to blow up 
 the rock with a mine, when the 
 emir capitulated. (Bagsier.) 
 
 48. Smote them vjUh the edge of the 
 sword, &c. Probably the excessive 
 severity of the slaughter on this oc- 
 casion, considered as the act of Is- 
 rael, cannot be justified ; and so they 
 themselves seem to have viewed it 
 after their passions had had time to 
 cool. ch. 2L 3. The crime of the 
 men of Gibeah was indeed great, 
 but it does not appear to have been 
 sufficient to warrant the extirpation 
 of a whole tribe. Considered, how- 
 ever, as the sovereign allotment of 
 Jehovah we must acquiesce in it as 
 a dispensation to the justice of which 
 we can make no reply. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 1. The men of Israel had sworn, 
 &c. At the commencement of the 
 war, when assembled at Mizpeh. 
 We have no previous account of this 
 oath, but it is plainly of a piece with 
 the general precipitancy and rash- 
 ness which characterised their con- 
 duct on this occasion, and serves 
 still farther to account for the sad 
 discomfiture which marked the out- 
 set of their enterprise. The oath, 
 which as appears from v. 18, was 
 attended with an execration, was not 
 probably made with the design of 
 34 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 ]V[OW nhe men of Israel had 
 "^ sworn in Mizpeh, saying, 
 There shall not an}" of us give 
 his daughter unto Benjamin to 
 wife. 
 
 2 And the people came '^to 
 the house of God, and abode 
 
 a-ch. '20. I. bch. 20. 18,20. 
 
 extirpating the tribe, for it supposes 
 that some of the Benjamiles might 
 survive, and if so, they might mar- 
 ry the surviving women of their 
 own tribe ; bat it merely expresses a 
 general determination to treat the 
 actors and abetiors of the horrid 
 deed perpetrated at Gibeah, as they 
 would treat the worst of the devoted 
 Canaanites, with whom they were 
 utterly forbidden to intermarry. 
 Their own subsequent conduct, how- 
 ever, as related in the present chap- 
 ter, proves that they were sensible of 
 having gone too far, and reminds 
 us of the fact, that when our spirits 
 are exasperated we too ofien say and 
 do that which in our calmer mo- 
 ments we wish unsaid and undone. 
 Nothing more requires the control- 
 ling influence of the wisdom which 
 is from above, than the impulses of 
 an ardent zeal. 'There may be 
 over-doing in well-doing. That is 
 no good divinity which swallows up 
 humanity.' Henry. 
 
 2. Lifted up their iwices, and toept 
 sore. They found but melancholy 
 matter for triumph in their recent 
 victory. It was an event not to be 
 celebrated by the voice of joy and 
 praise, but by that of lamentation 
 and mourning and woe. Having 
 satisfied their revenge, they now ex- 
 perience the truth of the remark, 
 that ' strong passions make work 
 for repentance.' Still they did well 
 in appealing to God in their ex- 
 tremity. His infinite compassion 
 allows" us to have recourse to him 
 to repair the breaches which our 
 own folly and infatuation hare made. 
 Provided we are truly penitent in 
 view of the past, we may say to 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1406. 
 
 there uji even before God, and 
 lifted up their voices, and wept 
 sore ; 
 
 3 And said, O Lord God of 
 Israel, why is this come to pass 
 in Israel, that there should be to. 
 day one tribe lacking in Israel ? 
 
 4 And it came to pass on the 
 morrow, that the people rose 
 
 him of the desolations we have 
 ■wrought, * This ruin be under thy 
 hand,' i. e. under thy remedial, thy 
 restoring, hand. 
 
