that this should be the day of my departure to them, I return him thanks, while I am still alive and present with you, for that providence he hath exercised over you, which hath not only delivered us from the miseries they lay under, but hath bestowed a state of prosperity among us; as also that he hath assisted me in the pains I took, and in all the contrivances I had in my care about you, in order to better your condition; and hath on all occasions shewed himself favourable to us. Or rather he it was who first conducted our af fairs, and brought them to a happy conclusion, by making use of me as a general under him, and as a minister in those matters wherein he was willing to do you good. On which accounts I think it proper to bless that divine power which will take care of you for the time to come; and this in order to repay that debt which I owe him; and to leave behind me a memorial that we are obliged to worship and honour him, and to keep those laws which are the most excellent gift of all those he hath already bestowed upon us; or which, if he continue favourable to us, he will bestow upon us hereafter. Certainly, a human legislator is a terrible enemy, when his laws are affronted, and are made to no purpose. And may you never experience that displeasure of God, which will be the consequence of the neglect of those laws, which he, who is your Creator, hath given you."

When Moses had spoken thus, at the end of his life, and had foretold what would befall* every one of their tribes afterward, with the addition of a blessing to them, the multitude fell into tears; insomuch that even the women, by beating their breasts, evinced the deep concern they had when he was about to die. The children also lamented still more, as not able to contain their grief; and thereby declared that even at their age they were sensible of his virtue, and mighty deeds; and

* Since Josephus assures us here, as is most naturally to be supposed, and as the Septuagint gives the text, Deut. xxxiii. 6, that Moses blessed every one of the tribes of Israel; it is evident that Simeon was not omitted in his copy, as it unhappily now is both in our Hebrew and Samaritan copies.

+ Deut. xxxiv. 6. But notwithstanding all this precaution of God, the Christians boast, that they have discovered the sepulchre, which had been kept secret for so many ages. For in the year 1655, some goats that were separated from the rest of the flock, went to feed in a cer

truly there seemed to be a strife between the young and the old, who should most grieve for him. The aged grieved, because they knew what a careful protector they were to be deprived of, and so lamented their future state; but the young grieved, not only for that, but also because it so happened, that they were to be left by him before they had well tasted of his virtue. Now one may form some idea of the excess of this sorrow and lamentation of the multitude, from what happened to the legislator himself. For although he was always persuaded that he ought not to be cast down at the approach of death; since the undergoing it was agreeable to the will of God, and the law of nature; yet what the people did, so affected him, that he wept himself. Now as he went thence to the place where he was to vanish out of their sight, they all followed after him, weeping. But Moses beckoned with his hand to those that were remote from him, and bid them stay behind in quiet; while he exhorted those that were near him, that they would not render his departure so lamentable. Whereupon they thought it their duty to let him depart according as he desired; so they restrained themselves, though weeping still towards one another. All those who accompanied him were the senate, and Eleazar the high-priest, and Joshua their commander. Now as soon as they were come to the mountain called Abarim, which is a very high mountain situate over against Jericho, and one that affords. to such as are upon it a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of Canaan, he dismissed the senate; and, as he was going to embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud suddenly overshadowed him, and he disappeared, in a certain valley; although he wrote in the holy books that he died; which was done out of fear lest they should venture to say, that betain place, in the mountain Nebo, and returned from thence so odoriferous and perfumed, that the shepherds, astonished at so wonderful a prodigy, ran presently to consult with the patriarch of the Maronites, who sent thither two monks from mount Lebanon, and they discovered a monument, on which was this inscription, Moses, the servant of the Lord. But there is too much reason to think that this is all a fiction, on purpose to raise the reputation of the Maronites; as Basnage, in his History and Religion of the Jews, has sufficiently proved, lib. 4. cap. 17. B.

cause of his extraordinary virtue he went to God.

Now Moses lived in all one hundred and twenty years,* a third part of which time, abating one month, he was the people's ruler. And he died in the last month of the year, which is called by the Macedonians Dystrus; but by us Adar; on the first day of the month. He was one that exceeded all men in understanding, and made the best use of what that understanding suggested to him. He had a very pleasing way of speaking, and addressing the multitude; and, as to his other qualifications, he had such a full command over his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names; as rather perceiving them in other men, than in

*Deut. xxxiv. 7.

