SECT. VII. The Hiftory of the Jews under Joshua. The conquest and partition of the land of Canaan. THE Ifraelitish camp continued at Shittim, near the ri- Year of n Josh. i. per tot. it, he difpatched three expreffes to them: the firft was, to permit thofe, who had a mind to leave the country, to depart; the second was, to offer peace to thofe that would make peace with him; and the laft, to declare war against thofe that refufed the two former offers (1). (A) Nothing less than fuch a divine affurance could indeed have fupported Joshua's courage in fo arduous a tafk. He was now ninety-three years of age, and had been trained up under Mofes at least one third part of that time, fo that he wanted neither experience nor fagacity to foresee all the difficulties he was to encounter with. He faw himself indeed at the head of fix hundred thoufand fighting men; but, on the other hand, his army (1) Goodw. ubi fup. was clogged with an innumera- (2) Job. ix. 1, 2, & feqq. x. & feqq. pass. As " M " Two fpies As foon, therefore, as he had received his order to prefent to Je-pare for the glorious conqueft, his first care was, to make richo; choice of two proper perfons to go privily to the land of Jericho, and examine what condition their cities and people were in. Thefe foon fet out for the perilous expedition; Concealed and, having happily croffed the Jordan, went and lodged by Rahab. at an innkeeper's houfe (X) named Rahab; where they had not been long, before a ftrict fearch was made after them, by order of the alarmed king of Jericho. Their fear, however, was foon difpelled by their hofpitable hoftefs, who fent away the fearchers, by telling them out of her window, that two ftrangers had indeed refreshed themselves at her houfe, but that they were gone fince towards funfet, and might be eafily taken, if clofely pur (X) We have ventured to mokereth mazon, a feller (68) Pide Tny in Junius has fully proved (71). And indeed, as the word in its primitive fenfe properly fignifies the former, it is not unlikely, that the freedoms which those kind of women were used to allow to their customers, might give birth to the latter fignification; fo that, from an hoftefs, or victualler, it came in time to fignify an harlot. But as it doth not appear by the text, that she followed both thefe trades, but rather the contrary, the faith which the expreffed in GoD, and her behaviour to his two fervants, might well deferve to have the most favourable conftruction put upon her profeffion, To which we may add, that it is not likely, that Salmon would, or indeed could, afterwards have lawfully married her, if fhe had been fuch a public woman; he who was a prince of the houfe of Judah, and one of the MESSIAH's anceftors. feu lexic. R. Nathan. (69) RR. Salem. (71) Vid. (70) In rad. fued. fued. Their backs were no fooner turned, than she went to the two fpies, to whom the freely owned the panic dread that had feized not only that city, but all the land of Canaan, at the news of what the GOD of Ifrael had done in favour of their nation, both at the Red Sea, and against thofe kingdoms which they had fo lately conquered. To this fhe added, that, being now fully perfuaded, that he was the only true God, againft whofe decrees all oppofition would be both vain and dangerous, fhe was now ready to fave them from their imminent danger, upon condition they fwore to fave her and her family, when they became mafters of the city. An offer fo generous and unexpected, joined to fo candid a confeffion, could not deserve a lefs reward; and the two spies, who, in the condition they were in, would have purchased their fafety upon much harder terms, were not long before they gave They her all the defired affurance, that not only fhe and herwear to family, but all that were found in her house at the taking fave her of the city, fhould be exempted from the common ruin, and hers. She kept them hid the remaining part of the time under fome hempen ftocks, and about midnight let them down by a rope out of one of her back windows, which was contiguous to the city-wall, after fhe had charged them to keep themselves concealed in fome cliff of the neighbouring mountains for two or three days, till their purfuers were returned home. Before they took their leave, they agreed, that the fhould hang a fcarlet line out of her window, which fhould be a fignal to them, and a safeguard to her house. The rifk they had run, put a stop to their further progrefs; and what they had learned at Jericho, made it as needlefs as dangerous: fo that, having happily escaped all further difcovery, they returned to their camp on the third day, and related to Joshua all that had happened to them. . THE Confternation which, they told him, had over- Return to fpread that whole land, was univerfally looked upon as a the camp, fure omen of their future fuccefs; and Joshua failed not and make to improve it, by affuring them, that it was God himself their rewho had ftruck their enemies with fuch a terror, and that port. they had now nothing to do but to fight valiantly under his banner and