 3. Why is this covie to pass in Is- 
 rael, &.C. This, if we regard the 
 mere letter, has somewhat the air 
 of irreverent remonstrance or ex- 
 postulation with God, for suffering 
 such a calamity to befall his people ; 
 but considering the penitent frame 
 of mind in which they were now 
 assembled, we know not how to at- 
 tribute to them so gross an impiety 
 as this interpretation would suppose. 
 We take it rather as an expression 
 of mingled self-reproach and sup- 
 plication, equivalent to saying, ' Al- 
 as ! how is it possible that we could 
 have been guilty of such an outrage ! 
 that we should have uttered a vow 
 involving such a necessity as the 
 virtual extinction of a tribe! O 
 Lord God, is there no way of extri- 
 cation from the dilemna in which 
 we have so thoughtlessly ensnared 
 ourselves'?' The prayer evidently 
 implies the belief on their part, that 
 it would be more offensive in the 
 eyes of heaven if ihey should persist 
 in adhering to their rash purpose, 
 than if they should renounce it, and 
 yet the burden of a solemn obligation 
 rests upon their consciences, from 
 which they dare not deem them- 
 selves released except by a divine 
 dispensation. See note on Josh. 
 9.15. 
 
 4. Built there an altar. There was 
 undoubtedly an altar already estab- 
 lished at Shiloh for the ordinary 
 round of services, but the probablity 
 is, that they now built one of larger 
 
 early and, "^built there an altar, 
 and offered burnt-ofTerings, and 
 peace-offerings. 
 
 5 And tiie children of Israel 
 said. Who is there among all the 
 tribes of Israel that came not up 
 with the congregation unto the 
 Lord '? '^For they had made a 
 great oath concerning him that 
 
 2 Sam. 24. 25. 
 
 dimensions than the other, in order 
 to accomodate the greater multi- 
 tude of sacrifices which they pro- 
 posed to offer on this occasion. A 
 similar measure, we learn 1 Kings, 
 8. 64, was adopted by Solomon for a 
 similar reason. The motives by 
 which they were governed made the 
 step lawful. The altar was erected, 
 not in competition, but in commu- 
 nion, with that already established 
 at the door of the tabernacle, 
 
 5. Had made a great oath, &c. 
 That is, an oath attended with a 
 fearful execration, an anathema, 
 against him who should fall under 
 its effects. They now begin to per- 
 ceive a clue to guide them out of 
 the labyrinth of perplexity in which 
 they were previously involved. 
 Whether this expedient was divine- 
 ly suggested, we are not informed. 
 TI He shall surelij be put to death. A 
 severe sentence, but perhaps just 
 under the circumstances. Indiffer- 
 ence to so aggravated a crime as 
 that of the men of Gibeah showed 
 an extremely depraved state of mo- 
 ral feeling, and their brethren could 
 not but look upon their refusal to 
 aid in bringing the offenders to con- 
 dign punishment as a virtual sanc- 
 tion of the deed. They felt bound, 
 therefore, to proceed against them 
 just as if they had personally shared 
 in the guilt of the heinous transac- 
 tion. Yet we know not that the 
 actual execution of their oath in the 
 indiscriminate slaughter of men, 
 married women, and children, is to 
 be any more excused than the pre- 
 vious unsparing destruction of the 
 Benjamites. Without presuming 
 
A. C. 1406.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 395 
 
 came not up to the Lord to 
 Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely 
 be put to death. 
 
 6 And the children of Israel 
 repented them for Benjamin their 
 brother, and said, There is one 
 tribe cut off from Israel this day. 
 
 7 How shall we do for wives 
 for them that remain, seeing we 
 have sworn by the Lord, that 
 we will not give them of our 
 daughters to wives ? 
 
 to denominate the passions by which 
 they were prompted ' cursed,' as did 
 Jacob the spirit of Simeon and Levi 
 in their conduct towards the Shech- 
 emites, we may still say in the pat- 
 riarch's language of ' their anger, it 
 was fierce, and their wrath it was 
 cruel.' 
 
