Joshua 10

10 1 Now it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed 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 made peace with Israel, 2 and were among them; that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the 3 royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. Wherefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of 4 Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying, Come up unto me, and help me, and let us smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with 5 the children of Israel. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, 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 against Gibeon, and made 6 war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the

7 kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill country are gathered together against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of 8 valor. (And the LORD [had] said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into 9 thine hands; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.) Joshua therefore came upon 10 them suddenly; for he went up from Gilgal all the night. And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and he slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way 11 of the ascent of Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, while they were in the going down of Beth-horon, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with the hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. 12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon. 13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and 14 hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel 15 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal. 16 And these five kings fled, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah. And it was told 17 Joshua, saying, The five kings are found, hidden in the cave at Makkedah. And Joshua said, 18 Roll great stones unto the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them: but stay not 19 ye; pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter 20 into their cities: for the LORD your God hath delivered them into your hand. And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, and the remnant which remained of them had entered into 21 the fenced cities, that all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: 22 none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. Then said Joshua, Open the 23 mouth of the cave, and bring forth those five kings unto me out of the cave. And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of 24 Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon. And it came to pass, when they brought forth those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the chiefs of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put 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: for 26 thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight. And afterward Joshua smote them and put them to death, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging 27 upon the trees until the evening. And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had hidden themselves, and laid great stones on the mouth of the cave, unto this very day. Verses 28-39. Conquest and destruction of Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir. 40 So Joshua smote all the land, the hill country, and the South, and the lowland, and the slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining: but he utterly destroyed all that breathed, 41 as the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded. And Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea 42 even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. 43 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

1. The name Jerusalem here occurs for the first time in the Scriptures. 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. Bush.

3. The places here named were probably the most important cities of southern Canaan, and hence the king of Jerusalem, the nearest royal city to Joshua’s host, sends to them for a union of forces. He was cut off from all the northern kings by Joshua’s army. Crosby.

7. The noble disposition of Joshua, besides his engagement, will not let him forsake his new vassals. Their confidence in him is argument enough to draw him into the field. The greatest obligation to a good mind is another’s trust. How much less shall our true Joshua fail the confidence of our faith! We may be wanting in our trust; our trust can never want success. Bp. H.—But why needed Joshua to put himself and his men so much to the stretch? Had not God promised him that without fail he would deliver the enemies into his hand? It is true he had; but God’s promises are intended, not to slacken and supersede, but to quicken and encourage our endeavors. He that believeth doth not make haste to anticipate providence, but doth make haste to attend it with a diligent, not a distrustful speed. H.

8. And the Lord said unto Joshua.** More correctly “for the Lord had said;” as we cannot suppose that Joshua undertook this expedition before he had sought counsel of God, and received the encouragement contained in the ensuing words. Without 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. I have delivered them into thy hand. The usual form of speech to express the absolute certainty of a future event. Bush.

9. All night.** They could easily reach Gibeon (twelve miles from Gilgal) in one night. Crosby.—Joshua marches all night, and fights all day for the Gibeonites. If his very Israelites had been in danger, he could have done no more: God and his Joshua make no difference, betwixt Gibeonites Israelited and his own natural people. All are Israelites whom he hath taken to league. Bp. H.

Came upon them suddenly. When the moment came Joshua struck; and struck swift and hard. The plain old story in its civil style cared not to paint the picture for us, but contents itself with the simple word “suddenly.” The five kings that thought to make but a short siege of Gibeon, waited only for the morn; but Joshua, with his men of war, “went up all night from Gilgal and fell upon them suddenly.” Such slaughter was dealt that the very elements joined in as if in contagious sympathy, and hailstones hurled from the mountain-tops smote the routed foe; and such a day’s work was done that the very sun and moon were fain to linger that they might see it through! Then too, again, we see him when all those kings from the north and south and east and west came and pitched together against him by the waters of Merom, thinking now they would crush him with overpowering force; Joshua goes up suddenly against them, after his fashion and armies and horses and chariots and cities roll down as before an avenging flame. J. L. Chamberlain.

