all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even 3 to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said 4 unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the

at Tel el-Kady. The former is the upper, the latter the lower source of the "River of Palestine."

(c) Its course, which is marked by three distinct stages:

(i) Enclosed within the ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, which run parallel to the Mediterranean from north to south, its streams-for as yet it can hardly be called a single river-fall into the lake called of old Merom, then Samaelon ("the High Lake"), now Hûleh. "Half morass, half tarn, this lake is... surrounded by an almost impenetrable jungle of reeds abounding in wild fowl."

(ii) Here it might seem destined to end,-like the Barada "the river of Damascus" in the wide marshy lake, a day's journey beyond that city,-but "the Descender" is not thus absorbed. Fed, like the lake itself, by innumerable springs in the slopes of Lebanon, and met by a deep depression for its bed, it rushes with increased rapidity three hundred feet downwards into the Lake of Gennesaret, which is about the same length as our own Windermere, but of much greater breadth.

(iii) At the mouth of the Lake it is about 70 feet wide,-"a lazy turbid stream, flowing between low alluvial banks"-and here again it might seem to have closed its course. But it issues forth once more, now a foaming torrent, and plunges through twentyseven rapids, with a fall of a thousand feet, on its lowest and final stage, into the Dead Sea.

(d) Its windings. The distance from the Lake el-Hûleh to the Sea of Tiberias is nearly 9 miles, that from the Lake to the Dead Sea about 60 miles. But within this latter space the river traverses a distance of at least 200 miles. Darting first to the right, then to the left, then to the right again, "as if sensible of his sad fate," to use the quaint words of Fuller, "and desirous to deferre what he cannot avoid, he fetcheth many turnings and windings, but all will not avail him from falling into the Dead Sea." See Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 282, 283; Thomson's Land and the Book; Ritter's Geography of Palestine; Macgregor's Rob Roy on the Jordan. 3. as I said unto Moses] Comp. Deut. xi. 24; Josh. xiv. 9.

4.

From the wilderness] For the boundaries of the Land of Promise compare (a) Gen. xv. 18-21; (b) Exod. xxiii. 31; (c) Num. xxxiv. 1— 12; (d) Deut. xi. 24. They were to be, on the South, the desert of El-Tih; on the North, Mount Lebanon; on the East, the Euphrates; on the West, the Mediterranean Sea.

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this Lebanon] Compare also v. 2, this Jordan," and Deut. iii. 25. The river was visible and lay close at hand; the Lebanon range (=“the white Mountain") could be discerned, though at a great distance.

Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be 5 able to stand before thee all the days of thy life as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for 6 unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only 7 be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but 8 thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest 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. Have not I commanded thee? 9 Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

the great river] "The great flood Eufrates," Wyclif. This is the term (comp. Gen. ii. 14, xv. 18) most frequently used in the Bible for the Euphrates, a word of Aryan origin, denoting "the good and abounding river," the largest, the longest, and by far the most important of the rivers of Western Asia.

the land of the Hittites] This nation was descended from Cheth (A.V. "Heth"), the second son of Canaan. We first meet with them in Gen. xxiii. 3-5, when Abraham bought from "the children of Heth" the field and the cave of Machpelah. On their relation to the other nations of Canaan see below. They are here put for the Canaanites generally.

5. as I was with Moses] "The narrative labours to impress upon us the sense that the continuity of the nation and of its high purpose was not broken by the choice of person and situation."

I will not fail thee] Comp. Deut. xxxi. 6, 8; 1 Chron. xxviii. 20. The words are cited in Heb. xiii. 5, "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

8. This book of the law] Joshua is admonished that the Law must be strictly and carefully observed, if the great work, to which he had been called, was to be successfully accomplished. He was "to read, mark, and inwardly digest it," and carry out its provisions to the letter.

9. Have not I commanded thee?] Observe the repetition of the words of exhortation. The Hebrew leader is reminded again and again that it was not his work but God's work, which he had been raised up to carry out. Comp. Deut. xxxi. 7, 8, 23.

JOSHUA

3

10-18.

The Command of Foshua to the People.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, 11 saying, Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which 12 the LORD your God giveth you to possess it. And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of

10-18. THE COMMAND OF JOSHUA TO THE PEOPLE.

10. the officers] Or, Shoterim. The word denotes (1) literally a "writer," or "scribe;" then (2) an overseer, in whose office were combined various duties, including enrolments, orders &c., also genealogies; (3) a magistrate, prefect, leader of the people, especially, as here, the leaders, officers, of the Israelites in Egypt and in the desert. Comp. Num. xi. 16, xxxi. 14, 48; Deut. i. 15, xvi. 18, xx. 5, 8, 9, xxxi. 28. Their duties were at once civil and military.

11. Prepare you victuals] The word denotes (a) food got in hunting; (b) food of any kind, especially provisions for a journey. Comp. Exod. xii. 39, "neither had they prepared for themselves any victual;" Josh. ix. 11, 14; Judg. vii. 8, "So the people took victuals in their hands, and their trumpets;" 1 Sam. xxii. 10, "And he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him victuals." The need of the provision on this occasion is explained by the cessation of the Manna. See below, ch. v. 12. within three days] Comp. ch. iii. 1, 2. The order appears to have been given on the 7th day of the month Nisan, for the people crossed the Jordan on the roth. The expedition, therefore, of the spies occupied from the 5th to the 8th of the month, and the message to the eastern tribes was sent during the same interval.