 6. There is one tribe cut off from 
 Israel this day. Likely to be cut ofi"; 
 that will be' cut off, unless some 
 measures are taken to prevent it. 
 For it appears from the next verse, 
 though nowhere expressly asserted, 
 that they had destroyed all the wo- 
 men of Benjamin, and as only the 
 small remnant of six hundred men 
 remained, who had fied to the rock 
 of Rimmon, there was evident dan- 
 ger of the extinction of the whole 
 tribe. But this was an event not to 
 be thought of, if it were possible to 
 prevent it. ' God had taken care of 
 every tribe ; their number twelve 
 was that which they were known by ; 
 every tribe had his station appointed 
 in the camp, and his stone in the 
 high priest's breastplate ', every tribe 
 had his blessing both from Jacob and 
 Moses, and it Vv^ould be an intoler- 
 able reproach to them, if they should 
 drop any out of this illustrious jury, 
 and lose one out of twelve; especi- 
 ally Benjamin, the youngest, who 
 was especially dear to Jacob their 
 common ancestor, and whom all the 
 rest ought to have been in a particu- 
 lar manner tender of. Benjamin is 
 not; what then will become of Ja- 
 
 8 IF And they said, What one 
 is there of the tribes of Israel 
 that came not up to Mizpeh to 
 the Lord ? and behold, there 
 came none to the camp from 
 ^'Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. 
 
 9 For the people were num- 
 bered, and behold there were 
 none of the inhabitants of Jabesh- 
 gilead there. 
 
 1 And the congregation sent 
 thither twelve thousand men o^. 
 
 e 1 Sam. 11. 1 & 3\. 11. 
 
 cob 1 Benjamin becomes a Benoni ; 
 the son of the right hand, a son of 
 sorrow!' Henry. 
 
 8. There came none to the camp 
 from Jabesh-gilead. This was a 
 city of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 
 east of Jordan, situated on a hill near 
 Mount Gilead, about fifteen miles 
 east of Jordan, and about an equal 
 distance south of Gadara. It was 
 not far from the lake of Genesaret. 
 Eusebius and Jerome say that it was 
 a large town in their time, standing 
 upon a hill six miles south of Pella, 
 in the way to Gerasa, now Djerash. 
 The Wadi Yabes, mentioned by 
 Burckhardt, which empties itself 
 into theJordan, in the neighborhood 
 of Bisan or Bethshan, and upon 
 which Pella was situated, seems to 
 have taken its name from Jabesh. 
 Near this spot therefore we must 
 look for its site ; and the place called 
 Kalaut Rabbad seems to correspond 
 very nearly to the spot ; though it 
 probably siill retains, among the 
 Arabs, its ancient name. {Bagster.) 
 10. Sent thither twelve thouso/nd 
 men of the valiantest. Heb. ' of the 
 sons of might, or prowess.' It is 
 seriously to be questioned whether 
 they were justifiable in resolving 
 upon such a summary mode of ven- 
 geance, without any previous in- 
 quiry, or giving them any oppor- 
 tunity of defence. The presumption, 
 it is true, was decidedly against 
 the men of Jabesh-gilead, yet it is 
 still possible that they might hax'« 
 
396 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 [A. C. 1408, 
 
 the valiantest, and commanded 
 them, saying, ^Go and smite the 
 inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with 
 the edge 'of the sword, with the 
 women and the children. 
 
 11 And this is the thing that 
 ye shall do, ^Ye shall utterly 
 destroy every male, and every 
 woman that hath lain by man. 
 
 12 And they found among 
 the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 
 four hundred young virgins that 
 had known no man by lying 
 with any male : and they 
 brought them unto the camp to 
 
 f ver 5. & ch. 5. 23. 1 Sam. 11. 7. g Num. 31. 17. 
 
 been able to plead some extenuating 
 circumstances in their behalf, and if 
 so, they certainly should have had 
 an opportunity afforded them. But 
 when the passions are vehemently 
 excited, men are prone to be carried 
 beyond all bounds of equity or de- 
 corum, and the Israelites in this in- 
 stance appear to have committed a 
 second crime to repair the conse- 
 quences of a first. 
 