10,11. In the early morning, before the besiegers could have heard of his having left his camp by the Jordan, Joshua and his soldiers, strong in the assurance given by God that “not a man of them should stand before him,” burst on the unsuspecting enemy and discomfit them utterly. The huge host—the largest Joshua had yet encountered—is driven before him up the rocky ascent to the mountain village of Beth-horon the Upper. In headlong flight they rush down the slippery rocks of the precipitous descent that leads to the lower village of the same name—Beth-horon the Nether. There a fierce tempest, partial as the sudden storms of mountain regions usually are, for the pursuers were unharmed by it, accompanied with hailstones of prodigious size, bursts on the fugitives, and completes their discomfiture. As afterward against Sisera, “the stars in their courses fought against them,” and, stricken down by the hand of God, “they were more which died with hailstones than were slain by the sword. E. V.

Between the two Beth-horons is a steep pass, still very rocky and rough, though the rock has been cut away in many places, and the path formed into steps. The main road from Jerusalem and the Jordan valley to the sea-coast lay through the pass of Beth-horon, and accordingly both the Beth-horons were secured by Solomon with strong fortifications (2 Chron. 8:5). It was in this pass that Judas Maccabeus fell suddenly on the Syrians and routed them. Here, too, the Roman army, under Cestius Gallus, after being driven from its position before Gibeon by an impetuous attack of the Jews from Jerusalem, sustained severe losses in men and baggage from the insurgents. Espin.

The pass of Beth-horon was the western access, as that of Jericho was the eastern, to the hill country and the fastnesses of Central Palestine. At the head of the pass stood the cities of Mizpeh and Gibeon. From the slaughter by Joshua, near Gibeon, the Canaanites fled “along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon.” From thence they crossed the ridge and descended toward the west. “And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down of Beth-horon, that the Lord cast great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah” (verses 12, 14). Down the same pass, too, David drove the Philistines (2 S. 5:25). It was the scene of the last success of the insurgent Jews over the Romans just before the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. Up the same pass the Crusading armies advanced under Richard Cœur-de-Lion. Belh-horon the Upper and Belh-horon the Nether have survived all the vicissitudes of four thousand years, and the same names still remain in Beit’ur el-foka and Beit’ur et-tahta: the upper village perched on the crest and steep side of the hill, the lower (et-tahta) on a low hill, farther down on the other side of the pass; and the road from Gibeon and Michmash to the Philistine Plain still passes by them.

12. Standing on the summit of the pass, with Gibeon behind him, Joshua looked down the broad green vale of Ajalon, as it unfolded in the distance into the open Plain of Sharon and the wide expanse of the Mediterranean beyond. The sun “was in the midst of heaven,” for it was noon-day, the moon was visible above the hailstorm which came driving up from the west, when Joshua spake, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” H. B. T.—The Amorites were evidently making for their cities, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, far away on the plain to the south; and though a great part of the day still remained, yet night might come on ere the Israelites could overtake them, and thus favor their escape—hence Joshua’s remarkable prayer and command. J. L. P.

While the vanquished Amorites were rushing in wild confusion down the mountain pass, eager to reach their strongholds or to find refuge in the rocky fastnesses with which the district abounds, Joshua, gazing down on them from the summit of the pass, and apprehensive lest the day should prove too short for the accomplishment of his work, uttered that bold apostrophe, that magnificent venture of faith, in which the servant of the true God called on the heavenly bodies, as His ministers, to stand still and aid the overthrow of their idolatrous worshippers. E. V.

12-15. Joshua’s impassioned prayer of faith is quoted in the sacred text from the “Book of Jasher,” apparently, as we infer from 2 S. 1:18, a collection of poetical pieces, connected with the sublimest scenes in the history of the heroes of the kingdom of God. In this instance the quotation begins, as we take it, at verse 12, and ends with verse 15. This is proved by the insertion in verse 15 of a notice, which in the historical narrative occurs only in verse 43. For it is evident that Joshua did not return to Gilgal immediately after the battle of Gibeon (verse 21), but pursued the war, as described in the rest of ch. 10, till the whole south of Palestine was reduced. Thus verses 12-15 are a quotation from “the Book of the Pious,” inserted within the Book of Joshua, the narrative of which is resumed in verse 16. A. E.

