Joshua

ON ST. JOSHUA, LEADER OF THE ISRAELITES,

IN PALESTINE,

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Joshua, leader of the Israelites, in Palestine. (S.)

Written by J. L.

§ I. The method of writing; the etymology of the name Joshua

and its variant reading; the Saint's father and forebears.

Concerning the method chosen Of the Saints whom the Church honors in the month of September, the column is led by those commanders of the Hebrew people, no less renowned for piety toward God than for warlike valor, Joshua and Oedeon: for Baronius, and nearly all the Latin martyrologists more ancient than he, join that noble pair of Heroes in their Calendars at the Kalends of September. God Himself set each over his own people; Gideon He designated judge by the ministry of an angel, Joshua He designated the successor of Moses by the oracle of a divine voice: the latter, that he might bring the Israelites into the land divinely promised, the Canaanites being exterminated; the former, that he might avenge those same people, afflicted and oppressed by the servitude of the Midianites, from their injuries, and restore them to their former liberty.

And in the first place indeed we shall treat of Joshua, the supreme governor of the people of God after the lawgiver. Since our predecessors in writing the Acts of the Saints of the Old Testament neither prescribed nor kept a fixed method, I have proposed to myself to keep that one by which I might best consult the convenience of my readers. The Saint's deeds, before he obtained the supreme princedom, must be sought from various chapters of the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. If I were to copy out the bare words of Scripture that pertain to the Saint, and then bid the reader go for the understanding of them to the interpreters and to the writers of the Annals of the Old Covenant, I should think I had done nothing for his benefit. For since in the named books of the Pentateuch the Life of Moses and the other things done under his rule are narrated at length, the eager reader will not be able to find the Acts of St. Joshua, which are scattered and mixed in among them, either among the interpreters, who bind themselves to the series of chapters and verses, or among the writers of Annals, who bind themselves to the order of time, save interpolated with long and irrelevant digressions, by which he must needs be much detained. The things which the Saint, after the death of Moses, gloriously did as supreme leader of the Hebrews are indeed gathered into one book, which is inscribed with his name: but since this book treats of the execution of those things which God had before promised concerning the acquisition and division of Canaan, and which He had prescribed, by Himself or by Moses, as to be observed after the entrance into it; whoever desires rightly to understand all the things done by the Saint in the administration of the Hebrew commonwealth must often have recourse to the books of the Pentateuch. Now the book of Joshua must be illuminated from these; now it must be reconciled with them, and that in several places.

[2] Besides, the Life of St. Joshua, as it stands in the Scriptures, and the method of composition is liable to frequent difficulties, in which the Saint's glory is at stake. In unravelling these there is so great a variety and perplexity of opinions that I can assign no writer of Annals of the Old Testament, no interpreter, to whom you may safely cleave in all things, in my judgment at least. Induced chiefly by these reasons, I have determined to gather together the Saint's Acts, dispersed here and there through so many sacred Books, and to bring them as it were under a single view; to consult the holy Fathers, the historians, and the interpreters who treat of them, as many as I have been able to obtain; and from their opinions and commentaries compared with one another to select those which seem to me more conformable to Scripture and to reason. It will indeed sometimes happen that I shall commit myself to ways trodden by few or perhaps by none: but I shall never rashly dare this, unless reason and sacred authority make me secure that I do not turn aside from the truth or from what is more likely. However prolix this Commentary may appear, a fair judge, as I hope, will not think that I have inserted into it things unseasonable. The things which make for illustrating the history and its context — confused and disturbed here and there in Scripture — for declaring the greatness of the miracles wrought by the Saint, for manifesting his virtues, for defending the integrity of his life against accusers even of great authority: these things, I say, I persuade myself are not superfluous, and are to be set forth in such a manner that everyone may understand that I have passed over nothing which looks to the commendation of St. Joshua, or which can conduce to the convenience and instruction of the readers.

[3] the reader is forewarned But lest we should seem to wish studiously to wrap up and make obscure the things that are clear or certain, we shall not interpolate with any citation those things which we have drawn from the interpreters and other authors, unless they are controverted or can be controverted. We shall also abstain, as far as we can, from examining the situation of the provinces, cities, and other places of which the book of Joshua is full: as also from all those questions which regard the Saint more remotely. Nor have we judged that the context of the Commentary should be interrupted by refuting the fictions of certain Rabbis, who have fabled various ridiculous things about the Saint, and things marvelous beyond all belief, nay impious. We shall not even name any of them, save rarely, where they have found some patrons among Christians. Antonius Possevinus' Apparatus sacer may be seen at the word Rabbini. Among the Jews Philo and Flavius Josephus have the greatest authority. Those few things which each has concerning the Saint's Life, passed in the desert under Moses, we shall allege in their place. What the Prince of the Israelites piously and bravely did in the land of Canaan, Josephus alone describes in book 5 of the Antiquities, chapter one, which we shall insert almost entire into our Commentary at the fitting places. The things in it which occur as false or not likely, added notes will distinguish from the true and the likely: from the latter the sacred narrative will receive light; from the former the reader will gather how much faith and authority is to be attributed to Josephus. Further, we shall give his words, as also Philo's, as Sigismund Gelenius rendered them into Latin, whose version most people follow. And these are chiefly the things of which I judged the reader should be forewarned. Now let us approach the matter itself.

[4] The name given to the Saint at his circumcision was Osee or Hosee, the Saint was first called Osee, then Joshua; the etymology of each name: for which the Septuagint, and some of the Fathers who followed them, have Ause or Auses. St. Jerome in his Commentaries on chapter 1 of the prophet Osee, and with him everywhere all men, suspect that it is an old error that for Ὠσηὲ there is read in the Septuagint Αὐσὴ. Perhaps ω was corrupted into αυ, which is akin to it in character. The Saint retained the name Osee until he was sent with his companions to explore the land of the Canaanites in the second year after the going out from Egypt: for then first, as we shall say below at num. 40 to be more likely, Moses changed the Saint's name, And he called Osee, the son of Nun, Josue. Numbers chapter 13, verse 17. St. Jerome, cited above, gives the etymology of each name: Osee, he says, in our tongue sounds Saviour: which name he had

also Joshua, son of Nun, before his appellation was changed for him by God. For he was not called Ause (as is wrongly read in the Greek and Latin codices), which is understood as nothing at all; but Osee, that is, Saviour: and there was added to his name the Lord (that is, the letter Jod, which is the first of the tetragrammaton name and is thereupon taken for God Himself), so that he might be called the Saviour of the Lord, that is, he through whom the Lord was to save His people. By God, says the holy Doctor, or by Moses at God's prompting, this change of name was made; namely, that the type might thus in all things agree with the truth, and that Joshua, expressed not only by his deeds but by his very name, might represent Jesus the Saviour of the world.

[5] Some interpreters deny that the Saviour of the world and the Saviour of Israel bore the same name, [he was a type of Jesus the Son of God by his very name, of which the reading varies.] and with Epiphanius, Heresy 29, Basil in the Ascetica, and Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 10, they derive Ἰησοῦς from ἴαομαι, that is, to heal, so that it is the same as physician. But I do not believe that those Fathers wished to teach the true etymology, but only to indicate what signification could rightly be adapted and accommodated to it. Matthew gives the true reason of the name in chapter 1, verse 21: Thou shalt call his name Jesus. Why so? for he himself SHALL SAVE his people. Jesus therefore is the same as Saviour, and so is derived from the same Hebrew root from which Joshua comes, which, by the testimony of St. Jerome cited above, signifies the same thing: and it is confirmed from Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, verse 1: Jesus the son of Nave was valiant in war, the successor of Moses among the prophets, who was great according to his name, very great for the SALVATION of the elect of God. Besides, that the names Joshua and Jesus are not distinguished is plain from this, that the Septuagint, Philo, and Josephus everywhere write Ἰησοῦς for Joshua. The sacred Pages also call holy Joshua Jesus in the chapter of Ecclesiasticus cited, and in the first book of Maccabees chapter 2, verse 55. The Saint therefore was, by his very name, as I was just saying, a type of Jesus Christ. As Josue, so Jesus is from the Hebrew [ ], which many pronounce Jehoscuah, some Jehosuah, others otherwise. Among the Greek Fathers you will scarcely find the Saint called by any other name than Jesus. Of the Latins some have written Jesus, some Josue. The authority of St. Jerome and of the Vulgate has brought it about that today the appellation Josue or Josua is the most usual. There are, however, those who, to come nearer to the Hebrew reading, prefer to write Jehosua. Whoever desires more concerning the Saint's name and its etymology, let him consult Cornelius a Lapide and Bonfrerius on Numbers chapter 13, verse 17, and others.

[6] The Saint's forebears, of the tribe of Ephraim: Among the great men whom the tribe of Ephraim gave to Israel, Joshua, by divine election the successor of Moses, claims for himself the first place. His genealogy is given by the first book of Paralipomenon, chapter 7, from verse 23: And he (Ephraim, the son of the patriarch Joseph) went in to his wife, who conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Beria, because he was born in the evils of his house. And his daughter was Sara, who built Bethoron the lower and the upper, and Ozensara. Moreover his son was Rapha, and Reseph, and Thale, of whom was born Thaan, who begot Laadan: his son also was Ammiud, who begot Elisama, of whom sprang Nun, who had a son Josue. How many generations are to be reckoned from Ephraim down to Joshua is very uncertain. That the Saint's father was Nun, his grandfather Elisama, his great-grandfather Ammiud, his great-great-grandfather Laadan, is beyond controversy. Nor, as I think, do they stray from the truth who hold that his great-great-great-grandfather was Thaan, and his great-great-great-great-grandfather Thale: their opinion is more conformable to the text of the Vulgate; nor does it manifestly conflict with the Hebrew or the Greek reading. But whether Thale was of the sons or rather of the grandsons of Ephraim is more ambiguous. Scripture in this place favors those who affirm the first no more than those who affirm the second. Nor do I see that anything can be brought from elsewhere on either side which would settle the question.

[7] [his grandfather Elisama supreme leader of the Ephraimites; the father's name is variously read:] Elisama, the Saint's grandfather, was one of the twelve tribunes who are enumerated by name in Numbers chapter 1, verse 4 and following, and are there in verse 16 called the most noble princes and the heads copita, so printed of the army of Israel: he was, I say, the leader of all the Ephraimites, among whom, when Moses at God's command had taken the number of the children of Israel from the twentieth year and upward, there were found forty thousand five hundred fighting men. Ibid., verses 32 and 33, and chapter 2, verse 19. St. Joshua therefore was the grandson of a most noble prince and supreme leader of the tribe of Ephraim, and the son of Nun, whom Salianus in his Annals, at the year of the world 2491, thinks it likely to have succeeded his father Elisama in the same dignity. Further, for Nun the Septuagint interpreters have Ναυῆ. Hence it came about that not only the Greeks but also many of the Latin Fathers called Joshua Jesus, the son of Nave. In Josephus, book 3 of the Antiquities, chapter 2, Ναύηκος is read, and in chapter 13 Ναύηχος. But whence so great a variety of reading? Hear St. Jerome on chapter 40 of the prophet Ezekiel: And I think that the diligent and studious reader must be admonished — if indeed he is led by the knowledge of the Scriptures and not by the empty declamations of orators — to know that almost all the Hebrew words and names which are set down in the Greek and Latin translation have been corrupted by excessive age and depraved by the fault of the copyists; and that, while they are written from uncorrected copies still less corrected, they have from Hebrew words been made Sarmatian, nay of no nation at all; since they have both ceased to be Hebrew and have not begun to be anything else. Among the proper names which the copyists depraved, I judge Nun to have been one. The affinity of the characters, perhaps not distinctly enough written in the original, could have been the occasion that for Νοῦν there was written Ναῦν, and then Ναυῆ. In the first book of Paralipomenon alone, chapter 7, verse 27, Νοῦν is still read uncorrupted.

[8] Harduin in his Chronology of the Old Testament, page 529, subjoins to the words of Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, verse 1, which we gave at num. 5, this interpretation of them: Jesus Nave is not the same as Jesus the prophet. Jesus Nave is Jesus the prophet, [ ]. Whence he is called in this place "the successor of Moses among the prophets": as though the sacred writer were saying: Jesus, surnamed among his own people Nave, because "the successor of Moses among the prophets"; and the same "great according to his name" because "for the salvation of the elect of God". For Jesus is Saviour. And so according to Harduin, by the word Nave it is signified that the Saint himself was a prophet. The sacred codices which now exist in Greek and in the said place of Ecclesiasticus have Ἰησοῦς ὁ τοῦ Ναυῆ are of small authority with him: Since, he says, only Ἰησοῦς Ναυῆ is read in the Greek Vatican edition published at Rome, and in the London one printed from that copy, we take no account of the other editions. I confess that in the most ancient codex of the Vatican Library, which I have in hand, printed at Rome in the year 1587 in Greek type, ὁ τοῦ is not expressed, which is added in others. But does it follow from this that in the Vatican Ναυῆ is the same as prophet, and so that other editions differ from this in sense, corrupted by the addition of the article τοῦ? Harduin did not see the book of Ecclesiasticus written in Hebrew by Jesus the son of Sirach, since it does not exist. In it therefore he did not read that word which above he expressed in Hebrew characters; and so neither could he know that the grandson of Jesus the son of Sirach, who rendered the book of Ecclesiasticus from the Hebrew into Greek, used the word Ναυῆ to signify that Joshua was a prophet. He brings forward indeed some reasons why he thinks so: but if the reader will examine them and compare them with the words of St. Jerome just given, and with those which I shall immediately subjoin, I doubt not that he will judge with me that they by no means suffice for setting the sacred Codices at variance with one another; where they do not differ in sense, if it be said that Ναυῆ is put for Νοῦν, the Saint's father. Certainly it is used for Νοῦν in all the other sacred Books. In the Pentateuch, in the books of Joshua, Judges, the third of Kings, and the second of Esdras, twenty-nine times the Hebrew text subjoins to the name of Joshua son of Nun; for which in the Vatican there is nineteen times ὑιὸς Ναυῆ inflected through various cases, and ten times ὁ τοῦ Ναυῆ. Besides, Handuinus cannot say that υὶος and ὁ τοῦ were everywhere added by an interpolator in the codex mentioned, since he himself of his own accord appealed to this one as the most correct. Moreover this interpolation has less likelihood than that Ναυῆ crept in by the fault of the copyists in place of Νοῦν, as is plain to one who considers. Therefore that saying of Ecclesiasticus, Jesus Nave … who was great according to his name, very great for the salvation of the elect of God, I think has this sense: Jesus, the son of Nave, was great in name, very great in fact, or in the execution of the thing signified by the name, namely because he was for the Salvation of the elect of God.

§ II. His birth: was he known to Moses before his return from the land of Midian? When was he made his minister; of what kind was his ministry; what fruit was gathered from it.

[ ] The Saint's year of birth: According to the calculations of Salianus the children of Israel were led out of Egypt by Moses in the year of the world 2544. Whether he rightly attaches to this year the deliverance from the Egyptian servitude, let those examine to whom it more nearly belongs. Granting therefore that the reckoning of time given by him is accurate, it will now be easy for us to find in about what year from the founding of the world the Saint was born. From Numbers chapter 32, verse 13, and Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 7, it is evident that from the going out of the Israelites from Egypt until the death of Moses nearly 40 years flowed by. Add to these the 17 years of his government after the lawgiver's death, which we shall say below at num. 270 and following are more probably to be given him, and you will have 57. Join to these also the 53 in which he lived in Egypt, and you will fill out the whole period of his life, which the book of Joshua, chapter 24, verse 29, circumscribes with a hundred and ten years. Now if the Saint lived 53 years before the exodus of the Hebrews, which happened in the year of the world 2544, subtract that number from this, and you will find that he was born in Egypt in 2491. If you suppose the years of Joshua's princedom to have been incomplete, but those of his life complete, he must have lived longer in Egypt than 53 years; and so you will more rightly fix his birth in the year 2490.

[10] the reason why after about 53 years of life he is called a boy or a youth: There can be objected that passage of Exodus chapter 33, verse XI, His minister (Moses') Josue the son of Nun, a boy, departed not from the tabernacle. Here the word boy, as

often elsewhere in Scripture, does not signify a minister or servant — otherwise the same thing would be said twice — but is put for a stripling or youth, for which it is also often used in the sacred Letters: whence in this place too the Septuagint render the Hebrew naar by νέος, that is, youth, while the Chaldee paraphrast renders it hullema, of which word presently. Now if Joshua, some months after the going out from Egypt, when the care of guarding the tabernacle had been committed to him by Moses, was still a stripling or youth, how can it be true that he had lived about 53 years in Egypt? To this we say that in those ancient times, when men prolonged their life to 120 years, men of 53 or 54 years were still reckoned and called youths. See this answer set forth and established at greater length among the interpreters. But that the reader may the more easily acquiesce in it, I add here from Bonfrerius, that this appellation of boy or youth was wont to be far more easily accommodated to those (even to men of sixty: for Bonfrerius here admits that the Saint was at this time so far advanced in age) who were not yet entangled in the bonds of matrimony: but that Joshua both then and thereafter and even afterwards remained celibate, Serarius rightly proves from the Fathers on the last chapter of Joshua, question XIV. And indeed, as the Hebrew word Halma signifies a virgin hidden or unknown to man, in Isaiah chapter VII, verse XIV, where our interpreter renders "Behold a virgin shall conceive," and as Jerome proves in various places; so the Chaldee Hullema, from the same root Halam, will signify a youth, but one celibate and unpolluted by wedded partnership. Of celibacy, and of the Saint's chastity, we shall treat below at num. 136 and following.

[11] Of the Saint's Life, passed in his native Egypt alone, Scripture keeps deep silence. [His intimacy with Moses, before the latter's return from the land of Midian, scarcely deserves belief:] Philo, in the book On Charity, near the beginning writes that Joshua was the friend and intimate of Moses ἐκ πρώτης σχεδὸν ἡλικίας, from almost his earliest age, or, as Gelenius renders it, almost from boyhood. If this be true — of which we greatly doubt, as we shall presently indicate — that friendship between them must have begun before, or at least not long after, the Saint had completed his 13th year of age. For since Moses tarried in the land of Midian for 40 years with his father-in-law Jethro, while Joshua had lived only about 53 years before his return from it, the latter was only 13 years old, or had just begun his fourteenth, when the former, sought for punishment by Pharaoh for the slain Egyptian, consulted his safety by flight. It could indeed have happened that the Saint, leave to depart being obtained, left Egypt, migrated into the foreign land of Midian, came into those parts of that region where Jethro dwelt, and there either entered upon a friendship with Moses the shepherd or cherished one entered upon before: but what prudent man would believe that all these things really so happened? To me at least it seems little likely. Nay, that other thing also — namely that Moses before his flight was on familiar terms with Joshua while yet a boy — will not, as I think, find easy credit with most men. As long as the lawgiver lived in Egypt, he was occupied in Pharaoh's palace, except for the few days in which his going out from the royal house, the slaying of the Egyptian, and the flight into the land of Midian took place, as is gathered from the sacred History of Exodus chapter 2 and of Acts chapter 7. If the reader should consider these circumstances more attentively, not a few things will at once occur to him which make it difficult to believe that at that time they contracted a familiarity with one another, or indeed that the one knew the other.

[12] It is evident from the book of Exodus chapter 24, verse 13, that our Joshua was already from that time the minister of Moses, from what time, when he accompanied him as he ascended for the fifth time into Mount Sinai; which happened in the year from the founding of the world 2544, the second month from the going out not yet completed. Therefore he was enrolled in the household of that great prophet in that space of time which lay between this ascent into the mountain and Moses' return from the land of Midian, which happened in the preceding year: for it is not likely that the Saint served Moses outside his father's land in Midian, since Moses for 40 years played the shepherd for his father-in-law Jethro. Who would believe that he was helped by Joshua in pasturing the sheep? See the preceding number. But when, then, did the lawgiver, returned to Egypt, choose Joshua as his minister? It appears to me very likely what Masius writes in the Preface to his Commentaries on the book of Joshua: namely that Moses, when, returned from the land of Midian, he had persuaded the elders of the children of Israel, called together for that purpose, through Aaron, that he had been sent by God to free the people from servitude, and all had submitted themselves to him as to their leader and governor divinely appointed (Exodus chapter 4, from verse 29), at once, according to the necessity and dignity of his person, provided himself with ministers, and among them took our Saint, who was then about 53 years old, not without a heavenly prompting; namely, that he who was one day to rule the people of God should himself first be ruled by the best and holiest commander of all mortals of that age. For he who is to command well must needs have at some time obeyed well.

[13] St. Joshua's ministry was not of that kind which is wont to be theirs and of what kind, whom necessity of birth or condition compels to serve, but liberal, freeborn, and very honorable. From the things which the sacred narrative relates of him in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it will be plain that he was of all men the chief, the most inward, the dearest, and the most familiar to the lawgiver. In the weightiest affairs Moses used the Saint's help above all; he was a sharer of his secrets, he presided in his stead over the army of the Israelites and led it against the enemy, he was often present at his familiar colloquies with God, and everywhere almost clung to his side. Whence in Exodus chapter 24, verse 13, and elsewhere, where by our Vulgate he is called the Minister of Moses, by the Septuagint he is called ὁ παρεστηκὼς, that is, the one standing by. Hence also in Numbers chapter XI, verse 28, he is called the Minister of Moses, and CHOSEN OUT OF MANY. Hear Philo in the book On Charity: There was to him (Moses) a friend and intimate almost from boyhood (see num. XI) named Jesus, won not by common arts but by a whole and heavenly love, from which all the virtues proceed: he was also the prophet's messmate and tent-companion, save when the prophet sought retirement for the divine oracles; the same man, a sharer in the administration of the commonwealth and all but the prince's vicar, was wont to do many things by authority.

[14] and with how much fruit he rendered his service to the lawgiver. Further, that the Saint lived with the greatest friend of God at that time, and dealt with him so familiarly, not only redounds to his highest glory, but is also an evident argument that he was adorned with singular gifts of grace and of nature; inasmuch as the most wise lawgiver, having perceived these, chose him out of so many thousands. But how greatly he afterwards cultivated his soul with every kind of virtue, which he admired present in Moses, learn from St. Ambrose, published by the Benedictines of the congregation of St. Maur at Paris in the year 1690. Beautifully to our purpose, in book 2 On the Duties of Ministers, chapter 20, the holy Doctor writes thus: Young men show themselves to be imitators of those to whom they cleave; and that opinion grows strong, that they have received a likeness of living from those with whom they have drunk in the desire of conversing. Hence so great a man was Jesus Nave, because his union with Moses not only instructed him in the knowledge of the law, but also sanctified him unto grace. In short, when in his tabernacle the majesty of the Lord seemed to shine with the divine presence, Jesus Nave alone was in the tabernacle. Moses spoke with God; Jesus likewise was covered by the sacred cloud. The elders and the people stood below; Jesus ascended with Moses to receive the law. All the people were within the camp; Jesus was outside the camp in the tabernacle of the testimony. When the pillar of cloud came down and spoke with Moses, he stood by like a faithful minister: nor did the youth go out of the tabernacle, while the elders, placed afar off, trembled at the divine miracles. Everywhere therefore, amid wondrous works and awesome secrets, he clung inseparably to holy Moses. Whence it came about that he who had been the companion of his converse became the successor of his power: deservedly therefore did such a man turn out, that he should stay the courses of rivers; that he should say, Let the sun stand still, and the sun stood still; as though, a spectator of his victory, it put off the night and prolonged the day. What more [] (a thing denied to Moses) — that he alone should be chosen to bring the people into the land of promise. A great Man by the miracles of faith, great by triumphs. The works of the one were more august, of the other more prosperous. Each therefore, upheld by divine grace, advanced beyond the human condition: the one commanded the sea, the other the sky. Beautiful therefore is the union of elders and of young men. Some are for witness, others for solace; some for teaching, others for delight.* Now we set about reviewing the Saint's Acts from the sacred Letters according to the method which we proposed to ourselves at the beginning.

The Cologne edition better: produceret: & (quod* etc.

§ III. He cuts down the Amalekites: the oracle concerning his future princedom: he ascends with the lawgiver into Mount Sinai and into the cloud in which the Lord was. Was he fasting there for XL days?

[ ] He cuts down the Amalekites, Moses praying: Of our Joshua's deeds which preceded the lawgiver's death, the first is the first war of the Israelites against the first enemies who met them as they came out of Egypt and traversed the vast solitudes between that land and the promised one — namely the Amalekites, over whom our most valiant Hero and Moses, the latter by praying, the former by fighting, gained a signal victory. This happened on the third day of the month Sivan, which nearly answers to our May, in the course of the seventh week after the going out from Egypt; and it is thus described in Exodus chapter 17, verse 8 and following: And Amalec came, and fought against Israel in Raphidim. And Moses said to Josue: Choose out men, and go out and fight against Amalec: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill, having the rod of God in my hand. Josue did as Moses had spoken, and he fought against Amalec. But Moses and Aaron and Hur went up upon the top of the hill. And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame; but if he let them down a little, Amalec prevailed. And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone and put under him, whereon he sat: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass that his hands were not weary until sunset. And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight by the edge of the sword. And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Josue: for I will destroy the memory of Amalec from under heaven. Of the causes of this war, of the enemies' forces, and of the outcome of the battle, besides Deut.

chapter 25 at the end, and Judith chapter 4, verse 13, there may also be seen Philo the Jew, book 1 On the Life of Moses, and Josephus, Antiquities book 3, chapter 2; from which we shall cull the few things that most nearly regard the Saint at num. 17.

[16] Joshua had completed only his 53rd year of age when he was set over an army about to fight against most powerful enemies. a divine oracle foretelling his future princedom: There were at that time in the camps of the Israelites his grandfather Elisama and the rest who are enumerated in Numbers chapter 1, verse 5 and following, most noble princes of the tribes and of great authority with the people. What reason had Moses that, passing these over, he willed our Joshua, inferior in age, to act in the place of supreme leader? Josephus, cited above, hints at this: that it was well known that he was a man prompt alike in hand and in counsel, and remarkable for piety, and in this part not degenerating from his teacher Moses. I add another from Masius, cited at num. 12: namely, that Moses might even then in some measure disclose to the people God's counsel concerning his most happy future rule, and might rouse to a better hope in adverse affairs both the rest of the multitude and above all Joshua himself. Certainly God, when soon after the battle He commands Moses to consign the victory won to writing and to put it particularly into the ears of Joshua — that the memory of the Amalekites was to be utterly destroyed — all but points with the finger, so to speak, that he was the very man whom He had destined after Moses for the helm of the Hebrew commonwealth. For to what other end would God have willed these things to be delivered to the Saint's ears, save that he himself, afterwards made leader of the people, might remember that no treaties were to be joined with the Amalekites, and that the divine oracle concerning their destruction might be propagated to his successors — which we read at last came to pass under Saul, in the first book of Kings chapter 15.