 11. That hath lain bij man. Heb. 
 ' knowing, or having experience of 
 the lying by man.' This order ex- 
 cepted of coarse the virgins from its 
 effects. They were perhaps influ- 
 enced in this by the precedent re- 
 corded Num. 31. 17, 18, where Mo- 
 ses, when he sent the same number 
 of men to avenge the Lord upon 
 Midian, gave it in charge, as here, 
 that all the married women should 
 be slain with their hu.sbands, but 
 that the virgins should be preserved 
 alive. We may suppose the un- 
 married maidens to have been easily 
 distinguishable by their mode of 
 dress from the married women. 
 
 12. Four hundred young virgins. 
 Heb. 'four hundred young women, 
 virgins.' Unmarried, but marriage- 
 able. It is to be presumed that all 
 other younger females were also 
 spared. IT Shiloh lohich is in the 
 land of Canaan. Thus particularly 
 
 ''Shiloh, which is in the land of 
 Canaan. 
 
 13 And the whole congrega- 
 tion sent some to speak to the 
 children of Benjamin 'that were 
 in the rock Rimmon, and to call 
 peaceably unto them. 
 
 14 And Benjamin came again 
 at that time ; and they gave 
 them wives which they had 
 saved alive of the women of Ja- 
 besh-gilead and yet so they suf- 
 ficed them not. 
 
 15 And the people i^ropented 
 them for Benjamin, because that 
 
 designated, because Jabesh-Gilead 
 was not situated in Canaan proper, 
 but in the land of Gilead east of the 
 Jordan. 
 
 13. hi the rod: Rimmon. That is,, 
 in a cave in the rock of which they 
 made a fastness, and there vigorous- 
 ly maintained their position. IT 
 To call peaceably uiito them. Heb. 
 'to proclaim peace unto them.' Arab.. 
 ' saluting them and giving them a 
 pledge.' To assure them that their for- 
 mer enmity was now extinguished, 
 and that they might now with safety 
 leave their strong hold. They had es- 
 caped the slaughter and been thus far 
 preserved by the special providence 
 of Grod to prevent the utter extinc- 
 tion of the tribe. Had the Israelites 
 succeeded to the utmost of their 
 wishes, they would have cut them 
 off entirely. 
 
 14. Benjamin came again. The 
 scanty remnant of the tribe returned 
 from their place of retreat; assured of 
 safety, they came again into the midst 
 of Israel. 11 Yet so they sufficed not. 
 Heb. ' and they found not for them 
 so;' i. e. found not enough; there 
 was still a remainder of two hun- 
 dred left unsupplied. 
 
 15. The people repented them. Ra- 
 ther, ' commiserated, or were griev- 
 ed about Benjamin their brother.' ^ 
 The Lord had made. Had permitted 
 
A. C. 1408.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 397 
 
 the Lord bad made a breach in 
 the tribes of Israel. 
 
 16 1[ Then the elders of the 
 congregaiion said, How shall we 
 do for wives for them that remain, 
 seeing the women ae destroyed 
 out of Boiyamin ? 
 
 17 And they said, There must 
 he an inheritance for them that 
 be escaped of Benjamin, that a 
 
 to be made , had so ordered thinsrs 
 in his providence that a breach was 
 made. The divine permissions are 
 incessantly spoken of in the Scrip- 
 tures as positive acts. The same 
 event which is referred to men as far 
 as it is a sin, is referred to God as 
 far as it is a punishment. It is in 
 this sense that the prophet's language 
 is to be interpreted, ' Is there evil in 
 the city, and the Lord hath not done 
 itV 
 
