_JOSHUA SUBDUES JABIN, KING OF HAZOR, WITH THE OTHER KINGS OF THE NORTHERN PARTS OF CANAAN, AT THE WATERS OF MEROM: HE DESTROYS THE ANAKIMS, AND PUTS THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN FULL POSSESSION OF THE LAND OF CANAAN._ _Before Christ 1447._... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 1. _AND—WHEN JABIN KING OF HAZOR HAD HEARD,_ &C.— No sooner was this king of Hazor informed of the conquests of Joshua, than he took a resolution to stop, if possible, the progress of his victorious arms, by covering the north part of the country of Canaan, of which Hazor, afterwards given to... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 2. _AND IN THE BORDERS OF DOR ON THE WEST_— The Vulgate, and other versions, render it, and in _the country of Dor. Naphoth_ signifies the _environs_ of a place, a _quarter,_ a _canton,_ or _district: Dor_ was situate near the Mediterranean, in the lot of the half tribe of Manasseh. Eusebius... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 3. _AND TO THE CANAANITE ON THE EAST AND ON THE WEST_— Among the Canaanites, properly so called, those of _the east_ are they who dwelt along-side of the Jordan, south of the lake of Gennesareth; and the Canaanites of _the west_, those who dwelt on the Mediterranean coast. See Numbers 13:29.... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 4. _AND THEY WENT OUT,—AND ALL THEIR HOSTS,_ &C.— Entering the field with so numerous an army, that the sacred writer does not scruple to express it by an hyperbole very familiar in Scripture, _even as the sand upon the sea shore in multitude._ The allied army was so much the more formidable,... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 5. _THEY—PITCHED—AT THE WATERS OF MEROM_— These _waters of Merom_ are generally thought to be nothing but the lake of Semechon, so called from the abundance of fish it contains; _Semechon,_ or _Samachon,_ signifying in the Arabic _fishes._ Others derive the name of this lake from the word _Sa... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 6. _AND THE LORD SAID UNTO JOSHUA_— This was spoken in the camp at Gilgal. It is difficult to conceive how this matter could have been literally accomplished; since, from Gilgal to Hazor was sixty or eighty miles; and Josephus says, that Joshua was five days going from Gilgal to the camp of t... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 8. _ISRAEL—SMOTE THEM, AND CHASED THEM UNTO GREAT ZIDON_— _Zidon_ is called _great;_ not because there was a smaller, but on account of its extent and opulence. This city was founded by a son of Canaan, and lay northeast of the Holy Land. See Genesis 10:15. _MIZREPHOTH-MAIM_— Some make this... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 9. _AND JOSHUA—HOUGHED THEIR HORSES,_ &C.— That is, he hamstrung, or disabled them by cutting the sinews of the ham: the word is derived from the Saxon [A.S.],* the _hough,_ or lower part of the thigh. See Johnson. God would not have the Israelites preserve these animals, lest they should put... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 13. _BUT AS FOR THE CITIES THAT STOOD STILL IN THEIR STRENGTH,_ &C.— The Hebrew is תלם על _al tillam,_ which may signify _a foot,_ or _standing;_ and then the sense would be, that Joshua preserved all those cities which had yielded, without having obliged him to besiege them, to make breaches... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 15. _JOSHUA—LEFT NOTHING UNDONE OF ALL THAT THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES_— Spinosa is pleased to say, that this eulogy is too great to have fallen from the pen of Joshua; whence he concludes, that Joshua did not write this book, known by his name. What admirable reasoning is this! So that, in lik... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 16. _SO JOSHUA TOOK, &C. AND THE MOUNTAIN OF ISRAEL, AND THE VALLEY OF THE SAME_— As this _mountain of Israel_ with its _valley,_ are in ver. 21 set in opposition to _the mountains of Judah,_ some judicious interpreters conclude, that those mountains are here intended which were in the lot of... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 18. _JOSHUA MADE WAR A LONG TIME WITH ALL THOSE KINGS_— Joshua did not make all these conquests in one single campaign; Josephus says, that he was five years about them; Hist. Jud. lib. 5: cap. 2 and some make him out to have employed six years in them. Caleb was forty years old when he was s... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 20. _FOR IT WAS OF THE LORD TO HARDEN THEIR HEARTS_— He hardened them in the same sense that he had hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Instead of inspiring them with a greater terror than that wherewith they were stricken, instead of giving them any respite, instead of opening their eyes through... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 21, &C. _JOSHUA—CUT OFF THE ANAKIMS,_ &C.— This wild, barbarous, and gigantic people, who were of a different origin from that of the Canaanites, inhabited certain mountains of the country. It would have been dangerous to let them remain, nor were they worthy of such indulgence. Joshua, there... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 23. _SO JOSHUA TOOK THE WHOLE LAND_— All that belonged to the Amoritish kings eastward of Jordan. Innumerable Canaanites perished in this war; others, in some places, saved themselves: God did not permit the country to be too much depopulated, as it might thereby have been exposed to wild bea... [ Continue Reading ]