[17] what Philo and Josephus say of the Saint's victory: Our Saint, appointed supreme commander, as he had been bidden, chose from the whole multitude those most fit for battle. Each Jewish writer writes that this levy of brave men was made by Moses. If both mean that Moses did this by himself, they openly contradict the sacred Scripture: for its text is most clear: And Moses said to Josue: Choose thee out men, etc. And a little below: Josue did as Moses had spoken. This choosing of soldiers happened on the day before the contest. What preparation was then made for the battle to be joined on the morrow, Josephus, cited above, relates in a very likely narrative: Through the night thereafter they made themselves ready for battle, and, their arms and their bodies alike being cared for, they intently awaited the signal to be given by trumpet through Moses: who himself also, all night long, took counsel with Jesus and admonished him concerning the drawing up of the ranks; and when day was now approaching, he exhorts the Leader to study to answer to the hope conceived of him, and, the matter being happily carried through, to gain for himself esteem among the soldiers. Likewise he kindled to bravery with words each best man among the Hebrews privately, and soon all the armed men: and so instructed and animated he commits them to Jesus and to God, and himself ascends the mountain, etc. Then he describes the battle more faithfully than Philo, and the slaughter of the enemy; and, having enumerated the spoils with which the Jews were enriched, he adds: And on the following day Moses despoiled the corpses of the slain, gathered the arms which the fleeing had thrown away, and distributed rewards to those whose service had been the more distinguished, and praised Jesus the leader before the assembly, the soldiery approving the Man's praise by acclamations.

[18] He accompanies Moses, about to receive the tables of the covenant from God, Two days after Pentecost, that is, after the day on which the ten precepts of the Decalogue were promulgated from Mount Sinai, the lawgiver was bidden to climb the same mountain again, that he might receive those precepts set down on two tables and bring them to the people. He therefore ascended the mountain for the fifth time, and joined to himself as companion his most beloved Minister, not without a divine prompting, as is credible, and led him nearer to God and higher into the mountain than Aaron or any of his sons and the 70 elders of the people had ascended the day before: for to these it was granted to adore God only from afar, as we read in Exodus chapter 24, verse 1 and following. It was fitting, namely, that he by whose command God had decreed His people should be ruled should be in great veneration with them, which certainly so near an approach to God won for him. Besides, it especially befitted him to make the highest account of the divine law and to be most observant of it, who was afterwards to press its keeping upon the whole people. And by what better means could the love and zeal of the divine precepts be imprinted on Joshua's mind, than if he himself beheld with his own eyes how Moses prepared himself for six days by most holy prayers and meditations to receive them, how on the seventh day he was called by name by the Lord into a loftier citadel as it were and a holier sanctuary, and was there so long detained and instructed.

[19] he accompanies him into Mount Sinai: But for a fuller knowledge of these things, and of those we shall say below, let us give the sacred narrative itself, Exodus chapter 24, verse 12 and following. And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law and the commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. Moses rose up, and his minister Josue: and Moses going up into the mount of God, said to the elders: Wait ye here till we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them. And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount, and the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days: and the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the darkness. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: and he was there forty days and forty nights. These being ended, there were given him by the Lord the two stone tables of the covenant, and at the same time it was indicated that the Israelites had sinned in the camp; he should therefore return with all speed and learn the whole matter: And Moses returned (Exodus chapter 32, from verse 15) from the mount, carrying the two tables of the testimony in his hand… And Josue hearing the noise of the people shouting, said to Moses: The noise of battle is heard in the camp. But he answered: It is not the cry of men encouraging to fight, nor the shout of men compelling to flee: but I hear the voice of singers. And when he came nigh to the camp, he saw the calf, etc.

[20] That Joshua accompanied Moses into a loftier part of the mountain he enters with him the sacred cloud in which the Lord was: than Aaron, his sons, and the 70 elders of Israel, no one calls into doubt. That somewhere on the slope of the mountain, say a little above its middle, both stayed for six days, and were wrapped in the same cloud and withdrawn from the people's sight, everyone likewise gathers from the sacred Letters; although in Exodus chapter 24, verse 16, Moses alone is expressed to have been covered by the cloud. Nay, Abulensis, Serarius, Salianus, and others think that Moses' Minister was admitted into that most noble part of the cloud, nearest to God, from which on the seventh day the Lord called the lawgiver to colloquy: nor does St. Ambrose seem to have been of another opinion, book 2 On the Duties of Ministers, chapter 20, saying: Everywhere amid wondrous works and awesome secrets he clung inseparably to holy Moses. The same holy Doctor, in his Exposition of Psalm 47, num. 21: That Moses (he says) skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, went up into the mountain and entered into the cloud, that he might know things open and hidden, with Jesus his companion cleaving to him.

[21] A great number of authors indeed deny that the lawgiver's Minister entered that cloud in which the Lord was; the slight arguments of the dissenters are weighed. but their reasons are not so effective as to persuade me that the affirmative opinion is less likely. Let us weigh them. In Exodus chapter 24, verse 16 it is said: And the seventh day he (the Lord) called him (Moses) out of the midst of the darkness: and verse 18: And Moses entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain. Behold, they say, Moses alone is called, alone enters the midst of the cloud, alone climbs to the highest summit, not Joshua. But is it not also read in verse 12 that it was said to Moses alone, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and yet is it not subjoined in verse 13 that Joshua rose up together with him to ascend? Does not verse 16 likewise mention Moses alone as having been covered by the cloud for six days below the mountain's summit, and yet no one hitherto is read to have taught that Joshua was not wrapped in the same? They press further: if he was received into the innermost part of the cloud occupying the mountain's top, then he could have heard the Lord in Exodus chapter 32, verse 7, saying to Moses that the people had sinned, or at least the voice of Moses (verse XI) deprecating the penalties on their behalf; which conflicts with verse 17, which indicates that their idolatry was unknown to Joshua. But to these too the answer is easy. For God's speech and Moses' prayers could have been made without sound or outward voice. Besides, even if both were in the middle of the cloud, yet the one did not so always cleave to the other's side that they were never parted from one another. In that very cloud it can be conceived that Moses withdrew from his Companion to be free for divine things; in just the same way in which Christ, about to pray to His heavenly Father, withdrew in the garden from His dearest disciples, into which He had taken them. And thus that saying of Philo, cited at num. XI, can best be reconciled with the affirmative opinion: He was the prophet's messmate and tent-companion, save when the prophet sought retirement for the divine colloquies. Since the difficulties which are objected are solved with so easy a labor, I have judged that I must not here depart from the opinion of St. Ambrose, which is more honorable to our Saint.

[22] He remained on the mountain as long as the lawgiver: Some will have it that Joshua did not always remain on the mountain, but from time to time came down to take food or to satisfy the other necessities of nature. But by these words of Exodus chapter 24, verse 14, Wait ye here till we return to you, which he spoke to the elders of the Hebrews, Moses sufficiently signified that his Minister would remain with him on Sinai and would come down from it with him, as is also manifest from chapter 32, verse 17 that it happened. But if the Minister withdrew himself from his master's side and returned to the camp (for whither else would he rather have gone?), certainly something would have become known to him of the people's murmuring against their leader who was drawing out too long delays, of the making of the calf, the proclaiming of a festal celebration, and other like things, which do not seem to have been accomplished in a few days. But that he knew nothing of these becomes clear from this, that he indicated none of them to Moses: nay, when he heard the shouts of those dancing and singing, he suspected nothing at all amiss, but rather judged that a warlike shouting was being raised. Finally, those whom we read in the same place, verse 1, to have said to Moses

As for this man Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him, would certainly have questioned Joshua about him on his return, and would have asked of him that he climb the mountain a second time to explore the cause of the delay, etc. These things abundantly prove that he tarried on Sinai altogether as long as Moses remained there.

[23] why should he not have fasted there with him for 40 days as well? That the lawgiver abstained from all food and drink for the space of forty days before he received the tables of the law is certain from Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 9. But whether he continued on the mountain with his Disciple for forty days only is sharply controverted. There are those who think that, besides the six days in which he was on Sinai outside that midst of the cloud, he stood forty other whole days in the midst of the cloud. Many deny this, contending that those six days are comprehended within the forty. Which opinion is the more probable, it belongs more nearly to examine to him who is to give the life of the great prophet at the IV of September. To our purpose belongs only this: whether, while the master fasted for 40 days, the Disciple also fasted so long. Some will have it that on that mountain he ate manna divinely given him. But we need not necessarily assent to them: for if he always clung to Moses, and penetrated with him to the mountain's summit and to that most sacred dwelling of the cloud, why should we not think that he also fasted with him for forty days? That the sacred Pages record only Moses as having done this, and not Joshua himself, is no obstacle, as can be gathered from what has already been said above at num. 21. What our Saint did on the mountain during so many days is most easy to attain by conjecture. There is no cause to doubt that the pious Disciple imitated his master; that, I say, withdrawn from every earthly thought and care, he gave himself wholly to prayer and to the meditation of divine things. He knew, namely, to what end he had been led onto Sinai, and what preparation of mind was needed, that the tables of the law might be received and the coming and the discourse of God be welcomed.

§ IV. He has charge of the tabernacle; he is present at the familiar colloquies of God with Moses: his zeal in Numbers chapter XI did not proceed from envy; it is shown that it was for other reasons either only slight, or not evil, nay worthy of praise.

[ ] The guardianship of the tabernacle removed from the camp, Of other things which happened in this same first year of the deliverance from Egyptian servitude we have nothing concerning our Saint except this of Exodus chapter 33, verse 7 and following: Moses also taking the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp afar off, and called the name thereof the Tabernacle of the covenant. And all the people that had any question went forth to the tabernacle of the covenant, without the camp. And when Moses went forth to the tabernacle, all the people rose up, and every one stood in the door of his pavilion, and they beheld the back of Moses, till he went into the tent. And when he was gone into the tabernacle of the covenant, the pillar of the cloud came down, and stood at the door, and he spoke with Moses, all seeing that the pillar of the cloud stood at the door of the tabernacle. And they stood and worshipped at the doors of their tents. And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend. And when he returned into the camp, his minister Josue, the son of Nun, a boy, departed not from the tabernacle. What and of what sort that tabernacle was of which he here speaks, and what its use, see in Salianus at the year 2544, num. 665 and following, and also Serarius, book 1 on Joshua, chapter 6, question 2.

[25] Although in the sacred text adduced the Saint's name occurs only once, where he is present at the familiar colloquies of God with Moses, yet nothing is related in it which does not redound to his glory, as will be plain from what follows. To punish the people's idolatry, the Lord willed the tabernacle to be carried out of their midst and indeed out of the camp, to show that He would not dwell any longer among men stained with so infamous a crime. Moses judged that to commit the care of the removed tabernacle to Aaron would be less becoming, nor pleasing to God, inasmuch as he had been implicated in the same crime as the people. The lawgiver found no one worthier for it than his most faithful minister, most dear to him for his innocence of life, Joshua. To him therefore he handed over God's dwelling to be guarded. All the interpreters confess that this is signified by these words of verse XI: And when he returned into the camp, his minister Josue, the son of Nun, a boy, departed not from the tabernacle. Hence it seems to me it can rightly be deduced that our Saint was present at God's familiar colloquies with Moses. Nor could anyone but ineptly say that, as often as Moses came to the tabernacle to pray to God or consult Him (and he came very often), Joshua had to depart thence at once. He was admitted with him on Mount Sinai into that heavenly sanctuary of the cloud, and stood next to him in the sacred colloquy held there; why should we say that here he had to be far off? The verse last cited seems to me beautifully explained thus: when Moses was absent from the tabernacle, Joshua did not depart from it; yet he could depart when Moses was present; although at that time when God spoke with the master in the pillar of the cloud, the pious Disciple was wont to remain to adore Him. Nay, that the text is thus to be explained, and that our Saint was nearest to God as He conversed with His friend, St. Ambrose, cited at num. 20, confirms by his testimony: In short, he says, when in his tabernacle the majesty of the Lord seemed to shine with the divine presence, Jesus Nave alone was in the tabernacle. Moses spoke with God; Jesus likewise was covered by the sacred cloud… All the people were within the camp: Jesus was outside the camp in the tabernacle of the testimony. When the pillar of the cloud came down and spoke with Moses, he stood by like a faithful minister: nor did the Youth go out of the tabernacle, while the elders, placed afar off, trembled at the divine miracles. Everywhere therefore, amid wondrous works and awesome secrets, he clung inseparably to holy Moses.

[26] committed to the Saint until the erection of the new one. Among the more celebrated historians and interpreters I read that Joshua did chiefly two things in the tabernacle. First, he took care that nothing of it should be violated by anyone, and that all things in it should be clean and bright, so that he performed as it were the office of a sacristan. Yet he did not pass the night in the tabernacle itself; for neither did Moses do this, but near it in his own tent. Secondly, he cultivated his mind with holy thoughts, and by prayers commended himself and the people to God. From his constant living with Moses, and very lately on Mount Sinai, he had learned to spend nights and days in these and other exercises of piety. There are also those who think that those who came from the camp to the tabernacle to consult the Lord, in the absence of Moses used our Joshua as their interpreter and go-between with God. The charge of guarding the tabernacle was committed to him by Moses before the latter, toward the end of the fifth month, called by the Hebrews Ab, sought Mount Sinai again with the new tables: for then the camp of the Israelites was deprived of it. It stood, moreover, outside the camp under our Saint's guardianship until the first day of the second year of their sojourn in the desert, when that noble and splendid tabernacle was erected of which Exodus chapter 40 speaks. Hence it follows that holy Joshua had charge of it for more than seven months. So most men judge, against a Lapide and others, who will have the removal of the tabernacle to have taken place after the lawgiver's descent from the mountain with the new tables. But that it happened before seems to me the more likely opinion and more conformable to the sacred Narrative. It is not worth while to confirm this at length, since it makes nothing for our Saint's glory whether the care of the tabernacle was laid upon him some weeks earlier or later. The reader may consult the authors everywhere at hand.

[27] He alone can gaze upon Moses' shining face. When Moses came down from the mountain with the new tables to the people, his face shone with so great a splendor that Aaron and the children of Israel feared at the sight of him and fled, nor could the lawgiver come nearer to them and address them save with veiled countenance. See Exodus chapter 34, from verse 30. Joshua alone, by the testimony of Origen, Homily 1 on the book of Jesus Nave, num. 6, could look upon his master's face with unaverted eye: This too, he says, beholding, we perceive his greatness: that, whereas at the transfiguration of Moses' countenance the sight of all the children of Israel was dimmed, and none could gaze upon the face of his countenance, Jesus not only beholds his face, but also perseveres in the inner parts of the tabernacle as one privy to the mysteries. Although Origen asserts these things beyond Scripture, I scarcely doubt that he does so truly. For if he lately ascended with the lawgiver to the very summit of Mount Sinai, above which was the sight of the glory of the Lord, as a burning fire, Exodus chapter 24, verse 17; if besides he stood nearest to his master in the tabernacle when the Lord came down in the most shining pillar of cloud to address him — would his eyes have grown dim at the sight of Moses' face, flashing with a lesser light than that in which he so often saw the Lord appearing?

[28] It was the second year from the exodus, and the second month, [The zeal from which he sought that those prophesying in the camp should be restrained,] when on the twentieth day of it the Israelites, having gone forward from the wilderness of Sinai, came into the desert of Pharan, and pitched camp in that place which was called by the infamous name of the Sepulchres of Lust. Here happened what is narrated of our Saint in Numbers chapter XI. The history has seemed to me to be taken up from farther back, to bring greater light to what is to be said. After Moses had complained to God that the care of a most difficult rule lay upon him alone, and that he was unequal to bearing the burden, he asked that part of it be transferred to others. The Lord hears him, saying, Numbers chapter XI, verse 16: Gather unto me seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients and masters of the people: and thou shalt bring them to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and shalt make them stand there with thee, that I may come down and speak to thee: and I will take of thy spirit, and will give to them, that they may bear with thee the burden of the people, and thou mayest not be burdened alone. Moses gladly carries out the commands, gathering (ibid., from verse 24) seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom he made to stand about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, taking away of the spirit that was in Moses, and giving to the seventy men. And when the spirit had rested on them, they prophesied, nor did they cease afterwards. Now there had remained in the camp two of the men, of whom one was called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom the Spirit rested; for they also had been enrolled, and had not gone out to the tabernacle. And when they prophesied in the camp, there ran a young man, and told Moses, saying: Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp. Forthwith Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and chosen out of many, said: My lord Moses, forbid them. But he said: Why hast thou emulation

for me? Would that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his Spirit! Our Saint here gave an outstanding proof of love toward his master. His zeal of obedience and love toward Moses went so far that he could bear nothing which seemed to stand in the way of his glory or dignity.

[29] Not a few interpreters seem to me to speak too harshly, it did not proceed from envy. who say that Joshua's emulation proceeded from some envy: for he did not wish that the gift of prophecy had not been conferred on the two elders, nor did he grieve that he was surpassed by them in this respect, nor even did he apprehend their prophesyings as evil for Moses, or as diminishing his glory. If this had been the cause of his emulation, he would assuredly have borne it more grievously that the remaining 68, or, as others say, 70 elders who had gathered at the tabernacle were breathed upon by the prophetic spirit: for an envious mind is the more stung and saddened the more men it holds to be superior to itself in some matter; and then he would have apprehended that the lawgiver's glory was more to be obscured by the prophesyings of so many than by those of the two. Nor is there any word in the Scriptures from which you may lawfully deduce the charge of envy. That emulation or zeal from which in verse 28 he asked, My lord Moses, forbid them who prophesy in the camp, could proceed from another affection of mind than envy: and so it is not to be said that by the lawgiver's answer in verse 29, Why hast thou emulation for me? Would that, etc., he was rebuked for the fault of envy. Nay, that his emulation did not take its origin from an envious mind, the very circumstances persuade. For since he followed his master with true love, and knew that he had asked of the Lord with such fervent prayers to be relieved of the most burdensome charge of governing, Numbers chapter XI, verses 14 and 15; how could he bear it ill that he had obtained his wish from God, and that His prophetic Spirit had been poured into Eldad and Medad and the rest of the elders, that he might be helped by them in the governing of a rebellious people? From envy therefore it did not proceed that he judged silence should be imposed on those two. Theodoret openly favors us, question 21 on the book of Numbers. More things to our purpose may be read in Nicolaus Serarius, book 1 on Joshua, chapter 7, question 6.

[30] A more probable opinion is proposed, But what then did Joshua bear ill? Why did he ask that Moses restrain those who prophesied? I answer: because the Saint thought that they lacked the gift of prophecy and were prophesying feignedly, imposing upon the people. This answer removes the fault of envy from the Saint, and seems to me more probable than the former opinion: which, because it does not sufficiently appear at first sight, receive more fully explained. Eldad and Medad, with the other chosen elders, had been enrolled by Moses and summoned to the door of the tabernacle, that there the prophetic Spirit might be communicated to them: but those two nowhere appeared. Joshua, however, having heard that they had remained in the camp and were prophesying there, suspected that they had either been unwilling to obey the lawgiver or had neglected to do so; that by this contumacy or negligence they had rendered themselves unworthy of the gift of prophecy; and so that they were not truly prophesying, but feignedly, as if they had really been breathed upon by the divine Spirit. Hence he asked that silence be imposed on them, that his master's authority might remain whole and unharmed, which he judged to be despised and lessened by their contumacy and feigning.

[31] in which it can be understood that the Saint's emulation was in no part evil, But while we excuse him from envy, do we not make him guilty of rash suspicion? Serarius affirms it, book 1 on Joshua, chapter 7, question 6, and others. Bonfrerius denies it, on verse 29 of the chapter cited at num. 28. But I think a distinction must be made. The divine precept given to Moses in verse 16, Gather unto me seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients and masters of the people: and thou shalt bring them to the tabernacle of the covenant, and shalt make them stand there with thee, that I may come down, and will take of thy spirit and give to them — this precept, I say, Joshua either so understood, that God had decreed to communicate the prophetic spirit to no one save near the tabernacle and with Moses present; or he did not so understand it. If the first, I say with Bonfrerius that he suspected nothing rashly: for supposing that error of understanding, what else could he think than that Eldad and Medad were feigning to be moved by the divine Spirit, that they were imposing upon the people, etc. Now with that feigning of the prophetic gift, by which they boasted themselves endowed in the camp before all the multitude, there cannot be reconciled that submission of mind and flight from honor from which they might otherwise have been believed not to have come to the tabernacle: and so even without the fault of rashness he could judge that they were absent from the tabernacle without just cause, and had despised or neglected the lawgiver's command. From all which, since it could deservedly be feared that a diminution of Moses' authority and other grave evils might arise, it was with a zeal not only in no part evil but even praiseworthy that he asked his master to restrain them.

[32] That this may be more clearly known, the circumstances of the time must be considered nay that it was excellent and worthy of praise; in which Joshua did this. While Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, there boiled up in the same camp the murmuring of the people, longing for the onions and fleshpots of Egypt, so far that they seemed unwilling to follow their leader any longer because he could not give them the flesh they demanded, and to be thinking of a return into Egypt. Joshua feared lest the tumults should grow, and the seditious crowd be the more stirred up by the example of two elders of great authority, who had remained in the camp, the lawgiver's command being, as he thought, despised or neglected. This fear could be increased by his not knowing what those two, whom he judged to be prophesying feignedly, were blurting out in the camp to the tumultuous people. Fear therefore, lest the tumult of the murmurers in the camp should increase and his master's authority be lessened, kindled the Saint's zeal, impelled by which he asked Moses to restrain them from feigned prophesying. But since the end of this petition was excellent — namely that provision be made for Moses' authority, etc. — the petition itself also was excellent and worthy of praise, and so was the zeal which impelled him to it, born of the fear of the said evils. This fear certainly was not empty: by almost daily experience he had learned how prone to murmurings and seditions were the dispositions of the Hebrews.

[33] But, you will say, Moses' answer, Why hast thou emulation for me? Would that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his Spirit, verse 29, seems to contain some rebuke. Moses in verse 29 corrects only an erroneous judgment, which was not rash: I confess, Moses here corrects his Disciple; but correction is not rebuke, at least such correction as concerns only an error of the understanding: this the lawgiver corrects in the Saint, and not any malice in his will. For the lawgiver's words can rightly be expounded thus: Why hast thou emulation for me? Why art thou kindled with such zeal for the preserving of my glory and authority? Thou thinkest that God willed to make none of the elders a prophet unless he presented himself with me near the tabernacle, and so that Eldad and Medad are not truly prophesying. Thou errest: the Lord willed not to bind the conferring of the prophetic gift by those conditions: Would that all the people might so prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his Spirit, as He has given it to those two elders. Nor may you say that his erroneous judgment was rash: for since the lawgiver in verse 24, with his faithful Minister standing by, reported to the seventy elders the divine command given in verse 16, Thou shalt bring them to the tabernacle of the covenant, and shalt make them stand THERE WITH THEE, that I may come down, etc. — could not Joshua deservedly judge that standing before Moses and at the tabernacle were conditions without which God would not communicate the prophetic Spirit? Further, the Saint, taught out of his error by Moses, soon acquiesced. And that fear which might perhaps have arisen from this, that Eldad and Medad might seem to the people to despise the lawgiver's authority and command, because they had not presented themselves at the door of the tabernacle, was removed by his trust in divine providence; whence could flow this thought, that the exercise of the prophetic gift, asked of God and granted to this end, that the people might the more easily be kept in duty, would not be the occasion of greater tumults. Now at length let us pass to the other member of the distinction.

[34] He contracted the blemish of a sinister suspicion on the other hypothesis, If the Saint thought the divine precept to have this sense, that standing near the tabernacle and the presence of Moses were only conditions upon whose fulfillment the elders were to be endowed with the Spirit of prophecy, and not conditions without which they could not receive it; then it seems it must be said, with the praised Serarius, that the Saint was less prudent in suspecting or judging that Eldad and Medad prophesied feignedly, or had by some crime rendered themselves unworthy of the prophetic Spirit: for if Joshua thought that even those elders could receive the gift of prophecy who were absent from the tabernacle for a just cause, then as soon as he learned of the absence and the prophesyings of Eldad and Medad, ought he not rather to have judged that those men, whom he knew to have been held worthy by Moses himself, for their probity, to be his companions and helpers in the government of the people, had remained in the camp not without some reason approved by God? Should he not have thought thus with himself: Two remain, Eldad and Medad, not as neglecters of the command, but submissive in humility, while they judge themselves unworthy of the honor; whence they prophesy even in the camp? These are the words of St. Jerome in his letter to Fabiola on the 42 Encampments of the Israelites in the desert, Encampment 13. Nevertheless the fault of this sinister suspicion is, as is plain to one who considers, greatly lessened by the Saint's immense love toward Moses and his zeal for defending his dignity and glory, from which arose that sudden motion of mind by which, stirred up as soon as he perceived from the young man, Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp, FORTHWITH Josue … said: My lord Moses, forbid them. But he said, Why hast thou emulation for me? etc. On hearing which, he soon fell silent.

[35] and since this cannot be proved, we excuse and praise the Saint. Besides the way we have entered upon, the praised Serarius shows various others. One or another of these, which at the outset seemed to me plainer, I had already entered; but when, grave difficulties then meeting me, I could not extricate myself with great labor, I turned back and chose that one which I proposed at num. 30. This too Serarius, and likewise Bonfrerius, has shown us: but since these two in the middle of the way go off in various directions, and leave the reader doubting at the fork which guide he may more safely follow, it seemed good to me to warn him that one cannot tread safely enough in the footsteps of either without making some hypothesis or employing a distinction. Since each of them keeps silence about this, we have supplied it, and have illuminated as far as we could the obscure paths which they enter. On the hypothesis, of which

we spoke in the preceding number, there seems to me to follow that which Serarius asserts, namely that the Saint was too suspicious: but from that of which we spoke at num. 31, it can rightly be concluded what Bonfrerius affirms, namely that the Saint's emulation was wholly free from every fault: and I add that it was excellent and worthy of praise, as was shown at num. 32 and following. We need not deliberate long here as to which way is to be held: the one which most favors holy Men is the safest. Those who depart from it and accuse them are burdened with the charge of proving a fault which is not presumed.

§ V. He is sent to explore Canaan: his name is changed: it is proved that not only on the day after, but on the very day of his return, he bravely withstood the murmurers: he is snatched from the danger of stoning: God rewards his constancy.

[ ] He is sent to explore the land of Canaan; In the same year Joshua was sent with eleven other men to explore Canaan, not indeed as the minister of Moses, but as a prince among his own tribesmen, and chosen for that office not so much by the lawgiver's as by the people's vote. The description of the whole affair is given by the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14. That we may proceed more distinctly, we shall divide what pertains to the Saint into three parts: and we shall set forth first what happened before the journey, secondly what happened on the journey and on the very day of the return, thirdly what was done on the day after the return. Of those things which preceded the journey, take this. When the Israelites had fixed their tents in Cadesbarne, which is a place of the desert of Pharan, and the time of year had come when the early grapes can now be eaten, Numbers chapter 13, verse 21, the people said to Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 22: Let us send men who may view the land, and bring us word by what way we ought to go up, and to what cities we should go. Moses referred this demand of the people to the Lord, who answered him thus, Numbers chapter 13, verse 3: Send men to view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers. Moses did what the Lord had commanded, sending from the desert of Pharan twelve ruling men. The name and tribe of each is assigned in the same place from verse 5: and in verse 9 we read that from the tribe of Ephraim Osee, the son of Nun, was sent. The enumeration of the explorers being made, Scripture thus proceeds, verse 17: These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to view the land: and he called Osee, the son of Nun, Josue. Then there is subjoined in verse 18 and following the address of Moses to the spies, in which he sets out what he judged chiefly to be explored.

