s Hand -Books I S Bible Classes H I S Joshua BY I Rev. Pnneipal Douqla,s.3.D. I i I Clark I I llSlSliSlSlSilSlSilSlSlSSlSISIEillSlSS li» Wi » l» l U »fitC,. APR 1 883 BS 417 .H36 V.5 Douglas, George C. M. 1826 1904. The book of Joshua f^antiboofes for Mhlt Classes* EDITED BY REV. MARCUS DODS, D.D., AND REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. NO IV READY. THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. Price u. 6d. By James Macgregor, D.D,, Edinburgh. THE POST-EXILIAN PROPHETS. With Introductions and Notes. Price 2s. By Marcus Dods, D.D., Glasgow. A LIFE OF CHRIST. Price \s. 6d. By Rev. James Stalker, M.A., Kirkcaldy. THE SACRAMENTS. Price is. 6d. By Rev. Professor Candlish, D.D., Glasgow. THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES. Price u. 6d. By Rev. Professor Murphy, LL.D., Belfast. THE CONFESSION OF FAITH. Price 2s. By Rev. John Macpherson, M.A., Findhorn. THE BOOK OF JUDGES. Price is. 3^ By Rev. Principal Douglas, D.D., Glasgow. THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. Price is. 6d. By Rev. Principal Douglas, D.D., Glasgow. IJV PREPARATION. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. iShortiy.-\ By Rev. Professor Davidson, D.D., Edinburgh. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. ishortiy.^ By Rev. Professor Salmond, D.D., Aberdeen. THE REFORMATION. lshortiy.-\ By Rev. Professor Lindsay, D.D., Glasgow. THE BOOK OF GENESIS. With Introduction and Notes. By Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D., Glasgow. ^ HANDBOOKS FOR BIBLE CLASSES. THE BOOK OF PSALMS. By Rev. Professor BiNNTE, D.D., Aberdeen. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. By Rev. George Reith, M.A., Glasgow. THE BOOK OP ACTS. By Rev. George Webster Thomson, M.A., Glasgow. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. By Rev. Principal Brown, D.D., Aberdeen. THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. By Rev. James Mellis, M.A., Southport. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. By Rev. Simeon R. Macphail, M.A., Liverpool. THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By Rev. Professor Salmond, D.D., Aberdeen. THE CHURCH. {Shortly. By Rev. Professor Btnnie, D.D., Aberdeen. THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. By Rev. N. L. Walker, M.A., Dysart. THE SHORTER CATECHISM. By Rev. Alexander Whyte, D.D., Edinburgh. CHURCH AND STATE. By A. Taylor Innes, Esq., Advocate, Edinburgh. CHRISTIAN ETHICS. By Rev. Professor Lindsay, D.D., Glasgow. A LIFE OF ST. PAUL. By Rev, James Stalker, M.A., Kirkcaldy. LESSONS ON THE LIFE OF CHRIST. By Rev. Wm. Scrymgeour, M.A., Glasgow. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. By Rev. Professor Candlish, D.D., Glasgow. PRESBYTERIANISM. By Rev. John Macpherson, M.A., Findhorn. HANDBOOKS FOR BIBLE CLASSES, EDITED BY REV. MARCUS DODS, D.D., REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1882. PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB, FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON, .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. DUBLIN GEORGE HKKBERT. NEW YORK SCRIBNER AND WELFORD THE BOOK OF JOSHUA BY GEORGE C. M. DOUGLAS, D.D. PRINCIPAL OF THE FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1882. PBlITG.t _, THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. INTRODUCTION. The subject-matter of this book is the fulfilment of the work which was given to Moses to do, but which had been left unfinished by him, owing to that sin which brought after it the judgment on him and his ' brother Aaron : Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congre- gation into the land which I have given them' (Num. xx. 12). This ' was followed by the prayer of Moses : Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which out, may lead them and which may bring them in ; that the congre- gation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit,' etc. (Num. xxvii. 16-18). The book of Joshua records what Joshua did in this capacity. It may be divided into three parts : L The conquest of the land, ch. i.-xii. ; though, as a matter of arrangement, if one preferred it, the earher chapters might be placed separately as an introduction, with the history of the crossing of the Jordan, and the restoration of the people to the full enjoyment of their privileges as the professing Church of God. 11. The allotment made of the land to the tribes, including along with this the appointment of the cities of refuge, and the provision of cities for the Levites, ch. xiii.