The geographical localities named concur with the facts stated to show that it was during the morning hours of the day, and not toward the evening hours, that the sun and moon were arrested in their course by this miracle. The direction of this flight and pursuit was westward. Joshua had passed the highlands on which Gibeon stood, so that Gibeon lay eastward from his point; while the valley of Ajalon was still some distance in the west. The sun had risen above Gibeon, perhaps nearly half way to his meridian, so that it stood still “in the midst of heaven, i.e. coming near the middle of its diurnal circuit in the heavens; while the moon, somewhat past the full, hung over the valley of Ajalon.” H. C.—It is well known now, that the sun and moon are so closely associated that the staying of the one implies the staying of the other; but not till after long ages was their connection revealed by astronomy. While in other books called “sacred,” the strangest mistakes are made as to the sun and the moon, their exact relation is in this early narrative distinctly acknowledged. The sun, it is true, is related to other planets in our system; but in this incident the earth is the standpoint, and therefore appropriately are the moon and the earth conjoined. The sun visibly arrested in the heavens, was all that was essential for the leader of the Israelites; yet the collateral fact is announced—the moon staying in the valley of Ajalon. Fraser.

It should be remembered that, as in those early ages men had not the slightest notion of the modern discoveries in astronomy, it was unavoidably necessary that the event should be described according to the knowledge which then obtained. When God directed Joshua to record this miracle, he did not direct him to record it in a manner more agreeable to true astronomy; because if he had done so, unless he inspired the world at the same time with a true knowledge of astronomy, the account would rather have tended to raise among those who read it and heard of it, disputes and “oppositions of science falsely so called,” than have promoted the great ends of religion intended by it. Shackford.—It had been unreasonable at that time to think of astronomy, or of the errors of sight; for if any one had told him that the sun could not really move in the valley of Ajalon, but only in relation to sense, would not Joshua have answered that his one desire was that the day might be prolonged, so it were by any means whatever? Kepler.

Observers of the scene of the battle are struck with the admirable precision of the Scripture narrative in its topographical details. The language marks the first stage of the flight of the Amorites—from before Gibeon toward Beth-horon—as upward. This, doubtless, was the stage between Gibeon and the summit-ridge, a mile or two westward of the town. Having passed this ridge their way would be downward, and from Beth-horon when they reached it would be rapidly downward, over frightful steeps past lower Beth-horon till the plain below was reached. This second stage of the flight is also clearly marked in the narrative. The language is: “And it came to pass, as they fled and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died. In this second stage of the flight, the Amorites distanced their pursuers, already wearied with the previous long march and hot fighting. Yet this, through a special providence, resulted in the Israelites’ advantage. For the clouds of a sudden storm were now seen darkening the plain below, and rolling inward from the sea toward the mountains. The fugitives rushed into the bosom of this storm, with its descending and destructive hail, while the tardy Israelites avoided it. The victory of God’s people, had it ended just here, would have been what we call a brilliant one. But how many brilliant victories are indecisive of the cause for which war is waged! Must not Joshua have agonized in spirit as he beheld the quickening pace of the fugitive Amorites and the slackening pace of his own troops, lest the decisive results of victory were about to elude his grasp? How many a victorious general has longed for only an hour or two more of daylight, that he might reap the fruits of victory! How many a beaten general has longed for the coming of night, to save him from utter rout and destruction! On the afternoon of Waterloo, the Prussian forces not having yet come upon the ground, and the lines of the British having become thin and wavering from the repeated and fiery onsets of the French, Wellington, wiping the bead-drops of agony from his brow, sighed for “Night—night, or Blücher!” Nay, two years before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus—as we read in Josephus—the Roman army, under Cestius Gallus, having been repulsed from the sacred city by the Jews and fleeing with frightful loss past Gibeon down this identical pass of Beth-horon, was saved from complete destruction only by the coming of night. How wholly natural, then, for Joshua intensely to desire that the coming of night should be deferred, giving time for his army to overtake and make an end of their adversaries! How every way urgent was the occasion for that sublime prayer—nay, for that awful command of Joshua, uttered as in God’s name—that the sun should pause in the heavens until the victory of God’s people should be completed! N. C. B.

