however, was at first grievously misinterpreted by the other tribes, who suspected their brethren of a design to establish a separate place of worship, contrary to the provision of the Mosaic Law, and directly tending to a violation of the national and theocratic amity. A civil war seemed to be imminent; and a large assembly, of a threatening character, was convened at Shiloh. Here, however, it was wisely resolved to send across Jordan a deputation, with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest at its head; in answer to whose remonstrances all intention of national disunion or schismatical worship was utterly disclaimed, and the true design of the memorial altar was explained; and by this means harmony was restored.

Towards the close of his life, the latter years of which he had spent in tranquillity at his residence in Timnath-serah, Joshua convened two assemblies of the heads of the people, one, at some place not named (perhaps at Shiloh), in which he exhorted the Israelites in general terms to be faithful to their Divine King and His institutions, by the remembrance of His promises and threatenings (Josh. xxiii.); and the other at Shechem, in which he detailed the great benefits that had been wrought for them by the Almighty, and, receiving from them a solemn assurance that they would be faithful to the Lord, he caused the Divine covenant to be recapitulated and renewed; whereupon he set up a large stone as a standing memorial of this public and solemn transaction. (Josh. xxiv.) Soon after, this illustrious servant of the Lord died (B. c. 1443) at the age of 110 years.* About the same time, perhaps a little earlier, took place the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, leaving his son Phinehas as his successor in the office of high priest.

"The character of Joshua is not only one of the finest in Scripture history, but one of the most remarkable that the world ever saw. There is scarcely any other great conqueror, and certainly no other great Asiatic conqueror, like him, without personal ambition, without any desire of aggrandizement. His whole heart was in the highest degree patriotic, under a system which required patriotism to take the form of religious obedience. In the distant view, the personal and even public character of this man is overshadowed by the very greatness of the events and circumstances in which he is placed. The events are greater than the man, and engage the attention more; and hence individually he appears with less éclat, and attracts less attention, than an inferior man among events of less importance. This, when rightly viewed. is not a dishonour to him, but a glory; for it shows how accurately he measured, and how truly he understood, his right position. A lesser man, in all the attributes of true greatness, would have been seen and heard more; but it is the magnanimous character of real greatness to shroud the power it exercises. Littleness is more demonstrative; greatness is quiet in the calm repose of conscious strength and influence."- KITTO, Daily Bible Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 315

ELEMENTARY AND GENERAL QUESTIONS.

461. Who was appointed to succeed Moses, and to lead the Israelites into the promised land?

462. How may we regard Joshua as a type of Christ?

463. Relate the history of the spies whom Joshua sent to Jericho.

464. Describe the miraculous passage of the Jordan by the Israelites. 465. What place was chosen as the first head-quarters of the Israelites in Canaan?

466. What events occurred soon after they had pitched their tents in this place?

467. Describe the capture of Jericho.

468. How was Ai situate with reference to Jericho?

469. Relate the circumstances attending the capture of Ai, including the history of Achan.

470. By what artifice did the Gibeonites persuade Joshua to make a league with them, and with what result to themselves?

471. What was the first combination of Canaanitish (Amorite or southern) princes against Joshua? Relate the history of its defeat, especially the miraculous prolongation of the day.

472. What was the second (northern) confederacy against Joshua? Where were the forces of the confederates defeated?

473. What took place in mounts Ebal and Gerizim, according to the injunctions of Moses?

474. Whither were the head-quarters of the Israelites transferred from Gilgal?

475. What place did Caleb choose as his portion?

476. Where did Joshua fix his residence?

477. Describe the relative position of the twelve tribes according to the allotment made by the survey of the country by Joshua.

478. What ground of quarrel arose between the Trans-jordanic tribes, and the other Israelites? "how was the dispute terminated?

479. What were the last solemn acts of Joshua, as recorded in Scripture?

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.

480. Describe the situation of Jericho.

481. How do you understand the imprecation against the future builder of Jericho (Josh. vi. 26., with 1 Kings xvi. 34.)?

482. Describe, generally, the features of Palestine, and the consequent natural divisions of the country.

483. State the situation of Gibeon. What is its modern name?

484. By what mode of warfare were the forces under Jabin distinguished?

485. Describe the lake of Merom.

486. Describe the situation of Shiloh. How long did the Ark-and the Tabernacle-remain there?

487. Give a sketch of the character of Joshua.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FROM JOSHUA TO GIDEON.

(Judges i. viii. Ruth.)

Moses had been raised up to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness; and Joshua had been appointed his successor to conduct them into Canaan. But the office which they filled was by no means designed to be permanent in the theocratic constitution delivered at Sinai, none but the Lord is recognised as the head and leader of the people; and we must regard Moses and Joshua as lieutenants or generals holding a temporary commission from the Divine Sovereign for the fulfilment of a special purpose. Joshua died without appointing any successor; he contented himself with exhorting the people to be faithful to God, and true to the principles of the Divine institutions; and it appears that it was the design of their heavenly King, after having vouchsafed to them extraordinary assistance during their period of national infancy, and under circumstances of peculiar danger, now to leave them to the use of those ordinary provisions for counsel and strength which are included in the Mosaic institute*, expecting to receive from them that faithful and loyal obedience to which they had been so solemnly and repeatedly pledged. The Lord held in His own hand the right and power to inflict upon His people national punishments for their national transgressions, punishments from the hands of their enemies, of the same kind as those which He had inflicted by their own hands upon the wicked and impenitent Canaanites; while, on the other hand, in order to mark His approbation of their dutiful obedience, He designed to visit them with peace, plenty, and all kinds of temporal prosperity. When chastisement should have effected its purpose, and the people should turn to Him with true repentance, then He would deliver them from their enemies, and remove His judgments whatever they might