-xxi. Perhaps ch. xxii. may be regarded as an appendix to this, the dismissal of the eastern tribes their to homes, and the jealousy for purity of worship ; other- wise it might be classed with the two chapters which follow. III. The jealousy of Joshua for the godhness and obedience of the people, which involved their future welfare ; and a few closing verses which tell of the death of him and his companions and fellow-workers, ch. xxiii. xxiv. The period embraced by the history, excepting these last two 7 ' THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. The Book is a Theocratic History. chapters (which may refer to a time fifteen or twenty years later), was seven years of war, and whatever time was occupied in the division of the land, we are not told how much. The style of the history, as elsewhere in the Bible, is theocratic ; that is to say, every- thing is looked at from the point of view of the kingdom of God, as I have noted in the Introduction to the Handbook on Judges; whilst we are left free to get light from other sources, if we can. Yet the remoteness of the age at which the events took place renders it unlikely that we shall have much of this. There are two sources, however, to which we naturally turn, though as yet there is little to tell of results, (i) There are the Egyptian records. One of these, particularly interesting to the student of the geography of Palestine, is the account given by an Egyptian officer of high rank, called a Mohar, of his travels in Palestine, said to be in the 14th century before Christ ; see Palestine Explo7'ation Fund Quarterly Paper for April 1876, etc., or the Records of the Past, vol. ii. pp. 107-116, pub- lished by Bagster in 1875. (2) There are the remains of Hittite monuments, in deciphering which only the commencement has as yet been made, especially by Professor Sayce of Oxford, in papers recently presented by him to the Society of Biblical Archaeology ; his efforts have been supplemented by Lieut. Conder, R.E., who has this year visited their sacred city, Kadesh, now a ruin, Tell Neby Mendeh, on the left bank of the river Orontes, about 6 miles s. of the lake of Horns ; it appears to have been taken and destroyed by the Egyptians in the 14th century. These mighty Hittites had no doubt more to do with the Israelites than we learn from Scripture. If the question be asked, Who wrote the book of Joshua? we have no means of giving a direct reply. In the Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament, recognised in so old a book as ' Ecclesiasticus (in the prologue, dated by many about B.C. 230, though by others about B.C. 130), there are three sections: (i) 'The Law,' or the ' The Prophets,' including more than those we books of Moses ; (2) might think of under this name : these arc called the later prophets, while the title 'former prophets' is given to the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; (3) 'The other writings,' or simply 'the [miscellaneous] writings,' often called the Hagiographa, that is, the holy writings. Joshua then by the Jewish Church was placed first in the second section, the Prophets, standing next to the Law. If any one affirm that Joshua was himself the writer (with the manifest ; INTRODUCTION. Its Authorship discussed. exception of the account of his own death, etc., in the closing verses), I do not see any vaUd evidence to the contrary : not in the quotation from the book of Jashar (Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam. i. 18), which is just as Hkely to have been an ever-enlarging hymn-book as anything else nor in ch. xv. 16-19 compared with Judg. i. 12-15, fo^ this may have taken place before Joshua's death, as the English version shows by taking Judg. i. 8 in pluperfect time ; nor the notice of the taking of Dan, ch. xix. 47, compared with Judg. xviii., for this may have oc- curred during the many years that Joshua lived on in retirement. And I know nothing more natural than to suppose that if Joshua did not write the book with his own hand, it was composed from his papers by some who were about him. For there is an utter absence of any, even the slightest evidence (with one conjectural exception, to be noticed immediately) of an age later than his own. On the contrary, such a name as 'great Zidon' alongside of 'the strong city Tyre,' ch. xi. 8, xix. 28, 29, suggests a writer at the remote age in which Zidon was the foremost Phoenician city, even above Tyre, its success- ful rival in a later age. And the age is one in which a stone or a cairn of stones is the usual, almost the exclusive, mark of a great transaction, like the stones commemorating the crossing of the Jordan ; the cairns over Achan's body, and at the graves of the kings of Ai and other towns ; the great stone at Shechem, xxiv.