PERIOD THE FOURTH.

CHAPTER I.

The Conquest of Canaan1.

SECTION I.

The Mission of Joshua.

JOSHUA I. VER. 1-10.

1 Now after the death of Moses the servant of the A.C. 1451. LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, a Moses' minister, saying,

2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go

1 The conduct of Providence towards the people of Israel, had now made them the only nation in the world, which maintained in its entire purity the doctrine of the Unity of God. The nations around them, professed the grossest polytheism; and though many have been of opinion that the more philosophical part of mankind, saw through the absurdity of Idolatry; we have no proof whatever, that they worshipped the one only true God, which was revealed to their fathers, and was adored by the Israelites. The one God of the Heathens, was a mysterious, undefinable, existing, nameless, first cause; which received various epithets at various times. It was something comprising the properties of matter, with the attributes of spirit; which every attempt to describe rendered only more unintelligible and absurd. It was sometimes called the plastic energy of nature-fate-destiny-the soul of the world-or whatever other term the fancy or superstition of the Pagans might please to assign it: and we have every reason to suppose the philosopher, the magistrate, and the vulgar, among the Idolatrous nations, differed only in their degrees of absurdity. The people of Israel alone, not by the efforts of their own reasoning, but by the proofs which had appealed so strongly and so undeniably to their senses; believed and professed, the religion of the true God, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent Creator, Preserver, and Judge of the World.

The worship of Jehovah being thus established among the Israelites, it could not be supposed that they were designed to wander perpetually in the wilderness. So long as the Israelites continued an obscure and wandering people in the deserts of Arabia, the great and merciful purposes, for which they had been so conspicuously favoured by the Almighty, could not be considered as fulfilled. From the miracles and wonders they had witnessed, they would naturally conclude they were not to continue for ever in the wilderness; they would anti

a Deut. i. 38.

A.C. 1451. over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

cipate the possession of some fertile country where they might establish their religion in its purity. The land of Canaan, which was now in the possession of the Canaanites, appeared from its central situation best adapted for this purpose; but this circumstance could give them no right or title to the territory. Yet we read they claimed this country as if it was their inheritance: they fought, they conquered, they put to death, or dispossessed the inhabitants. The question therefore which has been proposed by many on reading this part of the narrative is worthy of attention. By what right did the Israelites invade the land of Palestine ?

God, the great governor, who possesses all power over his creatures, and may justly punish those who violate his laws, in that manner which to his wisdom may seem most impressive and useful, commanded the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites, as the just retribution for their crimes and idolatries. God might have destroyed them by famine, by earthquake, by pestilence: He might have drowned by a local deluge, or consumed them by fire from heaven; instead of these He commissioned the people of Israel to root them out by the sword. In so doing, the Almighty not only demonstrated to the whole world his hatred of the corruptions, and pollutions of superstition; but He more particularly enforced on the Israelites the purity of his law, the certainty of their own punishment if they apostatized; and the freedom from temporal evil which they should consequently enjoy if they persevered in their allegiance to Him, their Sovereign.

Lest this invasion of Canaan by the Israelites however should be drawn into precedent by other nations, for ambition or religious persecution; they were assured by continued and powerful miracles, that their cause was just, that they should be successful, and that they were not subject at that period to the common laws of nations. The people of Israel was the sword of God, the great Magistrate of earth; and they were no more to be condemned in thus acting in conformity to the commands of God, than the executioner can be who fulfils the last sentence of the law. Before then other nations invade the territory of their neighbours on the same supposed authority as the Israelites, the same commission from heaven must be given; and that commission must be authenticated by miracles equally evident, perpetual, and wonderful.

Many however have not been satisfied with this argument: and would discard the doctrine of the peculiar Providence, which regulated by a visible theocracy the conduct of the chosen people; they would defend the invasion of Palestine on other grounds. They would judge of the transactions of that Period, (regardless of the peculiar circumstances under which they took place) by modern ideas, and the present law of nations. Some suppose that the conduct of the Israelites was solely defensible, on the supposition that there had been a partition of the whole earth by the sons of Noah; and that Canaan had been allotted to Shem; the sons of Shem therefore were justified in claiming their ancient inheritance from the Canaanites who were descended from Ham. Others have asserted that the Canaanites commenced the war by attacking the Israelites; an assertion which cannot be defended from the history. While others have affirmed, without any well-grounded arguments, that the Israelites as a wandering people,

b

3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, A.C. 1451. that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

having no certain home, were justified in forcibly invading, and taking possession of an adjoining territory. But Michaelis is of opinion that the right of the Israelites originated in their being actually the proprietors of Canaan, of which they had been unjustly dispossessed by the intruding and hostile Canaanites.