[37] The words of Scripture given teach us first of all that all the chosen explorers, at which time he was of the chief princes in the tribe of Ephraim. and so our Joshua also, were princes in their tribe. But what sort of prince? If the supreme prefects of the twelve tribes had been the ones to be sent, there would have been no need of a choosing; for these were well enough known: therefore, since a choosing was made, the Saint was not the supreme prince of all the Ephraimites. There was doubtless still living his grandfather Elisama, who in this same second year from the exodus, on the 20th day of the second month, a little before the sending of the spies, was still set over the whole tribe of Ephraim, as is evident from Numbers chapter 10, verse 22. Although it is uncertain whether the other explorers held any magistracy in their tribe — for according to the interpreters they were perhaps called princes here because they were the sons or grandsons of the supreme ones, or because they were of great authority among their tribesmen — nevertheless of our holy Prince it can be more confidently asserted that besides this he commanded a thousand of the Ephraimites, or held some other of the chief magistracies in his tribe at that time, inasmuch as he had already been set over the army gathered out of all the tribes in the Amalekite war. Moreover Masius, in the Preface prefixed to his Commentaries on Joshua, thinks that divine providence so disposed the minds of Moses and of the people that they should choose Joshua among the others and send him to explore the situation of the enemy's land, the nature of the soil, and the strength and bulwarks of the inhabitants and the cities; namely, that through a region beforehand surveyed he might afterwards himself lead his army the more warily, and, by setting the land's fertility and abundance of all good things before them in words from time to time, might know how to animate his soldiers: and might advance with greater boldness against enemies once observed. For there is nothing which so much hinders the expeditions even of the most excellent commanders as ignorance of places and of the enemy.

[38] By divine prompting Moses imposes on him the name Joshua or Jesus. Concerning the changing of the name Osee into Joshua, no one doubts that it was made by the lawgiver not without a heavenly prompting; namely, that the Saint might not only by the most happy leading of the chosen people into the promised land, and by his other deeds, shadow forth Jesus Christ, but also by his very name clearly represent Him. Of the many Fathers confirming this by their testimony, whom a Lapide cites here, I shall give one, Eusebius of Cæsarea, published in Latin by Jean Dadré. He speaks thus in book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 3: The occasion now offers itself of explaining that the very name of Jesus, and indeed of Christ, was even among those ancient prophets whom God held dear in great honor and reverence. Then he writes that Aaron the high priest was called Christ by Moses, because he was a type of Christ's priesthood. Then he passes to the name of Jesus, and teaches in these words that it was imposed on Joshua because he was to be a type of Christ's princedom: The same Moses moreover, foreseeing for certain by the breathing of the divine Spirit the name of Jesus, judged it worthy of a certain privilege and of an excellence plainly singular above the rest. And whereas this most sacred appellation of Jesus had never been divulged among men before the times of Moses, Moses gave it to him alone and first, whom he had foreknown would prefigure Christ Jesus in likeness and symbol, and after his own departure from life would succeed to the rule of all the Israelites. For since his successor had before by no means been called by this name of Jesus, but was called by another which his parents had imposed on him, namely Ause, Moses named him Jesus: and endowed him with that name, and with so exceptional and illustrious an honor (which easily surpasses every royal diadem), for this reason, that the same Jesus, son of Nave, duly expressed the image of our Saviour, who alone after Moses, and after the fulfilling of the figured and shadowed worship handed down by him, was to succeed to the rule of true and sincere religion and piety. And Moses in this manner imposed upon these two men — the one already discharging the office of high priest, the other about to take up after him the helm of the Israelite nation (who shone before all the rest of the multitude of men of that age in the brightness of virtue and glory) — this appellation of our Saviour Jesus Christ, that the highest honor might be paid them. He has nearly the same things in book 4 of the Demonstration of the Gospel, chapter 27, where Nauses is faultily read for Auses. Here too the words of St. Augustine, book 16 against Faustus, chapter 19, deserve to be weighed.

[39] at no other time more probably, The Fathers do not agree about the time at which the Saint's name Osee was changed into Joshua by the lawgiver. They go off into three different opinions. The first is that of Lactantius, book 4, chapter 17, who thinks that he obtained that name when he was sent to wage war against the Amalekites. The second is that of the cited Augustine and of Justin Martyr against Trypho, who teach that this change of name was made when the embassy of the explorers into the land of Canaan was set on foot. The third is that of Origen, homily 1 on the book of Jesus Nave, who judges that he was so called after the return from the explored land, when by exhorting and admonishing he raised up and restrained the mourning and tumultuous people. Origen is deserted by all. To Lactantius adhere, among others, Bonfrerius here and Serarius, in the place cited, chapter 2, question 6. Each is deceived while he thinks the opinion of Lactantius approved by Origen in homily XI on Exodus, by Augustine in sermon 93 On the Season, and by Theodoret in question 34 on Exodus. These holy Fathers in the places cited say nothing else than that in the war against the Amalekites the name Joshua was first used in Scripture. But from that it by no means follows that the change of name was then actually made: for by prolepsis (the words are Augustine's own, question 103 on Exodus), that is, by anticipation, Scripture anticipates what was done afterwards. For all these things were written after they were done, and therefore, when the thing was done in the manner in which it is recorded, he was not yet called Jesus; but when it was written he was already so called.

[40] The second opinion seems to me more conformable to the sacred text, than when the journey into the land of Canaan was already at hand. which says that that change of name was made when that history happened into whose narration it is inserted; that is, at the time when the sending of spies into Canaan was being dealt with. Confusion of times is not to be admitted in the narratives of sacred Scripture, unless some solid reason proves it. Besides, the text itself of Numbers chapter 13, verse 9, saying that of the tribe of Ephraim Osee, the son of Nun, was among the number of the explorers, and then subjoining in verse 17, And he (Moses) called Osee, the son of Nun, Josue, hints not obscurely that the name Joshua was given the Saint at no other time than when he was sent to explore Canaan. That our Saint, before the exploring of the promised land began to be dealt with, is always called Joshua and nowhere Osee in the sacred Books, proves nothing, as is plain from the words of St. Augustine adduced in the preceding number.

[41] What was done in the exploring of the land of Canaan, and on the very day of the return, by the spies in the camp, [He returns with his companions, who all, save Caleb, disparaged the land explored:] the book of Numbers thus describes, chapter 13, from verse 22: And when they had gone up, they viewed the land from the desert of Sin unto Rohob, as you enter into Emath … and going forward as far as the torrent of the cluster, they cut off a branch with its cluster of grapes, which two men carried upon a bar. They took also of the pomegranates and of the figs of that place. But that those who carried the cluster were Joshua and Caleb, Chrysostom signifies, homily 24 on the Epistle to the Ephesians, when he says that the truly heavenly fruit was brought by Christ, not by Caleb and Joshua, who once had brought an earthly one. And the explorers of the land returning (ibid., from verse 26) after forty days, all the region being gone about, came to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and they praised indeed the land they had inspected for its fertility and abundance of all things, and commended it by the present testimony of the fruits they had brought, but for other reasons they disparaged it exceedingly, so that they took away from the whole people all mind of going thither, and stirred up a grave sedition: It hath, they said, most strong inhabitants, and cities great and walled. We saw there the race of Enac. Amalec dwelleth in the south, the Hethite and the Jebusite and the Amorrhite in the mountains:

but the Chanaanite abideth by the sea and near the streams of the Jordan. By which words they persuaded the too credulous people that they must plainly despair of occupying that land: In the mean time Caleb (ibid., from verse 31), to still the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, said: Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to obtain it. But the others that had been with him said: We are not able to go up to this people, because they are stronger than we. And they spoke ill of the land which they had viewed, before the children of Israel, saying: The land which we have viewed devoureth its inhabitants: the people that we beheld are of a tall stature. There we saw certain monsters of the sons of Enac, of the giant kind: compared with whom we seemed like locusts.

[42] that he withstood their lies, which stirred the people to sedition, That the Saint withstood these lying and seditious speeches of the explorers is affirmed by Philo, book 1 On the Life of Moses, Serarius, book 1 on Joshua, chapter 8, question 6, Torniellus at the year of the world 2545, num. 63, Bonfrerius and Tirinus here, etc. Abulensis, a Lapide, and others deny it. The reason for denying which they bring forward is that in Numbers chapter 13, verse 31, Caleb is read to have stilled the tumult of the people, and in chapter 14, verse 24, is praised for it, in both places no mention being made of Joshua. But if he did not oppose himself to these waves, what then did he do? Did he too waver? Nay, something further will seem to have to be said, that he stirred up those waves and tempests. For if Caleb alone opposed himself to all and tried to still the murmuring, then Joshua was one of those others of whom the same chapter 13, verse 32, says: But the others that had been with him (Caleb) said: We are not able to go up to this people, etc. For if this argument is legitimate — Caleb in the same place, verse 31, is read to have stilled the people's murmuring; therefore Joshua did not still it — assuredly this one is of no less force: the others who had been with Caleb are read in verse 32 to have stirred the people to sedition; therefore Joshua too stirred them. If you say that he is not comprehended among those others, because in verse 32 it is not said all the others, I shall likewise say that in verse 31 our Saint is not excluded, because there it is not said Caleb alone.

[43] [he did not keep silence, for that would have been to approve them: to the sacred passages,] Of those who dissent from us, I have met none who admit this consequence, namely that Joshua incited the people against Moses: they doubtless shrank from openly making the Saint guilty of so enormous a crime. They found therefore something else, namely that on that first day of the sedition he neither murmured nor withstood the murmurers, but was in the middle, as Abulensis says; or, as Cornelius a Lapide with others says, that he kept silence at the lying voices of the explorers and the querulous ones of the murmuring people, Caleb alone bravely opposing himself to all. But if the circumstances which here concur be attended to, it does not appear how that middle state or silence of Joshua can be excused from a most grave fault. The people was rising against the prince divinely given them, was thinking of defection from him, and was agitating other wicked counsels against him, stirred up by the false narratives of the spies: nor did it spare God Himself; it accused Him of falsehood in His promises, since the explorers lied that the land which He had so greatly commended and had promised to give devoured its own inhabitants and could not be occupied, and the people, too credulous and not trusting enough in divine providence, complained. To be in the middle then, or to keep silence, was to approve the lies of the spies, to consent to the murmurings of the people, and to betray the cause of Moses and of God — which, as is plain to one who considers, demanded the office of the tongue above all from him who had such great authority with the people. But what passage is there in the Scriptures which would afford a foundation for building up such an opinion, from which it would follow that our most pious and most brave Hero contracted a grave fault by a cowardly and unseasonable silence? They allege nothing else than what we read in chapter 13, verse 31: In the mean time Caleb, stilling the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, etc., and chapter 14, verse 24, My servant Caleb, who being full of another Spirit hath followed me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed shall possess it. On these passages, because they name Caleb alone, the patrons of the adverse opinion rely. What retort can be made against them was said in the preceding number. In the following it will be proved that from the silence about Joshua's name it is not rightly inferred or gathered that in these motions of the tumultuous people he was quiet and idle.

[44] Scripture in its narratives does not always recount in one place all the persons from which the adverse party wrongly deduces it, there are opposed by whom a thing was done. Now here it keeps silence about those whom elsewhere afterwards it supplies: now here it expresses those whom, afterwards repeating or touching upon the same history, it passes over. Take a few examples out of many. In Exodus chapter 24, verse 15, Moses alone is recorded to have ascended Mount Sinai: but in verse 13 the Disciple is read to have accompanied his master, and in chapter 32, verse 17, to have come down from the mountain with him. In Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 22, Moses is said to have written, and in verse 30 to have sung the Canticle, the name of Joshua being kept silent: but that he too did the same is manifestly plain from verse 19, and chapter 32, verse 44. See below, num. 75. In chapter 18 of the book of Joshua, verse 10, the Saint is narrated to have divided the land at Shiloh among the seven tribes which had not yet received their portions: in chapter 19, verse 51, the same is repeated, but the name of Eleazar the priest is added, before passed over; from which it is understood that both the one and the other presided, as over the Gilgal, so also over the Shiloh distribution, according to the precept of the Lord in Numbers chapter 34, verse 17. In just the same way, Scripture in the passages objected praises the zeal of Caleb alone in stilling the people's murmuring: but that our Saint also bravely played his part in quieting the tumult is sufficiently indicated elsewhere. Numbers chapter 14, from verse 29, pronounces the divine oracle that Joshua with Caleb should enter the promised land, but that all the murmurers should be shut out of it; namely because those two were free, as from the fault, so also from the penalty imposed on the rest. If our Saint, on the very day of the explorers' return, when there was greatest need of bravery and constancy, had not defended the cause of Moses and of God, but in so great a tumult of the people had, against his duty, been quiet and mute, he would have been implicated in the same crime as the murmurers, as was said in the preceding number, and so would have had to be involved in the same punishment: therefore he was not wanting to his office, and bravely withstood the beginnings of the tumults.

[45] Two passages of Scripture especially confirm this by a shining testimony. others, from which it is solidly proved that on the very day of the return One is in Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, from verse 9: In the days of Moses HE (Joshua) DID A WORK OF MERCY, he and Caleb the son of Jephone, IN STANDING AGAINST THE ENEMY AND HINDERING THE NATION FROM SINS, AND BREAKING THROUGH THE MURMURING OF WICKEDNESS: and (for this) they two being appointed, were delivered from danger, from among the number of six hundred thousand men on foot, to bring them into their inheritance, into the land that floweth with milk and honey. The other, Numbers chapter 32, from verse 10, has thus: And the Lord being angry swore, saying: These men that came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward, shall not see the land which I promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and they would not follow me, except Caleb the son of Jephone the Cenezite, and Josue the son of Nun: these have fulfilled my will. Each of these two here (the words that follow are Bonfrerius' on Numbers chapter 13, verse 31) is said to have fulfilled God's will in this business; in the Seventy, to have followed the Lord; in the Hebrew, to have fulfilled after the Lord — that is, to have followed God fully in all things and defended His part. And indeed the same phrase is used there by Scripture in speaking of both, which it uses in the following chapter 14, verse 24, and Joshua 14, verse 8, when there is speech of Caleb alone, where he is said to have followed the Lord. Finally, this very thing is indicated by the illustrious eulogy which is had of both in Ecclesiasticus 46.

[46] he bravely withstood the authors of the tumult; Then the praised interpreter thus continues: Nor is it enough to say that in the beginning Joshua indeed did wrong, but afterwards repented and bore himself bravely in that rending of garments in the following chapter, verse 6, and that for this reason God pardoned him also his former fault. But if he had done wrong before, ought he, on account of a supervening repentance, to have been altogether free from all penalty? Did those who came to their senses after that murmuring and sedition, in the following chapter, verse 39, not undergo the penalty appointed by God for it? Ought he himself to have been adorned with so many praises in Ecclesiasticus? Ought he to have been said to have fulfilled after the Lord, or to have fully followed God? Would he not at least have plainly deserved to lose the princedom of the whole people by that deed of his? Therefore I should believe that neither did Caleb alone, nor did Caleb better and more bravely, bear himself in this business than Joshua; but that it was expressed of Caleb and kept silent of Joshua, because of the latter it ought not to be doubted. That God would not have left the Saint unpunished even though repentant, if he had been guilty of that crime which is wrongly fastened on him by many, becomes very likely also from the words of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 1, from verse 34: And when the Lord had heard the voice of your words, being angry he swore and said: Not one of the men of this wicked generation shall see the good land which I promised with an oath to your fathers: except Caleb the son of Jephone… Nor is his indignation against the people to be wondered at, since the Lord being angry with me also for your sakes (that is, on account of the sin committed on the occasion of your murmuring for want of water, Numbers chapter 20) said: Neither shalt thou go in thither: but Josue the son of Nun, thy minister, he shall go in for thee. Moses had sinned more lightly at the Waters of contradiction than the Israelites at Cadesbarne. Doubtless he repented of the sin, yet entrance into the promised land, which in Deuteronomy chapter 3, from verse 23, he begged of God with such ardent prayers, was denied him. Would it here have been granted to his repentant Minister, who had done wrong more grievously, as follows from the opinion opposed to ours, and so had rendered himself worthy of a greater penalty?

[47] nay, from Scripture it cannot even be proved that Caleb. There are those who from verse 24 of chapter 14 of Numbers, objected to us above, form another argument: There, they say, a singular reward of constancy and fidelity is promised to Caleb, namely that he should possess the land which he went round in the exploring of Canaan: and that this was Hebron becomes manifest from chapter 14 of the book of Joshua, verses 13 and 14. But no promise is read to have been made to Joshua in that place. Hence they infer that Caleb at least bore himself more bravely and spiritedly than he in the sedition. But not even this

ought to be granted: for that God promised his own rewards to our Saint and to Caleb at the same time is sufficiently gathered from the book of Joshua. It supplies here what before had been passed over in its place. In chapter 19, verse 50, the Saint is said to have received according to the commandment of the Lord the city which he asked for, Thamnath Saraa in mount Ephraim. And that that commandment was then given, when in Numbers chapter 14 a reward was decreed to Caleb for the cause of Moses and of God so bravely defended against the seditious, is declared in chapter 14, verse 6, where Caleb thus addresses the Saint: Thou knowest what the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Cadesbarne. He here makes the Prince of the Israelites mindful of the divine promises made in that place to himself and to him, as is plain from the petition added in verse 12: Give me therefore this mountain (Hebron) which the Lord promised, in thy hearing also. But what reward was commanded, or ordered to be given to our Saint? Namely, that whatever place he wished and chose for dwelling, Eleazar the priest — whom God had set with the Saint over the division of the land — and the princes of the tribes should grant him, holding their Leader's choice as ratified. That the Saint was endowed with this reward Bonfrerius teaches, writing on the book of Joshua chapter 19, verse 50, whose words we shall give below at num. 243.

[48] But be it so: let God have promised him nothing while the Israelites' encampment was at Cadesbarne: that Caleb bore himself more bravely than the Saint in composing the sedition: it does not yet follow from this that he was less zealous and brave in bringing the tumultuous back to their duty. For it can be said that the Saint was passed over, both because he was the successor of Moses in the rule and so was to obtain the supreme princedom in Canaan, and because he was to lead a celibate life and so was to leave no children who could be heirs of the portion given him as a reward. Now let the reader judge whether those who affirm that the Saint kept silence and gave no labor to the composing of the sedition, or that, if he withstood the tumult, he did so more sluggishly and coldly than Caleb — let him judge, I say, whether they have a solid foundation in the Scriptures for their opinion. Certainly the arguments drawn from the same Scriptures which I have set against those who say that the Saint was in the middle or kept silence seem to me so convincing that I judge it is not to be doubted that he bravely resisted the rebels on the first day: on the first day, I say, on which the explorers returned from Canaan: for on the following day he burned with such zeal against the murmurers that he rent his garments, moved by the indignity of the thing. Numbers chapter 14, verse 6. The sacred words will presently be given.

[49] The first night after the return was wholly passed in murmuring and in pouring out tears, the companions of their complaints. [on the day after the return he defends the cause of God and of Moses with great zeal:] On the following day the madness of the people turned into fury, so far that the whole camp cried out together that, Moses being deserted or killed and the law of the Lord cast off, they preferred to go back into Egypt rather than to go unhappily forward into Canaan: Which being heard (Numbers chapter 14, from verse 5), Moses and Aaron fell flat upon the ground before all the multitude of the children of Israel. But Josue the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephone … rent their garments, to declare their indignation at the injury done to God; And spoke to all the multitude of the children of Israel: The land which we have gone round is very good. If the Lord be favorable, he will bring us into it, and will give us a land flowing with milk and honey. Be not rebellious against the Lord: and fear ye not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them: the Lord is with us, fear ye not.

[50] But every admonition was vain with a people raging with anger and shouting against them with great vociferation, so that they could not be heard, and even arming their hands with stones: Their hands were scarce restrained, says Philo, book 1 On the Life of Moses, the people wish to stone him, but he is prodigiously delivered from the danger; from overwhelming with stones the two who thought otherwise, since they preferred to hear pleasant things rather than useful, and set falsehoods before truths, or rather indulged their fury and the ungovernable torches of their grief. Josephus, book 3 of the Antiquities, chapter 13, says nothing of the danger of Joshua and Caleb, and wrongly transfers it to Moses and Aaron alone. And when all the multitude cried out, says Scripture in the chapter cited, verse 10, and would have stoned them, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to all the children of Israel. The interpreters understand by the glory of the Lord the pillar of cloud flashing with a greater splendor, by which God manifested His glory. God surrounded the tabernacle with a more august light, that, at the sight of it, the raging people might be struck with dread, and that from their view Joshua and Caleb, who were near the tabernacle, or, as some say, in it, might be withdrawn, and so snatched from the danger of stoning. This heavenly prodigy and divine benefit is an evident argument how greatly the zeal and constancy of both pleased the Lord.

[51] God rewards his constancy. Nor did the bounty of the rewarding God stop here. To Caleb and his posterity a certain part of the land of Canaan, to be possessed after their entrance into it, is promised. Ibid., verse 24. At the same time the reward of bravery was more probably decreed to our Saint also. See what was said at num. 47, and what is to be said at num. 243 and following. Then the Lord pronounces upon the murmurers the sentence of death to be undergone in the wilderness. But He makes Joshua and his companion certain of a life to be prolonged longer than the years of their wandering should last, and of their entrance into the promised land: All you, He says, ibid., from verse 29, that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me, shall not enter into the land over which I lifted up my hand to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun. The same is repeated in the passages cited at num. 42 and 43. All things were done as God foretold. He preserved both by a singular benefit from death until they had entered Canaan and had received in it the promised reward: but the seditious died in the desert. And first indeed the ten explorers, the authors of the tumult, were on the day after the return cut off by a sudden death. Of these the sacred text speaks thus, from verse 36: Therefore all the men whom Moses had sent to view the land, and who at their return had made all the multitude to murmur against him, speaking ill of the land that it was naught, died and were struck in the sight of the Lord. But Josue the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephone lived, of all them that went to view the land. And of the others, in the same book of Numbers, chapter 26, when the catalogue of those who were to enter the land had been recounted, there is added in verses 64 and following: Among whom there was not one of them that were numbered before by Moses and Aaron in the desert of Sinai. For the Lord had foretold that they should all die in the wilderness. And none remained out of them, but Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun. And these are the things which concerning the explored land pertain to St. Joshua.

§ VI. The lawgiver asks a successor of the Lord, by whom St. Joshua is named; he is inaugurated in the princedom; he receives the Spirit of wisdom; Moses communicates his power to him; the time and the rites by which the inauguration was carried out.

[ ] [For nearly 40 years he was the lawgiver's minister and the imitator of his virtues:] Our Saint, as in the first two, so also in the remaining thirty-eight years in which the children of Israel tarried in the desert, not only rendered faithful service to the great prophet Moses, but also enjoyed his inmost familiarity. Hence it is easy to understand whence he turned out so great as we shall presently say he turned out. Over the space of so many years he saw the assiduity and ardor in prayer of the lawgiver with whom he lived: he saw his shrewdness and equity in judging matters, his care and industry in dispatching business, his prudence and mildness in giving answers and in handling men's minds; in a word, he himself continually beheld with his own eyes and admired the excellent measure which Moses kept at home and abroad in all his words and actions. Nor was the docile Disciple stirred by examples only, but was also imbued by his master with the precepts of the said virtues, with such fruit that he deserved by divine election to be set over the Hebrew people. The first book of Maccabees, chapter 2, verse 55, testifies this: Jesus, whilst he fulfilled the word of God, set before him by Moses by example or by discourse, was made ruler in Israel. Ambrose, cited at num. 14, agrees: Everywhere (Joshua) amid wondrous works and awesome secrets clung inseparably to holy Moses. Whence it came about that he who had been the companion of his converse became the successor of his power. And St. Ephrem, in the book On Virtue, chapter 2: Jesus, the son of Nave, by his perfect obedience merited so great a gift that he became the successor of Moses. Receive the order of the event.

[53] As the fortieth year from the going out of Egypt was declining to its end (whether in the ninth month of it or rather in the tenth, is uncertain), Moses is told of his own death, and asks a successor of God; in the plains of Moab next to the Jordan, in the last encampment of the Israelites, which was from Bethsemoth as far as Abelsatim, Numbers chapter 33, verses 48 and 49, Moses prayed the Lord that it might be granted him by His kindness to cross the Jordan and to behold the promised land nearer with his eyes, Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 25: but on account of his sin, committed on the occasion of the people's murmuring for want of water, this was denied him, and it was granted only that from Phasga (so is called the summit of Mount Nebo, which is one of the range of mountains called Abarim) he should look upon that land from afar, and so at once die, Numbers chapter 27, verse 12, etc. Then, having heard the time of the decreed and now impending death, Moses answers the Lord in the same place, verse 16: May the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh provide a man that may be over this multitude: and may be able to go out and in before them, and to lead them out or bring them in: lest the people of the Lord be as sheep without a shepherd. But you will say: Moses, demanding a leader of God, commends his most dear Disciple by not a single little word: he does not therefore seem to have been aware beforehand, as we said earlier, of God's counsel about substituting Joshua. But Moses prudently keeps silent his name, both lest he might seem to have been raised to that dignity by human favor, and that, when he is understood to have been chosen by God's own judgment, both the people may the more venerate his commands, and he himself may always reckon in his own mind by whom he was raised to the princedom, and with the greater diligence and caution discharge his office. So Masius in the Preface to his Commentaries on Joshua, and Serarius, book 1 on Joshua, chapter 9, question 4: where of the modesty and prudence of Moses in asking a successor

he brings forward beautiful testimonies of Philo in the book On Charity, of Jerome on chapter 1 of Titus, and of Origen, homily 22 on Numbers.

[54] here He names Joshua, and prescribes the rite of inauguration: God grants the lawgiver his wish, and names as successor Joshua, most skilled in the conduct of affairs and, by those virtues we have mentioned, tested and approved before the people: nor does He name him only, but adds also the manner in which he is to be inaugurated in the princedom: Take, He says, Numbers chapter 27, from verse 18 to verse 22, Josue the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and put thy hand upon him. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest and all the multitude: and thou shalt give him precepts in the sight of all, and part of thy glory, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him. If anything be to be done, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord for him. At his word shall he go out and go in, and all the children of Israel with him, and the rest of the multitude. The book of Deuteronomy, which was written in the eleventh month of the fortieth year, and hands down the sum of the things comprehended in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, in chapter 3, verses 27 and 28, hints at the election of Joshua as already made, in these words also: Go up, says God to Moses, to the top of Phasga, and cast thy eyes round about to the west and to the north and to the south and to the east, and behold. For thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. Command Josue, and encourage and strengthen him: for he shall go before this people, and shall divide unto them the land which thou shalt see. Likewise chapter 1, verses 37 and 38: Nor is his indignation against the people to be wondered at, since the Lord being angry with me also for your sakes (for the sin at the Waters of contradiction) said: Neither shalt thou go in thither: but Josue the son of Nun, thy minister, he shall go in for thee. Exhort and strengthen him, and he shall divide the land by lot to Israel. In both places Moses repeats the divine oracles formerly made concerning himself and his Disciple. The Lord uttered these when, in Numbers chapter 27, He denied the lawgiver the crossing of the Jordan he had asked, named Joshua his successor, and taught the manner in which he was to be inaugurated. So Theodoret judges, question 1 on Deuteronomy; nor do I think this is called into doubt by anyone.

[55] The Saint, whom God chose with a counsel full of wisdom, Hither deserve to be transcribed the words of Salianus in his Compendium of Annals at the year 2583, num. 42, where to the divine oracle by which Joshua is designated prince of the Israelites he subjoins these things: Behold the judgment of God in the choosing of the supreme magistrate of His people. First, He does not choose any of the sons of Moses, lest the Hebrews should think this princedom hereditary, which He willed at this time to depend upon His own election. He does not choose one flourishing in age, for he was in his ninety-third year, so that he could seem less fit for the wars which were impending: which nevertheless he waged wisely and bravely, that so much the more the Lord might be understood to be doing these things through him. Thirdly, a man full of the Spirit of God is chosen: who namely should breathe God, and should will to govern all things from His Spirit. Fourthly, Joshua, hitherto the minister and as it were the vicar of Moses, and everywhere his associate and companion, that he might not come to this office wholly new and unused to the conduct of affairs. Fifthly, a man of great esteem among the people is chosen, as one who, having been made leader in the war against the Amalekites, had, with God's help, brought it excellently to an end; and had rightly discharged the office of explorer, with God Himself approving. Finally, Joshua was chosen, who both by his name and by his deeds should represent Jesus Christ, who alone could bring the people of God into the land of the living.

