2 Heb. in your hand. 1. Or, they received the men by reason of their victuals. 6 Deut. 7. 1, 2.

Verse 3. "Gibeon."-The name of this town imports that it was built upon a hill; and was, according to Josephus, forty furlongs north from Jerusalem, and Eusebius says that in his time it still went under its old name, and was four miles west from Bethel. The same father and Jerome say it was the capital of the Hivites, and a royal city; but the Scripture only says that it was a very important town, greater than Ai, and like a royal (or metropolitan) city (ch. x. 2). It is remarkable afso that no king of Gibeon is ever mentioned; and, upon the whole, we may infer that it was the head of a confederacy or commonwealth of which the towns of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim were also members (v. 17.) and their inhabitants included under the denomination of Gibeonites. In the division of the land all the towns were given to Benjamin, except Kirjath-jearim, which fell to the lot of Judah. And Gibeon itself was one of the four cities of Benjamin that were assigned to the priests (ch. xviii. 25; xxi. 17.) From 2 Sam. ii. 13, it appears that there was a pond or pool (, birkath, the same in Arabic) at Gibeon, which from the passage would seem to have been rather large, and is undoubtedly the same as "the great waters that are in Gibeon" of Jer. xli. 12. There was also a 66 great stone" or rock in Gibeon (2 Sam. xx. 8); and these circumstances taken together may hereafter serve to identify the site. Gibeon retained its importance under the Israelites. The tabernacle was there in the latter part of David's reigr (1 Chron. xxi. 29, 30), and in the early part of Solomon's (1 Kings iii. 4); but we do not know where or on what occasion it was removed thither. The presence of the tabernacle rendered Gibeon the "great high place," whither Solomon went at the beginning of his reign to offer a thousand burnt offerings upon the

altar, and where the Lord appeared to him, and gave him the opportunity to prefer wisdom to riches or length of days. It is mentioned by Jeremiah, so as to show that it was a place of existing importance in his time; but the Scripture does not afterwards mention it, and our latest notices are those above cited from Eusebius and Jerome.

4" Old sacks," &c.-Of course they profess to do what they would actually have done had they really come from a distant place. Hence we learn that at this time little accommodation except that of lodging, if that, was expected upon a journey, and that every one carried provisions and drink with him, as at present. This rendered necessary their sacks, doubtless for containing their provisions and baggage. All travellers now carry sacks with them for such pur poses. If they can afford it, these sacks are large, containing a strange assortment of articles-of dress, bedding. food, and even of pots and pans for cooking the necessary meals. These are usually carried on animals hired for the purpose, or on the animal which the servant, if any, rides. A poorer traveller reduces his baggage to narrower limits so that he wants but small bags, which, being thrown over the back of his ass or mule, he rides upon himself. Those who have but one ass to carry themselves and baggage, frequently dismount and walk a considerable part of the way to relieve their beasts. This may account for the manner in which the clothes and shoes of the Gibeonites were supposed to have been worn out by long travel, although they had asses on which to ride. The bags which travellers use are commonly of stout woollen cloth or carpeting, sometimes strengthened with leather to keep out the wet. Bags of hair cloth are also sometimes used for this purpose, and almost always for carrying the corn and chopped straw for

the cattle.

"Wine-bottles, old, and rent, and bound up.”—These were of course skin-bottles, like those for conveying water. (See Gen. xxi. 14.) Such bottles are of course liable to be torn or to burst, and when that happens they are mended either by being "bound up," that is by gathering up the wounded part like a purse; this is a temporary expedient such as travellers resort to, who have not the skill or means of making a more complete repair. They may be otherwise mended by sewing in a new piece; and sometimes by the insertion of a round flat piece of wood into the orifice. See further in Matt. ix. 17, where some illustrative cuts will be given.

for use.