† Nothing can be plainer from the text, than that Moses did die, and was really buried; nay, Josephus tells us, that the Scripture affirms, that he died lest people should think, because of the excellency of his person, that he was still alive, and with God. And yet, notwithstanding this, some of the Jewish doctors do positively affirm, that he was translated into heaven, where he stands and ministers before God: and of those who admit of his death,

himself. He was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced, you would think you heard the voice of God himself. So the people mourned for him thirty days.

Nor did ever any grief so deeply affect the Hebrews as did this upon the death of Moses. Nor were those that had experienced his conduct the only persons that desired him; but those also that perused the laws he left behind him had a strong desire after him, and by them gathered the extraordinary virtue he was master of. And this shall suffice for the declaration of the manner of the death of Moses.

and that his soul and body were really separated, the major part will not allow that he died a common death; for their notion is, that his soul departed with a kiss, because he is said to die, al pi, at the mouth, (as it is literally in the Hebrew, i. e. according to the word) of God; but if there be any sense in the expression, it must be, that he parted with his soul with great cheerfulness and serenity of mind, Witsius's Miscel. Iacra. B.

Deut. xxxiv. 10.

CHAP. I.

OF THE WAR CARRIED ON BY JOSHUA AGAINST THE CANAANITES, AND THE SIGNAL SUCCESSES OF THE HEBREWS.

W

THEN Moses had been taken from among men, in the manner already described, and when all the solemnities belonging to the mourning for him were finished, Joshua commanded the multitude to get themselves ready for an expedition. He also sent spies to Jericho,* to discover what forces they had, and what were their intentions. But he put his camp in order, as intending to pass over Jordan at a proper season. And calling to him the rulers of the tribe of Reu

* Josh. ii. 1. Jericho was a city of Canaan, which afterwards fell to the lot of the tribe of Benjamin, about seven leagues distant from Jerusalem, and two from Jordan. Moses calls it likewise the city of palm-trees, Deut. xxxiv. 3. because there were great numbers of them in the plains of Jericho; and not only of palm-trees, but as Josephus tells us, (Antiq. lib. 4. c. 5.) balsam-trees likewise, which produced the precious liquor in such high esteem among the ancients. The plain of Jericho was watered with a rivulet, which was formerly salt and bitter, but was afterward sweetened by the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 21, 22; whereupon the adjacent country, which was watered by it, became not only one of the most agreeable, but most fertile spots in all that country. As to the city itself, after it was destroyed by Joshua, it was in the days of Ahab, king of Israel, rebuilt by Hiel the Bethelite, 1 Kings xvi. 24. and in the times of the last kings of Judea, yielded to none except Jerusalem. For it was adorned with a royal palace, wherein Herod the Great died; with an hippodromus, or place where the Jewish nobility. learned to ride the great horse, and other arts of chivalry, with an amphitheatre, and other magnificent buildings; but during the siege of Jerusalem, the treachery of its inhabitants provoked the Romans to destroy it. After the siege was over, there was another city built, but not upon the same place where the two former stood, for the ruins of them are seen to this day. Of what account and bigness

bel, and the governors of the tribe of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, (for half of this tribe had been permitted to have their habitation in the country of the Amorites, which was the seventh part of the land of Canaan;) he put them in mind what they had promised Moses, and exhorted them that for the sake of the care that Moses had taken of them, who had never been weary of taking pains for them, no not when he was dying; and for the sake of the public welfare, they would prepare themselves, and readily perform what they had promised. So he took fifty thousand of them, and marched with them, from Abila to Jordan, sixty furlongs.

it was we have no certain information; but some later travellers inform us, that at present it is no more than a poor nasty village of the Arabs. Well's Geog. of the Old and New Testament; and Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo. B.

