a prince of the tribe of Judah. All these things prove that the records whence this book has been compiled, were coeval with the events which they narrate.-4) The author of the book himself cites in express terms a book of poems, Josh. x. 13.[a]

From the frequent occurrence of the phrase," in the land of Canaan " (e. g. c. xxi. 2. xxii. 9—11, 32.), it would seem probable that the author of the ancient documents used in the compilation of the book was a genealogist, or an eminent Levite, resident beyond Jordan.* This is strengthened by the fact that he enters minutely into the history of the altar erected in Gilead (c. xxi. 9--24), and that he relates the speeches of Phineas and of the tribes beyond Jordan at some length, as though he had been present at their delivery; while on the contrary he is brief in his narration of the report of Phineas to the assembled tribes in Canaan. As the discourses of Joshua (c. xxiii. xxiv.) are given very considerably in detail, we may infer that the author was himself present at that assembly of the people. From all this it is plain, that the phrase "in the land of Canaan," affords no ground for the conclusion that the author of the book of Joshua was an exile in the Babylonish captivity; since it is with the author of the contemporary documents, and not with the compiler of the book, that the phrase originated.[b]

[a) To these proofs may be added:-5) The absence of any traces of disputes or civil wars among the tribes concerning their respective boundaries. Some document of acknowledged authority, accurately settling the bounds of the several tribes, must have existed from the very partition, by reference to which disputes of this kind might be settled, or the peaceful state of the growing tribes would have been entirely without any example in the history of mankind.-6) Without the existence of contemporaneous and authoritative records, the allotment of thirteen cities to the priests (c. xxi. 13—19,) would have been nugatory. Aaron's family could not have been, at the time of the allotment, sufficiently numerous to occupy those cities. But it is altogether unlikely that these with the adjoining lands were left entirely unoccupied in expectation of their future owners. To afford security, therefore, to the sacerdotal family for their legitimate rights, when they should be in a condition to claim them, some document contemporaneous with the appropriation must have existed. Without such a document, innumerable

*[But see 29. note a), Tr.]

disputes must have arisen whenever they attempted to claim their possessions. Comp. EICHHORN, Einleit. § 446. viert. Aus. Tr.]

[b) As a mere conjecture, the opinion of DE WETTE respecting the number of the original documents appears probable. He supposes c. i-xi. to be one entire ancient record, xi. 23. being a formal conclusion; c. xii. to be a later document, intended principally for a summary of the first, but containing additional particulars, (v. 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24.); and c. xiii-xxiv. to be another document, with the insertion of a smaller record, c. xv. 20-63. Einleit. § 168. BERTHOLDT, S. 850. ff., carries his conjectures much further, and of course diverges more from the bounds of probability. Tr.]

§ 29.

The Book of Joshua is worthy of credit.

That the author has made his extracts from the documents which he used with scrupulous fidelity, and is therefore worthy of credit, appears from indubitable proofs.

I. The speeches of Rahab, of Caleb, of Phineas. of the tribes beyond Jordan, and of Joshua, all of which exactly suit the characters of the respective speakers, have been copied by the author from his records word for word; and in other parts of his history he has been, as is usual with Oriental historians, so tenacious of the original language as to retain the expressions, "until we were passed over," c. v. 1., and, " she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day," c. vi. 25. Hence it happens also that he does not mention the tribes in geographical order, but in the order in which they followed in his original record, that, namely, in which they severally by lot received their portion of the territory, Josh. xv. xvi. and xviii. xix. He uses also. many words and phrases which occur in the Pentateuch, but seldom or never in any of the subsequent books, and some others which are common in the more recent books are not to be found in this. Lastly, he mentions Joshua without any honorary distinction, just as he had found him mentioned in his documents, [a] until the time of his death, when he is called "the servant of JEHOVAH," xxiv. 29. He has not even ventured to add in xvii. 13. that the Israelites were afterwards seduced to idolatry by the Canaanites whom they had suffered to remain as tributaries: whence it is plain that the original document was written before the apostasy of the Israelites.

II. This book was received by the Hebrews as soon as published, while the original documents were yet extant, and afforded a suffi

cient standard by which to judge of the credit of the author; and since it contains an account of the boundaries of the tribes and of their cities, the people were too much interested in its contents not to ascertain whether it corresponded with those documents.

III. The events related in it were also well known, as appears from the reference made by Asaph to the conquest and partition of the country, in Ps. lxxviii. 53–55. comp. Ps. xliv. 2—4 ;—to the destruction of the Canaanites, by a contemporary of David,[b] in Ps. lxviii. 13—15;—to the stoppage of the waters of Jordan, in Ps. cxiv. 1-5. lxvi. 5. s. Hab. iii. 8;- -to the tempest which followed the destruction of the Canaanites, in Hab. iii. 11-15; and to the tabernacle at Shiloh, in Judg. xviii. 31. xx. 1, 18, 26. I Sam. i. 3, 9, 24. iii. 21. iv. 12.

IV. Lastly, every thing in the book perfectly corresponds with the age in which the events occurred.

The speeches of Joshua, c. xxiii. xxiv., consist of scarcely anything else than a connected series of expressions used by Moses, especially of such as occur in Deuteronomy; while this is not the case in the speeches of Caleb, c. xiv. 8—12; of Phineas; or of the tribes beyond Jordan, c. xxii. 11-34; but each of these bears the impress of a distinct and different character in the speaker.