5. "The bread of their provision was dry and mouldy."-The hardness of the bread is expressed in our wood-cut, where the man forcibly compresses it in his hand to demonstrate this fact. The bread commonly used in the East is calcu lated to last only for the day on which it is baked; and in a day or two more it becomes exceedingly hard and unfit This common bread could not therefore be that usually employed for daily food, for then its dry condition would not serve as an indication of the length of the journey they had taken. It must rather have been a sort of bread which will keep a considerable time, though it does ultimately become hard and mouldy. They have such bread in the East, the use of which is almost exclusively confined to travellers. It is a kind of biscuit, usually made in the shape of large rings, nearly an inch thick, and four or five inches in diameter. The bread is, when new, very firm, and rather crisp when broken; but, not being so well prepared as our biscuits, it becomes gradually harder, and at last mouldy from the moisture which the baking had left in it. In general it is seldom used till previously soaked in water. The bread of the Gibeonites may have been something of this sort. There is another kind of bread, which will keep as well, or better. This is the thin broad sheet of crisp wafer-bread, as thin as wrapping-paper, the preparation of which has been described in the note to Lev. ii. 4. But this is seldom used for a journey, being speedily reduced to powder by the action in travelling. The Gibeonites, in attending so strictly to every little circumstance which might induce belief in their story, were probably the more strongly influenced by their knowledge of the acuteness with which persons accustomed to a life in the desert can draw correct inferences from the most trifling external circumstances. This is remarkably the case with the Arabs at present, and was so in the most ancient times. In Antar' there is an anecdote which will in some degree illustrate this. A tribe of Bedouins, having hostile intentions against another tribe, the exact station or distance of which was not known, sent a spy to gain intelligence. The spy had a good excuse for going to the other tribe, as his sister was the wife of its chief. On his arrival he professed that his object was to visit his sister; but his real intentions were easily detected, and he was sent away, after having been made to swear that he would give no intelligence to the tribe from which he came. As he was going he begged his sister to give him some provisions to serve him till he reached home; and she gave him some bread and milk. His tribe was only a few hours distant, and he soon arrived there. His friends came to meet him, and overwhelmed him with questions. He gave no answer; but turning aside towards some erak-trees, he alighted beneath them, and placed on the ground before him the bottle that contained the milk. On being further interrogated, Amroo (the spy) pointed to the trees with his hand and said, “Truly, I have been provided with milk by a hated tribe: I wish thou wouldst taste thereof, that no harm may come to me from drinking it." This at once opened the eyes of the others; "O my cousins," said Khalid, "the man has fallen among the tribe: afraid of him, they have bound him by oaths that he will not speak of them. Had it not been so, he would not have escaped from them. The wisest plan is for you to taste his milk and try his food; if it be sweet, it is fresh milk, and Zoheir" (the chief of the adverse tribe) "is near us; if it be sour, and the victuals tainted, then the party is distant in the barren wastes." Accordingly some of the men approached and tasted the milk, when, finding it fresh camel's milk, they immediately concluded that the enemy was near.

14. "And the men took of their victuals," &c.-Some understand this to mean that the elders took their victuals as sufficiently satisfactory evidence of the truth of the story told by the Gibeonites, and therefore thought it superfluous to "ask counsel of the Lord." But others conceive that the elders ate with the Gibeonites in token of amity and peace, according to a very ancient and still prevalent custom. Either way, the dilemma in which the elders found themselves involved, was a just consequence of their neglecting to "ask counsel of the Lord," which it was particularly incumbent upon them to have done in the very first treaty of alliance into which they had occasion to enter.

17. "Beeroth," supposed, with sufficient reason, to be the same as Beer, the place to which Jotham fled after he had delivered his famous parable from Mount Gerizim. The latter name, of which "Beeroth" is merely the plural, means a well, and is still preserved in that of a poor village, about nine miles to the north of Jerusalem, on the road to Nablous, or Sichem. It is pleasantly situated upon a hill that looks towards the south, and on the top of which are two large arches of a ruined building. There is still a well of good water, to which the place owes its name; and near it are the walls of a ruined khan. The ruined building on the top of the hill is called by Richardson a convent; but it is more probably the ruin of the church built here by the Empress Helena, to commemorate the circumstance recorded in Luke ii. 41-44; for it is supposed that it was at this place that Jesus was first missed by his parents, when on their return home from keeping the passover at Jerusalem.

“Kirjath-jearim.”—This place is said to have been about nine miles on the road from Jerusalem to Lydda or Diospolis, that is, north-west from Jerusalem. In later times the ark of the Lord remained twenty years at this place, from the time that it was sent back by the Philistines, until it was removed, with great solemnity, by David. (Com pare 1 Sam. vii. with 1 Chron. xiii.)

23. "Hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."-(See note on Deut. xxix. 11.) It is previously said, "for the whole congregation." But it does not mean that the Gibeonites were to furnish wood and water to the Israelites for their private use, but only that they were to relieve the congregation, by undertaking its duty of furnishing the wood and water required for the service of the sanctuary. Some of the Rabbins do indeed understand that while the Hebrews remained in camp, and before the land was divided, the Gibeonites performed this service for the whole body of the people; but even they admit that afterwards their services were limited to the sanctuary. This service must have been onerous at the great festivals; but not generally so; neither could it require the service of all the Gibeonites, who probably undertook the duty by turns, so that the great body had leisure to attend to their private concerns. They were assuredly not reduced to a condition of absolute slavery; but seem to have been rather domestic tributaries than slaves, their tribute being the personal service mentioned. We may conclude that they enjoyed their private property; and that persons in good circumstances did not themselves labour, but paid the poorer members of their community for acting as their substitutes. Many think that the service was imposed in order to pacify the people, who were much dissatisfied with the conduct of their rulers, and induce them, by the relief which the proposal offered to themselves, to respect the oath of the elders and not put the Gibeonites to death. This is probable. The Gibeonites seem to have been faithful servants to the congregation, performing patiently the duties imposed upon them. Except what occurs in the next chapter, we hear nothing further about them till the time of David, which is the best proof that can be given of their orderly conduct in the mean time. See the note on 2 Sam. xxi,

4 Isa. 28. 21.

thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.

40 So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel 1o commanded.

41 And Joshua smote them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.

42 And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.

43 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

10 Deut. 20. 16, 17.

Verse 3. "Hebron...Jarmuth... Lachish... Eglon.”—All these towns were to the south of Jerusalem, in the territory which afterwards was given to the tribe of Judah.

