§ 1, Joshua, the leader of Israel. § 2. Two spies sent to Jericho, and saved by Rahab. § 3. Passage of the Jordan. § 4. Circumcision and Passover at GILGAL-Cessation of the Manna-State of the country. § 5. Jehovah appears to Joshua-Jericho taken, and devoted to JehovahThe curse on the city, and the blessing on Rahab. § 6. Sin of Achan and capture of Ai-Results of the first campaign-The blessing and the curse at Shechem. § 7. The Gibeonites obtain a treaty by a strat agem. § 8. Confederacy of five kings against Gibeon-Battle of Bethhoron-Conquest of the south. § 9. Confederacy of the north under Jabin-Conquest of the whole land-Considerable exceptions. § 10. Division of the land east of Jordan-Reuben, Gad, Manasseh. § 11.; West of Jordan-Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh. § 12. The Tabernacle set up at Shiloh-Possessions of Benjamin, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan-Lot of Joshua. § 13. Cities of Refuge and of the Levites. § 14. Altar of the two-and-a-half tribes - The schism healed. § 15. Last exhortations of Joshua. § 16. The covenant renewed at Shechem-Deaths of Joshua and Eleazar-Burial of Joseph's bones-Bright period of national fidelity. 2 § 1. MOSES, the lawgiver, was succeeded by JOSHUA, the military chief, on whom devolved the work of leading the people into their inheritance, and giving them "rest." He was the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim. His name at first was Oshea (help or Saviour), which Moses changed, by prefixing the name of Jehovah, to JOSHUA,' that is, God is the Saviour; and this name, so descriptive of his work, was a type of the higher work of JESUS, in "saving his people from their sins." He was probably above eighty years of age, having been above forty at the beginning of the wandering in the wilderness." He had grown up to mature age in the state of Egyptian bondage; he had shared the experience and trials of the wilderness, as the chosen servant of Moses; he had proved his military capacity at Rephidim and in the conquest of the land east of Jordan; and his steadfast obedience at Kadesh, when he stood alone with Caleb," faithful among the faithless;" and he lived for about twenty-five years more to finish his allotted work. These three periods of his life thus embrace the whole history of the moulding of the nation from its state of hopeless bondage, when Moses fled to Midian, till God "brought them in and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance.' His character was in accordance with his career: a devout warrior, blameless and fearless, who has been taught by serving as a youth how to command as a man; who earns by manly vigor a quiet, honored old age; who combines strength with gentleness, ever looking up for and obeying the Divine impulse with the simplicity of a child, while he wields great power, and directs it calmly, and without swerving, to the accomplishment of a high unselfish purpose. He is one of the very few worthies of the Old Testament on whose character there is no stain, though his history is recorded with unusual fullness. We have already noticed his appointment and consecration as the suc cessor of Moses. 7 § 2. As soon as the mourning for Moses was ended, God appeared to Joshua, and commanded him to lead the people over Jordan, with a renewed description of their land, an assurance of victory, an exhortation to courage and to obedience maintained by meditation on the book of the law, and a promise of God's presence. Joshua prepared the host 1 Heb. iv. 8. 21 Chron. vii. 27. 5 The Jewish tradition made him The fuller form is Jehoshua; an- eighty-five: Joseph. Ant. v. 1, § 29, other form is Jeshua; and in Greek which agrees with his age at hi the name is Jesus, as in Acts vii. 45; death, Josh. xxiv. 29. Heb. iv. 8. 4 Matt. i. 21. 6 Ex. xv. 17. Josh. i. 1-10. 999 against the third day, and summoned the two tribes and a half to perform their promise of marching in the van. He had already sent two spies to Jericho, which was to be the first object of attack. This great city stood in a spacious plain, about six miles west of Jordan, and opposite to the camp of Israel, in the midst of a grove of noble palm-trees, whence it was called "Jericho, the city of palms.' It had a "king," like all the great cities of Canaan. The description of its spoil proves the wealth it derived from its position on the high road of the commerce that passed from the East over the Jordan to Philistia and Egypt; and the "goodly Babylonish garment" in particular attests its use of the products of the Chaldæan capital. It appeared to possess advantages for a capital far exceeding those of Jerusalem, to which it might have become a formidable rival, but for the curse laid upon it by Joshua. It was strongly fortified and well guarded, the gates being shut at night. The houses on the walls indicate the solidity of the walls themselves. 10 The two spies were received into one of these houses by a harlot named RAHAB, in whose mind the terror that had fallen on the Canaanites, when they heard all that God had done for Israel, had produced belief in Jehovah, as the God of heaven and of earth, and in his purpose to give them the land. In this faith she hid the spies; misdirected the officers of the king, who came in search of them, and sent them out of the city in fruitless pursuit; and then let down the spies from a window of her house over the city wall, after they had sworn to save her family in the destruction of the city." A scarlet thread, in the window from which she had let them down, was the sign by which the house was to be known. The spies fled to the mountain for three days, to avoid the pursuers who had gone out in search of them, and then returned to Joshua, with the report that Jehovah had delivered the land into their hands; for all the inhabitants were fainting with fear because of them.12 3. The next morning Joshua broke up the camp at Shittim, and moved down to the edge of the Jordan, which at this season, the harvest (April)," overflowed its banks, in consequence of the melting of the snow about its sources in the Antilibanus. On the third day, the officers instructed the The name is derived either from a root signifying fragrance, or from one meaning to be broad. 