protection. He then reminded the two tribes and half of their former promife of affifting their brethren in the conqueft of the land P. But as thofe tribes compofed an army of an hundred thousand fighting men, • Josh. ii. per tot. : P Ibid. i. 12, & feqq. Joshua Fofbua contented himself with less than one half, and left the reft to defend their new poffeffions and families. After this, he caufed it to be proclaimed through the camp, that they fhould pafs over the Jordan within three days; during which time they fhould make provision for victuals, feeing the manna was to ceafe as foon as they had fet foot on the other fhore, as it actually did +; and They pre- then he gave the fignal for marching from Shittim to the pare to neighbouring fhore of that river. As foon as they were march encamped there, Joshua fent and communicated to every towards tribe the order that was to be obferved in this folemn Jordan. march. The priests, bearing the ark, were to begin the The order proceffion; and as foon as their feet, touching the water, of crofing had opened a miraculous way r to them, each tribe was to that ri- follow in the fame order as they had obferved in all their ver; marches, keeping, however, the awful distance prefcribed of two thoufand cubits, from that facred fymbol of the Divine Prefence *, whilft those that bore it were to continue in the middle of the river, till the whole host of Ifrael had got fafe to the other fhore. To infpire the people with a still greater regard for this wonderful paffage, they were commanded to fanctify themfelves, as had been formerly done upon fuch folemn occafions; and Joshua charged every tribe to fend a man to him, to be ready to execute fuch orders as he should give them on the morrow; which was no fooner come, than the priests began their march towards the river, and the people made themselves ready to follow them in two columns, one above, and the other below the ark (B). which di- As foon, therefore, as the priests that bare the ark had vides it touched the extremity of it with their feet, GoD, who felf to open had promifed to fignalize their new general here, in as a dry pafmiraculous a manner, as he had done their old one at the fage. Red Sea, caufed the waters of the river from above to go back, and to rife up in heaps far beyond the city of Adam, r Ibid. iii. 13. + Josh. v. 12. Ibid. ver. 4. over (1), about which time the water of Jordan, being ufually fwelled by the melting of the fnows of Lebanon, and other neighbouring mountains, feldom or never failed to overflow its banks. (1) Uber's ann, ant. C, 1451 · which is befide that of Zaretan, whilft thofe below, continuing their courfe towards the fea of the plain, otherwife called the Salt or Dead Sea, opened a paffage of about fixteen or eighteen miles in breadth to the Ifraelites, till they were all got fafe to the other fide. up. DURING all the time of their croffing, the priests continued with the ark in the midst of the Jordan, and waited only for Joshua's orders when to come out, and join the rest of the camp. But Joshua, who defigned to Two moperpetuate the memory of this wonderful tranfaction, numents of commanded them to ftand ftill, till he had made thofe it reared twelve men, whom he had directed to wait about him, take twelve large ftones, one for each tribe, and lay them on one heap in the place where the ark ftood, fo that they might be seen afterwards from each fhore, when the waters of the river were abated; and at the fame time he made them take up twelve other ftones from the bottom of the river, and to erect a monument with them on the fhore; which was no fooner done than the priests had orders to march with the ark, and leave the waters to refume their ufual courfe. Joshua, who by this time was in as high esteem with the people as Mofes had been before, failed not to charge them to tranfmit to their pofterity the occafion and meaning of these two monuments; both which, if we may believe Eufebius and others, were ftill to be feen many centuries after ". From this place Joshua commanded the vanguard, which confifted of the forty thousand men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manaffeh, to march towards the plains of Jerichow; and these were foon followed by the reft of the army, and encamped at Gilgal, about feven or eight miles from Jordan, and about three or four from Jericho. In the mean time the feaft of the paffover drew nigh, unto which no uncircumcifed perfon was to be admitted, under the fevereft penalties; and yet that ceremony had been intermitted during their forty years wandering, as has been lately hinted: it was therefore neceffary, before Circumall things, that it fhould be renewed out of hand: where-cifion refore Joshua was commanded to have it immediately per-newed. formed (C); and God, highly pleased with their obe Jofh. iii. & iv. per tot. dience, EUSEB. loc. Hebr. fub Bounos & Gilgal. ANSELM. ALBERT, JOB. MOSCH. vit, patr. & al. ap. .Calm. hift, V,T. lib. iii. w Jofh. iv. 12, 13. an operation; and time was altogether favourable their miraculous paffage over the |