twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.

4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:

5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:

6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood and they are there unto this day.

10 For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.

11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

12 And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Ma

nasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them:

13 About forty thousand 'prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.

14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

15 And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,

16 Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.

17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.

18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were "lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and 'flowed over all his banks, as they did before.

19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.

20 ¶ And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, 'which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:

24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for

ever.

Verse 9. Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan.'-Some commentators are much troubled with this verse. Horsley, for one, asks, For what purpose were the stones erected where they would be invisible, and by what means were they secured against the impetuosity of the stream? Unable to answer this, he is inclined to reject the verse as an interpolation. This is, however, a dangerous way of getting rid of what one does not understand. Kennicott contends that the twelve stones of this verse are no other than those already mentioned in vv. 3,

8, 20, and that they were not set up in the midst of the river; and that the expression which seems to assign them that strange situation is corrupt, and would so alter it as to read, And Joshua set up twelve stones [taken] from the midst of Jordan, from the place,' etc. Still, nothing could be more natural than to mark the precise spot where the ark rested in the midst of the river; and no better way of accomplishing that object could be devised. It was by no means necessary that it should be an enduring monument, if we think that it could not have been such,

but only that the spot should be marked for the time, till the Israelites should become sufficiently acquainted with the locality and the appearances of the banks of the stream to be able to recognise the site without any such monument. The stones might then be washed away, but the knowledge of the spot would be transmitted from father to son, and would never be forgotten so long as the race remained in occupation of the country. It is true that it is said to have remained there unto this day;' but that day may not, and probably was not, distant when these words were written. Again, if they were liable to be disturbed by the motion of the stream, nothing would be easier than for the Israelites to keep up the designed memorial by restoring them from time to time to their places, in such a stream as the Jordan, or to set other stones in the place they had occupied. It is also observable that it is not said of these stones as of the others, that they were of a size for one man to carry. They may have been greatly larger, and so disposed upon a lower heap as to be generally visible, and thus to indicate the very spot where the priests stood with the ark: for the Jordan, in its ordinary state, is by no means a deep river, and that its waters are remarkably transparent, so that an object of this kind might be at all times visible, except at the time of flood. From the native force of the Hebrew term for 'set up,' which is properly to rear up,' 'to erect,' i. e., to raise to a considerable height, it may be reasonably inferred that they were so placed as to be ordinarily visible. It is not said, as in the case of the other stones, whence those to be set up in the river were to be taken. From all that appears in the text they may have been gathered from the adjacent plain, as many commentators have supposed.

13. About forty thousand prepared for war.'-At the second census, a little prior to the passage of the Jordan, the adult males in the tribe of Reuben were 43,730; of Gad, 40,500; and the half tribe of Manasseh must have had from 20,000 to 30,000 more: and yet, although the obligation to military service was universal, and the two and half tribes held their lands beyond Jordan on the condition of assisting their brethren in the conquest of Canaan, only 40,000 out of about 100,000 went to the war: and nevertheless they were held to have fulfilled the obligation they had incurred. This illustrates a point in the military history of a nation. At first, while their numbers are few, all go to the war; but when they so increase as to be unmanageable as a military force, difficult to bring into action, and unable to keep the field beyond a few days, a levy from the general body begins to be made of the number of men suited to the exigencies of the occasion. We see this principle regulates here the demand upon the services of the two and half tribes, more than half whose numbers remained behind to protect and provide for the families settled in the new country. Indeed, such partial levies occurred in the very first military undertakings of the Hebrews, as in their war with the Amalekites, when Joshua selected the men he required (Exod. xvii. 9, 10); and in that with the Midianites, when a thousand men were levied from each tribe (Num. xxxi. 1-6). The whole body of the people were never expected to take the field, except on very extraordinary occasions (see Josh. viii. 7, 11, 12; Judg. xx.; 1 Sam. xi. 7); and on all these occasions the war was terminated in a few days.

19. On the tenth day of the first month.'-That is, of the month Nisan, just forty years, lacking five days, after the departure out of Egypt. This was four days before the annual feast of the Passover, and on the very day when the Paschal lamb was to be set apart for this purpose (Exod. xii. 3); God having so ordered it in his providence that the entrance into the Promised Land should coincide with the period of that festival.

20. Those twelve stones...did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.' ---The definite object of this proceeding is explained in the following verses: and the principle exemplified by such memorials has already given occasion to remark in the note to Gen. xxxv. 20 (see also xxviii. 18). Josephus says that an altar was constructed with the twelve stones;

and as the stones were not, singly, larger than one man could carry, this seems not unlikely. However, we have seen, in the note above referred to, that it was, and still is, a custom to set single stones as memorials of remarkable events. In the present instance, the stones, if set somewhat apart in an orderly manner and conspicuous situation, would seem likely to convey a more distinct reference to the twelve tribes than if united to form one altar, and if so arranged would suggest certain analogies to the Druidical stone circles which are found in various parts of the world, and of which our own country furnishes many interesting examples. A few remarks on this favourite and interesting subject of speculation may not be misplaced, and for a larger account we may refer to our Pictorial History of Palestine, ii. 404-412, 428-435.