 17. There must be an inheritance 
 for them that be escaped of Benjamin. 
 Or, Heb. ' the inheritance (i. e. of 
 the whole tribe of Benjamin) (is or 
 belongs to) the escaped remnant of 
 Benjamin.' We must therefore pro- 
 care wives for them all, that they 
 may be capable of possessing and 
 cultivating the whole of their ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 19. A feast of the Lord in Shiloh. 
 That is, a festival. In modern ac- 
 ceptation, 'feast' implies a banquet 
 or eating entertainment, but this is 
 not necessarily included in the 
 Scriptural sense of the term. It 
 often means no more than a festive 
 occasion however celebrated, and 
 probably has that import here. But 
 what particular solemnity is intend- 
 ed it is impossible to determine. It 
 might have been either the passover, 
 pentecost, or feast of tabernacles, all 
 of which were celebrated at that 
 time of the year when the vines were 
 in full leaf, so that the Benjamites 
 might easily conceal themselves in 
 the vineyards. '^On the north side 
 9 f Bethel. This is a particular in- 
 34* 
 
 tribe be not destroyed out of Is- 
 rael. 
 
 18 Howbeit, we may not give 
 them wives of our daughters : 
 ifor the children of Israel have 
 sworn, saying, Cursed he he that 
 giveth a wife to Benjamin. 
 
 19 Tl)en they said, Behold, 
 there is a feast of the Lord in 
 Shiloh yearly in a jilace which 
 
 1 ver. 1. Juflg. n. 35. 
 
 dication of the situation, not of Shi- 
 loh, but of the place in the neighbor- 
 hood where the young women were 
 likely to come to dance. It is prob- 
 ably thus precisely described, .that 
 the Benjamites might not mistake 
 the place. It was not certain that 
 the young women would come there 
 (v. 21), but it was probable, the cus- 
 tom being common. The Orientals 
 generally have no places in their 
 towns, where assemblies may be 
 held for festivity and dancing. It is 
 therefore customary to hold such 
 assemblies in some pleasant places 
 in the neighborhood, in the gardens 
 or plantations, or in small valleys, 
 if there be any. This is a favorite 
 mode of enjoyment with the women. 
 There are certain occasions of an- 
 nual reccurrence in which the wo- 
 men are allowed this indulgence in 
 the fullest extent, and thus they form 
 large parties, which go out to amuse 
 themselves with music, dancing, 
 and such other recreations as are 
 common among females. The ap- 
 proaches of the place where they 
 assemble are now usually guarded 
 by eunuchs to prevent intrusion. 
 The different sexes never partici- 
 pate in each other's amusements; 
 and this was the case in the times of 
 the Bible ; for we never read of any 
 amusement or festivity in which they 
 mingled ; and if men had in this in- 
 stance been present with the daugh- 
 ters of Shiloh, the Benjamites would 
 not so easily have secured their prey. 
 {Pict. Bible.) IF Lebonah. Maund- 
 drell supposes the site of the ancient 
 
JUDGES. 
 
 \.A. C.14C6 
 
 is on the north side of Beth-el, 
 on the east side of the highway 
 that goeth up fiom Beth-el to 
 Shechem, and on the south of 
 Lehonah. 
 
 20 Therefore they command- 
 ed the children of Benjamin, say- 
 ing, Go, and lie in wait in the 
 vineyards ; 
 
 21 And see, and behold, if 
 the daughters of Shiloh come 
 out ""to dance in dances, then 
 come ye out of the vineyards, 
 and catch you every man his 
 wife of the daughters of Shiloh, 
 
 m See Ex. 15. 20. cli. U. 34. 1 Sara. 18. 6. Jer. 
 31. 13. 
 
 Lebonah to be occupied either by 
 Khan Leben, situated on the eastern 
 side of a ' delicious vale,' four 
 leagues south from Shechem, and 
 two leagues north from Bethel, or 
 by the village of Leban Avhich is on 
 the opposite side. It is eight hours, 
 or about twenty-four miles from 
 Jerusalem, according to Dr. Rich- 
 ardson. 
 
 21, Catch you every man his wife. 
 Heb. ' a woman, his wife.' Seize and 
 carry off a woman,v!}iom he is, from 
 that hour, to consider as his wife. 
 