[56] The inauguration, as we shall try to prove at the end of the paragraph, he is initiated into the princedom by Moses: soon followed the proclaiming of the new Leader. What pertains to it we shall first gather here together, that it may the more easily be compared with the testimonies which we gave at num. 54 concerning the Saint's election, and that from their careful comparison it may be more distinctly known what was the manner and order of the actions by which Joshua was consecrated ruler and leader of God's people. When the Lord in Numbers chapter 27, from verse 18, had designated Moses' successor and had prescribed, as we said, the rites to be kept in his creation, there is at once subjoined in verse 22: Moses did as the Lord had commanded. And when he had taken Josue, he set him before Eleazar the priest and all the assembly of the people, and laying his hands on his head, he repeated all things that the Lord had commanded. Hither belongs what we read in Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse 9: And Josue the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. That saying of Deuteronomy chapter 3, verses 21 and 22, also seems to regard our Prince's inauguration: I commanded Josue also at that time (namely, in which I inaugurated him as my successor, according to the command of the Lord in the chapter of Numbers cited, verse 20), saying: Thy eyes have seen what the Lord your God hath done to these two kings (Og and Sehon of the Amorrhites): so will he do to all the kingdoms to which thou shalt pass. Fear them not: for the Lord your God will fight for you. See below, num. 62.

[57] Philo in the book On Charity narrates that the Saint was made leader in this manner: the inauguration narrated by Philo: After his best Disciple and imitator Jesus had been confirmed as prince by God on account of his lovable character, Moses, by no means sad because his brother and his sons were passed over, but full of unspeakable joy that provision had been made for the nation of a ruler in every way incomparable, took his right hand and led him forth to the assembly, in no way anxious about his own impending death: but, a fresh gladness being added to his own familiar cheerfulness, briskly addressed the people with these words: For me the time is now at hand of departing from this bodily life: but this man, chosen by God, shall succeed to my charge. And at the same time he uttered the oracle, which was at once believed. Then, turning to Jesus, he exhorts him to carry on the business strenuously, and to consult well for the commonwealth, and constantly to persevere in what is well counselled… Nor was the admonition altogether superfluous, lest perhaps he should be burdened at undertaking so great a load: and that an example and a rule might be handed on to others of sharing good counsels with their successors, and of instructing them with the best precepts. This writer, as appears, confused what he had read in Numbers chapter 27 and in Deuteronomy chapter 31 from verse 1 to 9, and out of them wove his narrative. He thought perhaps that the cited place of Deuteronomy treats of the initiation of Joshua, but in this his opinion deceived him, as we shall prove at num. 62. Meanwhile the things which he borrowed from elsewhere, or even added of his own, are of such a kind as do not deprive his history of the appearance of truth; if you except this: Moses, by no means sad because his brother and his sons were passed over, etc.: for his brother Aaron, the only one whom Scripture records, had died about five months before.

[58] the whole rite by which it was carried out is more distinctly From the various passages which at num. 54 and 56 we adduced from sacred Scripture, we gather that in our Saint's initiation this order and manner of actions was kept. First, Moses commands Eleazar and the princes of the tribes with all the people to come together to an assembly. Secondly, he leads the designated Prince forth to the assembly, and (as is said in Numbers chapter 27, verse 22) sets him before Eleazar the priest and all the assembly of the people. In the same place, verses 18 and 19, the imposition of hands is indeed recounted before that setting before the pontiff and the people: but here God only prescribes what Moses ought to do, not in what order: for in verses 22 and 23, where the execution is narrated of those things which in verses 18 and 19 God had prescribed to be observed, he who is to be inaugurated is first set before Eleazar and the people, before hands are laid upon him. Thirdly, before the Prince's initiation there also likely took place what the cited Philo has: namely, that Moses declared the divine oracle to the assembled gathering, that all the people believed it, and by tacit consent approved the election of Joshua.

[59] set forth: at the imposition of hands he receives the Spirit of wisdom, Fourthly, he lays his hands on his Successor's head. Salianus in his epitome of Annals at the year 2583, num. 43: The Lord, he says, requires the imposition of hands, by which jurisdiction and the power of ruling the people might be understood to be conferred upon him by lawful authority. That office rightly belonged to Moses, as the prince of the people transferring his authority to him, and as priest and prophet, to whom that office has often been committed. But it was also fitting that a master and parent should bless with the most auspicious prayer a Disciple and most dear Son. Then He wills him to be set before Eleazar the priest, that he may be consecrated and blessed by him: and so may be inaugurated both by the ecclesiastical and by the political magistrate, who hold the place of God in the commonwealth and in the Church. This last is plainly uncertain, and is denied by Serarius, who in book 1 on Joshua, chapter 9, questions 15 and 16, is of opinion that our Saint was set before Eleazar, the ordinary pontiff, at God's command, that he might by his authority approve and hold ratified his inauguration made by Moses alone, who bore the person not only of a political prince but also of a priest and pontiff, though an extraordinary one. Moreover by this imposition of hands not the power of governing the people alone was conferred on the Saint, as is plain from Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse 9: And Josue the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. These words of the Lord in Numbers chapter 27, verse 18, Take Josue the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, by which he was named leader of the Israelites, signify, says St. Augustine in question 54 on Numbers, that he had the Holy Spirit before; which God bestowed more copiously when the lawgiver laid his hands upon him and blessed him. The merits and the prayers of Moses laying on his hands obtained that Joshua should be filled with the Spirit of wisdom, of which he was not before empty. See below, num. 83. Nor do the authors here understand by the Spirit of wisdom a peculiar gift of the Holy Spirit, but the same as Solomon in the second book of Paralipomenon chapter 1, verse 10, when he asked wisdom of God for the right governing of the people committed to him: namely, all those heavenly gifts which constitute such a prince as Moses had demanded for his successor in Numbers chapter 27, verses 16 and 17.

[60] Fifthly, he gives the new Prince precepts pertaining to the right discharge of his office, with the insignia of the princedom Moses communicates his power to him, that he keep the people in duty and in the worship of God, that he strenuously carry on the business against the enemy, that relying on God he fear nothing, and other things which you may gather from the texts given at num. 54 and 56. Sixthly, he gives him part of his glory, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him, verse 20. Salianus, praised in the preceding number, understands by part of his glory certain outward insignia of the magistracy, which pertained to his glory before the people and his dignity

made, just as garments were given to Aaron for glory and for beauty (Exodus chapter 28, verse 2), that the people might the more easily obey him as their lawful prince. Serarius understands by the part of glory communicated to the new Prince, besides this, a part of power and dignity. Thus he sets out his mind in book 1 on Joshua, chapter 9, question 20: Joshua was a sharer of his (Moses') dignity, or received a part of it, that is, was made a partaker of it: so that now not as a minister, as formerly, but as next in dignity, a second prince, a new Moses, he should always either stand or sit beside Moses; should now give many answers, should command many things to many with authority, the supreme authority of the princedom being always preserved to Moses himself. St. Augustine favors this opinion in question 55 on the book of Numbers. I should think, with Bonfrerius and others whom he cites, that the lawgiver communicated a part of his glory to his Successor in both senses, and not only granted him a more numerous band of servants, a more honored place in the assemblies above the princes of the tribes themselves, and other like outward insignia of the princedom, but also made him a partaker of his power in many and great matters, so that by this way greater authority might be won for him among the people, and all might little by little, even while Moses was living, learn to obey him. What Salianus objects to us, we shall resolve from St. Augustine below at num. 63.

[61] Seventhly, Moses, as he had been bidden, reports to the Saint that precept of the Lord in Numbers chapter 27, verse 21: [by whom he is admonished about consulting the Lord through the Pontiff in doubtful matters:] If anything be to be done, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord for him. At his word shall he go out and go in, and all the children of Israel with him, and the rest of the multitude. By which he is forbidden, when after the death of Moses he administers the commonwealth, to usurp for himself the office of priest, but is bidden through him to consult the Lord in doubtful and difficult matters, to venerate him as the interpreter and minister of God, and to obey him in all things. And this is a most beautiful order, that the people obey the prince, the prince the pontiff, the pontiff God. Dionysius the Carthusian, however, deduces from this very passage that the Saint was greater than Eleazar, and that the latter had to obey him in all he might command, like the rest of the people. Abulensis follows Dionysius here, question 47, and contends that the word his ought to be referred to Joshua: but if Eleazar must consult the oracle of the Lord in order that Joshua may know what he is to do, and the Pontiff must report God's answer to him, it is manifest that the word his regards Eleazar, so that this is the sense: At the word of Eleazar, which shall have been answered him by the Lord consulted, Joshua shall go out and go in, that is, shall do what is to be done.

[62] We have seen the manner of the inauguration; now let us examine at what time it was carried out. these things were done before the book of Deuteronomy was written; The most learned writer of Annals, Salianus, following Lyranus, at the year 2583, num. 108 and 287, thinks that it is narrated by anticipation in Numbers chapter 27, verse 22, and that it was done a little before the lawgiver's death, after he had repeated the law and had reduced it, more clearly explained, into a volume which comprises the thirty chapters of Deuteronomy. Theodoret, question 1 on Deuteronomy, Dionysius the Carthusian here, Torniellus at num. 23 on the year 2583, and others judge that the initiation of the new Leader is related in its own place, and that it preceded the death of Moses by about two months, the repetition of the Law by one month, and the victory over the Midianites by some few days. Their opinion seems to me much more probable: for if Joshua was inaugurated after Deuteronomy was written, how is it read as done in the book of Numbers, which Moses finished before he set his hand to writing Deuteronomy, as is gathered from chapter 1, verse 3, of the latter? It can indeed be said that Moses a little before his death added the two last verses to chapter 27 of the book of Numbers, which he had already finished a month before, or that he wrote them as soon as he understood God's will about inaugurating Joshua prince, since he knew that he would afterwards carry it into execution; but who would admit these evasions as likely? But neither is every difficulty avoided by this way, for the book of Deuteronomy, containing a recapitulation of past events, seems to make mention of the Saint's initiation in chapter 3, verse 21: where Moses speaks thus of himself: I commanded Josue also at that time, saying: Thy eyes have seen, etc. See num. 56. The lawgiver here indicates not obscurely that he had fulfilled what the Lord had commanded in Numbers chapter 27, verse 20: And (inaugurating thy successor) thou shalt give him precepts in the sight of all, etc. Whence it follows that, when Moses uttered these things, Joshua's inauguration had already been carried out, and so that they are deceived who think that it happened after Deuteronomy was written and recited. Hear Theodoret speaking to our purpose, question 1 on Deuteronomy: Now Moses goes over these laws again in the said book for this reason, that he HAD APPOINTED Josue the son of Nave as his SUCCESSOR in leading the people; showing that while still surviving he had entrusted the prefecture to others, and that he was to be gladly obeyed, and his commands carried out. And below: Of him alone (Caleb) did he make mention (Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 36), but Josue he ORDAINED as PRINCE, LEADER, AND PROPHET: which is sufficiently evident from what follows.

[63] what Salianus objects is resolved from St. Augustine. The opinion of Salianus rests on this single argument: It was fitting, he says at num. 287, that Moses should not so quickly deprive himself of his dignity, especially since he had to commend the whole law with greater authority, severely and gravely, to the whole people, to rebuke and chide them, and finally to threaten the severest menaces and penalties. But we do not say that he restricted his power, much less that he deprived himself of his dignity or stripped himself of the princedom: but only that he communicated the insignia of the princedom to the Saint, and made him a partaker of his power. Beautifully St. Augustine, question 55 on Numbers: What is it that, when God commanded Moses concerning Jesus Nave, He says among other things: "And thou shalt give of thy glory upon him"… Nor, because He said of thy glory, was what he had thereby lessened. For it is to be taken as if He said: Thou shalt make him a companion of thy glory: for things of this kind are not lessened as though divided into parts, but they are whole for all and whole for each who have fellowship in them. Since the holy Doctor cannot here understand by the word glory the inward goods of the soul, as is plain to one who considers, I do not see what in him Thou shalt make him a companion of thy glory can more rightly signify than Thou shalt make him a companion of thy dignity and power in the administration of the commonwealth: Power and dignity, as is most well known, are goods of such a nature that they may be communicated to another and remain entire in him who communicates them, if the will on which they depend so wills. Therefore we detract not even a little from Moses' supreme dignity and power when we say that holy Joshua, from his inauguration until the death of Moses, that is, for about two months, administered civil and military affairs with an ampler power, and was the lawgiver's companion in the government of the people and as it were a second prince; yet so that his power was not absolute and independent, which we assert that Moses alone had until his death.

§ VII. The signal victory of the Israelites over the Midianites, more probably under Joshua's leadership; the division of the land of Canaan committed to his and Eleazar's care.

[ ] Moses instructs his Successor: Immediately after Joshua's initiation the Lord gave through Moses certain ceremonial precepts which had been passed over in Leviticus or not so clearly explained. These are clearly set forth in Numbers chapters 28 and 29. There are added in chapter 30 some things about vows and oaths, when they ought to be reckoned ratified or void. St. Jerome, who in his letter to Fabiola on the 42 Encampments relates in summary what was done in each encampment, and carefully keeps the order of events which Scripture keeps, in Encampment 42 draws chapters 28, 29, and 30 into this synopsis: Jesus succeeds Moses on the mountain, and learns from the law what he ought spiritually to offer in the Church. First, what on each day; then what on the Sabbath, what on the Kalends, what at the Pasch, what at Pentecost; what at the New Moon of the seventh month, what at the fast of the same month on the tenth day; what at the Scenopegia, when the tabernacles are pitched, on the fifteenth day of the aforesaid month. The vows of wives and daughters without the authority of fathers and husbands are recorded as void, etc. In the said chapters, as also at the end of Numbers, and likewise in Deuteronomy down to chapter 31, various precepts are explained to the Israelites. In these without doubt the Saint was instructed not only publicly, when they were spoken to the assembly, but also privately by Moses, so that he came to the helm of the commonwealth most learned in the divine laws, both those passed after and those before his inauguration. But with what care he urged the observance of them upon himself and upon the people subject to him, his deeds after Moses' death will teach.

[65] After the promulgation of those precepts of which Numbers chapters 28, he wins a signal victory over the Midianites 29, and 30 speak, the lawgiver was now (as is credible) girding himself for the ascent of the mountain, that he might fulfill God's command and there die. But the Lord admonished him first to take vengeance on the Midianites, who by prostituting their daughters had enticed the Israelites to fornication and idolatry: Revenge first, He says, Numbers chapter 31, from verse 2, the children of Israel on the Madianites, and so thou shalt be gathered to thy people. And forthwith Moses said: Arm of you men to fight, who may take the revenge of the Lord on the Madianites. Let a thousand men be chosen out of every tribe of Israel to be sent to the war. And they gave a thousand of every tribe, that is to say, twelve thousand men well appointed for battle: whom Moses sent with Phinees the son of Eleazar the priest, and he delivered to him the holy vessels and the trumpets to sound. And when they had fought against the Madianites and had overcome them, they slew all the men, and their kings, Evi and Recem and Sur and Hur and Rebe, five princes of the nation: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the sword. The enemy being destroyed to the last man, and great devastation being brought upon their fields, the Israelites led away an immense multitude of little ones, women, and cattle; and, laden besides with a great weight of gold and with the booty made of other things, they returned to the camp. Which being learned, there went forth (verse 13) Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the synagogue to meet them without the camp, and from the leaders of the victorious army they learned that the Hebrews had fought so happily that not even one of them was missing, verse 49. Then the soldiers, in thanksgiving that all had returned safe from the war, following the examples of the supreme and of the other lower leaders, all the gold and the other

spoils stripped from the enemies' bodies they offered of their own accord to the Lord, from verse 50. The distribution of the living creatures and the other things which followed the victory you will find related in the same chapter.

[66] the army of the Israelites, over which For the greatest part so signal a victory must, after God, be ascribed to the bravery and the prudent command of the supreme prefect of the army. This was our Joshua, although his name is not expressed in Scripture. This is the opinion of Abulensis, Cajetan, Cornelius a Lapide, Salianus, Tirinus, Bonfrerius, and others, which we think more probable than the opposite. For who else besides our Hero would have led the army against the enemy? Moses? But that he was not present at the battle, verses 12 and 13 of the chapter cited make manifest. Phinees? This opinion about him pleases many: above all Philo, book 1 On the Life of Moses, and Josephus, book 4 of the Antiquities, chapter 7. To these subscribe Comestor, Lyranus, Dionysius, Adrichomius, Ferus, Zonaras, who carefully follows Josephus, and Torniellus. These authors rely on verse 6, where the chosen twelve thousand men are read to have been sent by Moses against the Midianites with Phinees, by which they contend it is signified that he was set over them as commander. But if the single words of the said verse, and these especially, He delivered to him the holy vessels also and the trumpets to sound, are more deeply inspected, and at the same time the office of the Hebrew priests is recalled to mind, which Scripture testifies they discharged in war both by custom and by divine precept, it will appear more likely that the command of the army is to be adjudged not to Phinees but to our Joshua. What follows will give light and weight to what has been said.

[67] not Phinees First, the Israelites were accustomed to carry into their warlike expeditions the ark in which they venerated the Lord present, that those about to fight might have a firm defense against the enemy and might conceive a certain hope of victory. Hence in Numbers chapter 14, verse 44, Scripture says that the ark of the Testament of the Lord was not moved from its place when the Israelites, after the death of the explorers of Canaan, went forth to war without God's command; hinting from the opposite, says Cajetan, that if the war had been made by God's will, the ark would have been carried into the battle. And this is confirmed from chapter 6 of the book of Joshua, verse 6: where, the expedition against Jericho being undertaken, the priests are commanded to take seven trumpets, whose use is in the Jubilee, and to go before the ark of the covenant. The sons of Heli also are read to have carried the ark of God to war, in the first book of Kings chapter 4, verse 4. It was also in the army of Saul, first book of Kings chapter 14, verse 18: as also in the camp of Joab fighting against the Ammonites; whence Urias said, second book of Kings chapter XI, verse XI: The ark of God, and Israel, and Juda dwell in tents. Moses, according to this custom already introduced by himself and afterwards kept by his descendants, when he sent the priest Phinees to the Midianite war, delivered to him the holy vessels also, that is, the ark with the tables of the law, the Cherubim, and the propitiatory. This the Hebrews understand by the name of holy vessels, as Oleaster, Serarius, Lyranus, Dionysius, Cajetan, Vatablus, Sa, a Lapide, Tirinus, and others say. Priests therefore and Levites accompanied Phinees to war, to carry and guard the ark of God. Secondly, God in Numbers chapter 10, verse 2, commanded two beaten silver trumpets to be made, of whose use I read this to our purpose in the same place, verses 8 and 9: And the sons of Aaron the priests shall sound the trumpets: and this shall be an ordinance for ever in your generations. If you go forth to war out of your land against the enemies that fight against you, you shall sound aloud with the trumpets, and there shall be a remembrance of you before the Lord your God, that you may be delivered out of the hands of your enemies. That this precept of the Lord might be fulfilled, the lawgiver bade the priest Phinees go with the army to battle, and delivered to him the trumpets to sound.

[68] From all these things what conjecture can be formed more agreeable to reason and truth was a priest, but than that Phinees set out to the war in order that, as first priest under his father the pontiff, he might preside over the priests and Levites who accompanied the army with the sacred furniture; that he might see to the trumpets being blown by the priests to add courage to the fighters; and that he might pray to God beside the ark for the safety and victory of the warriors? And this was the priest's proper office in war, and not to bear the profane person of a commander of the soldiery and to handle arms. I confess indeed that Judas Maccabeus and some other pontiffs were commanders of armies, but these were at once high priests and leaders of the people, as Moses was; whom holy Joshua succeeded only in the political princedom: Phinees, however, was nothing but a priest, whom, no otherwise than all the rest of the tribe of Levi, God had destined not for warfare but for sacred things.

[69] Now if to those things which make against the priest Phinees' prefecture of the army more probably St. Joshua was set over it as commander: there be joined those which persuade that it was conferred on our Saint, the greater likelihood of our opinion will show itself more manifestly. Joshua had already in the Amalekite war abundantly proved his industry and bravery to all, and a few days before had been proclaimed, by God's own vote, the successor of Moses, not only to preside over the civil affairs of the Israelites but most of all to be their leader in war. Hence it came about that the eyes and mouths of all the soldiers were turned toward him, and that without doubt they desired him as their commander. For whom would they have wished set over them before all the rest, rather than him whom they knew to have been chosen as leader by God Himself, and to be for other reasons most skilled in military matters? Besides, since he was not only chosen but already inaugurated prince of the Hebrews, it lay upon him by his office to preside over the army: why should we say that this was denied him by the lawgiver and, against custom, conferred on another, and that at a time when authority with the people was most to be won for him? Add that he is not named in verse 13 with Moses and Eleazar among those going out to meet the victorious army. It can indeed be said that Joshua is comprised in the crowd of the other princes who accompanied them, but Moses was more observant of decorum in his writings than not to distinguish the already initiated prince of the whole people from the lower leaders. More likely therefore it was under our Hero's command that the fight against the Midianites was so happily waged; to him, after God, the victory and its fruits must be attributed; and, as Salianus and others think, by his exhortation and by the religion of the soldiers aroused, there was stirred up that great piety and munificence toward God, so that out of their own booty they dedicated such rich spoils to His tabernacle, as is narrated at the end of the chapter.

[70] the division of the promised land is committed to his and Eleazar's care. After that signal victory over the Midianites, the tribes of Ruben and Gad, when they had noticed that the land of the two kings Og and Sehon, subdued a little before Joshua's initiation, was very fit for feeding cattle, in which they themselves abounded, asked of Moses that it be given them in possession: and, that they might obtain this the more easily, they had added that they would renounce all the land to be acquired beyond the Jordan, and that, their families and flocks being placed in safety, they would cross the Jordan against the Canaanites and would not lay down their arms until all their land was subjected to the remaining tribes: Moses therefore commanded (Numbers chapter 32, verse 28) Eleazar the priest and Josue the son of Nun and the princes of the families throughout the tribes of Israel, that, if they stood by their promises, the said lands should be left to them: nevertheless he set apart a portion of them and assigned it to the half tribe of Manasse under the same conditions: for they were greater than to be granted whole to those two tribes. See the chapter cited and the first of the book of Joshua. In Numbers chapter 34 are described the bounds of the promised land beyond the Jordan, destined for the nine remaining tribes with the half of Manasse. But who were to preside over this division, the Lord Himself chooses in verse 17: These are the names of the men that shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Josue the son of Nun. Then are enumerated the princes of the tribes who under them were set over the division. The things we have touched on in this paragraph were done in the tenth month of the fortieth year from the exodus. But on the first day of the eleventh month, called by the Hebrews Sebet, which answers to our January, Moses began to explain the law, as is had in Deuteronomy down to chapter 31, and persevered in its exposition and writing that whole month, subtracting however from it some few days in which those things could conveniently have taken place which in chapter 31 and following are read to have immediately preceded the death of Moses. That this happened on the last day of the same eleventh month or at the beginning of the twelfth, the more probable opinion holds, as will be seen below at num. 84 and 85.

§ VIII. Moses commends his Successor to the Israelites; God openly confirms his princedom by a prodigy; from the pillar of cloud He strengthens the Saint and teaches him the matter of the Canticle, which he and Moses write and sing.

[ ] Moses foretells to the people God's help against the enemy under Joshua, A few days before his death the lawgiver again called together all the people, and set Joshua present before them, whom anew he publicly declared his successor. He judged that this solemn and repeated declaration would help to win him authority with his subjects: but that he might rouse the same people to trust toward God, and at the same time to love toward the new Prince and to the rendering of obedience to him, he prophesied that under his rule God would be present to the Israelites with singular help and would bestow victory over all their enemies. And he used these words, Deuteronomy chapter 31, from verse 2: I am this day a hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer go out and come in, especially as the Lord also hath said to me: Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. The Lord thy God then will pass over before thee: he will destroy all these nations in thy sight, and thou shalt possess them: and this Josue shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And the Lord shall do to them as he did to Sehon and Og, the kings of the Amorrhites, and to their land, and shall destroy them. Therefore when the Lord shall have delivered these also to you, you shall do in like manner to them as I have commanded you. Do manfully and be of good heart: fear not, nor be ye dismayed at their sight: for the Lord thy God he himself is thy leader, and will not leave thee nor forsake thee.

[72] And Moses called Josue, who was not far off, to whom also he prophesies all good fortune; and bade him come nearer to him, and said to him before all Israel: Take courage and be valiant: for thou shalt bring this people into the land which the Lord swore he would give to their fathers, and thou shalt divide it by lot. And the Lord who is your leader, he will be with thee: he will not leave thee nor forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. Amid these words, says Salianus, Moses laid his hand upon him. But that this was done

before the eleventh month, or before the lawgiver began to recite Deuteronomy to the people, has been sufficiently shown above at num. 62. In Numbers chapter 27 the Saint is chosen prince and inaugurated: but here, in Deuteronomy chapter 31, his princedom is again declared and commended to the people.

[73] God too willed openly to approve the dignity conferred on the Prince chosen by Him and commanded to be initiated, the Lord openly confirms his princedom by a prodigy, and to make it illustrious by a heavenly prodigy, of which in the same place, verses 14 and 15: And the Lord said to Moses: Behold the days of thy death are nigh: call Josue, and stand ye in the tabernacle of the testimony, that I may give him a charge. So Moses and Josue went and stood in the tabernacle of the testimony: and the Lord appeared there in the pillar of a cloud, which stood in the entry of the tabernacle. Here you have a famous confirmation of the appointed Leader, made by God showing His presence in the cloud. Hence is recognized God's sweet providence toward this rather rude people, to whom all things were set forth to be handled, so to speak, with their very hands, lest they should easily shake off the yoke of a lawful governor whom they saw approved by God with such manifest tokens.

[74] [by whom he is strengthened from the pillar of cloud and taught the matter of the Canticle,] What the Lord announced from the pillar of cloud to Moses and Joshua is described in the same chapter. And first indeed He addresses Moses thus, verse 16: Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people rising up will go a-fornicating after strange gods in the land, to which it goeth in to dwell. In verses 17 and 18 He foretells the calamities to be inflicted on the people for the crime of defection and idolatry. Then, in verse 19, turning His speech to both, Now therefore, He says, write you this Canticle, and teach the children of Israel, that they may keep it by heart and sing it by mouth, and this song may be unto me for a testimony among the children of Israel. For I will bring them into the land, for which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey. And when they have eaten, and are full and fat, they will turn away after strange gods and will serve them: and will speak ill of me, and will make void my covenant. After many evils and afflictions shall have come upon them, this Canticle shall answer them for a testimony, which no oblivion shall take away out of the mouth of their seed. For I know their thoughts, and what they are about to do this day, before that I bring them into the land which I have promised them. At last God deigns to address Joshua alone, that He may show him the lawful successor of Moses, with whom alone He had been wont to speak, and may now in some manner show him his equal: And the Lord commanded (verse 23) Josue the son of Nun, and said: Take courage and be valiant: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I have promised, and I will be with thee.

