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seems now to be much diminished, illustrate those parts of scripture, which mention the fords and passages of Jordan. It no longer indeed rolls down into the Salt Sea so majestic a stream as in the days of Joshua, yet its ordinary depth is still about ten or twelve feet, so that it cannot even at present be passed but at certain places. Of this well-known circumstance, the men of Gilead took advantage in the civil war, which they were compelled to wage with their brethren: "The Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites:... then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan." The people of Israel, under the command of Ehud, availed themselves of the same advantage in the war with Moab: "And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan towards Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over." But although the state of this river in modern times, completely justifies the incidental remarks of the sacred writers, it is evident, that Maundrell was disconcerted by the shallowness of the stream, at the time of the year when he expected to see it overflowing all its banks; and his embarrassment seems to have increased, when he contemplated the double margin within which it flowed. This difficulty, which has perhaps occurred to some others, may be explained by a remark which Dr. Pococke has made on the river Euphrates. "The bed of the Euphrates," says that writer," was measured by some English gentlemen at Beer, and found to be six hundred and thirty yards broad; but the river only two hundred and fourteen yards over; that they thought it to be nine or ten feet deep in the middle; and were informed, that it sometimes rises twelve feet perpendicularly. He observed that it had an inner and outer bank; but says, it rarely overflows the inner bank: that when it does, they Sow watermelons and other fruits of that kind, as soon as the water retires, and have a great produce." From this passage, Mr. Harmer argues; "Might not the overflowings of the Jordan be like those of the Euphrates, not annual, but much more rare ?" The difficulty, therefore, will be completely removed, by supposing that it does not, like the Nile, overflow every year, as some authors by mistake had supposed, but, like the Euphrates, only in some particular years; but when it does, it is in the time of harvest. If it did not in ancient times annually overflow its banks, the majesty of God in dividing its waters, to make way for Joshua and the armies of Israel, was certainly the more striking to the Canaanites; who, when they looked upon themselves as defended in an extraordinary manner by the casual swelling of the river, its breadth and rapidity being both so extremely increased, yet, found it in these circumstances part asunder, and leave a way on dry land for the people of Jehovah.

The casual overflowing of the river, in Mr. Harmer's opinion, seems to receive some confirmation from a passage in Josephus, where that writer informs his readers, that the Jordan was sometimes swelled in the spring, so as to be impassable in places where people were wont to go over in his time; for, speaking of a transaction on the fourth of the month Dystrus, which answers to our March, or, as others reckon, to February, he gives an account of great numbers of people who perished in this river, into which they were driven by their enemies; which, by the circumstances, appears to have happened in a few days after what was done on the fourth of Dystrus. But the solution offered by this respectable author is rather strained and unsatisfactory. The inspired writer of the book of Joshua uses language on that subject, which naturally suggests the idea of periodical inundations: "Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest." The present time certainly indicates the general habit of the subject to which it refers, and in this case, what commonly happens to the river. It may be swelled in the spring occasionally; but it is not easy to discover a reason for the general remark of the sacred writer, if the inundations in the time of harvest were not annual. The causes of these inundations, the melting of the snows on the top of Lebanon, and the former and latter rain, uniformly take place at their appointed seasons; but a steady periodical cause will certainly produce a corresponding effect. But if this reasoning be just, why did not Maundrell see the effect when he visited the river at the appointed time? This question may be answered by another, Why do the inundations even of the Nile sometimes fail? The reason is obvious; the rains in Abyssinia are not every season equally copious.

In the same manner, if the snows on Lebanon, and the periodical rains, are less abundant in some seasons, it will easily account for the state of the river when it was visited by Maundrell. Admitting the fact, that the volume of water in the Jordan is diminished, and that he never overflows his banks as in ancient times, that intelligent traveller himself has sufficiently accounted for the circumstance: some of the waters may be drained off by secret channels, which is not uncommon in those parts of the world; and if the rapidity of the current be so great that he could not swim against it, the depth of the channel must be greatly increased since the days of Joshua and the Judges. To these, some other causes of considerable power may be added; the present state of Lebanon, now for a long time deprived of its immense forests of cedar, which formerly exerted a powerful attraction on the humidity of the atmosphere, and served to accumulate the snows on the Sannin, while they screened from the burning rays of the sun, the fountains and rills that fed the Jordan and his tributary streams: and the great extent to which the declivities of that noble mountain have been subjected to the arts of cultivation, by the Maronites, and other nations, who have taken refuge in its sequestered retreats from the intolerable oppression of the Turks, by which its numerous streams have been still, further diminished,-must, it is imagined, produce a very sensible difference in the volume of water which that river, once so celebrated for its full and majestic tide, now pours into the Salt Sea. Still, however, taking the mean depth of the stream during the whole year at nine feet, and admitting that it runs about two miles an hour, the Jordan will daily discharge into the Dead Sea, about 6,090,000 tons of water.