Every tribe had its own hereditary chief or head, and subordinate officers; and their common faith formed the bond of union. The Israelites, therefore, formed a number of free states: probably the high priest presided, or ought to have presided, over a general assembly, or national

diet.

be; thus manifesting His Divine presence and government, at once to themselves and to the surrounding nations. Such was the state of discipline upon which the Israelites had now been called to enter; a state of discipline distinguished_by_the_distribution of temporal reward and punishment to the Israelites as a nation, which might well have served to conduct the mind to the expectation of individual reward and punishment in the future world.*

The first symptoms of national disobedience to the Divine will on the part of God's people after their establishment in Canaan was, as we have already seen, their backwardness in prosecuting the prescribed war of extermination against the old inhabitants of the country. And this remissness continued to increase. Some additional conquests were made, indeed, after the removal of Joshua,- including a seizure of territory from the Canaanites and Perizzites by Judah, assisted by Simeon, after the defeat of Adonibezek, whose thumbs and great toes were cut off as a punishment for that peculiar kind of cruelty which he had himself too often practised. On this occasion Jerusalem was taken and burnt; but the Jebusites still possessed their strong-hold in the upper part of this place, which they retained until the time of David. The conquest of Judah extended also to Hebron (formerly Kirjath-arba), Debir (formerly Kirjath-sepher), Hormah (formerly Zephath), Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron. The tribe of Joseph made a successful expedition against Bethel. On the whole, however, the war was not prosecuted with due vigour; and a blameworthy inactivity is charged especially upon the tribes of Zebulon, Asher, Naphthali, and Dan. (Judges i. 1-36.)

The Israelites were content, for the most part, to retain the remainder of the Canaanites in servitude or under tribute; their intercourse with them became more and more familiar,

"An extraordinary providence, carrying along with it the most exact distribution of temporal reward and punishment, simply proves the truth and reality of a temporal sanction; but so far from being inconsistent with the belief of a future state of reward and punishment, it should rather have been regarded as the surest foundation and steppingstone to such a belief. On this 'point Hengstenberg justly remarks: "Where this foundation (i. e. of a moral government on earth, a temporal recompense) is not laid, there the building of a faith in immortality is raised on sand, and must fall before the first blast. Whoever does not recognise the temporal recompense, must necessarily find in his heart a response to the scoff of Vanini at the revelation which promises, indeed, retributions for good and bad actions, but only in the life to come, lest the fraud should be discovered."'"-FAIRBAIRN, Typology of Scripture, part i. ch. vi.

N

and intermarriages were of common occurrence, until at length they became infected with their idolatrous spirit, and began to conform to their evil practices. A rebuke administered by an angel of the Lord (perhaps the uncreated Messenger of the covenant who had appeared to the patriarchs, Moses, and Joshua) constrained the people to weep for their offences; whence the place where this transaction occurred was called Bochim. (Judg. ii. 1-5.) But the impression appears to have been transitory; and idolatry continued to make progress, especially in the tribes of Dan and Ephraim (Judg. xvii.xxi.), attended with civil disorders.

As a punishment for this growing wickedness, the Lord permitted Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, to advance against the Israelites with such success that he held them in bondage during a period of eight years. The people then cried to the Lord in their distress, and He sent a deliverer for them in the person of Othniel (lion of God), of the tribe of Judah, a nephew of Caleb, who had obtained in marriage Achash, the daughter of Caleb, as a reward for his brave conduct at the siege of Debir (Josh. xx. 17.; Judg. i. 13.); under whose guidance they completely broke off the yoke of their foreign oppressor. (Judg. iii. 7—11.) Othniel was the first of those occasional leaders whom God raised up according to various emergencies, and invested with extraordinary authority as His representatives or deputies in the administration of the government or the execution of military command. These persons are called in Scripture JUDGES, or, as the term may be more properly rendered, Rulers. The Hebrew word is Shophetim, essentially the same as Suffetes among the Carthaginians (Liv. xxviii. 37.).*

The victory of Othniel was followed by a peace of forty years; after which, as a punishment for renewed offences, the Israelites were brought into subjection to Eglon, king of Moab, who, with the assistance of the Amorites and Amalekites, established his authority over the southern portion of Canaan and of the country beyond Jordan (i. e. the plains of Jericho, and the plains of Moab, or the open country on either side of the Jordan near its entrance into the Dead Sea); a territory which he continued to hold—but apparently without attempting to penetrate into the interior or high

* But it has been observed that the correspondence is more in the name than in the office. The Suffetes were ordinary magistrates, like the Prætors or Consuls at Rome. The Hebrew Judges were extraordinary military leaders, more like the Roman military Dictators, or the occasional commanders among the ancient Germans.