[75] which he and Moses, as they had been bidden, wrote and sang. Chapter 32 of Deuteronomy gives that famous Canticle recited before all the people, for the writing of which God had suggested the matter in the preceding chapter. Although it is commonly called the Canticle of Moses, nevertheless Scripture testifies so openly that Joshua also wrote and sang it that it seems strange to me that Pagninus and some others have denied it or called it into doubt. First he wrote it: for that saying of chapter 31, verse 19, Now therefore write you this Canticle, and teach the children of Israel, is directed to both. But that he also sang it, chapter 32, verse 44, teaches in the clearest words: Moses therefore came and spoke all the words of this Canticle in the ears of the people, both he and Josue the son of Nun. Of the manner in which they both sang that hymn together I can affirm nothing, save that it is not clear. Yet I will say what I conjecture. That song, altogether whole, written by both, the lawgiver alone first recited to all Israel, whence perhaps it came about that it was called the Canticle of Moses: yet because out of so many thousands of men some, being farther off from the old man of 120 years, could not sufficiently perceive the sense of his swan-like voice, Joshua repeated the whole hymn to them — not after the death of Moses, or, as Salianus, following Abulensis, holds, when Joshua himself was about to die (for what reason compels us to say that here in verse 44 the past is put for the future?), but repeated it at once, as soon as the lawgiver had made an end of speaking. So I suspect, with Cajetan. There are those who think that our Saint sang that Canticle in this sense, that he testified that he too had heard from God the things which Moses had announced, when they stood together before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. These I would follow, if to speak all the words of this Canticle in the ears of the people did not seem to me to signify more than to bear such a bare testimony. Other conjectures of the interpreters see in Lorinus on Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 30, and chapter 32, verse 44.

[76] Josephus, who keeps deep silence about the Saint's election and inauguration, Joshua's prophecy, and Moses' address to him and to the people in book 4 of the Antiquities, chapter 8, has this: But Jesus also, while Moses was still surviving and present, prophesied whatever he was to do for the safety of the people, whether abroad in the conduct of war or at home in the making of laws: and, preparing them for the newly established manner of living, he said that he foresaw by divine admonition that, if they violated their fathers' religion, they would not escape disasters. For their region would be filled with the arms of foreigners, their cities would be overthrown, the temple burned, and they themselves sold under the spear of the conqueror, and would serve nations touched by no pity for the afflicted, and only then at last would repent of their errors, too late and to no profit. Yet God their founder would restore both the cities to their citizens and the temple to the people. And that this would happen not once only, but that they would lose them more often. Then, Moses having exhorted Jesus to lead the army against the Canaanites, and having promised that God would be present to his undertakings, and having prophesied all good fortune to the people, Since, he says, I depart to the Fathers, and God has fixed this day for my departure, etc. There follows an address in which, after thanks given to God for benefits conferred, he exhorts the people to the worship of God and to the observance of the laws. To the address he soon subjoins: While Moses was speaking these last words and disclosing to each tribe its destinies, the whole multitude burst into tears. A little below he narrates that the people followed the dying lawgiver as far as the mountain.

[77] When Josephus wrote that our Joshua prophesied these things, narrated by Josephus, are weighed. I think he had regard to Deuteronomy chapter 31, from verse 19 to verse 24, where the Saint is narrated to have known by divine revelation that he would bring the children of Israel into the promised land; but that they, having afterwards forsaken the worship of the true God, would run into grave evils as the penalty of idolatry. But whether that author attended to this passage, or to the Canticle of Moses, which he perhaps thought was recited by Joshua also, he expounded the words of Scripture otherwise than the text bears. The future things which in verse 19 God bade the Saint write down and announce to the people are contained in the said Canticle. That he foretold other things while Moses lived, the authority of Josephus alone does not persuade me. But of the exhortation of Moses which he subjoins, made to Joshua and to the people, what shall I say? In the chapter cited, from verse 1 to verse 9, the lawgiver does indeed animate both by the help of God that would be at hand and by the happy success of the expeditions to be undertaken against the Canaanites; but he made this exhortation some days before his death, as we shall prove from verse 14 at num. 85. Josephus, however, seems to fix his own to the day on which Moses blessed the tribes and departed to the Fathers. Did he then on the last day of his life strengthen our Saint and the children of Israel with a like address, with that thanksgiving and admonition added of which we spoke above? So indeed, as appears from the context of the narrative, the said author judges; but from what source he drew it, let him see to it: certainly he cannot bring forward Moses as his author or witness.

§ IX. He climbs the mountain with the dying Moses, is present at his death, and other things are brought forward concerning the Saint which we think likely: the reckoning of the time of the things done after Deuteronomy was written.

[ ] Moses, when about to die he ascended the mountain, On the same day on which, as is evident from Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 48, Moses sang the often-mentioned hymn, he was bidden by God to go to the mountains of Abarim and to ascend one of them loftier than the rest, called Nebo, that, after surveying Canaan with his eyes, he might die on it. Having received this last announcement of his death, he proclaimed an assembly for the following day, which was for him the last of his life. On the next day therefore the whole multitude was gathered, and he prayed well for them tribe by tribe. St. Athanasius of Alexandria, in the Synopsis of Sacred Scripture at the book of Deuteronomy, writes that the lawgiver did not inaugurate his Successor by the imposition of hands until after the blessing imparted to the people: But after he had blessed each tribe, he says, and had committed their blessing to writing, and had placed his hands upon Jesus Nave, that he might succeed him according to the command of God, he ascended the mountain of Abarim. But that this was done before, we proved above at num. 62.

[79] the Saint likely accompanied, Cajetan, Serarius, Salianus, and others, both historians and interpreters, confess that all the things which we shall here transcribe from the cited Josephus are very likely, if you except a very few words at the end: But how great was the weeping and lamentation of the people (when Moses went away to the mountain to die) may be conjectured from what then befell the prophet. For although he had always held it most firmly persuaded that one must not grieve at impending death, since it comes not beside God's will and the laws of nature, yet at the sight of the people's affection he could not refrain from tears: and as he set out for the place where he was to disappear, all followed him with weeping. Then Moses signified with a motion of the hand to those who were farther off that they should halt: but those nearer he begged not to go on making his departure lamentable by attending it with weeping. And they, judging that this last favor also should be rendered him, that he might, as he desired, withdraw apart, restrained themselves, weeping among themselves. But the senate alone escorted him, and Eleazar the pontiff, and Jesus the commander. And when he stood upon the mountain called Abari, which rises lofty over against Jericho, and offers to those who climb it a wide prospect of the land of Canaan, he dismissed the senate. And when, after mutual embraces, he was saying his last farewell to Eleazar and Jesus, in the midst of speaking he was surrounded by a sudden cloud and carried away into a certain valley.

[80] he was present at his death, and saw him dead Salianus, in the Annals at the year 2583, num. 329, is less pleased by these last words of Josephus, In the midst of speaking, a sudden etc.; from which it is concluded that the holy Prince and Eleazar the pontiff did not see Moses dying. He thinks Cajetan spoke more rightly, on Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse 6; where he asserts that not only dying,

but dead also, they beheld him carried by angels into a valley of the land of Moab. Cajetan's conjecture appears to me too the more likely: for if Moses, in the midst of speaking with his Successor and the Pontiff, was surrounded by a sudden cloud and withdrawn from the eyes of both, as Josephus narrates, neither could bear testimony of his death. There is no doubt that the Israelites asked Joshua and Eleazar about it, at least then, after they had gone to the summit of the said Mount Nebo, called Phasga, and had not found the dead man's body. There is likewise no doubt that, having heard the report of the holy Prince and of the Pontiff, they diligently searched the valley toward which they had seen Moses carried wrapped in the cloud. Now what is it more credible came into the minds of the Israelites, who nowhere found the lawgiver's body and were told that when he was saying his last farewell he was suddenly taken from sight by a cloud — what, I say, than that Moses had not really died, but had been taken up alive in the cloud and, like Enoch, translated by God into paradise? Perhaps too, such was the proneness of their dispositions to idolatry, they would have adored him as a god, just as we read that some did in Epiphanius, heresy 55, and in Cyril of Alexandria, book 1 against Julian. Hence it appears to me more probable that God willed witnesses of his death to be present.

[81] But since not even so was every danger of idolatry removed, [that he was carried by angels to the valley of Moab, yet was not laid in a sepulchre in their sight:] He willed besides, by Cajetan's testimony, that, although his body was seen to be carried down to the valley of the land of Moab to be buried, yet the exact place of that valley in which it was laid could not be marked by the eyes. And that the matter was transacted in this manner, the last chapter of Deuteronomy, which Joshua more probably wrote, as we shall say afterwards, seems in some way to hint: And Moses the servant of the Lord died there, it says in verses 5 and 6, in the land of Moab, the Lord commanding: and he buried him by the ministry of angels in the valley of the land of Moab over against Phogor: and no man hath known of his sepulchre until this present day. Whence did these things which he here narrates become known to our holy sacred Writer? By divine inspiration alone? I should think that he knew them by a human way also, and committed to writing what he saw; and that he saw Moses dying, and saw him carried by angels to burial in a valley of the land of Moab over against Phogor, yet so that the exact place of burial could not be distinguished: whence it is understood how neither he nor anyone else ever knew his sepulchre. And that God willed it to be unknown to His people, this is everywhere believed to have been the reason, lest they should either attribute divine honor to his body or abuse it to superstition, to which they were most addicted. The Epistle of St. Jude the apostle, verse 9, mentions the dispute between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. Many think that the devil contended that it should be buried with a public funeral, and that thus the Hebrews might be enticed to idolatry; but that, to take away the occasion of this, the Archangel, guardian of the Hebrew people, resisted him and obtained from the Lord that the lawgiver's body should be secretly laid in a sepulchre which no one should ever detect. The things which in this and the two preceding numbers we have narrated of St. Joshua are indeed uncertain; yet they are not so far from the truth as to deserve no historical credit.

[82] immediately after the death of Moses he began to exercise the supreme power, Moses being dead, Joshua began to govern the people with that power which he had had; and that he might do this rightly he had been strengthened beforehand both inwardly by divine grace and outwardly by the frequent exhortations of his predecessor and by the colloquy of God Himself, as has been said in the preceding numbers. He began, I say, at once; for it is not likely that so numerous and so turbulent a people was for any time neither directed by the command of its Prince nor kept in duty by the exercise of his supreme authority. It seems therefore to be attributed to the Saint's command that the whole people spent thirty days in mourning for Moses, wherein the children of Israel obeyed him, as they had obeyed the lawgiver in celebrating the obsequies of his brother Aaron. For although in both places the Prince's command is not expressed in the sacred Letters, yet amid so great a variety of persons and judgments and wills it is more credible that his decree intervened, who was set over all with lawful power.

[83] being already before endowed with the Spirit of wisdom. There are those who with the Talmudists judge that the holy Leader did not apply himself to the thought of the rule handed over to him until after he had received the Spirit of wisdom of which Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse 9, speaks. And they deny that he was breathed upon with this at the very imposition of the hands of Moses inaugurating him, but only after the rites had been paid to the lawgiver. Abulensis patronizes them on chapter 1 of Joshua, question 4, and thinks that the chapter cited, verses 8 and 9, favors them: And the children of Israel mourned for him thirty days in the plains of Moab: and the days of their mourning in which they mourned for Moses were ended. And Josue the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. And the children of Israel obeyed him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. These words the most learned prelate so understands: After the days of mourning were ended, Joshua, because he had been initiated prince by the imposition of hands, was filled with the Spirit of wisdom, when that exhortation was made to him of which Joshua chapter 1, from verse 1, speaks: and from that time the children of Israel obeyed him. But this sense seems to me too twisted: for the particle because signifies that the imposition of hands and the prayers of Moses joined to it were in some way the cause of the Spirit of wisdom. Now if it conferred it by some moral efficiency (for no other manner of causing can here be admitted), it is rightly concluded that the words was filled regard the same past time as the words laid his hands upon him; that is, that the Saint received the Spirit of wisdom, necessary for right governing, at the very imposition of Moses' hands, not at the exhortation made to him by God after the thirty days of mourning. The sacred text therefore here only repeats what was done before, and puts was filled for had been filled. Since the sacred tongue lacks that distinction of perfect and pluperfect, hence it not rarely happens that in the sacred Scriptures the one must be explained by the other.

[84] The reckoning of the time of the things which We judge it will not be superfluous if here also we try to instruct the reader on about what day and month all those things happened which from num. 71 to this point have been narrated of our Saint. By this effort of ours we shall both illuminate what precedes and pave the way to the Saint's following deeds, which the book of Joshua describes. For the knowledge of the matter proposed, the time must first be examined at which that exhortation of God to Joshua was made, with which he himself begins his book. First of all, the authors agree in this, that the Lord animated the Saint with His address not later than the day after the funeral mourning. But let the reader note that they all suppose the same as we, namely that the lawgiver's year of death was a common one, not embolismic or of thirteen months. Secondly, it is more probable that that hortatory address of God happened on the first or second day of the month Nisan; as will be seen in the following paragraph. Thirdly, it is likewise more probable that it was made after the thirty days of Moses' funeral rites were completed. So Abulensis, Cajetan, Serarius, Hugh the cardinal, Menochius, Bonfrerius, and many others, against Masius here, and Salianus in the Annals at the year 2584. The latter, following the author of the Hebrew Calendar and of the greater Chronology which is entitled Seder Olam Rabba, thinks that the lawgiver died on the seventh day of the month Adar. This Hebrew tradition once admitted, he could not afterwards but assert that the Leader of the Israelites was confirmed by God while the solemnity of the obsequies was still going on: for if Moses died on the seventh day of the twelfth month, and the Israelites mourned him for thirty days, then from the end of the mourning until the crossing of the Jordan, which happened on the tenth day of the next month Nisan, there was not sufficient time in which God's exhortation to Joshua, the sending and return of the explorers, and the preparation for crossing the river could have taken place. All these things require at least 6 or 7, and more probably 8 or 9 days. But that these things happened after the funeral rites had been paid to Moses, we prove from the last chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 8: And the children of Israel mourned for him thirty days in the plains of Moab: and the days of their mourning in which they mourned for Moses were ENDED. Then immediately at the beginning of the book of Joshua God's speech rousing the Saint is reported. Nor is there reason why we should here say that the sacred narrative disturbed the order of time. Hence the most erudite Torniellus, at the year 2583, num. 35, thinks it manifest that the said Hebrew tradition must be departed from, unless the year in which the great prophet died was intercalary. See the author cited, and the interpreters whom I named above.

[85] Since therefore it is more probable that only after the rites had been paid to the lawgiver did the Lord strengthen the Saint with His address, happened after Deuteronomy was written. and since that more likely took place on the first or second day of the month Nisan, as we shall say below; it follows that Moses departed this life on the last day of the eleventh month or the first of the twelfth, if this was hollow, that is of 29 days, as it is in the Sigonian Calendar of the Jews; but if it was full, that is, numbered 30 days, as Torniellus contends at the year 2545, num. 38, then his death falls on the first or second of the same twelfth month. Which, though uncertain, let us for the moment suppose as certain, and, with Josephus, book 4 of the Antiquities, last chapter, and others, let us lay down that the lawgiver ascended Mount Nebo together with his Successor and there died on the first day of the month Adar. This being laid down, the Saint sang the Canticle of which we spoke at num. 75 together with Moses on the last day of the eleventh month, but on the day before that he was bidden by God to write it and recite it to the people, his dignity was confirmed by the heavenly prodigy, and the rest happened which Deuteronomy chapter 31, from verse 14, narrates of Joshua. The Hebrews in their greater Chronology say that all those things happened on the day immediately preceding the death of Moses; but neither is this tradition of theirs conformable to the words of the Lord which He addressed to Moses on that very day in the same place, verse 14: Behold the days of thy death are nigh: call Josue; and stand ye in the tabernacle of the testimony. If Moses were to die on the morrow, the Lord would not have said, The days of thy death are nigh, but, The day of thy death is nigh. Three or four days before his death Moses solemnly declared the Saint his successor before all the people. The remaining days of the same month he was occupied with the explanation and writing of the Second law. That order of time attributed to the things which preceded the lawgiver's death, although uncertain, appears to me nevertheless very likely: nor do I see what can be effectively opposed to it.

§ X. He is roused by the Lord to invade the Canaanites; he sends explorers into Jericho: the preparation for the crossing of the Jordan; the ready will of those whom he had admonished of their duty: the order of time in which these and other things happened.

[ ] Joshua by the deeds of his princedom a type of Christ: What the Saint did up to the thirty-first day after the death of Moses we have gathered from various places of several sacred Books. We now come to the book which bears the name of holy Joshua and describes those Acts which not only represent all the virtues that make a prince and a leader in war great, but also shadow forth the chief actions of Jesus Christ. Hence Origen, in homily 1 on the book of Jesus Nave, says that this book does not so much indicate to us the deeds of the son of Nave as depict the mysteries of the Lord Jesus. St. Jerome in his letter to Paulinus gives this synopsis of it: Jesus Nave bears the type of the Lord not only in his deeds but also in his name: he crosses the Jordan, overthrows the kingdoms of the enemy, divides the land to the victorious people, and through the several cities, hamlets, mountains, rivers, torrents, and boundaries describes the spiritual kingdoms of the Church and of the heavenly Jerusalem. The twenty-four Homilies of Origen, and likewise the Questions of Theodoret on Jesus the Son of Nave, adapt almost every deed of our Prince to Christ. In these the reader will find many things which make greatly for the Saint's commendation. Salianus, at the year of the world 2600, from num. 26, beautifully shows too how perfect a type of the Saviour of the world the Saviour of the Hebrews was.

[87] the Lord bids him cross the Jordan, and to the hope of victory After the people had mourned Moses, God at once bade his Successor invade Canaan; and although he had been breathed upon with the Spirit of wisdom and well animated by the words of the Lord addressed to him from the pillar of cloud, yet by new promises of His divine help He added new courage to him and raised him to a surer hope of victory: And it came to pass, says the sacred text in chapter 1, from verse 1, after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and said to him: Moses my servant is dead: arise, and pass over this Jordan, thou and all the people with thee, into the land which I will give to the children of Israel. I will deliver to you every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, as I have said to Moses (Deuteronomy chapter XI, verse 24). From the desert and from Libanus unto the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hethites unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your border. No man shall be able to resist you all the days of thy life: as I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Take courage, and be strong: for thou shalt divide by lot to this people the land for which I swore to their fathers that I would deliver it to them.

[88] But since the hope of divine protection and help rests upon the keeping of the divine laws, He thus exhorts the Leader of the people to this also, from verse 7: and to the keeping of the laws he rouses him. Take courage therefore, and be very strong, that thou mayest observe and do all the law which Moses my servant hath commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest understand all things which thou dost. Let not the volume of this law depart from thy mouth: but thou shalt meditate on it day and night, that thou mayest observe and do all things that are written in it: then shalt thou direct thy way and understand it. Behold I command thee, take courage and be strong. Fear not and be not dismayed: because the Lord thy God is with thee in all things whatsoever thou shalt go to. This exhortation was made, as will presently be seen, on the first or second day of the month Nisan, in the current year of the world 2584, when the holy Prince had entered upon the 94th year of his age.

[89] To the words of the Lord in verse 10 it is at once subjoined that Joshua commanded the princes of the people, What was then done, Scripture does not report going through the camp, to bid all the army prepare victuals for themselves, since after the third day he was to cross the Jordan. But how could this be true? For in chapter 2, verse 1, Joshua sent explorers to Jericho, who, besides the time of going and returning, lay hid three days in the mountains, ibid., verse 22. After their return to their Leader, three other days elapsed before the river was crossed, as is plain from chapter 3, verse 1. More than three days therefore intervened between the command about preparing food and the crossing. How then is it said after the third day? St. Augustine here, question 2, thinks that that three days' space was foretold by the Saint not from revelation and divine certitude but from human arrangement: for he hoped that the crossing could be made after three days, if the explorers returned quickly; but that, they being delayed and not returning at the hoped-for time, he changed his counsels. But Torniellus, at the year of the world 2584, num. 8, Bonfrerius, and many others prefer to assert that sacred Scripture here did not keep the order of time, rather than to admit the holy Doctor's opinion, from which it is manifestly deduced that Joshua, led by human counsel, erred, was deceived in his hope, and misled others — he who was both a prophet, and whom the Lord a little before (chapter 1, verse 9) had made certain of His divine help in all things which he should undertake.

[90] We subscribe to those authors, and say that the preparation of victuals was proclaimed only after the return of the explorers of Jericho, in the order of time: so that it must be placed after the whole second chapter; and that those three days of which mention is made in chapter 1, verse XI, are the same as those of which chapter 3, verse 1, speaks. And truly this opinion better answers to God's promise made in chapter 1, verses 5 and 9, and preserves entire the new Leader's authority and favor with his own people, which would have been much diminished if at the very beginning of his princedom they had seen him frustrated in his hope. But the sacred text willed to join the preparation for crossing the Jordan immediately to the Lord's words, that it might show the Saint's prompt obedience and execution of the divine precept given in chapter 1, verse 2: Arise, and pass over the Jordan, etc.

[91] We lay down therefore this order of events: at the beginning of the month, what this more probably is, is set forth. say for the moment on its first day, Joshua was roused by the Lord's discourse, and soon with a happy omen sent away two men to survey the enemy's region shortly to be invaded. These came on the same day to Jericho, and were kindly received in hospitality by Rahab. See num. 93. On the following day they went about the city, but, betrayed and sought by the king's attendants, they were secretly sent away from it by night. On the third, fourth, and fifth days of the month they lay hid in the mountains. On the sixth at length, as Salianus will have it, they returned to their own people. If you prefer to say with others that on the last day of their hiding, toward evening or by night, they returned to the camp, then the divine exhortation and the sending of the explorers must be fixed to the second day of the month Nisan. Of the day on which, after the survey of Jericho, the explorers returned, I would not dare to affirm anything: but concerning the three days after which Joshua had foretold in chapter 1, verse XI, that the people would cross the Jordan, I confidently assert that these must be begun from the seventh day of the month Nisan, since we read in chapter 4, verse 19, that the crossing of the river happened on the tenth of the same. Whence I further deduce that the preparation of victuals and the setting out of the army were proclaimed on the sixth day of the month in the evening, or on the seventh in the morning; and that after the explorers' return: for prudent commanders are wont to hear these before they determine anything about setting out. I would not have mixed myself in these chronological trifles, had not the examination of them been necessary for placing the Saint's acts in their own order.

[92] The oracle of the Lord being consulted, as is credible, Before I go on to the second chapter, which must be placed before verse 10 and following of the first chapter, I recall to mind the divine precept of which Numbers chapter 27, verse 21, speaks: If anything be to be done for him (Joshua, when he shall sit at the helm of the Hebrew commonwealth), Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord. At his word shall he go out and go in, and all the children of Israel with him, and the rest of the multitude. Hence not a few gather that the pious Prince did not set on foot the sending of the explorers of Jericho until after he had understood from the Pontiff, through whom he had consulted the Lord, that it was pleasing to God. Now let us return to the narrative of Scripture.

[93] he sends explorers into Jericho, Josue the son of Nun therefore sent (chapter 2, from verse 1) from Setim (the last encampment of the Israelites) two men to spy secretly: and said to them: Go, and view the land and the city of Jericho. They went and entered into the house of a woman that was a harlot, named Rahab, and lodged with her. And it was told the king of Jericho, and it was said: Behold there are men come in hither by night of the children of Israel to spy the land. Then it is narrated how Rahab hid them at nightfall on the roof of the house and eluded the king's officers, persuading them to pursue the Israelites as having just gone out of the city. They were not yet asleep (verse 8) who lay hid, and behold the woman went up to them, and, after she had informed the explorers of the city's fear and the common consternation of minds, she exacted an oath from them for her own and her people's safety: which when they had given the woman, and had given her a scarlet cord to be hung at the window of the house for a sign, they were secretly let down over the city walls, which adjoined her house. To establish the reckoning of time given at num. 91, I excerpt these few things from Bonfrerius, expounding the first words of verse 1: On one day the spies came to Jericho, on another they departed. Which I prove: because when they had come, they lodged with Rahab the harlot, or, as the Hebrew word sounds, slept: therefore that night they remained there, especially since in verse 8 they are said not yet to have fallen asleep when Rahab went up to them to let them go; for how, if the speech be of the same night, can they be said to have slept there, and afterwards not yet to have fallen asleep, when their flight and hiding began to be dealt with? See also what he has below on that phrase, And they lodged with her.

[94] from whom when he had heard of the inhabitants' trembling and other things, The explorers, having escaped this danger, follow the counsel which Rahab had suggested and flee to the mountains: And they abode there three days, till they returned that had pursued them: for having sought them through all the way, they found them not. And when they were gone back into the city, the spies returned and came down from the mountain: and, passing over the Jordan, they came to Josue the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them, and said: The Lord hath delivered all this land into our hands, and all the inhabitants thereof are overthrown with fear, verse 22 and following. Then Jesus, adds Josephus, book 5 of the Antiquities, chapter 1, makes known to Eleazar the pontiff and to the senate what the spies had sworn to Rahab; and by their authority the oath was held ratified.

[95] The explorers having returned, according to the order of events already established, the preparation for the crossing of the Jordan was proclaimed, [he bids it be proclaimed to his people that they make ready for the crossing of the Jordan:] as is had in chapter 1, from verse 10: And Josue commanded the princes of the people, saying: Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, and say: Prepare you victuals: for after the third day you shall pass over the Jordan, and shall go in to possess the land which the Lord your God will give you. By victuals we here understand, with most men, any food distinct from manna: for although this did not yet cease to rain down daily from heaven, yet the Israelites could lawfully eat other foods. Besides the poorer sort, who lacked other food, our Saint, and after his example the more religious among the Hebrews, lived, as it is right to believe, on manna alone. Hence gather that our Prince did not strictly or absolutely command, but rather only admonished or permitted, that any who wished should prepare other foods, lest afterwards they might complain that, not being forewarned, they had been cheated of the use of flesh and of other foods for which, loathing the manna, they gaped. That at this time foods distinct from manna were not forbidden is plain from the very words of God to Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 2, verses 4 and 6: And command thou the people, saying: You shall pass by the borders of your brethren the children of Esau … You shall buy meats of them for money, and shall eat. In the same place, verses 27 and 28, the messengers sent by Moses say to king Sehon, asking of him a passage: We will pass through thy land: we will go along the public way… Sell us food for a price, that we may eat.

[96] All the tribes being admonished about preparing provisions, he admonishes the Rubenites, the Gadites, he by name makes the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasse mindful of their duty and of the faith given to Moses, Numbers chapter 32, from verse 25: Remember, he says here, from verse 13, the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying: The Lord your God hath given you rest and all this land. Your wives and children and cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan: but pass you over armed before your brethren, all of you that are strong of hand, and fight for them, until the Lord give rest to your brethren as he hath given to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God will give them: and so you shall return into the land of your possession, and you shall dwell in it, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun.

[97] And (those two tribes with the half) answered Josue and said: All that thou hast commanded us we will do: and whithersoever thou shalt send us, we will go. and the half tribe of Manasse: their ready will, and that of the rest; As we obeyed Moses in all things, so will we obey thee also. By these words they wish not so much to boast of past obedience as to promise future obedience, and an acknowledgment of equal authority in both Commanders. Then they pray well for their most beloved Leader, and of their own accord demand the penalty of death for the disobedient: Only, they say, may the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. He that shall gainsay thy mouth, and not obey all thy words that thou shalt command him, let him die. Only take thou courage, and do manfully. The Rubenites and their companions answered their words with deeds, and were obedient in all things to the holy Prince as long as he lived. Nor did the rest of the multitude obey his commands less readily, as Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse 9, testifies: And the children of Israel obeyed him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. Under the lawgiver's rule they were contumacious and prompt to rebellion: under our Leader they were docile and ready for every obedience. In the book of Joshua rebuke for disobedience rarely occurs; whereas on the contrary the books of Moses are full of complaints about the people's stubbornness. Here one may marvel at the Saint's singular prudence, industry, moderation, bravery and no less sweetness in handling men's minds, by which he brought a stiff-necked people to render him the obedience due.