 23. Be favorable unto them for our 
 sakes. Rather, Heb. ' be gracious 
 to us with them, or, as it respects 
 them.' The reasons urged for this 
 clemency they go on immediately to 
 state. '^Because we reserved not to 
 each man his wife in the war. Inti- 
 mating that they were conscious of 
 having done wrong in the indiscri- 
 minate slaughter of the women of 
 Benjamin; that they ought at least 
 to have reserved enough to furnish 
 wives for the remnant that survived. 
 By this construction of their vow 
 not to match with them, they would 
 if possible atone for the rashness of 
 their vow to destroy them. IT Ye 
 did not give unto them at this time 
 that ye should be guilty. By not 
 giving your daughters or sisters 
 Yoluntarily, ye have avoided the 
 
 and go to the land of Benjamin. 
 
 22 And it shall be, when their 
 fathers or their brethren come 
 unto us to complain, that we 
 will say unto them, Be favor- 
 able unto them for our sakes : 
 because we reserved not to each 
 man his wife in the war : for ye 
 did not give unto them at this 
 time, that ye should be guiltv. 
 
 23 And the children of Ben- 
 jamin did so, and t(X)k th^ni wives, 
 according to their nun^ber, of 
 them that danced, whom they 
 caught : and they went and re- 
 
 guilt of violating your solemn vow. 
 As they were taken by force and 
 fraud without your knowledge or 
 consent, you have no reason to blame 
 yourselves for the transaction, and 
 the exigency of the case is so press- 
 ing, that it behooves all parties to sub- 
 mit to it in silence. Of the measure 
 in general we can only say, that al- 
 though they escaped by it the literal 
 breach of their vow, yet it was in 
 fact an actual evasion of it, and one 
 tending to give direct license to 
 fraud, violence, and the marriage of 
 children without the consent of their 
 parents. The incident, however, 
 extenuated by circumstances, adds 
 one more to the numerous proofs 
 afforded by holy writ of the weak- 
 ness, the folly, and pernicious con- 
 sequences of precipitate vows. 
 
 23. Went and returned unto their 
 inheritance. Although the end can 
 never justify the means, yet in the 
 present case the abducted maidens 
 of Israel probably had no cause in 
 the issue to rue the lot which had 
 made them wives against their wills, 
 or at least without their consent. 
 The Benjamites seem to have acted 
 towards them in the most honorable 
 manner, and as the six hundred men 
 shared by survivorship the inheri- 
 tance of many thousands, they were 
 probably better provided for in the 
 
A. C. 1403.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 399 
 
 turned unto their inheritance, 
 and "repaired the cities, and 
 dwelt in them. 
 
 24 And the children of Israel 
 departed thence at that time, 
 every man to his tribe and to 
 !iis family, and they went oui 
 
 things of this world, than if they had 
 married within the bounds of their 
 own tribes. Bat man's evil is evil 
 still, though God in his sovereignty 
 may bring good out of it. 
 
 24. Every man to his tribe. By 
 comparing this with eh. 20. 47, it 
 appears that although this was at 
 least four months after the war with 
 Benjamin, yet the forces did not dis- 
 band themselves and retire to their 
 homes, till the atfair of the remnant 
 of that tribe was finally and peace- 
 ably adjusted. 
 
 2b. No king in Israel. Repeated 
 
 from thence every man to his 
 inheritance. 
 
 25 "In those days there was 
 no king in Israel : Pevery man 
 did that which was right in his 
 own eyes. 
 
 ell. 17. 6. & IS. 1. & 19 1. 
 17.6. 
 
 p Dent 12. 8 ch. 
 
 undoubtedly in order to account for 
 the disorders and enormities i elated 
 in the preceding chapters. The 
 writer informs us that these events 
 occurred in a time of complete an- 
 archy when every man did that 
 which was right in his own eyes — 
 the only apology that could be offer- 
 ed for such atrocious scenes. Such 
 an impartial relation of facts so 
 highly discreditable to his own na- 
 tion affords the strongest proof of 
 the truth and authenticity of the 
 whole narrative. 
 