f The Amorites were one of the seven nations of Canaan. Hence Reland is willing to suppose, that Josephus did not here mean that their land beyond Jordan was a seventh part of the whole land of Canaan, but meant the Amorites as a seventh nation. His reason is, that Josephus, as well as our Bible, generally distinguish the land beyond Jordan, from the land of Canaan. Nor can it be denied, that in strictness they were different. Yet after two tribes and a half of the twelve tribes came to inherit it, it might in a general way be included under the land of Canaan, Palestine, or Judea. Of which we have a clear example before us in Josephus, whose words evidently imply that, taking the whole land of Canaan, or that inhabited by all the twelve tribes together, and parting it into seven parts; the part beyond Jordan was in quantity of ground one seventh of the whole. And this agrees with Reland's map of that country. Although this land beyond Jordan was so peculiarly fruitful, and good for pasturage, as the two tribes and a half took notice. Numb. xxxii. 1, 4, 16. that it maintained about a fifth part of the whole people.

so far, she said, she had been assured by those divine miracles of which she had been informed. So these spies acknowledged that they owed her thanks for what she had done already, and withal swore to requite her kindness not only in words, but in deeds; but they gave her this advice, that when she should perceive that the city was about to be taken, she should put her goods and all her family, by way of security, in her inn; and hang out scarlet threads before her doors or windows, that the commander of the Hebrews might know her house, and take care to do her no harm. “For," said they, "we will inform him of this matter, because of the concern thou hast had to preserve us; but if any of thy family fall in the battle, do not blame us; and we beseech that God by whom we have sworn, not then to be displeased with us, as though we had broken our oaths." So these men, when they had made this agreement, went away; letting themselves down by a rope from the wall, and escaped; and came and told their own people whatsoever they had done in their journey to this city. Joshua also told Eleazar the high-priest, and the senate, what the spies had sworn to Rahab, who confirmed what had been sworn.

Now while Joshua, the commander, was in fear about their passing over Jordan, for the river ran with a strong current, and could not be passed over with bridges, for there never had been bridges laid over it hitherto; and while he suspected that if he should attempt to make a bridge, the enemies would not afford him time to perfect it; and ferry boats they had none; God promised so to dispose of the river that they might pass over it, and that by taking away the main part of its waters. So Joshua, after two days, caused the army and the whole multitude to pass over in the following manner:-The priests went first, having the ark with them; then went the Levites, bearing the tabernacle and the vessels that belonged to the sacrifices; after which the entire multitude followed, according to their tribes, having their children and their wives in the midst of them, as being afraid for

* Josh. iv. 10.

† It has been a custom in all nations to erect monuments of stone, in order to preserve the memory of covenants, victories, and other great transactions; and though there was no inscription upon these stones, yet the number of them, and the place where they lay which was not at all

them lest they should be borne away by the stream. But as soon as the priests had entered the river first, it appeared fordable; the depth of the water being restrained, and the sand appearing at the bottom, because the current was neither so strong nor so swift, as to carry it away by its force; so they all passed over the river without fear, finding it to be in the very same state as God had foretold he would put it in. But the priests stood still in the midst of the river, till the multitude should be passed over, and should get to the shore in safety; and when all were gone over, the priests came out also and permitted the current to run freely as it used to do before. Accordingly, the river, as soon as the Hebrews were gone out of it, arose again presently, and came to its proper height as before.*

So the Hebrews went on farther fifty furlongs, and pitched their camp at the distance of ten furlongs from Jericho. But Joshua built an altar of those stones† which all the heads of the tribes, at the command of the prophet, had taken out of the river; to be afterward a memorial of the division of the stream, and upon it offered sacrifice to God; and in that place celebrated the passover, and had great plenty of all things which they had wanted hitherto. For they reaped the corn of the Canaanites, which was now ripe; and took other things as prey; for then it was that their former food, which was manna, and of which they had eaten forty years, failed them.

While the Israelites did this, and the Canaanites did not attack them, but remained quiet within their own walls, Joshua resolved to besiege them. So on the first day of the feast of the passover, the priests carried the ark, round about which was some part of the armed men to be a guard to it. These priests went forward, blowing with their seven trumpets, and exhorted the army to be of good courage, and went round the city with the senate following them, and when the priests had only blown with their trumpets, for they did nothing more at all, they returned to the

stony, was sufficient to signify some memorable thing, which posterity would not fail to hand down from one generation to another. Patrick's Commentary on Joshua, iv. 7. B.

Josh. vi. 13.