[98] how many of them, and why not more, he called out to war: Joshua could have compelled, if it had so seemed good to him and necessity had demanded it, all the men of the tribes of Ruben, Gad, and the half of Manasse to cross the Jordan and to go before the other tribes as they marched against the enemy: for all had promised that they would do this; and on that condition the lawgiver had granted them to enter upon the possession of the lands lying on this side the Jordan: yet the Saint did not do this, but out of about a hundred and ten thousand warriors (for so many had lately been counted in the said tribes by Moses and Eleazar, Numbers chapter 26) he chose not fifty, as Josephus wrongly has, book 5 of the Antiquities, chapter 1, but only forty thousand, as is plain from chapter 4, verse 13. Nor in that matter did Joshua sin, or depart from what Moses had prescribed him in Numbers chapter 32, verse 28 and following: for he well knew that it was his mind that liberty should be left him of calling out from them as many as he judged necessary. It was enough for a prudent Leader in war to make the said tribes mindful of the faith they had given, and to have all the men of them fit to bear arms ready at hand, so that at whatever time he wished to summon more they would at once obey.

[99] he pitches camp at the Jordan. According to what has been said before, the latter part of the first chapter must be connected with the third chapter, which in verses 1 and 2 has thus in the Vulgate: And Josue rising before daylight removed the camp: and departing from Setim, they came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and abode there three days. And after these were passed, the heralds went through the midst of the camp, etc. That three days' space of which chapter 1, verse XI, speaks — Prepare you victuals: for after the third day you shall pass over the Jordan — is the same as that of which he here speaks: for if, as we warned above, the Israelites tarried at the Jordan three other days, the holy Prince would have said falsely that after the third day they would cross the river. Therefore, if the words of the Vulgate be taken as they sound, the preparation of provisions was proclaimed in Setim toward evening on the sixth day, or on the seventh in the morning, when they had already come to the Jordan. See Bonfrerius on chapter 1, verse XI. For And they abode there three days. And after these were passed, the heralds went, etc., the Septuagint, Pagninus, Vatablus, and others render from the Hebrew: And they lodged there before they passed over. And it was at the end of three days, the officers passed, etc. On these words rests the opinion of the praised Salianus and of others, which asserts that the preparation of foods was promulgated by Joshua's command in Setim, and that the camp remained there on the seventh and eighth days; so that the first verse of the third chapter narrates only what was done on the ninth day of the month Nisan, namely that before daylight, or at the earliest morning of the ninth day, the Hebrews moved their camp to the Jordan and passed the following night there, being about to cross the river on the tenth day. Both these opinions are probable; the reader may choose either. In this both agree, that they hold the third day from the proclaimed preparation of food to be the same as the third day of their tarrying at the Jordan, and so do not distinguish the three days spoken of here from those of chapter 1, verse XI.

§ XI. The prodigious crossing through the dry bed of the Jordan; the monuments erected in memory of so great a miracle, which the unbelieving narrative of Josephus unduly makes light of.

Joshua instructs the priests who bear the ark, and the people The three days from the promulgated preparation of provisions being passed, that is, on the ninth day of the month toward evening, at the Saint's command the heralds went (chapter 3, from verse 2) through the midst of the camp, and began to proclaim: When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the race of Levi carrying it, rise you up also, and follow them as they go before: and let there be between you and the ark the space of two thousand cubits: that you may see afar off and know by what way you shall go: for you have not gone this way before: and take heed you come not near the ark. God had already revealed the future miracle to His prophet, as is plain from verse 5. Now by His command or prompting he warns the people through heralds about the interval to be left between themselves and the ark going before, both that all may understand how great reverence is owed to sacred things and persons, and chiefly that they may conveniently and at leisure behold from afar with wonder the prodigious way to be opened on the morrow through the midst of the waves of the Jordan at the presence of the ark. Then the pious Prince commands the people to prepare themselves religiously for that wonderful crossing: Be ye sanctified, he says in verse 5; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders. Not only outward sanctity of body, that is, the washing of garments and abstinence from wives, Exodus chapter 19, verses 10 and 15, but, as one may believe, inward sanctity of soul also is here commanded by Joshua.

[10] These things being accomplished on the ninth day, the tenth followed, to which we think, with Lyranus against Salianus, about the things in the crossing of the Jordan, that the Saint's speech to the priests must be deferred, of which he says thus in verse 6: And he said to the priests: Take up the ark of the covenant, and go before the people. And they fulfilled the commands, and took it up and walked before them. These things Joshua commanded the priests not as prince but as prophet, reporting the will of God. There follows, verse 7: And the Lord said to Josue: This day will I begin to exalt thee before all Israel, and to make thy princedom illustrious by wonderful works, that all may look up to thee and reverence thee as a prophet, as a prince appointed by me, and as it were a second Moses. This the following words signify not obscurely: That they may know that as I was with Moses, so I am with thee also. The Lord continues, verse 8: And do thou command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant, and say to them: When you shall have entered into part of the water of the Jordan, stand in it. God wills, namely, that the priests with the ark should halt on the nearer bank, where they touch the water with their feet, until the waters afford a passage on this side and on that — those above, which were on the right, standing still and swelling; but those below, which were on the left, running down southward and failing: then that the priests should go forward with the ark as far as the middle of the Jordan, and there stay, as it were forbidding by the ark's presence the running down of the river, and affording the people a safe and dry passage. Although the last of these is not here expressed in verse 8, yet without doubt the Lord commanded the Saint to announce that also to the priests, and to the people those things which are reported from verse 10 to verse 14, as is plain from verse 9. Nay, each and every thing which the Scriptures record to have been observed in the wonderful crossing of the Jordan, God to Joshua, and he to the priests

and to the people explained. Nothing occurs in this sacred history which it is likely proceeded from human counsel.

[102] things to be observed, the whole plan of which he had been divinely taught: The Saint therefore, fully instructed about the whole plan of the crossing and about the outcome of the future miracle, at once reported to the priests what in verse 8 God had prescribed them to observe. And then Joshua said to the children of Israel, verse 9: Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God. And again, when namely they had come nearer: By this, he says from verse 10, you shall know that the Lord the living God is in the midst of you, and that he shall destroy before your sight the Chanaanite and the Hethite, the Hevite and the Pherezite, the Gergesite also and the Jebusite and the Amorrhite. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan. Prepare ye twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe. And when the priests that carry the ark of the Lord the God of the whole earth shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are beneath shall run down and go off: but those that come from above shall stand together in one heap. When the Saint had made an end of speaking, twelve men were soon chosen from each of the tribes. Cajetan, Salianus, and Magalianus judge that these were different from those who afterwards, in chapter 4, verse 2, were chosen as bearers of the twelve stones to be set up in Gilgal in perpetual memory of the prodigious crossing of the Jordan. And the end of the choosing of those spoken of here they think to have been that, for honor's sake, they should stand by the ark of God and the priests in the place of the twelve tribes, and should note more closely the manner of the miracle and bear testimony of it.

[103] the people cross through the dried bed Those twelve men being chosen: The people went out (from verse 14) of their tents to pass over the Jordan: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant went on before them. And as soon as they came into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in part of the water (now the Jordan had filled the banks of its channel in the time of harvest), the waters that came down from the sea of Galilee and from Mount Libanus, from which the Jordan draws its origin, stood in one place, and, swelling after the manner of a mountain stretched along the river's breadth, appeared afar off from the city that is called Adom, unto the place of Sarthan. First came the swelling, which appeared from afar, then the going back, which David celebrates in psalm 113, verse 3, Jordan was turned back, the waters being repelled and driven back by that swelling as by a mountain set against them: But those that were beneath ran down into the sea of the Wilderness (which is now called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed. Which prodigy becomes the more illustrious in proportion as the abundance of waters was greater at that time, such as is wont to occur in the Jordan at harvest time, as we read in the first book of Paralipomenon chapter 12, verse 15, and Ecclesiasticus chapter 24, verse 36. Further, at the touch of the priestly feet, an angel of the Lord removing the waters and drying the ground, the priests with the ark went forward to the middle of the river and there halted, as it were forbidding by the ark's presence the running down of the river, until the whole people had crossed with greater confidence; for this the following verse 17 signifies: And the people marched over against Jericho, and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood girded upon the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over through the channel that was dried up.

[104] When the people had come to the opposite bank, the priests, from which 12 stones were carried up in memory of the prodigy into Gilgal, and as is gathered from the context of the sacred narrative, were still standing in the middle of the Jordan, awaiting the command of the holy Prophet, who by divine authority directed the whole matter, that they might follow after. In the meantime the Lord said to Josue (chapter 4, from verse 1): Choose twelve men, one of every tribe: and command them to take out of the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night (and they were to pitch them in Gilgal, as will presently be said). And Josue called twelve men whom he had chosen out of the children of Israel, one out of every tribe, and he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel, that it may be a sign among you: and as it were a trophy of the Jordan overcome by you: and when your children shall ask you tomorrow, saying: What mean these stones? You shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan failed before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the same: therefore were these stones set for a monument of the children of Israel for ever. Besides this, two other causes of the erected monument are brought forward below at verse 25. The children of Israel therefore did as Josue commanded them, carrying out of the channel of the Jordan — into which they had returned from the Jericho bank of the river — twelve stones, as the Lord had commanded him, according to the number of the children of Israel, as far as the place called Gilgal, in which they pitched camp; and there they set them, after the Jordan had already been restored to its accustomed course.

[105] To leave to posterity a perpetual memory of so great a miracle, [other 12 were carried into it, which are said still to have existed in Christ's time and after,] Other twelve stones also, as is narrated in verse 9, brought from the farther bank, Josue put in the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood that carried the ark of the covenant. See a Lapide here. Scripture adds: And they are there unto this present day, to denote, says Torniellus at the year 2584, num. 10, another miracle wrought by God, that neither afterwards could that vast heap of waters hanging in the air, when it fell back into its former channel, nor the force of other inundations, move them away. Albertus Magnus, Anselm, Remigius on chapter 3 of Matthew, Rupert, Abulensis, and Lyranus here write that St. John the Baptist, baptizing in Bethabara, where the Hebrews had crossed the Jordan, pointed to these twelve stones when he said, Matthew chapter 3, verse 9: God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. In the Lives of the Fathers of John Moschus, chapter XI, I read this: The same abbot Agiodulus, as he was passing near the banks of the Jordan, was turning over in his mind and thought what had become of the stones cast in by Jesus Nave in place of those which he had taken thence. And while he was thinking these things, straightway the waters were divided on this side and on that. Then he saw those twelve stones, and, prostrate on the ground, gave thanks to God and withdrew. Nay, our Magalianus says here: And indeed today, when the Jordan, its channel being reduced, glides into the sea, these twelve stones are distinctly seen: but sometimes, when the melted snows flow back from Libanus, they are so hidden that yet they appear from close at hand. Whatever those stones may have been which St. John the Baptist pointed to, and which the abbot Agiodulus beheld in the channel of the Jordan, I certainly give no credit to Magalianus. I do not indeed deny that in the bed of the river, where the Israelites crossed it, larger stones perhaps lie; but whence could it be discerned that these are the same which Joshua once commanded to be set there?

[106] the priests meanwhile standing with the ark in the divided river: But how long the priests with the ark remained in the middle of the channel of the Jordan is explained in verse 10: But the priests that carried the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan till all things were accomplished which the Lord had commanded Josue to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him. Arias Montanus, a Lapide, and Tirinus gather from this verse that the leader Joshua stood within the channel of the Jordan beside the ark and the priests, and to the passing multitude inculcated the memory both of the present benefit and of all past ones, and together with this the keeping of the divine law, and repeated to the people from the Lord's precept those things which the lawgiver chiefly willed to be commended to it in Deuteronomy, such as are read in chapter 4, verse 1 and following. Others will have it that he made such an exhortation to the people gathered around him on the farther bank of the Jordan, whence they contemplated with wonder the prodigy still enduring. Others finally understand the said passage otherwise, and expound it thus: The ark, resting on the priests' shoulders, halted in the divided river until the execution of all those things which Joshua at the Lord's command had spoken to the people in chapter 3 and at the beginning of chapter 4 was fulfilled by the holy Prince in that manner, and with that obedience and alacrity, which Moses had commended to him. Whatever be the sense of the sacred words, this is certain: that the priests with the ark did not depart from the middle of the Jordan until the whole multitude had crossed, and twelve stones had been carried up out of its channel and as many carried into it.

[107] these having gone out of the channel, the waters return to it: This recapitulation closes verse 10: And the people made haste and passed over: for the crossing seems to have preceded the Lord's precept about taking up the twelve stones from the dried Jordan. The sacred narrative subjoins, verse XI: And when they had all passed over, the ark of the Lord passed over also. The ark's crossing is more fully related below from verse 15: And the Lord said to him (to Josue): Command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant to come up out of the Jordan. And he commanded them, saying: Come ye up out of the Jordan. And when they that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up, and began to tread on the dry ground of the farther bank, the waters returned into their channel and ran as they were wont before. And the people came up out of the Jordan the tenth day of the first month. I return to verse XI, whose latter words, as also verses 12 and 13, touch by anticipation on the things which happened after the Jordan began to resume its accustomed course: And the priests went before the people. The children of Ruben also and Gad and the half tribe of Manasse went armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them (Numbers chapter 32, verse 29): and forty thousand fighting men marched by troops and bands through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho. To these I join the words of verse 19: And they camped in Galgal, over against the east side of the city of Jericho.

[108] For a clearer understanding of these things I subjoin the exposition of the most learned founder of the Annals of the Old Testament, which he gives in his Epitome at num. 14: with the ark for leader, the Israelites go forward into Gilgal, It is not, however, to be thought that whichever of the people first reached the farther bank went forward straightway to the place destined for their station. But rather on that bank the first awaited the last, and then all together, the signal being given by the Commander, went forward in such a way that first the ark of the Lord, which had come out of the Jordan last, went two thousand cubits before the whole people (as the Lord had commanded before, chapter 3, verse 4), that it might be the guide of the journey, the champion of the people, the terror of the enemy. Then followed the Rubenites with their companions: thereafter the remaining tribes, until they came to the place which afterwards (chapter 5, verse 9) Gilgal

was called, a place fit for a standing camp, if there they had to remain longer, as happened: and there, a place being first assigned to the ark and the tabernacle, the same arrangement of the Levites and of the tribes round about seems to have been kept which had been prescribed by Moses (Numbers chapter 2) at the Lord's command in the desert.

[109] The twelve stones also, as is narrated in chapter 4, from verse 20, where in memory of the miracle are erected the 12 stones taken from the channel; which as many men chosen for it had taken from the channel of the Jordan, Josue set in Galgal, and said to the children of Israel: When your children shall ask their fathers tomorrow and shall say to them: What mean these stones? You shall teach them and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel, the Lord your God drying up the waters thereof in your sight, until you passed over: as he had done before in the Red Sea, which he dried up till we passed through: that all the people of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, that you also may fear the Lord your God at all times. See what we said above at number 104.

[110] That these stones remained in Gilgal down to his own times, St. Jerome asserts in his letter to the virgin Eustochium, [that they were seen by St. Paula St. Jerome testifies; others record that they were laid up in a temple,] which he entitled the Epitaph of her mother Paula, and he testifies that they were seen there by Paula herself. About three hundred years later, namely toward the end of the seventh century, a certain Arculf also beheld them, as the holy abbot Adamnan relates from his report in book 2 On the Holy Places, chapter 12; whose words it pleases me here to transcribe, as they are in the edition of our Gretser: The aforesaid Arculf saw a great church founded in Galgal, built in that place in which the children of Israel, having crossed the Jordan, pitched camp and had their first encampment in the land of Chanaan. In which church, namely, the same Arculf considered those twelve stones of which the Lord spoke to Josue after the crossing of the Jordan, saying: "I choose twelve men" so printed etc. These, I say, Arculf had seen; of which he beheld six on the right side of the church, lying on the pavement, and other six of the same number on the north side, all unpolished and mean; each of which, as Arculf himself reports, two strong young men of this time could scarcely lift from the ground. Of which one, by what chance it befell is unknown, being broken into two parts, was again fastened with iron and joined by the hand of a craftsman. Galgal therefore, where the above-mentioned church is founded, is on the eastern side of ancient Jericho on this side the Jordan, in the lot of the tribe of Juda, at the fifth milestone from Jericho, where also the tabernacle was fixed for a long time. In which place, as is handed down, the above-said church was built, in which those twelve above-mentioned stones are kept, and it is honored by the mortals of that region with wondrous worship and honor. So he. Who that Arculf was of whom he here speaks is unknown. From Adamnan's Preface to his books On the Situation of the Holy Places it is only known that he was a bishop, a Gaul by nation. Very often in the said Work he calls him Saint, but I have not been able to find his name in the sacred Calendars.

[111] and that they were afterwards deposited there when it was built. That some temple existed in Gilgal in which those twelve stones were kept, the Hodœporicon of St. Willibald also testifies, about the middle, which is extant in volume 2 of the Ancient Lessons of Henricus Canisius published by Basnage. But its author, a nun, a kinswoman of Willibald, differs from St. Adamnan in this, that he writes that that church was great, but she that it was of wood and not large. If Arculf and St. Willibald, of whom we treated on the VII of July, really saw some temple built and those stones deposited in it, it must be said either that one or the other of those who committed the report of these things to writing slipped in memory about the size of the temple, or that after Arculf's pilgrimage that great one was destroyed, and before the coming of Willibald, who flourished in the eighth century, a small wooden one was erected there. The Itinerary of Antoninus of Piacenza, which our predecessors prefixed to volume 2 of May, and which at the end of the Annotations they think was written in the tenth or eleventh century, also makes mention at num. 13 of a temple built in Gilgal and of the said stones placed in it.

[112] The Canaanites lifeless with terror at the report of so great a prodigy, Further, the crossing through the dry channel of the river, and the erection of the twelve stones as a perpetual monument of this miracle for posterity, happened not on different days — as Bonfrerius and a Lapide excellently prove against Torniellus at verse 19 — but on the same day, namely the tenth of the month Nisan: In that day, says the sacred text at verse 14, the Lord magnified Josue before all Israel, that they should fear him as they had feared Moses while he lived. But the Canaanites, when they learned of that prodigy, were as lifeless as if they already had the enemy's sword raging in their own bowels. This is thus narrated in chapter 5, verse 1: Now after that all the kings of the Amorrhites, who dwelt beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of Chanaan, who possessed the places near the great sea, had heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the children of Israel till they passed over, their heart failed them, and there remained no spirit in them, fearing the coming in of the children of Israel.

[113] which the unbelieving narrative of Josephus so far Before we go further, it pleases me to hear Josephus, who, perhaps fearing lest the wondrous works of God should seem little probable to the Greeks, studied with greater care to gain credence than to narrate the truth. For thus he says in book 5, chapter 1: But while the Commander was anxious about the crossing — for the river flowed swollen with waters, and since it had no bridge (nor did the enemy seem likely to allow one to be built, nor were any ships at hand) — God promised that He would procure them a passage, its streams being diminished. And so Jesus, after he had waited two days, led all his forces across to the farther bank in this manner. The priests with the ark went before the column; after them went the Levites carrying the tabernacle and the vessels destined for sacrifices; then followed the whole column distinguished into its tribes, the women and children being received into the middle, that they might be the safer from the force of the river. But when to the first priests it seemed fordable, since both the water had shrunk and the gravel was no longer rolled by the force of the waves, but a firm bottom received their steps, all now fearlessly crossed the ford, seeing it rendered such as God had promised, and the priests stood in the middle of the channel until the multitude passed over and stood in safety: and when this was done, they too went out of the river and left it its free accustomed course; which, at once swollen, returned to the former mass of its waters. And the army, having advanced fifty stadia, pitched camp at the tenth stadium from Jericho. Further Jesus, an altar being built of the stones which the several princes of the tribes had taken from the channel at the Prophet's command, that it might be a monument of the river prodigiously restrained, offered a sacrifice upon it to God.

[114] Thus Josephus, in which he added various things less likely or false, makes light of, that it seems to be none: fashioned in his own brain against or beside Scripture: such as that he makes our Prophet anxious about the crossing; that he says the enemy would not have allowed the Israelites to build a bridge; that he feigns that in the crossing of the Jordan the children and women were received into the middle, that they might be the safer from the force of the river; that he writes that an altar was built by the Saint out of the twelve stones carried from the Jordan into Gilgal. That these and some other things which he inserted into his history are not founded in the sacred Letters or are not agreeable to them, the Annals of Salianus prove at num. 53 and following. But those are the lighter matters. It pleased him utterly to unnerve and break the whole miracle, when he says that the priests and the people crossed the river by a ford, the waters namely being diminished and not too deep, by which nevertheless the women and children were endangered. These things manifestly conflict with Scripture, which once, twice, thrice, and more often expressly affirms that the Lord DRIED UP the waters of the Jordan, chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, chapter 5, verse 1; that the priests stood in the middle of the river upon DRY GROUND, and that all the people crossed through the PARCHED CHANNEL, chapter 3, verse 17, and chapter 4, verse 22.

[115] In the Preface to the books of the Antiquities Josephus had promised he is convicted of vanity and imposture. that he would add nothing to Scripture and omit nothing of the things narrated in it. And the last chapter of the same Work he thus concludes: We have handed down the Jewish Antiquities, following in all things the authority of the sacred Volumes. And I would dare to add that no other writer, Jew or foreigner, could have set forth this subject to Greek men with so great fidelity. For I, by the confession of my fellow tribesmen, am excellently versed in my ancestral disciplines. If in any other, certainly in this narrative of his about the crossing of the Jordan it becomes manifest that he deals with the Greeks with Greek faith, giving magnificent promises and falsely boasting that he has faithfully fulfilled what he gave; with Greek faith, I say: for if by the testimony of his countrymen, in which he glories, he was excellently learned in his ancestral disciplines, then it was not by ignorance but knowingly and willingly that he corrupted the sacred history and thrust it corrupted upon the gentiles. Nor is Josephus convicted of being a vain promiser in this place only, but in several others, even in chapter 1 alone of book 5, where he describes the deeds of St. Joshua. See below, num. 146, 222, 240, and 242.

§ XII. He is commanded a second time to circumcise the people; the Pasch being celebrated, there appears to him more probably St. Michael the archangel, from whom he learns the wonderful manner in which Jericho is to be stormed.

[ ] He restores the circumcision intermitted in the desert While the astonished Canaanites keep quiet and dare not attack the Israelites, who had erected in Gilgal the tabernacle of the Lord and their own tents, the time of the Pasch being at hand, the Lord commands the Governor of His people to circumcise it a second time, that is, to recall the custom of circumcising, intermitted in the desert for forty years. Let us give the text itself, chapter 5, verse 2 and following: At that time (namely the eleventh day of the first month) the Lord said to Josue: Make thee knives of stone, and circumcise the second time the children of Israel. He did what the Lord had commanded, and he circumcised the children of Israel in the hill of the foreskins. Now this is the cause of the second circumcision: All the people that came out of Egypt that were males, all the men fit for war, died in the desert during the very long windings of the way, who were all circumcised. But the people that were born in the desert, during forty years of the journey in the wide wilderness, were uncircumcised: till they were consumed that had not heard the voice of the Lord, and to whom he had sworn before that he would not show them the land flowing with milk and honey. The children of these succeeded in the place of their fathers, and were circumcised by Josue: because

they were uncircumcised as they were born, and no one had circumcised them in the way. And after they were all circumcised, they remained in the same place of the camp until they were healed.

[117] circumcision: Likely and agreeable to reason there seems to me the conjecture of Salianus in the Annals, num. 78: namely that Joshua with his own hand circumcised all the princes of the tribes, except Caleb, who had been circumcised in Egypt, and also his own household, after the example of Abraham, Genesis chapter 17, verse 23; but that to the rest of the multitude he administered that sacrament of the old Law through others. And although the sacred text mentions only those who, the Jordan being passed, were circumcised on the hill of the foreskins or in Gilgal, yet with the named founder of the Annals at num. 77 I judge that the men also of the tribes of Ruben, Gad, and the half of Manasse, who had not crossed the Jordan, among whom were numbered more than seventy thousand above the twentieth year, were circumcised at Joshua's command. Those who were engaged on hostile soil could rather be excused from circumcision than those who enjoyed quiet in their own seats. The circumcision being performed, the Lord said (verse 9) to Josue, as it were congratulating him and the whole people: This day have I taken away from you the reproach of Egypt. And the name of that place was called Galgal until this present day.

[118] The Pasch is celebrated; the manna fails: And the children of Israel abode in Galgal, and kept the Phase on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho: and they ate on the next day of the fruits of the land, unleavened bread and parched corn of the same year. And the manna ceased after they ate of the fruits of the land, neither did the children of Israel use that food any more, but they ate of the fruits of the present year of the land of Chanaan, verses 10 and following. Of the second circumcision, the celebration of the Pasch, and the failing of the manna, the studious reader may consult the explanations of the interpreters.

[119] And when Josue was (as is narrated in verses 13 and following) in the field of the city of Jericho, there appears to the Saint he lifted up his eyes and saw a man standing over against him, holding a drawn sword; and he went to him and said: Art thou one of ours, or of our adversaries? And he answered: No: but I am the prince of the host of the Lord, etc. Joshua namely had withdrawn some distance from the camp, either to inspect the city or to make his prayer. This is the common conjecture of the interpreters. And so, whether he was wholly at prayer, as Serarius, Magalianus, and others hold, or, as a Lapide, Masius, Arias Montanus, etc. judge, was turning over in his mind counsels about Jericho, the first city that met him, being subdued, and about the manner of its storming, a wonderful and opportune vision was set before him, by which he was taught the whole manner of taking the city. The cited Josephus, who in the Preface to the Antiquities had promised that he would pass over nothing which is reported in the divine Books, mentions not by a single word not only the second circumcision but even this most famous apparition made to the holy Leader.

[120] Most of the ancients seem to affirm that God, or the second Person of the most holy Trinity, appeared to the Saint. not the Son of God Himself, but more probably one of the angels; Yet most commonly today the learned, especially the theologians, teach that when some good spirit is read to have appeared in the Scriptures, by him was represented either God or an angel or a man, as the matter itself bore; but that the person representing and appearing under a bodily form was never God. Following this opinion, we assert that one of the angels showed himself to be seen by the Saint: and this the very answer of the one appearing to Joshua's question sufficiently indicates: I am, he says at verse 14, the prince of the host of the Lord; by which words he signifies that he is subject to the Lord and His minister. Nor is it an obstacle that here in verse 15, and chapter 6, verse 2, he is called Lord: for he who appeared to Moses in the bush, Exodus chapter 3, says of himself in verse 6: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, etc.: yet St. Stephen, Acts chapter 7, verse 30, expressly declares that he was an angel. He who promulgates the law to the people from Mount Sinai also calls himself the Lord God, and yet the same saint testifies in the same place, verse 38, that this very thing was done by an angel. To the ancient Fathers, of whom Serarius in book 2 on Joshua, chapter 5, question 40, cites sixteen, who say that God or Jesus Christ showed Himself to be seen by the holy Leader, I answer that they perhaps mean nothing else than that God or Christ appeared to the holy Prince as the person represented, while the one representing was an angel, either because he bore the place of God or of the Son of God, or also because he was in some manner a type of Jesus, who by the help of divine grace, which He merited for us by taking human flesh, brings us into the possession of the heavenly kingdom, just as by the help of this angel appearing under human likeness the Israelites, Jericho being destroyed, began the possession of the promised land. It follows from what has been said that, as often as God is recorded to have addressed His familiar Friend in the book of Joshua, He did it through an angel. Whether through the same one who here appeared to the Saint, is uncertain.