But although these causes must have produced a considerable diminution in the swellings of Jordan, we have the authority of a recent traveller for asserting, that they still take place at the appointed season, and exhibit a scene of no inconsiderable grandeur. In winter, the river overflows its narrow channel, which between the two principal lakes is not more than sixty or eighty feet broad, and, swelled by the rains, forms a sheet of water sometimes a quarter of a league in breadth. The time of its overflowing is generally in March, when the snows melt on the mountain of the Shaik; at which time, more than any other, its waters are troubled and of a yellow hue, and its course impetaous. The common receptacle into which the Jordan empties his waters, is the lake Asphaltites, from whence they are continually drained off by evaporation. Some writers, unable to find a discharge for the large body of water which is continually rushing into the lake, have been inclined to suspect, it had some communication with the Mediterranean; but, besides that we know of no such gulf, it has been demonstrated by accurate calculations, that evaporation is more than sufficient to carry off the waters of the river. It is in fact very considerable, and frequently becomes sensible to the eye, by the fogs with which the lake is covered at the rising of the sun, and which are afterward dispersed by the heat.

How large the common receptacle of the Jordan was, before the destruction of Sodom, cannot now be determined with certainty; but it was much smaller than at present; the whole vale of Siddim, which, before that awful catastrophe, was crowded with cities, or covered with rich and extensive pastures, and fields of corn, being now buried in the waters of the lake. The course of the stream, which is to the southward, seems clearly to indicate, that the original basin was in the southern part of the present sea. But, although the waters of the river at first presented a much less extended surface to the action of the sun and the atmosphere, still a secret communication between the lake and the Mediterranean, is not perhaps necessary to account for their discharge. By the admission of Volney, evaporation is more than sufficient to carry them off at present: and if to this be added, the great quantity of water consumed in the cities, and required by the cultivator, to refresh his plantations and corn-fields, under the burning rays of an oriental sun, it is presumed, a cause equal to the effect is provided. This is not a mere conjecture, unsupported by historical facts; for only a very small portion of the Barrady, the principal river of Damascus, escapes from the gardens that environ the city, through which it is conducted in a thousand clear and winding streams, to maintain their freshness and verdure.-PAXTON.

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CHAPTER V.

Ver. 15. And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

Every person that approaches the royal presence in the East, is obliged to take off his shoes, because they consider as sacred the ground on which the king sits, whom they dignify with the title of the Shadow of God. Allusive to this custom, perhaps, is the command given to Joshua: "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." And so strictly was this custom observed, that the Persians look upon the omission of it as the greatest indignity that can be offered to them. The king (says Morier) is never approached by his subjects without frequent inclinations of the body: and when the person introduced to his presence has reached a certain distance, he waits until the king orders him to proceed; upon which he leaves his shoes, and walks forward with a respectful step to a second spot, until his majesty again directs him to advance. The custom which is here referred to, not only constantly prevailed all over the East, from the earliest ages, but continues to this day. To pull off the sandals, or slippers, is used as a mark of respect, on entering a mosque or temple, or the room of any person of distinction; in which case they were either laid aside, or given to a servant to bear. Íves (Travels, p. 75) says, that, at the doors of an Indian pagoda, are seen as many slippers and sandals as there are hats hanging up in our churches." The same custom prevails among the Turks. Maundrell describes exactly the ceremonials of a Turkish visit, on which (though a European and a stranger) he was obliged to comply with this custom.-BURDER.

CHAPTER VI.