[a) Hence, as the author remarks, (Germ. Introd. S. 171, 172,) it is not improbable that these documents were written by Joshua himself. Tr.] [6) In the German, the author says, by David.' Tr.]

§ 30. Difficulties occurring in the Book of Joshua.

The difficulties which occur in this book do not at all weaken the credit of its author; for either they are caused by miracles quite consistent with the divine dignity, and suitable to confirm the minds of men in the true religion, or they arise from false interpretations.

I. The stoppage of the waters of Jordan during the time that the priests who bore the ark remained in the bed of the river, Josh. iii. iv., strengthened the faith of the Hebrews, especially of the young, in GOD the Creator and Governor of the universe. Nor should it be objected that the waters rising up at Zarethan would inundate all the plain of Jordan; for they may have been absorbed by a subterranean cavity, opened perhaps by an earthquake, until the Israelites had left

the bed of the river; so that the miracle, like many of the miracles of Moses, would consist in the revelation of a future event, which no human sagacity could foresee. That this miracle did take place, the monument erected in memory of it was a witness to future ages. Those who, in order to get rid of the evidence for this and similar miraculous events arising from the existence of coeval monuments, conjecture that this latter fact led to the invention of the miraculous histories, are destitute of all foundation for their opinion. On the contrary, it is evident from contemporary records that the monuments were erected in memory of the events, while there is not the least indication of the supposed formation of the histories from the monuments. Comp. c. vii. 26. viii. 29, 30-33. xxii. 9. s. xxiv. 26. &c.

II. In like manner the walls of Jericho, c. v. 13—vi. 27., may have been overthrown by an earthquake at the moment when the Israelites who were passing the city shouted, so that the miracle would again consist in the foreknowledge of the event, exceeding all the powers of human reason. However this may be, the tendency of this miracle would be of the same important nature as that of the preceding.

III. The celebrated passage c. x. 12-15., is poetical; for which reason it is to be poetically interpreted, namely, thus; that the Hebrews inflicted a defeat upon the Canaanites as great as if the sun had stopped his course, and had prolonged the day to a double length.[a] There arose, as Habbakuk, c. iii. 10-12, explains it, a tempest after the battle, which first destroyed many of the enemy by means of hail, and afterwards by the frequent flashes of lightning rendered the remainder so conspicuous to the Israelites that they were able to pursue them throughout the night, as if it had been day. The poet, in a sublime ode, by a bold figure introduces Joshua commanding the sun and moon to stop their course, and by a still bolder stretch of figure, asserts that the sun and moon obeyed the mandate of a man.

[a) Poetical passages are not to be understood in the whole strength of their literal meaning. When David in Ps. xviii. 8-17, describes himself as if he had been drowning in the inundation caused by a tremendous tempest, and GoD as stretching out his hand from the clouds (in allusion to a water-spout) and snatching him from the flood, no one ever thinks of understanding all this literally, but every reader perceives under these splendid figures nothing more than deliverance from great dangers.

And thus is the place under consideration to be explained. As the Hebrews were pursuing the Canaanites after the battle, there arose, as is expressly stated x. 11., a violent tempest, which caused as great a destruction among the enemy as if the Hebrews had pursued them two days without an intervening night. Thus Habakkuk explains the matter. When he says that "the sun and moon stood still," let it be remembered that he also speaks in elevated poetry, and does not intend to be understood literally, for he immediately adds that the Hebrews "went by the light of God's arrows, by the shining of his javelins," meaning flashes of lightning. But to what purpose these flashes if the sun had remained in the midst of the heavens?'-Thus the author in his Einleit. S. 171. As his view of the miracle is, to say the least, very unsatisfactory, it is proper to state that the latter may be explained on two suppositions. Le Clerc and Drusius, with others, suppose it to have been owing to an extraordinary refraction of the rays of light commencing at the close of day (Dan qi’>)

:

and lasting until the entire discomfiture of the Canaanites. Others suppose it to have been produced by a cessation of the diurnal motion of the earth, commencing just before the time of sunset, and lasting during an entire day (DD ) or the period of half a complete revolution of

the earth. That this last exposition of the words `DN_Di1Ɔ is very an

:

cient, appears from Ecclus. xlvi. 4: Ουχι εν χειρι αυτου ανεπόδισεν ὁ ήλιος, και μια ημέρα εγεννήθη προς δυο ; Τ.]

§ 31. Character of the text of the Book of Joshua.

Other difficulties arise from the introduction of errors by which the text has suffered in many places. It could not happen otherwise in a book of such great antiquity, particularly as it abounds with proper ames of places, in which errors, especially omissions, are easily made, and not readily observed so as to be amended. So c. xv. 60., the Alexandrine version adds eleven cities, which are wanting in the Hebrew text; c. xv. 32., twenty-nine cities are mentioned, whereas v. 20-31., thirty-two had been previously enumerated; c. xv. 33-36., fifteen cities are named, while in v. 36 the sum is stated to be only fourteen. See c. xix. 15, 30, which appear to be imperfect. In v. 15, only five cities are specified, and yet the sum total is said to be twelve. In v. 30 only three are named, yet the sum is stated at twenty-two. In v. 38 nineteen cities are mentioned, whereas but sixteen had been pre