[121] perhaps the same who spoke to Moses from the burning bush; With our a Lapide on Exodus chapter 3, verse 2, and also Bonfrerius here, and others, we think it likely that the same angel who once spoke to Moses from the burning bush now appeared to his Successor; for both are read to have been enjoined to loose the shoes from their feet on account of the holiness of the place, and both visions were made to the same end, namely to animate the Leader of the Hebrew people and to bring in the Israelites into the possession of the promised land. Yet the scheme of the vision was different in each case, for by the lawgiver the bush was seen unconsumed amid the very flames, by which the angel signified that the Hebrews would remain unharmed in their affliction and hard Egyptian servitude, and that all would be led out of it safe. But here he shows himself under the likeness of a man armed with a drawn sword, because he showed himself the leader of the war to be begun against the Canaanites, and the helper in storming and destroying the people of Jericho.

[122] we believe that St. Michael the archangel appeared to both: But who among the angels was he who appeared to the holy Prince? Since he who appeared confesses in verse 14 that he is the prince of the host of the Lord, with Theodoret, question 4, and most of the more celebrated interpreters, we affirm it more probable that he was Michael the archangel. To him is assigned not only the princedom of the heavenly host — namely of the angels fighting against Lucifer rebellious to God and against his followers — in Apocalypse chapter 12, verse 7: but he is also believed to have been divinely appointed president and leader of the Church warring on earth, whether against demons or against men who are enemies of God. And of the old Church indeed this is confirmed by a shining testimony of Scripture, Daniel chapter 12, verse 1: Michael the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people, namely of Israel. To the angel Gabriel too the care of the Hebrew people was committed, as is plain from Daniel chapter 9, verse 21, and chapter 10: nevertheless he did not obtain the princedom of the angels guardian of Israel; under Michael he bore its care, from whom, contending with the angel of the Persians that the faithful Jews might be freed from the Babylonian captivity, he received help, as he himself confesses in chapter 10, verse 21, where he calls him the prince of the Israelites. But did then the Archangel Michael also appear to Moses in the bush? The affirmative opinion appears to me more probable, because as now, so also then the end of the embassy regarded the common good of the whole Hebrew people, of which, under God, St. Michael was the protector. See what was said in the preceding number.

[123] Joshua's reverence toward the heavenly envoy; his shoes being laid aside, Michael the Archangel therefore appearing to him, as soon as Joshua beheld him he went to him and thus accosts the unknown one, verse 13: Art thou one of ours, or of our adversaries? Here one may marvel at the undaunted spirit of the most brave Hero, with which he goes alone against one armed with a naked sword and marked, as is credible, with an august appearance; and addresses him with those words which decide either battle or friendship. For at first sight he thought him to be a man, as the simpler explanation, and the one more agreeable to the answer that follows, bears. The divine envoy answers, verse 14: No: I am neither a Hebrew nor a Canaanite: but I am the prince of the host of the Lord, and now I am come. At these words Joshua, full of awe, fell prostrate on the ground, and adoring said: What saith my Lord to his servant? To whom at once the prince of the angels said, Loose (verse 16) thy shoes from off thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy by the presence of God appearing through me. And Josue did as had been commanded him.

[124] from him he learns the manner When the religious Prince had laid aside his shoes, the archangel discloses the manner in which God wills Jericho to be stormed: Now Jericho at that time was close shut up and fenced, for fear of the children of Israel, and no one durst go out or come in, as is inserted parenthetically in chapter 6, verse 1: then from verse 2 the divine oracle is subjoined: And the Lord said through His envoy Michael to Josue: Behold I have given into thy hands Jericho and the king thereof and all the valiant men. Go round about the city, all ye fighting men, once a day: so shall ye do for six days. And on the seventh day let the priests take the seven trumpets whose use is in the jubilee, and let them go before the ark of the covenant: and you shall go about the city seven times, and the priests shall sound the trumpets. And when the voice of the trumpet shall give a longer and broken tune and shall sound in your ears, all the people shall shout together with a very great shout, and the walls of the city shall fall to the ground, and they shall enter in every one at the place against which they shall stand. This is the sum of the matter, and of the victory to be obtained within seven days. These things said, I judge the archangel disappeared: for no further mention is made of him. Yet he did not cease to be present with his help to the Commander and to the whole people, and to accomplish divine prodigies for their sake.

[125] Although the sacred history does not express in the archangel's speech to Joshua entire, in which Jericho was to be stormed. that the priests with the ark and the trumpets were to go round the city once on the remaining six days, as seven times on the seventh, and keeps silence about other things pertaining to the manner and order afterwards kept in the going about of the city; yet I do not doubt that the heavenly prince of the host of the Lord, warring in Canaan, instructed the Saint about all and each of these. And he prescribed so wonderful and unusual a manner of storming the city both that it might be clear that the city was stormed not by human art or industry but by the power of God alone, and that the faith of the Israelites might be exercised. To this the Apostle attributes, in Hebrews chapter XI, verse 30, that the walls of Jericho afterwards fell down: By faith, he says, the walls of Jericho fell down, by the going round them seven days. By faith, namely, with which Joshua, and after his example or exhortation all the people, believed that the city was to be taken by a shadowy siege otherwise of no profit.

§ XIII. The wondrous siege and storming of Jericho, the walls falling down at the sound of the trumpets and the shout of the people:

the city is destroyed, being made subject to the anathema: Rahab alone with her own is granted life; Joshua did not take her to wife, who lived celibate and died a virgin.

Joshua sets forth to his people what he had learned from the archangel: After Joshua had understood from the divine envoy the whole manner of taking the city, he returns to the camp full of hope, and delivered God's oracle to all the assembled multitude, of which he says thus in verse 6: Josue therefore the son of Nun called the priests and said to them: Take the ark of the covenant: and let seven other priests take the seven trumpets of the jubilee, and march before the ark of the Lord. And to the people also he said (verse 7): Go, and compass the city armed, marching before the ark of the Lord. Verses 8 and 9 begin to narrate the execution of what had been prescribed. Verse 10 resumes the Saint's interrupted speech: But Josue had commanded the people, before he began the going about, saying: You shall not shout, nor shall your voice be heard, nor any word go out of your mouth: until the day come wherein I shall say to you: Cry, and shout aloud. And not only these things, but also those which are brought forward in the archangel's speech from verse 3 about the manner of arranging the going about, and are not here expressed, Joshua set forth to the people. The sacred author was unwilling often to repeat the same things which are easily understood. That the overthrow of the walls of Jericho, which was to follow the shout, the slaughter of the inhabitants, and the rest which are related in verse 17 and following, were now also foretold to the people by our Prophet, Serarius thinks, book 2 on Joshua, chapter 6, question 18. But of these nothing certain can be determined. See below, num. 130 and 131 at the end.

[127] the wondrous siege of the city; Of the prompt execution of all things commanded, the narrative of Scripture has this from verse 8: And when Josue had ended his words, and the seven priests blew the seven trumpets before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and all the armed men went before, the rest of the common people followed the ark, and the sound of the trumpets was heard on all sides. What is subjoined in verse 10 is earlier in time. Verse XI carries on the order of the event: So the ark of the Lord went about the city once a day, and returning into the camp, abode there. On the second day the repeated going about is reported in almost the same repeated words, from verse 12: And Josue rising before day, the priests took the ark of the Lord, and seven of them the seven trumpets which are used in the jubilee: and they went before the ark of the Lord, walking and sounding the trumpets: and the armed men went before them, and the rest of the common people followed the ark and sounded with the trumpets, the men of Jericho being meanwhile transfixed with fear, stupor, and expectation of the outcome: And they went about the city on the second day once, and returned into the camp. So they did six days. But on the seventh day, rising up early, they went about the city, as it was ordered, seven times. Josephus asserts that on the first day of the Paschal solemnity, or the 15th of the month Nisan, the city began to be gone about by the Israelites; but it is more credible that that most famous and most holy day was granted to festal rest. And since the seventh day of the unleavened bread, except the first, was more solemn and holy than the rest, as is evident from Leviticus chapter 23, verse 8; hence Genebrard, Serarius, Bonfrerius, and Salianus at num. 95 and 96 think that it too was given to rest, so that only on the day after, that is the 22nd of the first month, when those who had lately been circumcised had now more fully recovered, the going about was begun, and ended on the 28th of the same. In a matter plainly uncertain these authors conjecture more likely things than Josephus.

[128] its walls fall down at the trumpets' The ruin of the walls of Jericho, and what immediately preceded it, the divine Oracles go on to relate thus in verse 16 and following: And when in the seventh going round the priests sounded with the trumpets, and gave a long and broken sound, the sign of the shout, as had been prescribed in verse 5, Josue said to all Israel: Shout: for the Lord hath delivered the city to you: and let this city be an anathema, and all things that are in it, to the Lord, that is, let all things be consecrated to God alone, and, on account of the inhabitants' idolatry and other crimes, let every living thing be slain as a victim to the Lord, and let inanimate things, as in a holocaust, be destroyed by fire. See the commentaries of the interpreters on this passage, and on Leviticus chapter 27, verses 21 and 29, and on Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 17. Yet from the destruction Joshua, the interpreter of the divine will, exempted Rahab, and from the destruction the metals, to be laid up in the treasury of the tabernacle: Only, he says in verse 17 and following, let Rahab the harlot live, with all that are with her in the house: for she hid the messengers whom we sent. But beware ye lest you touch aught of those things that are forbidden, and be guilty of transgression, and all the camp of Israel be under sin and be troubled. But whatsoever gold or silver there shall be, and vessels of brass and iron, let it be consecrated to the Lord, laid up in his treasures. That the Saint commanded these things by God's authority will be said at num. 134. Therefore, all the people shouting and the trumpets sounding in that unusual manner at which the Israelites had been bidden to raise a shout, after the voice and the sound had rung in the ears of the multitude, the walls at once fell down, God casting them down by the ministry of angels.

[129] What was done on the seventh day Josephus thus narrates: sound and the people's shout, And when for six continuous days they had done the same, on the seventh Jesus, his forces being drawn together into one and the rest of the people called together, brings them the glad news that on that day the city would be taken without labor, God delivering it into their power and, the walls falling of their own accord, opening an easy entrance: and he commanded all to be killed, as many as came into the soldiers' hands, and that they should be called away from the slaughter neither by weariness nor by pity nor by desire of booty, nor allow the enemy any escape; but should extinguish whatever had the breath of life, reserving nothing to fall to booty or to private profit. But whatever gold and silver, and also brass and iron, should be found, he willed to be brought together into one place, that as first-fruits for the business happily accomplished the spoils of the first captured city might be dedicated to God: but that Rahab alone with her kindred should be saved, on account of the oath received from the spies. Having spoken these things, he moves his drawn-up army to the walls. Then they go round the city again, the priests going before with the ark and by the blast of horns urging the soldiery to undertake the work. Josephus is deceived here if he means that absolutely all the people and the priests with the trumpets followed the ark, and that its bearers blew the trumpets, as is plain from verse 6 and following. And when, the city having been gone round seven times, they had halted a little, and at the signal given by the trumpets had raised a shout, the walls fell down, no engines being brought up nor any other force applied by the army.

[130] Josephus' report differs from the sacred one also in this, which the proclaiming of the anathema had preceded: that the latter places the Commander's admonition about destroying the city, preserving the household of Rahab, and keeping hands from the spoils, after the Saint's command about raising the shout; whereas the Jewish historian writes that he admonished the people of these things on the seventh day, before he went round the city the first time. Whatever be the case about the day on which the anathema of Jericho was first proclaimed, I would not think that Salianus at num. 103, Torniellus at num. 13, Serarius, book 2 on Joshua, chapter 6, question 18, Bonfrerius and Calmet here, and others go astray, who admit here some disturbance in the order of the sacred narrative, and judge that the admonitions read in verse 17 and following were given to the people before. This reason moves me to think with them: If the Saint had begun his speech with the command about raising the shout, and this had at once followed and, together with the blasts of the trumpets, still lasted after he had finished his discourse, how could he have been heard and understood by the people? Therefore I believe that he spoke to his people about the anathema of the city earlier, either before the first going round of the seventh day, as Josephus writes, or, as others think, before the city was gone about on the first day. But that a matter of such moment might not fall from their memory, when, the walls being cast down, the Hebrews were now rushing forward to invade the city, the praised Salianus judges that Joshua again inculcated the same precepts upon them, either himself or through others to whom he had enjoined it. See the following number at the end.

[131] the order and manner of the whole event: I subjoin the sequence of the whole event drawn from the sacred Letters, which may give the reader a more distinct knowledge of so great a prodigy, by which the Saint's princedom was so greatly made illustrious. From the camp, which was in Gilgal, the Israelites approached the city over the space of seven days, and went about it, and soon returned daily to their camp. And this was the order of their advance. In front marched the column of armed men, then seven priests blowing the trumpets daily, then the bearers of the ark, and these the rest of the multitude followed. And this manner was used. On the first six days they went round the city once only, but on the seventh day seven times. Besides, on those days deep silence was kept by all, so that nothing but the noise of the trumpets was heard. But on the seventh day, after the seventh going round, or toward the end of it, the priests who blew the trumpets were bidden by the holy Governor of the whole business to give the noise which was the sign of the shout; to which he, and at his command perhaps other lower leaders, whose troops were farther from the Saint, presently added this word, Shout. At the hearing of these, all cried out together with the loudest voices. There followed at once the ruin of the walls, to which as the Hebrews were going forward, about to invade Jericho, the whole reason of the anathema to which the city was subjected was likely again set before them. Although, as was said above, this had without doubt been done before, nevertheless reason demands that the prudent Commander so ordered the matter that at the very entrance into the city the Israelites should be made mindful of those precepts whose violation was to be punished, as will afterwards be seen, with so grave a penalty.

[132] [the city is invaded; the whole of it with all things perishes by fire; every living thing] Further, the walls being cast down, every man went up by the place that was over against him: and they took the city, and killed all that were in it, man and woman, young and old. The oxen also and the sheep and the asses they slew with the edge of the sword. So verses 20 and 21. There is added in verse 24: But they burnt the city and all things that were therein; except the gold and silver, and vessels of brass and iron, which they consecrated into the treasury of the Lord. These things Josephus explains thus: But the Hebrews, breaking in through the ruin into Jericho with no trouble, slay all indiscriminately, dismayed by the unlooked-for fall of the walls and useless for battle from sudden panic: and everywhere the streets were strewn with corpses, the inhabitants finding neither defense nor escape, so that not even women and children were spared: and the city, filled with the slaughtered and at last set on fire, made a funeral pyre for the dead

, the fire raging equally over the fields also. This last he added of his own. A little below he goes on thus: But from the plundering a vast quantity of silver and gold and also of brass was gathered into one heap, no one failing to observe the edict or seeking booty and gain for himself from it, except Achan. These spoils Jesus handed over to the priests to be laid up in the treasuries.

[133] is slain; the king of Jericho is hanged on a gibbet: What was done with the king of Jericho, Scripture here keeps silent; but elsewhere it makes it manifest. In chapter 8, verse 2, the Lord commands the Saint among other things: And thou shalt do to the city of Hai and to its king as thou hast done to Jericho and to its king. The execution of this is thus narrated in the same place, verse 29: And its king also (Josue) hanged on a gibbet until the evening and the going down of the sun. Therefore the king of Jericho was hanged on a gallows, no otherwise than the other kings afterwards conquered in battle and captured. In chapter 24, verse XI, the holy Prince speaks thus from the Lord's mouth about the capture of Jericho: And you passed over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of that city fought against you, the Amorrhite and the Pherezite and the Chanaanite and the Hethite and the Gergezite and the Hevite and the Jebusite: and I delivered them into your hands. By these words Salianus in his Epitome, num. 25, thinks it is signified that all those nations sent garrison soldiers to defend the city, and that they were slaughtered with its citizens. But I believe that the defenders of Jericho must be distinguished from the seven other enumerated peoples of Canaan: so that before the word Amorrhite the conjunction and must be understood, not one that distributes what preceded, the men of that city, but one that joins distinct enemies overcome in distinct wars. See Bonfrerius favoring us here.

[134] That Joshua commanded the inhabitants of the city with the beasts, [God had commanded all these things through the archangel, the metals alone from the destruction,] and the buildings with all their furniture, to be destroyed by sword and flame, except the metals which were offered to the Lord in the tabernacle, he did not by his own authority, but by the divine precept which he had received through His heavenly envoy. This is gathered from the following chapter, verses 1, XI, and 15, and chapter 22, verse 20, where Achan is called a transgressor of the covenant and of the divine command, because he had taken for private and profane uses to himself a scarlet cloak from the burning, and silver shekels and a golden rule, devoted to the tabernacle of God. It cannot be said that the Saint here obeyed the divine command of which Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 12 and following, speaks: for God there speaks of the anathema by which friendly cities, inhabited by Israelites who favored idolatry, were to be condemned. In chapter 20, from verse 16, the Lord indeed prescribes what the victorious Hebrews should do when they took hostile cities in Canaan; but there only the slaying of men, and not of cattle or the burning of the city, is prescribed. Therefore the divine precept which Achan transgressed was distinct from the two former, and was more probably given to our Saint by the ministry of the prince of the angels, when appearing to him he set forth that wonderful manner of storming the city. But that, beyond the law laid down in Deuteronomy chapter 20, Joshua, the executor of the divine will, commanded the slaughter of the beasts and the conflagration of the city, this chiefly was the cause: that God demanded for Himself Jericho, the first hostile city, as it were the first-fruits of Canaan: and first-fruits had to be paid whole. All Jericho therefore had to fall to God alone; and it so fell: the gold, silver, brass, and iron by oblation in the tabernacle; the remaining inanimate things with the whole city by burning; but all the living creatures by death, except Rahab and her kinsfolk, who by a kind of civil death were dedicated to God. See a Lapide and Bonfrerius here at verse 19 and following, who also assign other causes why Jericho was devoted to so dire an anathema, not much unlike that of which Deuteronomy chapter 13 speaks.

[135] Of the deliverance of Rahab and of all her kindred, thus verses 22 and 23: [and He willed Rahab with her own to be exempted from death: her Joshua did not take to wife] But Josue said to the two men who had been sent as spies, at the very entrance into the city, as is credible: Go into the harlot's house, and bring her out, and all things that are hers, as you assured her by oath. And the young men went in and brought out Rahab and her parents, her brethren also, and all her goods and her kindred, and made them to stay without the camp of Israel: and verse 25: But Josue saved Rahab the harlot and her father's household; and, after they had abjured heathenism and been converted to the faith and worship of the true God, they were admitted into the camp of the Hebrews as proselytes, and they dwelt in the midst of Israel until this present day: because she hid the messengers whom he had sent to spy out Jericho. Josephus adds that Rahab, snatched from danger, was at once brought to the Commander; that he thanked her for the spies she had saved and promised that he would reward her with deserved prizes; that then he endowed her with lands and afterwards always held her in honor. These things appear to me likely from this, that Salmon, a most illustrious man in the tribe of Juda, son of Nahasson, prince of the same tribe, as is plain from Numbers chapter 1, verse 7, took her to wife, of whom Booz was born, as Matthew testifies in Christ's genealogy, chapter 1, verse 5. Some Rabbis, in Genebrard's Chronicles and in Serarius, question 49 on chapter 6 and question 14 on chapter 24 of Joshua, assert that she was first married to the Commander of Israel himself. Their fiction affords us here an opportune occasion of treating of our Saint's celibacy and virginity, preserved to the end of his life.

[136] [Joshua: by a reason deduced from the silence of Scripture, and by the authority of the Fathers] Serarius thus refutes the Rabbis in the question last cited: If (Joshua) had ever had any children or a wife, how would Scripture have kept silence about it? Why, when it recounts Moses' marriage, his wife, sons, grandsons; when it recounts the marriages and offspring of Caleb, of Eleazar the pontiff, and of so many others and contemporaries, would it be so speechless and utterly mute about Joshua's marriage and offspring? It recounts his forebears in the first book of Paralipomenon chapter 7, from verse 23; why would it not touch his descendants with even one word? But doubtless he lacked them altogether, being without marriage, and passed his whole life wholly celibate, that in this too he might bear for us the most beautiful type and figure of the true Jesus, who never took a wife and by His counsel and exhortation called away innumerable men from a wife to be eunuchs, Matthew 19. Then he brings forward the authority of St. Jerome, book 1 against Jovinian, who, using the same argument as he, makes the Saint celibate and a virgin: But, says the holy Doctor, now it is time that we raise the standard of Jesus' chastity. Moses is written to have had a wife… Show me that Jesus Nave either had a wife or sons. If thou canst show it, I shall confess myself beaten. And below: Moses at his death is lamented by the people of Israel, but Jesus, as one about to live, is not lamented. For marriage is ended in death, while virginity begins after death to be crowned.

[137] it is proved that he led a celibate life and died a virgin. Besides St. Jerome, St. Ignatius the martyr also favors the chaste Prince's virginity, in his letter to the Philadelphians: Virgins, he says, have Christ alone before your eyes, and His Father in your souls, being enlightened by the Holy Spirit. I am mindful of your sanctity, as of Elias, as of Jesus Nave, as of Melchisedech .. who departed this life in chastity. On the seventh day within the Octave of All Saints, at Lesson V, the Church reads this from a sermon of St. Chrysostom on the Martyrs: From the beginning of the world innocent Abel is slain, Henoch pleasing to God is translated, just Noe is found, Abraham is proved faithful, Moses is known as meek, Jesus as chaste, David as gentle, Elias as acceptable, Daniel as holy, the three children are rendered victors. The venerable abbot Guibert, in his little work On Virginity, chapter 6, says: And Joshua, who, abiding in God's tabernacle, that is, in warfare, always clung undivided with a certain virginal reverence to the Mosaic discipline, and, bound to no marriage, remained celibate, is believed by me to bear the form of those who are strong in integrity of body and mind. These testimonies of the Fathers, and the deep silence in Scripture about the Saint's marriage and offspring — Scripture which is not wont to pass over in silence the marriage or offspring of the supreme head of the Israelites — these, I say, leave us no doubt that Joshua, against the custom of that age, lived celibate, nay, before Elias and all the other sons of Abraham, first raised the standard of holy virginity. I said, before the sons of Abraham, for the cited St. Ignatius praises Melchisedech also for chastity.

§ XIV. The Saint's prophetic imprecation; the storming of Hai unhappily attempted on account of the sacrilege of Achan; the holy Prince's grief and pious prayer to God, who bids the guilty man be sought out by lot; Achan being detected is punished.

[ ] Joshua curses him who shall rebuild Jericho: Jericho being destroyed, Josue made an imprecation, saying: Cursed be the man before the Lord that shall raise up and build the city of Jericho. In his firstborn may he lay the foundation thereof, and in the last of his children set up its gates, verses 25 and 26. Which Josephus thus explains: But the remains of the city which had survived the fire he pulled down with iron, cursing with dire curses whoever should undertake to restore it once laid waste: namely that, laying the first foundations, he should be bereaved of his firstborn son, and, the work being finished, should lose the youngest of his children. The Saint's imprecation was prophetic: for about five hundred and thirty-seven years later, in the time of Achab king of Israel, the disobedient Hiel actually incurred these curses, who in building Jericho lost his sons, as is in the third book of Kings chapter 16, verse 34: In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho: in Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundations, and in Segub his youngest son he set up its gates, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of Josue the son of Nun. These last words hint not obscurely that the holy Prophet uttered this imprecation from the divine command, announced to him a little before by that heavenly envoy of whom we have often made mention. Whence what was said at num. 134 is greatly confirmed. And the Lord willed this city to remain destroyed as an everlasting mound, no otherwise than the cities of the Israelites which seduced the faithful people to idolatry, Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 16, and willed those who restored it to be cursed, that in its ruins there might stand a perpetual monument of the divine prodigy in the overthrow of the walls, of His vengeance on impious citizens, and of His kindness toward His own people. The sacred Author ends the sixth chapter with this epiphonema as it were: The Lord therefore was with Josue, and his name was noised throughout all the land.

[139] Although the anxious

Prince had so earnestly admonished his people to beware that they should carry off nothing from the city subjected to the anathema for their own uses, yet Achan could not restrain his sacrilegious hands from the spoils consecrated to the Lord, [The anathema being violated by Achan, the storming of Hai is unhappily attempted:] for which crime His wrath lay upon all Israel, as is said in chapter 22, verse 20. Hence the first expedition against the city of Hai was unhappy for the Hebrews. The whole matter is fully narrated in chapter 7, from verse 1: But the children of Israel transgressed the commandment, and took to their own use of the anathema. For Achan the son of Charmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zare, of the tribe of Juda, took something of the anathema. (See num. 128 and 134.) And the Lord was angry against the children of Israel. And when Josue sent men from Jericho against Hai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of the town of Bethel, he said to them: Go up and view the country. And they fulfilled his command and viewed Hai. And returning they said to him: Let not all the people go up, but let two or three thousand men go and destroy the city: why should all the people be troubled in vain against enemies that are very few? There went up therefore three thousand fighting men. Who immediately turned their backs and were beaten by the men of the city of Hai; and there fell of them thirty-six men: and the adversaries pursued them from the gate as far as Sabarim, and they slew them as they fled down the descents. If the Saint, as verse 2 has it, sent the explorers from Jericho, and so before he had led the army back to the camp in Gilgal, it seems to follow that the Israelites received this defeat at the beginning of the second month, that is, a little after the devastation of Jericho, which more likely began on the 28th of the month Nisan, as we said at num. 127.

[140] the holy Prince's grief, and his prayer to the Lord, The slaughter and flight of his men being perceived, the heart of the people was struck with fear (verse 5 and following) and melted like water. But Josue rent his garments out of the public sense of the calamity and the grief which he himself, as the Leader of all, felt more keenly than all, and fell flat on the ground before the ark of the Lord until the evening, both he and, by the pious Prince's example or exhortation, all the ancients of Israel: and they put dust upon their heads. But the Prince's virtue and piety shows itself above all from his prayer: Alas, O Lord God, he says in verse 7, why wouldst thou bring this people over the river Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorrhite and to destroy us? Would God we had stayed beyond the Jordan, as we began! My Lord God, what shall I say, seeing Israel turning their backs to their enemies? The Chanaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear it, and being gathered together shall surround us and blot out our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do to thy great name?

[141] which against some we assert to have been conceived in pious words Lyranus seems to think that these words of the man praying, Would God we had stayed beyond the Jordan, as we began!, were uttered not without some fault, at least venial: This, he says, Josue said from the passion of grief, though ill: nor would he have said it if placed outside that passion, for which reason the Lord pardoned him. Abulensis, question 17, speaks thus: It must be said that Joshua's word was evil, but was tolerated: because he said it out of great bitterness of heart. But of a most holy Man it is ill maintained that he spoke ill or spoke evil, where his words can be understood to have been both good and said from a good mind. The holy Prince had faith in God's promises about delivering the land of Canaan to the Israelites; yet he knew very well that they were made under this condition, if they kept His laws and precepts. But when he had now learned of the defeat inflicted on his men by the garrison of Hai, he suspected what was the fact, namely that a grave crime had been committed against God, and that therefore He, being offended, now willed to exact penalties of the Israelites: and since he held in memory that all the people who had murmured at Cadesbarne, and Moses himself for the sin at the Waters of contradiction, had been shut out of the promised land, he could deservedly fear that God, the severe avenger of crimes, as in the first expedition against Hai so also in the rest against the enemy, would leave the Israelites destitute of His help. That this evil might be turned aside, he conceived most ardent prayers, most fitted to move the divine Godhead to be appeased, inasmuch as in them he had before his eyes above all things the glory of the divine name.