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Ver. 26. And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

Thus

It appears from the following passage from Strabo's Geography of Troy, (b. xiii. chap. 1. § 42,) that it was not unusual in remote antiquity to pronounce a curse upon those who should rebuild a destroyed city. "It is believed that those who might have afterward wished to rebuild Ilium, were deterred from building the city in the same place, either by what they had suffered there, or because Agamemnon had pronounced a curse against him that should rebuild it. For this was an ancient custom. Cræsus, after he had destroyed Sidene, into which the tyrant Glaucias had thrown himself, uttered a curse upon him who should rebuild the walls of that place." Zonaras says, that the Romans pronounced a curse upon him who should rebuild Carthage. Joshua's curse on the rebuilder of Jericho, was fulfilled, according to 1 Kings xvi. 34, on one Hiel, who lost his eldest son, Abiram, when he laid the foundation, and his youngest son, Segub, when he built the gate.-ROSENMULLER.

CHAPTER VII

Ver. 6. And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the even-tide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.

Joshua and the elders of Israel were in great distress, because they had been defeated by the men of Ai, and because they saw in that a token of the divine displeasure. They therefore fell prostrate before the ark of the Lord, and put dust on their heads as an emblem of their sorrow. (1 Sam. iv. 12. 2 Sam. i. 2. Neh. ix. 1.) How often is the mind affectingly thrown back on this ancient custom by similar scenes at this day! See the poor object bereft of wife, children, property, friends; or suffering under some deep affliction of body: he sits on the ground, with his eyes fixed thereon, a dirty rag round his loins, his arms

folded, his jewels laid aside, his hair dishevelled and covered with dust, and bitterly bemoaning his condition, saying, Iyo! iyo! iyo!" Alas! alas! alas!"-ROBERTS. CHAPTER IX.

Ver. 4. They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine-bottles, old, and rent, and bound up.

Chardin informs us that the Arabs, and all those that lead a wandering life, keep their water, milk, and other liquors, in leathern bottles. They keep in them more fresh than otherwise they would do. These leathern bottles are made of goat-skins. When the animal is killed, they cut off its feet and its head, and they draw it in this manner out of the skin, without opening its belly. They afterward sew up the places where the legs were cut off, and the tail, and when it is filled, they tie it about the neck. These nations, and the country people of Persia, never go a journey without a small leathern bottle of water hanging by their side like a scrip. The great leathern bottles are made of the skin of a he-goat, and the small ones, that serve instead of a bottle of water on the road, are made of a kid's skin." These bottles are frequently rent, when old and much used, and are capable of being repaired by being bound up. This they do, Chardin says, 44 sometimes by setting in a piece; sometimes by gathering up the wounded place in the manner of a purse; sometimes they put in a round flat piece of wood, and by that means stop the hole." Maundrell gives an account exactly similar to the above. Speaking of the Greek convent at Bellmount, near Tripoli, in Syria, he says, "the same person whom we saw officiating at the altar in his embroidered sacerdotal robe, brought us the next day, on his own back, a kid and a goat-skin of wine, as a present from the convent." These bottles are still used in Spain, and called borrachas. Mr. Bruce gives a description of the girba, which seems to be a vessel of the same kind as those now mentioned, only of dimensions considerably larger. A girba is an ox's skin, squared, and the edges sewed together very artificially, by a double seam, which does not let out water, much resembling that upon the best English cricket balls. An opening is left at the top of the girba, in the same manner as the bunghole of a cask; around this the skin is gathered to the size of a large handful, which, when the girba is full of water, is tied round with whip-cord. These girbas generally con tain about sixty gallons each, and two of them are the load of a camel. They are then all besmeared on the outside with grease, as well to hinder the water from oozing through, as to prevent its being evaporated by the heat of the sun upon the girba, which, in fact, happened to us twice, so as to put us in imminent danger of perishing with thirst."--BURDER.

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Ver. 23. Now therefore ye are cursed; and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the house of my God.

In the kingdom of Algiers, the women and children are charged with the care of their flocks and their herds, with providing food for the family, cutting fuel, fetching water, and when their domestic affairs allow them, with tending their silk worms. The daughters of the Turcomans in Palestine, are employed in the same mean and laborious offices. In Homer, Andromache fed the horses of her heroic husband. It is probable, the cutting of wood was another female occupation. The very great antiquity of these customs, is confirmed by the prophet Jeremiah, who complains that the children were sent to gather wood for idolatrous purposes; and in his Lamentations, he bewails the oppressions which his people suffered from their enemies, in these terms: "They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood." Hence the servile condition to which the Gibeonites were reduced by Joshua, for imposing upon him and the princes of the congregation, appears to have been much more severe than we are apt at first to suppose: "Now, therefore, ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the house of my God."

