EST you should ascribe battle and murder in no small degree to Joshua, as you read this Book, hear first his own account of the matter as recorded at ch. xxiii. 3. And particularly Acts vii. 45. Ps. xliv. 1, 2, 3. "Drave out," as in throughout this Book. vi. 19. vii. 1. xi. 23. On the division of the Holy Land, See Dr. A. Clarke's FLEURY, p. 279.

Acts vii. 45, should be the rendering
See Exod. xxiii. 27, 28, &c. Deut.

2798. [Josh. i. 3.] At Sierra Leone, among the natives, present possession is the only tenure of lands: if a man changes his situation, any other native may take possession. Lieut. MATTHEWS.

2799. [4] Thus, the utmost of their limits would be, from the Desert of Arabia Petræa on the South, to Lebanon on the North; and from the Euphrates on the East, to the Mediterranean on the West. But the Israelites did not possess the full extent of this grant, till the days of David. 2 Sam. viii. 3, &c. and 2 Chron. ix. 26.

Dr. A. CLARKE.

2800. [Josh. ii. 1.] About Jericho is the most fruitful country of all Judea. It produces palm-trees in great abundance; and is peculiarly distinguished and enriched by the Balsam-tree, whose sprouts being cut with sharp stone-knives, the juice issuing at the incisions drops on the ground like tears. (JOSEPH. Wars, b. i. c. 6. § 6.) — Jericho was the only place in the world where the genuine balsam-tree was to be found.

PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. xvi. c. 32.

earthquake. This accounts for the flying back of its waters into the sea of Tiberias, from the heaving of the earth, &c.

2812. [Josh. iii. 16.] The number of people that Joshua had to conduct into Palestine, could not have been less than 3,000,000. (MICHAELIS.) In the time of the Judges, we find in all Israel only 426,700 men able to carry arms. And under the celebrated enumeration taken by David, the people of Israel, women and children included, amounted to But all the enumerations of the more than 5,000,000. Israelites and Jews, subsequent to the time of Moses, are from the faults of transcribers uncertain, or manifestly Smith's Michaelis, vol. i. pp. 99-110.

erroneous.

2808. [Josh. iii. 1.] The river Jordan has its source in a basin termed Phiala, from the roundness of its circumference, This fountain stands always being as round as a wheel. brimful of water, at the distance of a hundred and twenty furlongs from Cesarea, on the right as you go up to Trachonitis. It thence descends through the marshes and fens of the lake Semechonitis; and when it has run another hundred and twenty furlongs, it first passes by the city Julias, and then through the middle of the lake Gennesereth; after which it runs a long way over a desert, and then makes its exit near Jericho into the lake Asphaltis.

JOSEPH. Wars, b. iii. ch. x. § 7.

2820. [10, 11.] Here they might easily supply themselves with what was needful for this Passover; for the land of Gennesereth, which lies not far above where they had crossed the Jordan, not only nourishes different sorts of autumnal fruit beyond men's expectation, but preserves them also a great while: It supplies men, says JOSEPHUS, with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs, continually, during ten months of the year, and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together throughout the whole year.- So that, adds the judicious WHISTON, when St. Mark says, ch. xi. 13, that our Saviour, not long before Easter, came and found leaves on a fig-tree near Jerusalem, but no figs, because the time of new figs ripening was not yet, he says very true;

nor

were they therefore other than old leaves which our Saviour saw, and old figs which he expected, and which even with us commonly hang ou the trees all winter long. See Joseph. Wars, b. iii. ch. x. § 8; and Whiston's note there.

2829. [24] The people having contributed nothing to the victory, had no share in the spoil. The fact however that the gold, the silver, and the vessels of brass and irou, had been appropriated to the uses of worship, aud therefore could not be made any common use of, though that worship had been idolatrous.

2830.[

See Gen. xxxi. 19. See also ch. vii. 1.

25.] Salmon, a prince of the house of Judah, and one of the Messiah's ancestors, afterwards married her. She became the mother of Boaz.

Univer. Hist. vol. iii. p. 60.