INDEX OF PHRASES 
 
 Abiding among the sheep-folds, what meant thereby 
 
 Anathema, term explained 
 
 Ancient, epithet how applied to the river Kishon 
 
 And, used for even 
 
 Angel of the Lord, what the import of the phrase . 
 
 Arisiiig, what implied by it in Scripture 
 
 Arising to defend, what meant by phrase 
 
 Ark of the covenant, called by the name of the Lord 
 
 Ashamed, in what sense term used in Scripture . 
 
 Before the Lord, equivalent to before the sanctuary 
 
 Blessing, what meant by giving one . 
 
 Border, in what sense term used .... 
 
 Borders of Jordan, what implied by phrase 
 
 Bringing one loio, what meant by it . 
 
 Building a city, used for repairing it . 
 
 Cannot serve the Lord, what meant by the expression 
 
 Carriage, used for baggage 
 
 Casting one^s life, what meant by the phrase 
 Cattle and tents, what implied under these terms 
 Children raised up instead of their fathers, what mea 
 Circumcising again, how to be understood . 
 Citij, how often to be understood in Scripture style 
 Cleaving a hollow place in the javj, what meant by the 
 Coast going out, words explained . 
 Could not drive out, phrase how used . 
 Covering the feet, what meant by the expression 
 Cutting doivn, original term how used . 
 Describing in a book, phrase how used . 
 Discomfited, term how to be understood 
 Divisions of Reuben, phrase how to be understood 
 Drawing a band or army of men, Avhat implied by the 
 Embassador, import of the word in Hebrew . 
 Encamping, in what sense term used . 
 Falling, how spoken of a lot 
 Find, used in the sense of attack, encounter . 
 Fire coming out of the bramble, phrase explained 
 Fortifying^ the city, in what sense phrase used 
 
 Gather, see rere-ward 
 
 Give for one's self, phrase explained 
 Giving glory to God, what meant thereby . 
 Go out, phrase how used .... 
 God being with one, what implied in phrase . 
 
 by: 
 phrase 
 
 term 
 
402 INDEX OF PHRASFS. 
 
 Going in, phrase how sometimes used . . . ... . 368 
 
 Grea^, in what sense applied to Zidon 102 
 
 Grief, in what sense ascribed to God . 299 
 
 Groves, used for gods of the grove 206 
 
 Handling the pen of the writer, what meant by phrase .... 237 
 
 Harlot, Rahab one , , , 20 
 
 Heads of fathers, phrase explained 147 
 
 Hearken, Scriptural usage in regard to the term 18 
 
 Heart, hardening of, explained 106 
 
 Hinnom, valley of the son of, name explained 124 
 
 Inherit and disinherit, original terms for 163 
 
 Jeoparding one's life unto death, what meant by phrase . . . 239- 
 
 Jerusalem, origin and import of the name 84 
 
 Judging Israel, what meant by phrase 208 
 
 Keeping alive, whsLtmesLnthy the exi^ressioR 119 
 
 Knowing, used for making known 206 
 
 Lamenting Jephthah's daughter, what meant by phrase . . . 320 
 
 Lapping water like a dog, method of, described 263 
 
 Laio departing not out of one's mouth, what meant by phrase . , 14 
 Loosing the shoe from one's foot, what denoted by it . . . ,45 
 
 Lordly dish, what meant by phrase 243 
 
 Lordships or Satrapies of the Philistines, what meant by phrase . .111 
 
 Lot, how said to come out 122, 139 
 
 Magnifying one, what meant by phrase 30, 36 
 
 Make war, import of the phrase 87, 170 
 
 Making dens, phrase how to be interpreted 246 
 
 Many days, how phrase to be understood 105 
 
 Melting, in what sense spoken of the heart 25 
 
 Men at one's feet, what meant by phrase 222 
 
 Men of Israel, in what sense phrase to be understood . . . .77 
 McTi/ioTiz/ior the name of a god, what meant by phrase . . .164 
 
