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Gentile idolatry and sacrificial immorality, and on the other, in subordination to the gospel design as awaiting its developement in due time from this seed of Judaism, the religion of Moses is indeed worthy of the God of eternal Providence and progressive Revelation.*

* For gaining an intelligent acquaintance with the Scriptures (more particularly of the Old Testament), the greatest possible aid to a mere English reader is found by taking up some truly scholarly version or other of more modern date than our authorized version of King James the First's reign. Any one who has access to such translations, will find a freshness and distinctness of meaning given, not only to particular passages, but to an intire book of Scripture, besides the correction of many inaccurate or unintelligible expressions in the common version;—which version, exhibiting, as in its own day it did, the devotion of the best learning and talent of the English Church to the important work of giving the Scriptures to English readers, is a standing reproach to the English Church and nation of this day for its unchangingness,-no corresponding care having been since applied to the perfecting of the work. I shall therefore mention some of the best new translations of the several books of Scripture in succession. For the Pentateuch, the requisite aid will be found in Geddes's Holy Bible, Vol. I., and Wellbeloved's Holy Bible, Part I. Neither of these valuable works is complete; and the large size, cost and scarcity (especially of the former) sadly restricts their use. Geddes's translation reaches to the end of the books of Chronicles. Wellbeloved's, after completing the Pentateuch, passes on to the devotional and didactic books.

PART II.

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS.

JOSHUA AND JUDGES, WITH RUTH.

THE WARS OF THE JEWS, AND THE CONQUEST AND DIVISION OF CANAAN.

THE book of JOSHUA contains, as the title implies, the record of his exploits as the successor of Moses in the leadership of the people of Israel. In Deut. xxxi. 7 and 23, his nomination to the command is recorded.

This book embraces about twenty-five years, from B. C. 1451 to 1426, the time of Joshua's death. It contains the history of the occupation of the land of Canaan by the Israelitish nation; detailing their wars with the idolatrous inhabitants, first in the southern part and then in the north (ch. i. to xii.), which seem to have occupied about six years; then recounting the division of the conquered country among the tribes, and the appointment of the six cities of refuge and the forty-eight levitical cities; and concluding with Joshua's final exhortations and death.

It is very doubtful when this book was composed. We may be pretty sure, indeed, that such parts as that which describes the boundaries of the tribes, would be put down in writing at the time of the transaction; but

the book, as a whole, in anything like its present form, must have been later, though it is difficult to say how much later. The expression, "unto this day," used in reference to the stones set up by Joshua's command, "and they are there unto this day" (iv. 9), and in reference to Rahab, "she dwelleth (she, or her descendants?) in Israel even unto this day" (vi. 25), may have been merely inserted afterwards in copying out new manuscripts, and does not decide even what "the day" of the transcriber or annotator was. But there is a quotation from the book of Jasher (x. 13) on which a curious critical argument hangs. The book of Jasher, not now existing,* is quoted also in the second book of Samuel (i. 18) as containing, when that book of Samuel was written, the beautiful ode of David on the death of Saul and Jonathan; whence it would seem that the book of Joshua could not have been written until the time of David, unless we suppose Jasher to have been a sort of public document kept open for the successive accumulation of patriotic Hebrew songs, such as the fragment of the sun and moon standing still evidently is, as well as David's intire ode on Saul and Jonathan. But it is not usual for public books of poetry to be kept thus open for additions while accessible for quotation. State documents might admit such a theory, but hardly collections of national poems. Most likely the Book of Jasher (or "The Upright Book," "The Correct Book," or, it may be, "The Book of the Upright Man") contained, when first it became a book at all, both these poems and many

* "The Book of Jasher," printed in New York in 1839, as translated from a rabbinical Hebrew volume printed at Venice in 1613, and said to have been copied from a manuscript found in Jerusalem at its destruction by Titus, is too palpably modern to deceive any intelligent reader of the Scriptures, though it seems to have deceived its translator and publishers, or else to be intended by them to deceive the public.

others. If so, the book of JOSHUA was not written, in its present form, till the time of David at any rate.

The passage here quoted from Jasher (probably a part of an ode commemorative of the victory of Joshua over the five kings) represents the leader as calling out to the sun and moon, in the midst of his pursuit, to witness and sympathize with his success (x. 12):

"Sun, stand thou still upon mount Gibeon;

And thou, Moon, over the valley of Ajalon."

Precisely similar is the imagery of the prophet Habakkuk (iii. 10, 11). Describing the Divine Being as marching through the earth, he says,

"The mountains saw Thee, and they trembled;

The overflowing of the water passed by;

The deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high;
The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation."

But the expression has been literalized in honour of the Jewish warrior, which is understood figuratively in honour of the Most High God. Jewish tradition says the day was made "as long as two" (Ecclus. xlvi. 4); though the Jewish forces had been marching all the previous night and fighting all day till evening, and the enemy was completely routed when the setting sun and rising moon were thus apostrophized. Much learned discussion has been sadly wasted in endeavouring philosophically to explain how the sun could stand still (or the earth, rather, cease revolving on its axis) without disturbing the whole frame of the terrestrial economy. It would have been better employed in accounting for the wish as natural in the mouth of Joshua, than in vindicating an alleged miracle of such questionable character. Deborah, in her song, exclaims (Judges v. 20),

"The stars in their courses fought against Sisera ;"

and secular poets, ancient and modern, have employed

similar imagery without scruple. Thus, in Homer, who can hardly have derived the idea from the Jewish scriptures, Agamemnon prays to Jupiter,

"Let not the sun go down and night approach,

Till Priam's roof fall flat into the flames."

And Jupiter having promised that the Trojans should prevail till sunset, Juno, to favour the Greeks,

"Sent the sun

Reluctant down into the ocean stream."

And, in another place:

"Minerva checked

Night's almost finished course, and held meantime
The golden dawn close prisoner in the deep."

Our own Shakspeare, in like manner, adopts the idea, when he makes the French prince say, in King John (v. 5),

"The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set,

But stayed, and made the western welkin blush,

When the English measured backward their own ground."

"The wish is father to the thought" in many such cases; and the thought hardens into an alleged fact in the course of tradition.

In the beginning of the book of JUDGES, it will be observed, there are several passages almost word for word the same as in the conclusion of JOSHUA. Compare Josн. xv. 16-19, with JUD. i. 12—15, respecting the marriage of Caleb's daughter and her marriage portion; and again compare Josн. xxiv. 29-31, with JUD. ii. 7-9, where the death of Joshua is related. The passages are almost verbatim alike, with a little inversion in the order of the latter. Hence it seems reasonable to conclude that both the books, JOSHUA and JUDGES, as we have them, were compiled from older records accessible to the authors of both. Now the book of JUDGES contains a pretty clear

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