from the number of armed chariots which they possessed, when Joshua invaded their country, to have been trained to that mode of warfare long before. "And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Bethshean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel." This by no means intimates, that the chariots were made of iron, but only that they were armed with it. Such chariots were by the ancients called currus falcati, and in Greek dрenavodupai, They had a kind of scythes, of about two cubits long, fastened to long axle-trees on both wheels; these being driven swiftly through a body of men, made great slaughter, mowing them down like grass or corn. The efficacious resistance which the Canaanites, from their chariots of iron, opposed to the arms of Israel, is emphatically remarked by the sacred historian: "And the Lord was with Judah, and they drave out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." The native princes of Canaan, fully aware of the great advantages to be derived from this species of force, in combating the armies of Israel, which consisted, as has been already observed, entirely of infantry, continued to improve it with a care and diligence proportioned to its importance. In the time of the judges, not long after the death of Joshua, Jabin the king of Canaan, sent nine hundred chariots of iron into the field against the people of Israel: and in a succeeding war, between this people and their inveterate enemies the Philistines, the latter met them in the field with "thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude."-PAXTON.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Ver. 25. Gibeon, and Ramah, and Beeroth.

of some noble subterranean cisterns at Ramah, not inferior either in extent or execution to many of those at Alexandria: they were intended for the same purpose, namely, to serve in time of war as reservoirs of water."-1 -BUCKINGHAM.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Ver. 7. But they shall be snares and traps unto you, and Scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

"What!" says a wife to her angry husband, "am I a thorn in your eyes?" "Alas! alas! he has seen another; I am now a thorn in his eyes." "Were I not a thorn in his eyes, his anger would not burn so long." "My old friend Tamban never looks at my house now, because it gives thorns to his eyes."— ROBERTS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Ver. 12. And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.

See on Ex. 24. 28.

Ver. 32. And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

The oriental geographers speak of Ramah as the metropolis of Palestine; and every appearance of its ruins even now confirms the opinion of its having been once a considerable city. Its situation, as lying immediately in the high road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, made it necessarily a place of great resort; and from the fruitfulness of the country around it, it must have been equally important as a military station or a depot for supplies, and as a magazine for the collection of such articles of commerce as were export-phen confirms the relation. Acts vii. 16. Savages consider

ed from the coast. In its present state, the town of Ramah is about the size of Jaffa, in the extent actually occupied. The dwellings of this last, however, are crowded together around the sides of a hill, while those of Ramah are scattered widely over the face of the level plain on which it stands. The style of building here is that of high square houses, with flattened domes covering them; and some of the old terraced roofs are fenced around with raised walls, in which are seen pyramids of hollow earthenware pipes, as if to give air and light, without destroying the strength of the wall itself. The inhabitants are estimated at little more than five thousand persons, of whom about one third are Christians of the Greek and Catholic communion, and the remaining two thirds Mohammedans, chiefly Arabs; the men of power and the military being Turks, and no Jews residing there. The principal occupation of the people is husbandry, for which the surrounding country is highly favourable, and the staple commodities produced by them are corn, olives, oil, and cotton, with some soap and coarse cloth made in the town. There are still remains

Joseph was not interred in Shechem, but, according to the ancient custom, in a field adjoining. Probably the other children of Jacob received the like honour, each tribe taking care to bury its ancestor, either at Machpelah, or elsewhere in the land of Canaan. Josephus asserts that it was so, upon the credit of an ancient tradition. St. Ste

the tombs of their ancestors as titles to the possession of the lands which they inhabit. This country is ours, say they; the bones of our fathers are here laid to rest. When they are forced to quit it, they dig them up with tears, and carry them off with every token of respect. About thirty miles below the falls of St. Anthony, (says Carver,) in North America, several bands of the Naudowessie Indians have a burying-place, where these people, though they have no fixed residence, living in tents, and abiding but a few months on one spot, always contrive to deposite the bones of their dead. At the spring equinox these bands annually assemble here to hold a grand council with all the other bands; wherein they settle their operations for the ensuing year. At this time, in particular, they bring with them their dead, for interment, bound up in buffaloes' skins. If any of these people die in the summer, at a distance from the burying-ground, and they find it impossible to remove the body before it would putrify, they burn the flesh from the bones, and preserving the latter, bury them in the manner described.-BURDER.

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