 Middle of the river, unusual sense of the phrase 108 
 
 Mountain, for mountainous region 147 
 
 Mouth, according to, meaning of the phrase 137 
 
 Moving of the Spirit, what meant by phrase 385 
 
 Moving the tongue, phrase how to be understood . . . ,94 
 
 Name, term how used in the Scripture 332 
 
 Neck, putting the feet upon the, phrase how to be interpreted . . 95 
 
 Officers, term explained 16 
 
 Opening the mouth to the Lord, what meant by phrase . . .315 
 
 Ordering a child when born, what meant by phrase .... 330 
 
 Outgoings, import of the term 134 
 
 Ox-goad import of the original term 215 
 
 Peace, used for welfare in general 255 
 
 People and princes identi^ed . . : 300 
 
 Perishing alone in one's iniquity, what meant by phrase . . .158 
 Ploughing toith one's heifer, what meant by phrase . , . . 344 
 
 Possessing, in what sense term used 194 
 
 Prosper, in what sense term used 14 
 
 Proving his people, the Lord's, what meant by phrase .... 204 
 
 Putting away false gods, phrase explained 172, 176 
 
 Pw^^Zn-^ 07ie'5 fi/e t^AisAa^i^?, what meant bv phrase . . . .323 
 Raising up judges and deliverers, in what sense to be understood 203, 207 
 
 Reigning, term how employed 288 
 
 Rendering one's ioickedness,reqniiix\^\i 295 
 
 Repentance, how ascribed to God 203 
 
INDEX OF PHEASES. 
 
 4oa 
 
 Reproach of the Egyptians, rolling away of, what it means . 
 Requiring a sin, what meant by phrase 
 Rere-ward, what the import of the term 
 Resting from war, what implied in the words 
 
 Riddle, Samson's, explained 
 
 Right in one's eyes, to be, phrase how to be interpreted 
 
 Save alive, phrase how to be understood 
 
 Say, used in the sense of purpose, intend 
 
 Second bullock, what meant thereby .... 
 
 See, in the sense oi consider, contemplate 
 
 Seeing, in what other sense used in Scripture 
 
 Seeking an occasion against one, what meant by phrase 
 
 Selling a people, what meant by phrase, 
 
 Sent on foot into the valley, what meant by the expression 
 
 Servant, in what sense used 
 
 Setting a statute, what meant by phrase 
 Shoes clouted, phrase how to be understood . 
 Silence, import of the Hebrew word for . . . 
 
 Sitting, used for dwelling 
 
 Slacking one's hand, import of the phrase 
 
 Smitting hip and thigh, what meant by phrase 
 
 Sowing a city with salt, what denoted thereby 
 
 Spirit of the Lord coming upon one, what meant by phrase 
 
 Stand before one, how to be understood 
 
 Stars fighting from heaven, what meant by phrase 
 
 Strange icoman, what meant by phrase 
 
 Strength, cities standing in, import of the expression . 
 
 Stroke, at one, phrase how to be understood 
 
 Subdue, expressive import of the original . 
 
 Tail, how employed in Hebrew 
 
 Taking gain of money, wYi^XrELeaxifbY "phxsise 
 
 Taking honey from bees, in what sense expressed of Samson 
 
 Teaching by thorns and briers, what meant by phrase 
 
 Tents for settled habitations .... 
 
 Touch, in the sense of hurt, injure 
 
 Treading down strength, what meant by phrase 
 
 Trouble, how spoken of Achan 
 
 Turning again to one, what meant by it 
 
 Turning, how ascribed to God 
 
 Vain men, import of the term 
 
 Vexing, in what sense used .... 
 
 Voids, different kinds of .... 
 
 Uncleanness of a. land, what meant by phrase 
 
 Uttering words before the Lord, what meant by phrase , 
 
 Wedge of gold, term explained ..-.-. 
 
 Would dwell, spoken of the determination of the Canaanites 
 
BS1295 .B978 
 
 Notes, critical and practical, on the 
 
 Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00037 1544 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 W^^oTinc. 38-293