The laws of nations are always the same. If any nation, or tribe, or part of a tribe, take possession of an unknown, undiscovered, unoccupied, or uninhabited country, the right of property vests in them; they are its proprietors and owners. After the Deluge, the world might be said to be in this state; and Michaelis has endeavoured to prove, that the ancestors of Abraham were the original occupiers of the pasture land of Canaan. Canaan, therefore, by the law of nations, as well as by the promises of God, was the lot of Abraham's inheritance; and the rightful land of his descendants. The Canaanite and the Perizzite had only just established themselves in Canaan when Abraham removed from Haran to that country; and were so weak and few in number, that they never interfered with the rights of sovereignty assumed and exerted by Abraham. The Canaanites were merchants and adventurers who had been originally settled near the borders of the Indian ocean; and who having been dispossessed by the Cuthic Sidonians, had migrated westward, to form establishments on the sea coasts of Palestine, and carry on commerce with the herdsmen who traversed it. They were for some time contented with their factories on the sea coasts, but they gradually obtained possession of the inland country. The Perizzites, too, were a warlike tribe, who now first made their appearance in Canaan; they had originally inhabited the north-east of Babylonia. Whether they had been dispossessed of their settlements; whether they were seeking new establishments; or for whatsoever purpose they were now in Palestine, they gave no interruption to the progress of Abraham, although Abraham entered upon the Holy Land, and continued his journeyings with a large retinue, and as a powerful prince. He took possession of Canaan as the territory of his ancestors; not indeed as a fixed habitation, but as pasture land adapted to his numerous flocks and herds. He traversed the whole country as a proprietor, without a competitor. He had the power of arming three hundred and eighteen of his own servants, born in his own house and it is most probable that he had others who are not enumerated. He declared war as an independent prince of this country against five neighbouring princes; and formed an alliance with Abimelech, as an equal, and as a sove reign. It is true, he purchased land of the Canaanitish family of Heth, but this was because the Hittites had gradually made a more fixed settlement in that part of the country; their intrusion had not been at first prevented by the ancestors of Abraham; and by this sufferance they made that district their peculiar property.

As Abraham thus traversed and possessed Canaan, with undisputed authority, so too did Isaac and Jacob in like manner. No one opposed their right. They exercised, as Abraham had done before them, sovereign power; they never resigned that power; nor gave up to others the property of that land, which now, by long prescription, as well as by the promise of God, had become entirely their

own.

The ancestors, then, of the Israelites, Michaelis argues, were either the sole

b Deu. xi. 24. Ch. xiv. 9.

A.C. 1451.

4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great 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,

5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with e Heb. xiii. 5. thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

d Deut. xxxi.

23.

* Or, thou

shalt cause

с

*

6 d Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I

this people to sware unto their fathers to give them.

inherit the

land, &c.

7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses e Dent. v. 32. my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right + Or, do wise. hand or to the left, that thou mayest + prosper whithersoever thou goest.

& xxviii. 14.

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but 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 Or, do wise- shalt have good success.

9 Have not I commanded thee? 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.

sovereigns, or the most powerful of those princes who possessed, in early ages, the Holy Land. By the famine which occurred in the days of Joseph, they were compelled to leave their own country, and take refuge in Egypt: yet they never lost sight of the sepulchre of their fathers. And though we do not read that acts of ownership were continued to maintain and perpetuate their right, we can have but little doubt, that something of the kind took place, for Jacob was taken from Egypt to be buried there; Joseph assured them that they should return; and the Egyptians, their oppressors, a kindred branch of the powerful tribes which had by this time entirely taken possession of Palestine, kept them in bondage, and refused to let them go, lest they should claim the inheritance of their fathers.

If this claim of the Israelites can be proved to be well founded, they would have been entitled, by the law of nations, forcibly to take possession of the Holy Land; and it will be interesting to observe how the merciful providence of God afforded them the opportunity of successfully regaining their lawful inheritance, and at the same time accomplishing his own divine purposes, to the fulfilment of his prophecies, and to the happiness and security of his church. The Israelites may be considered as the servants and ministers of God, punishing the idolatry of the Canaanites, and instituting in its place, in the midst of an apostate world, the religion of the one true God. In every victory they obtained, they must have admired the faithfulness of that promise which had foretold their entire possession of this land; and they must have been persuaded, that if they served other gods, they would bring down upon themselves the punishments predicted by Moses.Vide Michaelis, Comment. &c. vol. i. book ii. ch. iii. p. 155, &c.; Hora Mosaicæ, vol. i. p. 458; Faber's Origin of Pag. Idol. vol. iii. p. 561, &c.

SECTION II.

The Spies sent out.

JOSHUA 112.

1 And Joshua the son of Nun *sent out of Shittim two A.C. 1451. men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and +lodged there.

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 sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.

4 And the woman took the 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 about 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.

6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and 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 ¶ And before they were laid 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,

*Or, had sent.

Num. xxv.l.

Heb. xi. 31. James ii. 25.

Heb, lay.

and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of Heb. melt. you.

ch. iv. 23.

10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the wa- h Ex. xiv. 21. ter of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and I what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were i Num. xxi. on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.

There is some accidental derangement of the order of the chapters in the book of Joshua. If chronologically placed, they should be read thus: the first chapter to the tenth verse-the second chapter from the tenth verse to the end of the first chapter-the third and consecutive chapters to the eleventh--then the twenty-second chapter-and lastly, twelfth and thirteenth chapters to the twentyfourth verse of the latter.-Bedford's Scripture Chronology, b. v. p. 590; Gray's Key, p. 147, note z.

24.