first division of lands, Act. xiii. 19, 20, and which, therefore, commenced with the 10 last years of Eli's administration of 40 years. This last most important chronological character from the New Testament, verifies the whole of this rectification, while it demonstrates the spuriousness of the period of 480 years in the present Masorete text of 1 Kings vi. 1, from the exode to the foundation of Solomon's temple, which was also proved in detail, Vol. I. p. 221, 222.

JOSHUA.

His original name was Hoshea or Oshea, Deut. xxxii. 44, which Moses, whose minister he was, Exod. xxiv. 13, changed into Jehoshua, Numb. xiii. 16, and by contraction, Joshua, or Jeshua, or Jesus, (according to the Greek pronunciation,) Acts vii. 45, Heb. iv. 8, signifying "Saviour." He therefore was a type of CHRIST, both in his name, and in his actions, as well as Moses.

The first notice of him is on occasion of the Amalekite war, Exod. xvii. 9, when he was appointed captain of a chosen party to repel their attack, at which time he was about 44 years of age, and was called a young man, Exod. xxxiii. 11. Even then he was pre-ordained by THE LORD, to put the Israelites in possession of the promised land, as appears from the injunction to Moses, to write the aggression of the Amalekites, and the decree of their extermination, in a book, and "to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua," as a memorial to him and the future Judges, Exod. xvii. 14. And THE LORD appointed him to succeed Moses, Numb. xxvii. 18, and, after his death, commanded Joshua, about the age of 84, to pass over Jordan with the people, and take possession of the promised land, Josh. i. 2, and inculcated the observance of the law of Moses in the following impressive terms:

"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate thereon day and night*, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success," Josh. i. 8. And how well Joshua profited by these instructions, we learn from his last solemn speech to the congregation of Israel, in which he recapituVos exemplaria Græca, [necnon Hebræa] Nocturna versate manu, versate diurnâ.

lates the divine mercies, and warns them to shun the idolatries of their forefathers, and of the neighbouring nations; declaring, on his own part,-" As for me and my house, we will serve THE LORD,” xxiv. 15.

The miraculous passage of the river Jordan was effected on the tenth day of the first month, Josh. iv. 19, wanting only five days to complete forty years from the day they left Egypt, on the fifteenth day of the first month, Numb. xxxiii. The circumstances of the passage are noticed, Vol. I. p. 412.

The day after the passage, by the divine command, the rite of circumcision, which had been intermitted from the time that they left Egypt, was renewed, and all the children of the circumcised generation that perished in the wilderness were circumcised at Gilgal. Thus were they taken into the Abrahamic covenant, and "the reproach of Egypt rolled away from them," or the reproach of the circumcision, Gen. xxxiv. 14; Josh. v. 2-9. They were then qualified to sacrifice the passorer, which had been intermitted from the second time of their observance of that rite at Sinai, in consequence of their rebellions, and they gave a signal proof of their faith, in submitting to that painful operation in the face of their enemies, relying on the Divine protection till they were healed, for Gilgal was only two miles from Jericho.

Accordingly, they celebrated this third passover on the fourteenth day of the month, at even, in the plains of Jericho; and next day, on the fifteenth, the long and miraculous supply of manna ceased, when they got a natural supply of provisions in the land, Josh. v. 10—12.

At this time Joshua, when surveying Jericho, was encouraged, by the appearance of the CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST with a drawn sword in his hand, the same who appeared to Moses in the bush at Horeb; as follows from the sameness of the injunction, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standestis holy," v. 13-15.

And most signally did HE fight for Israel. 1. In the miraculous downfall of the walls of Jericho, v. 1-20. 2. In destroying the confederated southern nations with hailstones in their flight, x. 32. 3. In prolonging the day of battle to an unusual length, at Joshua's petition, by making the sun and moon stand still about a whole day, x. 12-14. And 4. By driving out some of the northern nations by the hornet, or

gad-fly, xxiv. 12, as foretold by Moses, Exod. xxiii. 28; Deut. vii. 20.

DOWNFALL OF THE WALLS OF JERICHO.

This stupendous miracle, at the beginning of the war, was well calculated to terrify the devoted nations, and to encourage the Israelites, by shewing that the loftiest walls and strongest barriers afforded no protection against the Almighty God of Israel.

And the Lord said unto Joshua, Lo, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour, and ye shall compass the city all ye men of war, and go round about the city once each day for six days, and seven priests shall bear before the ark [carried in procession] seven trumpets of rams' horns, and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets; and it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the rams' horns [the seventh time], and ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him," [and destroy the inhabitants with the sword, and burn the city.] Josh. vi. 2 -5. Which was accordingly executed, and none spared but the hospitable Rahab, the harlot, and her family, ver. 6—25.