2833. [21. A goodly Babylonish garment] The invention of embroidered cloth, or cloth of various colors, is attributed to the Babylonians. Literally, a Garment of Shinar; Shinar being the plain where Babylon stood.

The Babylonians were so famous for their rich embroideries, magnificent carpets, and fiue linen; that Cato was ashamed to wear a Babylonian mantle, which had been left to him by inheritance. (PLUTARCH, in witâ Catonis.) And it has been said, that at Rome, more than £6,000 had been paid for a suit of Babylonian hangings.

PLIN. Hist. Nat. l. 8. c. 48.

2835. [

Dr. A. CLARKĖ.

24, 25.] That which is made with hands is cursed, as well it, as he that made it: he, because he made it; and it, because being corruptible, it was called god. For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he has made an image of his child soon taken away, now bonoured him as a god, who was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him, ceremonies and sacrifices. Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong, was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of kings. Wisdom xiv. 8, 15, 16.

2836. [Josh. viii. 8.] Oil burns the black wad of Derbyshire. See Kings xviii. 33. 2 Pet. iii. 12.

2837. [—— 22.] The armies of Siam, and indeed of all the neighbouring countries where from principle animals are not killed, busy themselves only in making slaves: and for that end, the usual way among them of making war, is to invade each other's dominious in different parts at the same time, and carry off whole villages into captivity. See Modern Univer. Hist. vol. vii. p. 279.

2838. [ 25. All that fell] All that submitted that day, &c. The men of Ai were not killed (Exod. xxxiv. 11), but taken captive.

2839. [29] The tree on which criminals were hanged (in effigy) among the Romatis was called arbor infelix, and lignum infelix, the unfortunate, ill-fated, or accursed tree or log. (Dr. A. CLARKE )—A contrast to the tree of life, the tree of liberty or freedom. See No. 2554.

2840. [ 32.] The place where these stones were to be deposited, was on one of the two mountains between which Sichem is situated, in a very narrow vale. This Sichem had been a sacred spot as early as the time of Abraham. It was at Moreh, another name for Sichem, that God first appeared to Abraham after his entry into Palestine; and there the patriarch built him an altar, Gen. xii. 6, 7. There too, Jacob purchased a field, where he also built a altar, Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19; and at last he acquired the city itself through the decision of his sons, Gen. xxxiv. 2529. He bequeathed it to Joseph, Gen. xlviii. 22, whose posterity continued in possession of it during all the time that the Israelites abode in Egypt.

Hence the Israelites accounted it sacred, and the chief seat, as it were, of their new government in Palestine; more especially, as the tabernacle of testimony continued for a long time stationed in that quarter; and a city thus distinguished, and its neighbouring mountain Gerizim, on which, perhaps, Abraham's altar might have still remained standing, was certainly a very suitable situation for the rearing of what was meant to form the everlasting monument or memorial of the Law.

2841. [Josh. ix. 2.] The Morch Nevochim, or resolution of doubtful questions, by Maimonides, soon raised him many admirers, but a much greater number of opponents; insomuch that the synagogues, who took part for and against him, made no scruple to excommunicate each other. In particular, the doctors of Narbonne, with the great Joseph Kimchi at their head, not only stood up in his defence, but engaged all their brethren in Spain to do the same. This war between the doctors of both nations lasted about forty years, and employed the most learned heads and pens on both sides; neither can it be said to have been effectually ended, seeing his works have been attacked and censured, from time to time, in the subsequent centuries by fresh doctors of all nations. Modern Univer. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 286.

2850.

At Marmorice, 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 from the mountains, swept every thing before it (Sir ROBERT WILSON.)There fell at Lisle in Flanders, May 25th, 1686, hail-stones which weighed from a quarter of a pound to a pound weight and more. One among the rest was observed to contain a dark brown matter in the middle, and being thrown into the fire, it gave a very great report, Others were transparent, which melted before the fire immediately. This storm passed over the citadel and town, and left not a whole glass in the windows on the windward side. The trees were broken, and some beat down, and the partridges and hares killed in abundance.