10. "Beth-horon.”—Beth-horon was built by the Ephraimites at a subsequent period (1 Chron. vii. 24); and the text therefore "the way that goeth up to Beth-horon," must mean the way of the mountain on which Beth-horon was afterwards built. The text just referred to, mentions two Beth-horons," the nether and upper." They were both ir. the tribe of Ephraim; but we know nothing with certainty of their relative position. Some place Beth-horon the upper on the northern border of the tribe, and the other on the southern border; while others place both near each other on the southern border. That now mentioned must certainly, from the context, have been on the southern part of Ephraim, where it adjoins Benjamin, in whose territory the city of Gibeon stood. In this neighbourhood, on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, Dr. Clarke found a village called Bethoon, which had escaped the notice of previous

travellers.

11. "Hailstones."-As "stones" only are mentioned in the preceding clause, some commentators are of opinion that the miracle consisted of real stones, and that the term "hailstones here only refers to the manner in which the shower fell. This explanation seems to arise from an impression that the agency of hail-stones could not be adequate to produce the effects described. But this is certainly a mistake. Numerous instances have been preserved in chronicles and histories of hail-stones of enormous size and weight, falling, in different countries, so densely and with such impetus, as to do immense damage to property, and to the life of animals and men. And with such facts before us, we cannot hesitate to believe that a hail-storm, which, being miraculously sent, was doubtless of far greater power than the operations of nature usually exhibit, was quite adequate to destroy the fugitives who might otherwise have escaped the swords of the Israelites. In showing the efficacy of a hail-storm for such a purpose, it becomes, independently of the sufficiently express statement of the text, probable that a shower of hail and not of stones was employed; because we have frequent instances in which God did choose to effect the purposes of his will by natural agencies when such agencies existed. On this, therefore, as on some other occasions, the miracle is found not so much in the agency employed as in the circumstances of the event. A storm of hail so terrible, so opportune, and so discriminate in its effects, could not but be recognized as a manifestation of that Divine aid which had been promised to the Hebrews, and which they so greatly needed. Instances of most destructive hail-storms are so numerous and wel: known, that we scarcely feel it necessary to cite particular examples. But it may be proper to observe, that in Pales tine and the neighbouring regions hail-storms are frequent, and the stones sometimes of a size which we should consider extraordinary. This is chiefly in the mountainous districts and along the coast, as in the plains and deserts hail scarcely ever falls. In the elevated region of northern Persia, the hail-storms are frequently so violent as to destroy the cattle in the fields. The event in the text occurred towards the end of the period in which hail-storms usually fall in Palestine: their force will be understood by the following extract, which records one encountered by the British fleet while at anchor in 1801, in Marmorice bay, in Asiatic Turkey, and is aptly cited by Horne from Sir Robert Wilson's History of the British Expedition to Egypt. "On the 8th of February commenced the most violent thunder and hail-storm ever remembered, and which continued two days and nights intermittingly. The hail, or rather the ice-stones, were as big as large walnuts. The camps were deluged with a torrent of them two feet deep, which, pouring down from the mountains, swept every thing before it. The scene of confusion on shore, by the horses breaking loose, and the men being unable to face the storm, or remain still in the freezing deluge, surpasses description."

13. "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed.”—As the alternation of day and night is produced not by the motion of the sun, but by the rotatory motion of the earth on its own axis, it is evident that what would popularly be described as the standing still of the sun, must really be the standing still of the earth, or the suspension of its diurnal revolution. It is scarcely necessary to vindicate the popular, but certainly inaccurate, expression employed by Joshua. It is customary in Scripture for things to be expressed not according to the strict rules of philosophy, but according to their appearances and the common notions with regard to them. This is done everywhere. Even now, and in this country, where every person slightly informed, knows that the apparent motion of the sun is produced by real motion in the earth, the language of not only the mass of the people, but that of the most correct speakers and writers, is full of expressions which imply motion in the sun itself, and which could not be avoided without much circumlocution and painful restraint of language. If any general at the present day could feel authorized, as Joshua did, to call upon the Creator of the universe to exert his almighty power in suspending the operation of those laws which His wisdom has imposed on nature-he would, most likely, express himself as Joshua did; he would say, "Sun, stand thou still!" and not," Earth, cease to revolve on thy axis!" That God might receive the glory of his own great deed, it was necessary that the people should distinctly understand what was intended; and this would not be the case even now, were the philosophical rather than the popular form of expression to be employed. How much more was this the case in the time of Joshua, when the doctrine of the universe was wholly unknown, and when therefore the correct description of the phenomenon would not only have been altogether unintelligible, but would, for the mere sake of accuracy of expression, have involved the necessity of subsequent explanations and discussions, quite apart from the objects which Joshua had in view, or for which the Scripture itself was written. Indeed, it is not at all necessary to believe that Joshua himself was acquainted with the solar system: and it is by far more probable that he was not. wished for a prolongation of the day; his faith taught him that God was able and willing to accomplish that wish; and therefore he called upon the sun to stand still-that being the only phenomenon through which, as all people then thought, the object could be attained,

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