12. the Reubenites] Gadites, and the Half-Tribe of Manasseh, on account of their wealth in flocks and herds (Num. xxxii. 16, 24), had received already their possessions in "the forest-land," "the pastureland" of the country beyond the Jordan, the territory of the conquered kings Sihon and Og. The remote downs of this portion of Palestine received a special name, "Mishor," expressive of their contrast with the rough and rocky soil of the west. "The vast herds of wild cattle which then wandered through the woods, as those of Scotland through its ancient forests, were in like manner, at once the terror and pride of the Israelite,-"the fat bulls of Bashan." The king of Moab was but a 66 great sheep-master," and "rendered" for tribute a "hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool" (2 Kings iii. 4). And still the countless herds and flocks may be seen, droves of cattle moving on like troops of soldiers, descending at sunset to drink of the springs-literally, in the language of the Prophet, rams and lambs, and goats, and bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan" (Ezek. xxxix. 18). See Dean Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, 1. 217, 218; Sinai and Palestine, App. § VI,

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Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying, Remember the word which 13 Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, 14 shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them; until the LORD 15 have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD's servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising. And 16 they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will 17 we hearken unto thee: only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that doth rebel 18 against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death only be strong and of a good courage.

13. Remember the word] Num. xxxii. 20-24 is quoted, not literally, but freely according to the sense.

hath given you rest] Comp. Deut. xxv. 19, "It shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it." Into this "rest" the disobedient did not enter (Num. xiv. 28-30; Ps. xcv. 7-11; Heb. iii. 11-18), but the true Rest," the complete "Sabbath-keeping,” still remaineth for “the people of God" (Heb. iv. 9).

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this land] Compare verse 2 and Deut. iii. 18, the land in which the whole people as yet and the speaker also were, the land east of the Jordan.

14. ye shall pass over] According to the promise solemnly given, Num. xxxii. 17, 27, 32.

all the mighty men of valour] Not the whole of the adults who were fit for war, and who numbered, according to Num. xxvi. 7, 18, 34, upwards of 136,930 men, but 40,000 "prepared for" war, Josh. iv. 13.

16. All that thou commandest us] A joyful answer instinct with a spirit of true fraternal love and resolute obedience.

17. only the Lord thy God] The promise of the Two Tribes and a Half closes with the same call to trust and confidence in the Most High, which God Himself had already addressed to Joshua.

2

I-7. The Mission of the Spies to Fericho.

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And

CH. II. 1-7. THE MISSION OF THE SPIES TO JERICHO.

1. sent out] Or, had sent. Comp. ch. i. 11, iii. 2. This was probably on the same day that Joshua received the Divine command to cross the Jordan.

out of Shittim] Comp. Num. xxxiii. 49, xxv. 1; Jos. iii. 1; Mic. vi. 5. The full name of the place is given in the first of these passages, "Abel Shittim" "the Meadow" = or "Moist Place of the Acacias." It was in the "Arabah" or Jordan valley opposite Jericho, at the outlet of the Wady Heshbon, about 60 stadia-3 hours from the place of crossing the river. "We were in the plain of Shittim, and on climbing a little eminence near, we could see the rich wilderness of garden, extending in unbroken verdure right into the corner at the north-east end of the Dead Sea, under the angle formed by the projection of the mountains of Moab, where the Wady Suiweimeh enters the lake. It is now called the Ghor es Seisaban.... Among the tangled wilderness, chiefly near its western edge, still grow many of the acacia trees, 'Shittim' (Acacia sayal), from which the district derived its appropriate name of Abel-ha-Shittim, 'the meadow or moist place of the acacias;"" Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 524..

two men] "Young men" according to the LXX. and ch. vi. 23. Brave, doubtless, and prudent, such as Joshua, who had himself been one of the twelve spies (Num. xiii. 16), would be likely to select, knowing, as he knew, all the dangers to which they would be exposed.

Jericho] "The first stage of Joshua's conquest was the occupation of the vast trench, so to speak, which parted the Israelites from the mass of the Promised Land," and which was dominated by the city of Jericho, a place of great antiquity and importance. It derived its name, "the City of Palm Trees," from a vast grove of noble palm. trees, nearly three miles broad, and eight miles long, which must have recalled to the few survivors of the old generation of the Israelites the magnificent palm-groves of Egypt. The capture of Jericho was essential for two reasons:

=

(a) Standing at the entrance of the main passes from the valley into the interior of Palestine,-the one branching off S. W. towards Olivet, and commanding the approach to Jerusalem, the other, to the N.E., towards Michmash, which defends the approach to Ai and Bethel-it was the key of the country to any invader coming as Joshua did from the East.

(b) It was for that age a strongly walled town and "enjoyed the benefit of one, if not two, of those copious streams which form the chief sources of such fertility as the valley of the Jordan contains." Its reduction, therefore, must have been the first object of the operations of Joshua on entering the land of Canaan. See Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 305. "The strategy displayed by the Israelites under Joshua