9 Deut. xxxiv. 3. 10 Josh. ii.-vii. "It was in the same way that St. Paul escaped from Damascus (2 Cor. xi. 32, 33). 12 Josh. ii.; comp. Ex. xv. 14, 15. 13 Josh. iii. 15, people in the order of their march, and Joshua bade them sanctify themselves in preparation for the wonder that God should do on the morrow. In the morning, the priests that bore the ark advanced in front of the host to the water's edge; and their feet were no sooner dipped in the water, than the river was divided, the waters that came down from above being heaped up as a wall, and the lower portion flowing down toward the Dead Sea, and leaving the channel bare. The priests advanced into the midst of the river's bed with the ark, and there stood firm till all the people had passed over. 15 Meanwhile twelve chosen men, one from each tribe, took twelve stones from the spot where the priests stood firm, and brought them out of the river, leaving in their place twelve other stones from the dry land. When all this was done, Joshua commanded the priests to come up out of Jordan; and the moment that their feet were lifted over the margin of the water into the dry land, the waters of the river returned, and overflowed the banks as before. 16 The host encamped that night at Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho, and there Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been brought out of the river's bed, for a perpetual memorial of the division of the waters before the ark of Jehovah, to let his people pass into their land, just as the Red Sea had been divided to let them pass out of Egypt." §4. The passage of the Jordan was completed on the tenth day of the first month (Nisan-April, B.C. 1451).18 This was the day appointed for the selection of the Paschal Lamb, and on the evening of the fourteenth the people kept the Passover for the first time on the sacred soil of their inheritance, exactly forty years after their fathers had first kept it before leaving Egypt." But first, God commanded Joshua to circumcise the people; for the circumcised generation, who had left Egypt, had died in the wilderness, and none of the present generation had been circumcised.20 It seems strange that this essential seal of the covenant should have been neglected under the leadership of Moses himself; but his attention may have been too closely occupied with the 14 Joshua iii. 16. Comparing this Jewish Church, p. 229, First Sepassage with Ex. xiv. 22, we see how ries). exactly the two descriptions suit the two cases of the river and the sea. 15 The passage of the Israelites was probably near the present southern fords, crossed at the time of the Christian era by a bridge (Stanley, | 16 Gilgal was at the eastern side, Jericho at the western side of the plain. Gilgal was about five miles from the Jordan 17 Josh. iii. iv. 18 Josh. iv. 19. 20 Josh. v. 2-9. public affairs of the people to inquire into a matter which rested with the heads of families. Be this as it may, the omission led to a great national observance, which may be regarded as a renewal of the covenant with Abraham in the very land the promise of which had been sealed with the same sign. Perhaps this is implied in the terms of the com mand to Joshua to" circumcise the people again." In memory of the "rolling away of their reproach," the place was called Gilgal, i. e., rolling. Here, on the morrow after the Passover, the new generation tasted bread for the first time. They ate unleavened oread and parched corn of the old crop of the land; and at the same time the manna ceased. From that day forward they began to eat the fruits of the year. 21 We must not fail to notice the picture of their security and their command of the open country, implied in these proceedings. They were not only unmolested during their circumcision and the Passover, but they were supplied with old and new corn, whether by the agency or by the flight of the country people, while the cities were "closely shut up for fear of them;22 and the news of their passage of the Jordan had so terrified the kings of the Amorites and the Canaanites, from the Jordan to the sea, "that their heart melted, neither was there any spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.23 5. As Joshua was meditating how to attack Jericho, a vision was vouchsafed to him, to teach him that the work was God's. Looking up toward the city, he saw a warrior opposite to him with a drawn sword in his hand, who, in reply to Joshua's challenge, announced that he had come forth as the "Captain (or prince) of the host of Jehovah." This title, so often afterward applied to the Son of God, revealed him to Joshua, who fell down before him to worship, and to receive the commands of his supreme general. After bidding him to put off his shoe, for the place was holy," Jehovah promised him the conquest of Jericho, and prescribed the manner of its capture. The host were to compass the city for seven days: the first six days once, the chosen warriors marching in front of the ark, before which seven priests 25 Josh. v. 12. 22 Josh. vi. 1. 23 Josh. v. 1. 24 Josh. v. 13, 15. Of all the many faults in the division of our chapters, this is perhaps the most unhappy. Not only is the narrative cut in two, and the mere parenthesis in vi. 1 made to begin a chapter, but the break obscures the identity of the personage who appears to Joshua in chap. v. with Jehovah, who speaks to him in chap. vi. |