We shall now first examine the passages of Scripture which seem to refer to such monuments, and to the ideas connected with them.

When God was about to deliver the principles of His law from the mountain of Sinai, Moses was repeatedly charged to place boundaries around the mountain consecrated by His presence, that the people assembled at its foot might be kept at a reverent distance. Instant death was the penalty of trespass beyond these bounds (Exod. xix. 12). This boundary was undoubtedly of stones. A boundary which should offer a physical obstacle to such a multitude was not required, but merely one which should mark out to them the limit beyond which they might not pass; and for this purpose stones placed at certain distances would suffice. The real restraint was moral and penal. It is absurd to think of a wooden railing, a hedge, or even a stone wall. This would detract much from the dignity of the circumstances. Here then was a sacred enclosure, the summit or centre of which was consecrated by the presence of God: within this enclosure only the ministering and chief persons (Moses, Aaron, the four sons of the latter, and seventy elders of Israel) were admitted, while the mass of the people stood without. Although there is no direct mention of stones,' this instance is very important, because it indicates that the encircling boundary almost certainly of stones, enclosed holy ground, and marked out to the people the limit beyond which they might not trespass.

Not long after this the people entered into their solemn covenant with God. On this occasion Moses built an altar of earth at the bottom of the mountain, and around it erected twelve stones, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel (Exod. xxiv. 4). This act corresponds with the usual idea of a pillar erected near an altar-as the monument of a solemn covenant: the altar indicating that God was one of the contracting parties, and the pillars in this instance being twelve, to indicate that the parties on the other side were twelve in number.

The next example is that of the present text. Here twelve stones are pitched in the bed of the Jordan, and the other twelve which were taken up out of the bed of that river are pitched in Gilgal to commemorate the passage of that river. The object of this is clearly declared:-That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask, in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, The waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones are for a perpetual memorial to the Israelites' (Josh. iv. 5–7), As, then, this was intended for a standing monument, the stones must have been embedded in the ground, so as not to be removed without some force; and when thus embedded, they must have had some elevation above the ground, so that they might not, in the course of time, be covered by the soil. From this, as well as from the analogy in other instances, it will follow that the stones selected for this purpose were of a shape suitable to their being set up as pillars, and that they were so set up. It would seem from the terms of the text that each of the twelve stones was borne to its place by a man from each of the tribes; and although the strongest men were doubtless chosen for this service, the stones could have been but small in comparison with others usually set up as pillars

of memorial. It is, indeed, possible that although the formal duty devolved on a man from each tribe, he was not precluded from receiving the assistance of other men not formally appointed, in which case the stones may have been larger. Now if these stones were indeed set up as pillars, there is no form in which they can be conceived to be placed so likely as that of a circle; and that it was such is implied in the name Gilgal (a circle, a round, a wheel, etc.); and the same might be inferred from the fact that this was the form of arrangement which analogous instances offer.

Now as this of Gilgal is by far the most important of the monuments of the class now under consideration which occurs in the history of the Hebrew nation, it is of much importance to collect the ideas which appear to have been afterwards connected with it.

The first messenger,' or prophet (Judg. ii. 1, see marginal reading), whom we read of in Scripture as being sent on a special mission, came from Gilgal, which, although not in itself a circumstance of much importance, may, in connection with others that follow, suggest that the place had even thus early become a station of priests or prophets to admonish and instruct the people. The fact that Ehud returned to Eglon when he had proceeded as far as Gilgal (Judg. iii. 19) tends to the same conclusion, by suggesting that the place was accounted sacred by the Hebrews, and had, perhaps in consequence of that sanctity, been appropriated to idolatrous uses by the Moabites. Subsequently Gilgal comes before us as a place where various of the more solemn acts of public business-legislative, judicial, deliberative, and politicalwere transacted.

He

It is remarkable that all the places at which Samuel held his courts of judicature, in his annual circuits from his residence at Ramah, were places of sacred stones. went from year to year in circuit to Bethel (the place of Jacob's sacred stone or stones), and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all these places' (1 Sam. vii. 16). Concerning Mizpeh, we may observe that this name was given to the place of the stones collected and set up by Jacob and Laban on the other side Jordan, or, more exactly, Mizpeh was the name given to the stone or pillar of memorial there set up, while 'Gilead' was that of the heap of stones, or of the whole place collectively (Gen. xxxi. 48, 49). We know not, however, that this was the Mizpeh of the present text, which may have been another