In the symbolical representations of the judgments to be inflicted upon the apostate nations of the earth, in "the days of tengeance," destined to precede the second advent of Christ, or his appearance in glory, the mysterious imagery of the apocalypse appears to be borrowed from this description: The seven angels, with seven trumpets, correspond to the seven priests; and the seven vials, containing the last plagues, to the seven blasts of the trumpet on the last day. At the last of which, "the mystery of GOD is to be finished." Rev. viii. 2, &c.; xv.

1, &c.

THE SUN AND MOON STAND STILL.

This miracle, like the former, is utterly impossible to account for on philosophical principles. It must be resolved wholly into the power of God, who hearkened to the voice of a man, to stop the luminaries in their diurnal courses (or rather, perhaps, the earth's rotation), and by prolonging the day of battle, to make them fight for Israel.

From the circumstances of the narrative, however, we may collect the time of the day, and of the month that it happened -soon after sun-rise, and when the moon was rather past the full.

Joshua, when summoned by the Gibeonites to come to their succour against the confederate kings, "went up from Gilgal all night, and came suddenly" upon the enemy, we may conclude about day-break, whom he slew with great slaughter, and chased along the way from Gibeon to Beth-horon ("the house of fury"), in a westerly direction, THE LORD co-operating in their destruction by a tremendous shower of great hail-stones, which slew more than the sword of the Israelites, but did not touch the latter. In this situation, the sun appeared to rise over Gibeon eastward, and the moon to set over Ajalon westward, near the Mediterranean sea, in the tribe of Dan, when Joshua, moved by a divine impulse, uttered this invocation in the sight of Israel:-" Sun, stand thou still over Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon." "So the sun stood still in the hemisphere [at his rising], and hasted not to go down [at his setting] about a whole day," which, in that climate, and shortly after the vernal equinox, might have been about thirteen hours long; thus giving him day-light for the destruction of his enemies for twenty-six hours, during which he took the city of Makkedah, and slew the five kings, who hid themselves in a cave near it, x. 1-28.

It is said, immediately after this miracle, ver. 15, “And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Gilgal;" which he certainly did not, until the end of the expedition, ver. 43, where it is properly introduced. It is, therefore, either an interpolation, or must signify that Joshua intended* to have returned, &c. but changed his resolution when he heard that the five kings had fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah, ver. 16, 17. This is the solution of Wells.

THE HORNET.

By this scourge of GOD, he drove out two kings of the Amorites from before the Israelites, or compelled them to emigrate to other countries, Josh. xxiv. 12. One of these, according to

So Balak, king of Moab, warred against Israel, Josh. xxiv. 9; i. e. "intended to war against."

the Jewish commentaries of R. Nachman, was the nation of the Girgashites, who retired into Africa, fearing the power of God." And Procopius, in his history of the Vandals, mentions an ancient inscription in Mauritania Tingitana, stating, that "the inhabitants had fled thither from the face of Joshua, the son of Nun." This account accords with Scripture, in which, though the Girgashites are included in the general list of the seven devoted nations either to be driven out or destroyed by the Israelites, Gen. xv. 20, 21; Deut. vii. 1; Josh. iii. 10; xxiv. 11; yet they are omitted in the list of those to be utterly destroyed, Deut. xx. 17; and among whom, in neglect of the divine decree, the Israelites lived, and intermarried, Judg. iii. 1-6. That the name of the Girgashites, however, was not extirpated, we may collect from the Gergesenes, in our Saviour's time, inhabiting the same country, Matt. viii. 28.

Other tribes of the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites, were also expelled by the Hornet gradually; not in one year, lest the land should become desolate, and the wild beasts multiply to the prejudice of the Israelites, Exod. xxiii. 28-30.

Of these "fugitive tribes," some appear to have fled beyond sea to Italy, where they became the Aborigines *, or first colonists, so distinguished from the Indigene, or natives, as we learn from that profound antiquary Virgil:

Hæc nemora indigena Fauni Nymphæque tenebant,
Gensque virûm truncis et duro robore nata;

Queis neque mos neque cultus erat, neque tangere tauros,
Aut componere opes norant, aut parcere parto:
Sed Rami, atque asper victu venatus agebat.
Primus ab Etherio venit Saturnus Olympo,
Arma Jovis fugiens, et regnis exul ademptis.
Is genus indocile, ac dispersum montibus altis,
Composuit, legesque dedit: Latiumque vocari
Maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutus in oris.-

Tum manus Ausonia, et gentes venere Sicana:
Sæpius et nomen posuit Saturnia tellus.

EN. viii. 314–329.

1. From this curious passage, we learn, that the rude native settlers lived on fruits in the savage or hunter state. These were primitive Jaranians, whose leader Janus gave name to the

Αβοριγινες, "Gentes transfuga," is rather derived from the Hebrew y (Abar) “transivit ;" and "(Goi) "gens," which, in the Phoenician plural, gives (Gin) " gentes;" than from the Latin, "Primique ab origine reges." Virg. ÆEu.

vii. 18.