The sun, moon, and lights of heaven were the deities at that time worshipped by the inhabitants of Canaan; but the Israelites were the servants of the true God, by whose command and under whose protection they were to war against these nations and their gods; and what greater demonstration could be given of the power of their God to support them, and of the inability of the false deities of the Canaanites to assist their worshippers, than to see that the God of Israel could cause these to contribute to, instead of preventing the ruin that was coming on those who served them. We cannot imagine that Joshua should, without a special intimation from heaven, have addressed to God the prayer concerning the sun and moon; for of how great extravagance would he have been proved guilty, if no effect had followed from his prayer? Unquestionably the same Lord who spake unto him before the battle, who bade him not fear the armies of the Canaanites, who assured him that they should not be able to stand before him, directed him to ask for this wonderful miracle; and in granting what he had asked for gave a full testimony, both to the Israelites and their enemies, that the gods of the heathen were but idols; and that it is the Lord that made and that raleth in the heaven. Shuckford.

It was not Joshua but his faith that did this; not by way of precept, but of prayer; if I may not say, that the request of a faithful man commands. God’s glory was that which Joshua aimed at: he knew that all the world must needs be witnesses of that, which the eye of the world stood still to see. What is there that God cannot do? And what is there which God can do, that faith cannot do? Bp. II.

13. On the expression in our English Bible, “And hasted not to go down about a whole day.” Professor Bush, who forty years ago was considered the finest Hebrew scholar in America, writes: “This should be ‘hasted not to go down as at the perfect day’—i.e., as it naturally 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. One who is acquainted with the Hebrew, upon turning to the original of Ex. 31: 18; De. 16: 6; 24: 13; Ps. 73: 19, will find ample proof of the correctness of this interpretation. The meaning, as we understand it, is not that the day was miraculously lengthened 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, we may presume, for fully accomplishing the object for which the miracle was granted.” Thus much toward a correct rendering of the Bible record. Let us next translate this record into the language of science. Within the present century scientists have learned that the revolution of the earth upon its axis is not the only means by which a body like the sun may be, in appearance, raised above the horizon. What is termed mirage, caused by the coming in of a dense stratum of air at some distance above the earth’s surface, will produce this same effect. “The particular form of mirage known as looming consists in an excessive apparent elevation of the object. A most remarkable case of this sort occurred on the 26th of July, 1798, at Hastings. From this place the French coast is fifty miles distant; yet from the seaside the whole coast of France from Calais to near Dieppe was distinctly visible, and continued so for three hours.” (Chambers’s Ency.) In the summer of 1856 the writer witnessed a mirage on Lake Michigan, by which the Manitou Islands, some twenty miles distant from his point of observation, were raised, in appearance, thirty degrees or two hours above the horizon. Knowing these facts, were I to attempt to translate the record of Joshua’s miracle into the language of science, I would not write, So the earth stopped in its revolution upon its axis, but so the Lord caused a mirage by which the sun and moon were made to remain for a season, in appearance, above the horizon; and thus lengthened out the day, for the Lord fought for Israel. This interpretation does not in any way affect the truly miraculous character of the event recorded; but it does explain a particular recorded, otherwise inexplicable—viz.: that the moon as well as the sun remained above the horizon; and it effectually answers the cavils (1) that this remarkable day is not mentioned by the Chaldean or Egyptian astronomers, inasmuch as a lengthening of the day produced in this way would not extend many miles from its centre at Gibeon; and (2)

the stupendous character of the event disappears, and the miracle takes its place naturally in the class of miracles recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures. Armstrong.