place of an erected pillar (as the name itself imports) on the borders of Judah and Benjamin. This Mizpeh was almost equal with Gilgal as a place of assemblage for public transactions. It was here that the tribes met at the call of the Levite to deliberate on the war against Benjamin (Judg. xx. 1). It was at this place that Samuel convened the solemn national assembly of repentant Israel, which is mentioned in 1 Sam. vii. 5-12; and from the sequel it appears that Mizpeh was so well known even to the Philistines as a place for assemblies of the nation, when it had some great matter in view, that they no sooner heard of this meeting than they marched up their army against the assembly. The same prophet 'called all Israel together in Mizpeh' for the election of a king (1 Sam. x. 17). But we have not yet done with Gilgal. There must have been an altar at this place, although the occasion of its erection is not mentioned; for that burnt offerings and peace offerings might be offered there is manifest from Samuel's direction to Saul,-' Go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down to thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings' (1 Sam. x. 8). Here the same Saul was inaugurated as king-the first king-on a subsequent occasion. After Saul's victory over the Ammonites, Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go down to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there. And all the people went to Gilgal; and THERE they made Saul king before Jehovah in Gilgal; and THERE they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before Jehovah; and THERE Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly' (1 Sam. xi. 14, 15). Saul himself, at a later day, called the people together at the same place for war against the Philistines; and after waiting for Samuel, he himself offered sacrifices there to Jehovah, before commencing his expedition (1 Sam. xiii. 4, 7, 12, 15). It was under the pretence or delusion of sacrificing to Jehovah in Gilgal, that Saul spared the choice cattle of the Amalekites, although that people and all that belonged to them had been devoted by the vow of cherem to utter destruction. And it was here, 'before Jehovah in Gilgal,' that Samuel hewed Agag in pieces (1 Sam. xv. 21, 33). So also, when David returned from the other side Jordan, after the defeat and death of Absalom, he proceeded to Gilgal, where the people of Judah and a portion of the other Israelites met him, with the intention of inviting him to resume the government,-or, in some sort, to reelect him, as they had seemed to have rescinded their

original choice by their intermediate adhesion to Absalom (2 Sam. xix. 40, etc.). Gilgal appears to have been the customary residence of the prophet Elijah, for it was from thence he set forth with Elisha, before he was taken away. This confirms a previous conjecture that there was a college or school of the prophets at this place (2 Kings ii. 1). In the earlier prophets there are many denunciations against the corruptions of which Gilgal (see Amos iv. 4; v. 5; Hos. iv. 15; ix. 15; xii. 11) ultimately became the seat. In some of these places it is coupled in this condemnation with Bethel, another place of sacred stones; and this shews that the ancient sanctities connected with these places failed not to point them out for idolatrous appropriation.

6

The next, and indeed the only other instance which the Scripture offers, is that which formed a part of the great solemnity at Ebal and Gerizim. In this case 'great stones' were set up, and covered with inscriptions from the words of the Law; and there was connected with them an altar of unhewn stones. The inscriptions remove this one degree from the originally simple character of its class of monuments; yet the instance is of great importance, from its clear intimation that the great stones' spoken of on such occasions were apart and distinct from the altar; for as this is not distinctly stated in the other examples which have been adduced, some interpreters have supposed that at Gilgal and Sinai they were employed in the construction of the altars. This notion arose from want of sufficient attention to the rude stone erections of primitive times, which precluded commentators from being aware of any other use than that of building an altar to which they could be applied.

Now all these instances are in perfect accordance with the construction and use of the still existing Druidical circles,' as they are called, of which our own country offers some of the grandest, and probably most ancient, examples in the world-the principal being those of Abury and Stonehenge. In our own times autiquarians have ceased to dispute whether these circles of stones were intended for religious, civil, or military uses, but are more disposed to agree that they were intended for all these purposes; and this conclusion is, to our minds, satisfactorily corroborated by the diversified occasions on which resort was made to Gilgal. This point is fully established by citation of authorities in the work to which we have referred. The result of this conclusion would be, that such erections were temples primarily, and, like all temples (and even now our own churches, when separate public buildings are wanting for parochial business), were used when necessary for important public purposes. Thus, among the Israelites, the tabernacle, and afterwards the

temple, were not only the places of religious service, but the places of concourse to the people on all public matters of importance. The resort to their places of stones was only occasional, although, as we have seen, sufficiently frequent in early times to indicate the continued operation of the habits and ideas connected with such monuments. This simple and obvious explanation has tended much to mitigate the warmth with which the various single alternatives were, during the last century, advocated by different writers on the subject; while, at the same time, it demonstrates their analogy to, or identity with, the arrangements of great stones' which the Scriptures mention.

This indefinite appropriation of the stone circles in different countries, doubtless arose from the union, under the ancient systems of religion, of the religious, legislative, and judicial functions in the same persons: and the legislators and judges who, as priests, were invested with a sacred character, would naturally avail themselves of bearing out the authority which their civil and judicial acts derived from that connection, by associating them also with the sacred place. It seems to us that the religious use of these monuments formed the primary idea in their construction; and that their civil use was a secondary notion, or rather one necessarily involved in the other. But we think it may be perceived that, after the religious notions connected with these erections had passed away, they long continued to be appropriated to civil assemblages. Hence we have of this latter appropriation historical proof, and almost existing usage, which cannot ascend so high as the religious appropriation. [APPENDIX, No. 14.]

CHAPTER V.

1 The Canaanites are afraid. 2 Joshua reneweth circumcision. 10 The passover is kept at Gilgal. 12 Manna ceaseth. 13 An angel appeareth to Joshua. AND it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

2 At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee 'sharp knives, and cir1 Or, knives of flints.

cumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

4 And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.

5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. 6 For the children of Israel walked forty

3 Or, Gibeah-haaraloth.