It answers all the conditions of the question—while it remains a most stupendous exhibition of the power of the Almighty in that day when “he hearkened to the voice of a man,” to suppose that the light was supernaturally prolonged, through the operation of the same laws of refraction and reflection, by which the sun’s disc is ordinarily seen above the horizon some time after he has really sunk below it. He who created the heavenly luminaries, and established the laws which transmit their light, could at this time so have altered the medium through which the sun’s rays passed as to render it visible above the horizon long after it would, under ordinary circumstances, have disappeared. This, to the apprehension of the Israelites, would have had all the visible effects of staying the career of the sun; and to ours, that of arresting the earth’s revolution on its axis; and this is all that the sacred text requires—all that Joshua required—all that we need require.

The Israelites acted upon the distinct commission which they received, and which was attested by the miracles which attended their career. The passage through the Red Sea and through the Jordan—the miraculous overthrow of the walls of Jericho—the hailstones at Gibeon, which, without touching the Israelites, slew more of their enemies than the sword—and the remarkable phenomenon in the heavens, likened to the standing still of the sun and the moon—were all so many proofs of their commission, and of the authority by which they acted. That authority and commission was attested by the belief of the very enemies against whom they warred, and who were very far from thinking that they had mistaken a fancy of their own for a Divine commission. They found it all too real. Kit.

To the friends of the Bible the appearance of miracles in this portion of the history should be particularly welcome. For it is only on the understanding that the Israelites, in conquering the land of Canaan and exterminating its people, were the instruments of divine vengeance, and were but acting clearly on a divine commission—just as the magistrate acts who inflicts capital punishment for high crime—that we can justify the extreme severity of their procedure. But thus acting, we can see how their procedure was justifiable. Thus the miracles attending this portion of the history are evidences to us, as they were to the Israelites themselves, of their divine commission. And was there not a moral reason existing of sufficient importance for the grandest and farthest-reaching miracle on that day when Joshua bade the sun and moon pause in their flight? The Israelites, insignificant in themselves, were the people chosen of God for the accomplishment of His great purpose of human redemption. They had now come to occupy the land covenanted to them of God hundreds of years before, in which they should receive and preserve the oracles of God, in which they should maintain God’s prescribed worship until Shiloh should come—until the Son of God should be born among them, the world’s Redeemer. And now the hour critical in all these high relations had struck. On the full success of that blow under which the enemies of God and of His church were reeling from before Gibeon, God’s honor and man’s salvation were in a high sense suspended, and it seemed only fit that sun, moon, and stars, mute creatures of God, should lend their mightiest aid for its attainment. For the sake of His church—for the fulfilment of His counsels of mercy for man’s salvation—God is ready to put forth His mightiest power. For the sake of His church, the Son of God exiled Himself from heaven and was clothed in the garments of human flesh. By means of His church, God will make known to a wondering universe—“to principalities and powers in heavenly places”—His own “manifold wisdom.” Our little globe—a dim speck amid the glowing worlds of night—is yet, as we can hardly doubt, the “Thermopylæ of the universe,” where Good and Evil fight out their last long battle. And it seems strictly in keeping with the mighty magnitude and grand proportion of things, that in the day of Israel’s agony and at the very outset of their great struggle, Joshua should have prayed as he did, and that his prayer was answered and the sun refused to go down until he had witnessed the victory for God complete. N. C. B.

God hearkened to the voice of Joshua. Once more the sun burst forth, and the daylight was miraculously protracted till Israel was avenged of its enemies. Onward rolled the tide of fugitives, hotly pursued by Israel, through the pass of Nether Beth horon to Azekah, and thence to Makkedah. Here tidings were brought to Joshua, that the five kings had hid themselves in one of the caves with which that district abounds. But Joshua would not be diverted from his object. He ordered large stones to be rolled to the mouth of the cave, and its entrance to be guarded by armed men, while the rest of the army followed the enemy and smote their “rear guard.” Only broken remnants of the fugitives found shelter in the “fenced cities.” A. E.

14. Before the prolonged day closed in, and the shadows of evening fell on “the Valley of Gazelles,” God’s promise had been fulfilled to the letter. Not a man of the enemies had stood before Joshua; all had been delivered into his hand. Long and deservedly did the marvels of that day—a day which, at one sudden blow, secured the possession of the Land of Promise to Israel—remain engraven on the memory of the nation. “There was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel.” E. V.

17,21. The identification by Professor Palmer of the village of El Mughâr (i.e., the Cave) with Makkedah is most important, and shows how much may still be done in Biblical topography. It stands on a hill on the west of the road from Ashdod to Ekron, which passes through a little valley; and on the east side stands Ghuderah. Sir G. Grove had already pointed out, from the history of Joshua, that in this district Makkedah must be looked for. The caves, from which it takes its modern name, have not yet been explored. The Cave of Makkedah is forever linked with the memories of the first great victory of Joshua—the battle of Beth-horon, before referred to—which gave Israel the whole Amorite district of the south. The cave must have been a well-known one, and outside the city. To it the five kings fled after their utter rout. Tristram.

Makkedah was in the eastern edge of the plain of Philistia, far to the south of the opening of the valley of Ajalon. It was over thirty miles distant from the ridge west of Gibeon, by the route taken. N. C. B.—It is impossible not to be struck by the constant agreement between the recorded history and the natural geography both of the Old and New Testament. To find a marked correspondence between the scenes of the Sinaitic mountains and the events of the Israelite wanderings is not much, perhaps, but it is certainly something toward a proof of the truth of the whole narrative. The detailed harmony between the life of Joshua and the various scenes of his battles is a slight but true indication that we are dealing not with shadows, but with realities of flesh and blood. Such coincidences are not usually found in fables, least of all in fables of Eastern origin. Stanley.—The geography of Palestine, as we find it to-day, is the strongest testimony of the truth of that history which purports to emanate thence. The natural scenery of Palestine speaks in but one voice in favor of the Bible; every word of the sacred narrative receives its best interpretation by being studied in connection with the place where it was recorded. No one can trace without joy and wonder the verification which geography pays to the history of the Holy Land. Ritter.

21. The original is very express that not one single Israelite was harmed either by word or weapon. So complete, so superhuman, so glorious was the victory. Bush.

27. Israel saw these monarchs, whose names had inspired such dread, grovelling in the dust before the conqueror. The chief warriors were bidden to approach, and, as a token of complete overthrow, plant their feet on the necks of the prostrate kings. “As these captive kings lay powerless before them, trodden beneath their feet, so would all their enemies who should make war upon them be laid prostrate by the Lord.” They were then put to death, and their bodies hung, each on its own tree, till the evening, when they were taken down and “cast into the cave wherein they had been hid,” the door of which was once more closed by the same huge stones. The kings’ prison-house became their sepulchre. E. V.

The battle of Beth-horon or Gibeon is one of the most important in the history of the world. It is one of the few military engagements which belong equally to Ecclesiastical and to Civil History—which have decided equally the fortunes of the world and of the Church. The roll will be complete if to this we add two or three more which we shall encounter in the Jewish History; and, in later times, the battle of the Milvian Bridge, which involved the fall of Paganism; the battle of Poitiers, which sealed the fall of Arianism; the battle of Bedr, which secured the rise of Mahometanism in Asia; the battle of Tours, which checked the spread of Mahometanism in Western Europe; the battle of Lepanto, which checked it in Eastern Europe; the battle of Lutzen, which determined the balance of power between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in Germany. Stanley.

28. Flushed with triumph, the warriors stormed the city of Makkedah itself and put its inhabitants to the sword. Makkedah was thus the first city captured after the fall of Jericho; nor does the place again occur in history. H. B. T.—Joshua contented himself with taking, demolishing, and burning those cities, but did not garrison any of them for fear of weakening his army. The scattered Canaanites in several 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.

42. At one time. Heb. “at one turn, or stroke;” i.e. in one uninterrupted course of vigorous action; 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 intermission, no cessation. Because the Lord fought for Israel. This clause is introduced in order to give credibility to the foregoing narrative. Viewed in any other light than as the result of omnipotence, such a tide of victories would naturally stagger all belief. Bush.

With characteristic promptitude Joshua pursued his success. City after city fell, tribe after tribe was exterminated in rapid succession. Of Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, the brief and stern record is the same: “He left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded. All these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God fought for Israel.” Southern Palestine was now conquered, the work immediately before Joshua was completed, and once more Joshua and all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal. E. V.