[142] If this was the argument of the prayer, as verse 9 clearly indicates it really was, and to have proceeded from zeal for the divine glory: and if, as must be presumed, Joshua was in that frame of mind which I have said, his wish, Would God we had stayed beyond the Jordan, as we began, admits no other sense than this: If Thy promises should be in vain on account of our crimes, as they will altogether be in vain unless Thou allow Thyself to be appeased, would it not have been better that we had stayed beyond the Jordan than that here by our sins we should have given cause for Thy name to be mocked and blasphemed by the nations? This will certainly come to pass if Thou goest on to punish us as we have deserved: for the Chanaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear that today we turned our backs to the enemy, and, their spirits recovered by our defeat, being gathered together they will surround us and blot out our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do to thy great name? If Thou destroy Israel, who will celebrate and worship Thy name? Our name being blotted out, Thy worship too will be blotted out; nay, the nations will blaspheme it and say that Thou couldst not perform Thy promises, and so they will take from Thee the name and title of Almighty; or certainly that Thou wouldst not, and so they will take from Thee the name of Holy and Faithful in promises. If therefore Thou art justly angry with us for our crimes, at least consult the glory and the sanctification of Thy name, etc. If the words of the praying Saint be explained in this sense, it is evident that he spoke neither ill nor evil, but rather set up a pious prayer, effective for obtaining mercy, which manifests his great familiarity with God and confidence, and also his zeal for the divine glory. To pour out prayers of like argument he had learned from Moses, Exodus chapter 32, verse 12, and Numbers chapter 14, verse 13 — a good Disciple from a good teacher.

[143] When the Saint had prayed these things, prostrate on the ground before the ark out of the highest reverence, [God reveals the sacrilege committed, and bids the guilty man be sought out by lot,] the Lord said to him, from verse 10: Arise, why liest thou flat on the ground? Israel hath sinned and transgressed my covenant: and they have taken of the anathema, and have stolen and lied, and have hidden it among their goods. Neither can Israel stand before his enemies, but he shall flee from them: because he is defiled with the anathema. I will be no more with you, till you destroy him that is guilty of this wickedness. Arise, sanctify the people, and say to them: Be ye sanctified against tomorrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel: The anathema is in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thy enemies till he be destroyed out of thee that is defiled with this wickedness. And you shall come in the morning every one by your tribes: and whatsoever tribe the lot shall find, it shall come by its kindreds, and the kindred by its houses, and the house by the men. And whosoever he be that shall be found guilty of this deed, he shall be burnt with fire with all his substance: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord and hath done wickedness in Israel. Joshua soon carries out the divine commands, holds the assembly, and sets forth the divine oracle to the people.

[144] Josue therefore, rising up in the morning, brought Israel to the ark by their tribes, and, the lot being drawn, the tribe of Juda was found. Which being brought by its families, the family of Zare was found. Bringing it also by houses, he found Zabdi: and dividing his house into the several men, he found Achan the son of Charmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zare, of the tribe of Juda. Achan detected by lot is examined; he confesses the crime; The gentle Prince, calling this sacrilegious man to him, thus kindly addresses him: My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and confess, and tell me what thou hast done, hide it not. And Achan answered Josue and said to him: Indeed I have sinned against the Lord the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. For I saw among the spoils a scarlet garment exceeding good, and two hundred sicles of silver, and a golden rule of fifty sicles: and I coveted them and took them away, and hid them in the ground in the midst of my tent, and the silver I covered with the earth that I dug up.

[145] he is punished, as God had commanded. Josue therefore sent ministers: who running to his tent found all hidden in the same place, together with the silver. And taking them away out of the tent, they brought them to Josue and to all the children of Israel, and threw them down before the Lord. Then Josue and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zare, and the silver and the garment and the golden rule, his sons also and daughters, his oxen and asses and sheep, the tent also and all his household stuff, and brought them to the valley of Achor: where Josue said: Because thou hast troubled us, the Lord trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him: and all things that were his were consumed with fire. And they gathered together upon him a great heap of stones, as a monument of the sacrilege avenged, which remaineth until this present day. And the wrath of the Lord was turned away from them. And the name of that place was called the valley of Achor until this day. It is usually asked here how in verse 25 Achan is said to have been stoned by the Hebrews, whereas in verse 15 God had commanded the Saint that he should be burnt with fire. These places various men reconcile variously. Some think that the sacrilegious man was first stoned, then after death burnt with fire together with all his goods. Others are of opinion that he was first burnt alive, and then that his corpse was covered with stones by the people in detestation of the crime. There are others too who believe that he underwent the penalties of both punishments together while still living. All these opinions are probable and have their patrons: which it is not necessary to discuss more laboriously. It is enough for us that with all it is agreed that the Saint obeyed the divine precept and burned the guilty man with all his substance. As to his sons and daughters, perhaps innocent, yet visited by the same death at God's command, let the interpreters be consulted.

[146] Some errors of Josephus are noted. When you read this history again in Josephus, you will doubtless marvel either at the man's carelessness in consulting the sacred text, or at his rashness in perverting it at his own pleasure. First, by Scripture's testimony in verses 1 and 18, Achan was the grandson of Zabdi; but Josephus writes that he was his son. Scripture in verse 21 says that Achan stole a scarlet garment; he writes that that garment was a royal cloak, and one indeed wholly woven of gold. Scripture in the same place testifies that the golden rule carried off by the sacrilegious man was worth only fifty sicles; he, more studious of magnificence than of truth,

fashions out of it a golden mass of two hundred sicles. Scripture in verse 23 narrates that the stolen things buried in the ground were brought out into the open by Joshua's ministers; he invents that it was done by Achan himself. Besides these errors Salianus also picks at others in him at num. 116, 129, and 130: to which I add that he wrongly introduces the Saint praying in those words which indicate that he doubted God's fidelity in fulfilling His promises. These things about that author I have here subjoined, that the reader may understand with how great caution he is to be read. See num. 115.

§ XV. God exhorting him, he attacks Hai again; feigning flight, he draws the garrison farther from the city; those set in ambush occupy it while empty, then attack the enemy in the rear, while others press them in front: the inhabitants being slain, Hai is plundered and laid waste by fire.

[ ] The Saint repeats the attack on Hai at God's bidding, When by Achan's punishment the fury of the Godhead had been turned away from the Israelites, Joshua resumed the slightly interrupted course of victory, God being its author and exhorter: For the Lord said, chapter 8, from verse 1, to Josue: Fear not, nor be thou dismayed: take with thee all the multitude of fighting men, and arise and go up to the town of Hai. To the precept is added the sure hope of victory from Him who is the Lord of hosts: Behold I have delivered into thy hand its king and people, and the city and land. And thou shalt do to the city of Hai and to its king as thou hast done to Jericho and to its king: but the spoils and all the cattle you shall take for a prey to yourselves. God here bids the king of Hai with all the inhabitants be slain according to the law which He had laid down in Deuteronomy chapter 20, verses 16 and 17; and besides, that the city be destroyed by fire, that He might punish the townsmen's crimes, as is credible, and avenge the reproach of the Israelites who had been put to flight and slain. Yet He does not will it to be made subject to the anathema, as Jericho was; for He allows the cattle and all the household stuff to the soldiers as booty, which otherwise ought to have been destroyed by sword or fire, or to have fallen to God's treasuries. Not content with this, the Lord also suggests the manner of taking the city, verse 2: Lay an ambush for the city behind it. This the holy Commander laid by concealing the truth, and not by deceiving the enemy with lies or false promises, as will be plain from what follows.

[148] And Josue arose, and all the army of the fighting men with him, and prepares a stratagem, whose to go up against Hai: and he sent thirty thousand chosen valiant men in the night, or at late evening, when darkness had now come on, and commanded them, saying: Lay an ambush behind the city, on the side that looks west: and go not very far from it: and be ye all ready. But I and the rest of the multitude which is with me will approach on the opposite side against the city, on the side that looks east. And when they shall come out against us, as they did before, we will flee and turn our backs, until they, pursuing, be drawn farther from the city: for they will think that we flee as before. And while we are fleeing and they pursuing, you shall rise out of the ambush and shall destroy the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands. And when you shall have taken it, set it on fire, and you shall do all things as I have commanded. And he sent them away, and they went on to the place of the ambush, and sat between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the city of Hai. But Josue that night, in which he had sent the ambush before, remained in the midst of the people.

[149] whole plan is described: And rising early in the morning, while it was still dark, he reviewed his companions and went up with the ancients in the front of the army, fenced about with a support of fighting men, but he bade the greater part of the army follow a good way behind. And when they had come and gone up over against the city, they turned aside from the eastern part of the city to the northern, and stood on the north side of the city, between which and them there was a valley in the middle. And he had chosen five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the same city. But all the rest of the army, which he had bidden follow at a distance, drew up their line to the north, so that the last of that multitude, or its rearmost column, reached the west side of the city, where the ambush lay hid. When all the forces led out on this expedition had now occupied the places assigned them, Joshua went that same night, toward the twilight of dawn, with the companions whom he had chosen for himself, and came nearer to the city, and stood in the middle of the valley, that he might lure out the townsmen, into whose sight he had put himself. The ambush sent forward the evening before, and the remaining part of the army, had hidden themselves in hills, ditches, or woods, lest the citizens, terrified in the morning at the sight of so great a multitude, should be kept from making a sally. And these things were accomplished in one and the same night. That Scripture in verse 3 says that the holy Leader sent forward the ambush by night, in verse 9 that he himself remained that night in the midst of the people, in verse 10 that he rose at daybreak, in verse 13 that he went that night into the middle of the valley — I have explained of different times of the same night, in the way that Bonfrerius does here at verse 13.

[150] a double ambush was laid, one of 30, the other of 5 thousand: But the whole plan of the stratagem used by the Saint cannot yet be distinctly known unless there be removed the difficulty which is in verses 3 and 12. It is narrated in verse 3 that Joshua sent thirty thousand men by night to lay an ambush behind the city, who in verse 9 are said to have lain hid between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the city of Hai: but verse 12 has thus: And he had chosen five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the same city. Salianus in the Annals, num. 132, following Masius, denies that any other set out on the expedition besides the thirty thousand warriors, of whom five thousand were placed in ambush, and the remaining twenty-five thousand Joshua kept with himself. But he contradicts Scripture, which I prove thus: The Saint sent thirty thousand chosen valiant men in the night, and commanded them, saying: Lay an ambush behind the city, verses 3 and 4: but the Saint that night remained in the midst of the people, verse 9, and only on the next day at daybreak set out on the way toward the city, as is said in verses 10 and XI: therefore he did not keep with himself 25 of those 30 thousand: therefore those whom he kept with himself and with whom he set out at earliest morning for Hai are distinguished from the 30 thousand sent forward by night: therefore besides the 30 thousand the remaining multitude, of which verses 5, 10, and XI speak, went on to the hostile city. But how then is the third verse, which gives 30 thousand, to be reconciled with the twelfth, which narrates that only five thousand were placed in ambush? I answer with Bonfrerius here on verse 12, that a double ambush was laid by the holy Commander, one of 30 thousand of which verse 3 speaks, the other of 5 thousand of which verse 12 speaks: Nor is it an obstacle (the words are those of the praised interpreter) that both were placed on the same western side between Bethel and Hai; for that western side too had breadth enough to hold this double ambush, the one indeed near the corner of the southern side, the other near the corner of the northern side and closer to Joshua's troops. But I add that this double ambush was set with different ends, as at least seems likely to me: the former, that they might burst into the city already stripped of its garrison of soldiers, and, fire being cast into some of the houses, might signify to their companions that it was taken; the latter, that they might occupy the byways and safer places by which flight might perhaps lie open through that valley, if it should happen that the men of Hai fled back and looked for a way out for flight. Of the various conjectures of the interpreters this appears to me the more likely.

[151] The stratagem had the happy outcome which its author and director, God, had promised: Joshua by a feigned flight draws the enemy farther from the city; for when the king of Hai, as is narrated from verse 14, had seen from the walls or the watchtower that band of the Israelites which had advanced to the middle of the valley under the Saint's leading, he made haste in the morning and went out with all the army of the city, and drew up his line against the desert, not knowing that an ambush lay behind his back. But Josue and all Israel gave back, feigning fear and fleeing by the way of the wilderness. That this feigning of flight was not a lie, a Lapide beautifully shows on verse 6. But they, shouting together and encouraging one another, pursued them. And when they had gone away from the city, and not even one, armed or fit to bear arms, as is plain from verse 24, had remained in the city of Hai and Bethel who did not pursue Israel (as they had burst out leaving the towns open), the Lord said to Josue, etc. Bonfrerius here judges that the men of Bethel sent all their garrison, before the coming of the Israelites, to defend the neighboring city of Hai, and that they together with its inhabitants pursued the fleeing Israel. The Septuagint favor him, and the Chaldee paraphrast, Pagninus, and Vatablus, who read that the incautious enemy left the town (in the singular) open. Calmet objects verse 25, where twelve thousand men are said to have been slain on that day, all of the city of Hai. But hence it cannot be inferred that the men of Bethel were not joined to the men of Hai: for it can be said with the same Bonfrerius at verse 25 that in that place it is only recounted how many of the inhabitants of the city of Hai were slain. His opinion certainly has more likelihood than that of Calmet and others, who will have it that the men of Bethel beheld the flight of the Hebrews from their own city, which was not far from Hai, and that all, to become partakers of the victory and the booty, burst out of the city with no order kept; yet that they did not join themselves to the men of Hai, but, when they saw Hai taken and burned and its citizens who had pursued the Israelites routed and slaughtered, being dismayed by this unlooked-for change of affairs, returned to their own homes. This conjecture departs from the sacred narrative more than the former: for if the men of Bethel did not join themselves to the men of Hai, but, seeing their defeat, consulted their own safety by flight, how did they pursue the fleeing Israel, as is said in verse 17? If you say with others that on the day on which Hai was taken they went out of their own city and really joined themselves to the men of Hai to pursue the Hebrews, how did they not fall into the ambushes placed between Bethel and Hai? For those, at the time when the Israelites were fleeing, did not move from their place until Joshua at God's command had lifted the shield on high. More credible therefore is Bonfrerius' opinion, to which we adhere.

[152] When therefore the men of Hai, mingled with the men of Bethel who had come some time before the ambush was laid to bring them aid, the shield being lifted on high, having gone out of the city, were pursuing the fleeing Israel farther, the Lord said to Josue (verse 18): Lift up the shield (others render the spear) that is in thy hand, toward the city

of Hai, for I will deliver it to thee. The Saint obeyed; nor, as is said in verse 26, did he let down the shield lifted on high until the men of Hai were all slain to the last man: That we may understand, says Cajetan here, that as, while Israel fought against the Amalekites, the continued raising of Moses' hands was the means of conquering, so, while Israel fought against Hai, the perseverance of Joshua's outstretched hand and spear against the city was the means of conquering. And God arranged those victories with such sensible signs intervening, to manifest more clearly that God Himself is the author of victory; for Joshua's hand stretched out with the spear toward Hai was a divine sign of the divine battle against that city.

[153] those set in ambush occupy the city empty of its garrison; Although with Cajetan both Masius and Bonfrerius will have it that the lifting of the shield or spear was only a sign of present divine help and of the victory to be won from the enemy, yet I do not see why it may not be said that the same sign was destined also for another end, namely for warning those set in ambush to rush into the city standing open and empty of defenders. So Arias, a Lapide, Tirinus, and Calmet think here, and Salianus at num. 135 and 138; and they add that the holy Leader raised the shield upon a spear, that its flash might become visible either to those in ambush or to others appointed for the purpose, who should at once warn them of this token. The text itself in verse 19 also seems to favor this, where, the shield being raised, the ambush is recorded soon to have come forth from its hiding places: And when, it says, he had lifted up the shield over against the city, the ambush that lay hid rose up immediately: and going to the city, took it and set it on fire, that they might give the Commander and the rest of his army a sign that the city was taken. See below, num. 155.

[154] the enemy attacked in the rear and in front are destroyed to the last man; But the men of the city that pursued Josue, looking back and seeing the smoke of the city rise up to heaven, could no longer flee this way and that: especially since those who had feigned flight and were making for the wilderness stood most bravely against their pursuers. And Josue and all Israel, seeing that the city was taken and that the smoke of the city went up, turned back and struck the men of Hai. It is here attributed to the Leader, what was done by his command; for he was then holding the shield aloft in the air. For they also who had taken and set the city on fire, going out of the town against their own men, began to strike the enemies in the middle. Those who took the city of Hai empty of defenders were those thirty thousand of the ambush of which verse 3 speaks; for the Commander had enjoined that on them in verse 4 and following. The city being taken, the greater part of them went out to attack in the rear the enemy who had thus far pursued the Israelites feigning flight. I said, the greater part of them; for it is not credible that they left the city, although the inhabitants who had remained in it were unwarlike or unarmed, plainly stripped of every garrison. But what in the meantime did those five thousand of the ambush do, of whom verse 12 speaks? We think that by them the ways were cut off by which the enemy, attacked in front and in rear, might otherwise have slipped away in flight. See what was said at num. 150: When therefore the adversaries were slain on both sides, so that none of so great a multitude was saved, they took the king of Hai also alive and brought him to Josue.

[155] Therefore, all being slain who had pursued Israel making for the wilderness, the city, those who had remained in it being killed, is plundered and burned. and falling by the sword in that same place, the children of Israel returned and struck the city, sparing no age or sex; for against all the Lord had pronounced the sentence of death in verse 2. And they that fell that same day, from man even to woman, were twelve thousand persons, all of the city of Hai. Of the men of Bethel see num. 151. But Josue drew not back his hand which he had stretched out on high, holding the shield, till all the inhabitants of Hai were slain. And the children of Israel divided among themselves the cattle and the prey of the city, as the Lord had commanded Josue. Who burnt the city and made it an everlasting heap. The fire kindled before the battle was joined, of which verse 19 speaks, was not of the whole city, lest all the booty should perish for the army; but only of some one place, that the Israelites, seeing the smoke, might understand that the city was taken and might desist from their feigned flight. The whole city was only now reduced to ashes, after the inhabitants had been slain and the Hebrews had gathered all the spoils, as the Lord had commanded in verse 2. Further, Joshua hanged the king of the city, who had come alive into his power, on a gibbet until the evening and the going down of the sun. And Josue commanded (namely what is prescribed in Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23) and they took down his carcass from the cross: and threw it in the very entrance of the city, heaping upon it a great heap of stones, which remaineth until this present day. Yet the king of Hai was not hanged alive, any more than the king of Jericho, of whom num. 133 speaks. That both were first killed is manifest from chapter 10, verses 1, 26, and 28.

[156] The disaster brought on the men of Hai Josephus thus touches briefly: Josephus' narrative. But Jesus, his army being reviewed, leads it to Aina, and, ambushes being disposed about the city by night, at daybreak lures the enemy to battle. And as they rushed out boldly on account of their recent victory, by a feigned flight he draws them far from the town, thinking the enemy routed and growing insolent as though victory were already won. But after he suddenly turned his forces and stood against them face to face, and the signal was given as agreed to the others who lay hid in ambush, they rose and were borne at a swift run to Aina and seized its rear gate, most of the (unwarlike) citizens watching from the walls what they then thought was the victory of their own men: and entering the city they make a huge slaughter without distinction. Meanwhile on the other side Jesus turned to flight those who met him; who, making for the city and thinking it still safe, when they perceived that this too was taken by the enemy and burned with their wives and children, scattered through the fields, and, since they could not be a protection to one another, and could neither return into the city nor flee this way and that, were overwhelmed some in one place, some in another. After this disaster of the men of Aina, a great multitude of children and women and slaves was taken, and household stuff without number: likewise no small flocks of cattle, and besides much coined money; for that region was very rich. And all these things Jesus divided among the soldiers in that camp which he had at Galgala. Neglecting small points, I chiefly blame Josephus in this, that he writes that the Israelites led away captive a huge multitude of women, children, and slaves, contradicting verse 25, which asserts that all the inhabitants of the city, from man to woman, were killed. Perhaps he wished to provide for the Saint's fame, lest he should be reputed too cruel among the gentiles: but he would have provided sufficiently if he had said that God Himself had commanded the utter destruction of the citizens, and had added the just causes of this precept, since he professes himself remarkably skilled in the law. But he passed over in silence the divine oracle about destroying the men of Hai with their city; nor does he mention anything either of God's speech in which the lifting of the shield was enjoined on the Saint; at which action God bestowed on His people the victory over the men of Hai, as of old over the Amalekites at the stretching out of Moses' hands.

§ XVI. On the mountains Garizim and Hebal Joshua renews with solemn rite the covenant between the people and God: the conspiracy of the Canaanites against him.

[ ] [He occupies the city of Bethel and the region in which the mountains Garizim and Hebal are situated:] Since the city of Bethel was not far from Hai, and in it, as verse 17 of chapter 8 testifies, no garrison soldier had remained, all having been sent to bring aid to the men of Hai, it is by no means likely that our most vigilant Commander neglected so opportune an occasion of subduing this city. Verse 16 of chapter 12, where among the kings conquered by our most brave Leader the king of Bethel also is named, leaves no room for doubt that that city was occupied by the Israelites. But at what time can we say this rather happened, unless a little after Hai was destroyed and burnt, from which, by Adrichomius' testimony, it was distant only one league? Scripture perhaps for this reason does not mention its capture, because it came into the power of the Hebrews with easy labor and without battle, being destitute of defenders. To chapter 1 of Judges, where from verse 22 Bethel is read to have been besieged and taken after the death of Joshua, it must be said either that there was a double Bethel, with Adrichomius, or, if there was only one, that it was recovered by the enemy either by force, or rather by fraud and by the imprudence of the Benjaminites, to whom it had fallen in the division of the promised land. Having gained these victories over the king of Jericho, of Hai, and of Bethel, the holy Prince held nothing more important than to carry out at the earliest time on the mountains Hebal and Garizim those things which he had long since had in charge from Moses. But that he might safely perform it, without doubt he first reduced into the power of the Hebrews the land in which those mountains are situated, and all the region which lies between them and Hai, no one delaying the victory. The topographical map of the land of promise which Adrichomius prefixed to his Work places the said mountains near Shechem, about nine hours' journey from Hai. That they were not far from the city of Shechem, which afterwards fell to the tribe of Ephraim, St. Jerome also teaches in the Epitaph of St. Paula; and it can be sufficiently shown from Scripture itself, Judges chapter 9, verse 7, against Eusebius in the Hebrew Places rendered into Latin by the same St. Jerome, and against Salianus at num. 140.

[158] [he leads the people to them, and an altar being built and sacrifices offered to God,] What was done on both those mountains is described in chapter 8 from verse 30, where in a compendious narrative is related the execution of those things which had been prescribed in Deuteronomy chapter XI, verse 29, and chapter 27. From these places compared with one another we put together this description of the whole matter performed, conformable, as we judge, to Scripture. Joshua, mindful of the charge which the people had received from Moses about the altar, and about the stones with the inscription of Deuteronomy to be erected on Hebal, and about the acceptance of the divine law to be solemnly confirmed on the same mountains Hebal and Garizim, with a proclamation before the people of blessings on those who kept it and of curses on those who transgressed it; and at the same time noting that the people were well disposed toward God, because He had lately wrought so many and so great prodigies for their sake at the Jordan, in Jericho, and at Hai — noting this, I say, the holy Commander saw to it that the said precept was fulfilled as soon as possible. He therefore called together the whole multitude both of Hebrews and of strangers (Joshua chapter 8, verse 33); namely of the men of Jericho who had been saved with Rahab in her house, and of the other proselytes who

converted to Judaism dwelt among the Israelites; all, I say, men and women, nay, the little ones also (ibid., verse 35), Joshua summoned from Gilgal to the mountains Hebal and Garizim. And first indeed he sets in execution what had been commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 27, verses 5, 6, and 7, of which here verses 30 and 31: Then Josue built an altar to the Lord the God of Israel in mount Hebal: as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, and it is written in the volume of the law of Moses: an altar of unhewn stones which iron had not touched: and he offered upon it (through the priests) holocausts to the Lord, and immolated victims of peace offerings.

[159] Then was fulfilled what the mentioned chapter of Deuteronomy enjoins in verse 4: he erects more probably 12 stones, on which he inscribes Deuteronomy; When therefore you shall have passed the Jordan, set up the stones which I command you this day in mount Hebal, and thou shalt plaster them with lime. And verse 8: And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law plainly and clearly. Of which here verse 32: And (Josue) wrote upon the stones the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had ordered before the children of Israel. That these stones were distinct from those of which the altar was built is, against Josephus, the common opinion of the interpreters. What the Saint inscribed upon them is more controverted. Masius thinks that only the blessings and curses, of which below, were inscribed on them: Cajetan, only the ten precepts of the decalogue repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 5: Lyranus, only those precepts which are explained in the same book, chapter 6, about the unity of God and about loving Him above all things: Abulensis and Serarius here, a Lapide, Bonfrerius and Tirinus on Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 2, the whole fifth book of the Pentateuch. To these I prefer to adhere rather than to those: for by Deuteronomy, and by all the words of this law, the book of Deuteronomy itself, or of the Law given a second time, seems rather to be understood than a very small part of it. Nor does the length of this book deter me: for it can be said that the Saint used the help of others in the writing, and that the stones were huge, twelve in number; and this Masius, Serarius, and others here conjecture with sufficient probability from the fact that Moses, who showed the way for this ceremony, erected as many stones for pillars, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, at the foot of Mount Sinai, when he was about to recite the written law to the people, Exodus chapter 24, verse 4.

[160] These things being accomplished, our Leader divided the twelve tribes into two parts, then, six tribes standing on Hebal and as many on Garizim, he blesses: and bade six of them remain on Hebal, but the rest betake themselves to the neighboring mountain Garizim, according to that of Deuteronomy 27, verse XI and following: And Moses commanded the people on that day, saying: These shall stand upon mount Garizim to bless the people, when you shall have passed the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Juda, Issachar, Joseph — that is, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasse — and Benjamin. And over against these shall stand on mount Hebal to curse: Ruben, Gad, and Aser, and Zabulon, Dan, and Nephthali. To these I subjoin what here in verse 33 the Israelites are read to have executed at the Saint's command: And all the people and the ancients and the princes and judges stood on both sides of the ark, before the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, both the stranger and he that was born among them. Half of them by mount Garizim, and half by mount Hebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. From both places it is gathered that all Israel was arranged by the holy Director of the whole matter in this beautiful order. In the valley itself between the two mountains, namely Garizim and Hebal, stood those priests who carried the ark of the covenant. Next to these were the other priests and all the Levites. Around these stood the ancients, the leaders, and the judges of the people; then the rest of the multitude, in such a way, namely, that the six designated tribes stood toward Garizim, the six others toward Hebal, with their faces turned to the ark, and those farther from it occupying the higher places of the mountains. The strangers or proselytes, as Torniellus at the year 2584, num. 17, thinks, stood here and there among the authors of their conversion. These being thus ordered, there followed the ceremony of the blessings and curses: And first indeed Joshua, either through the priests or by himself as prophet, blessed the people of Israel, verse 33, probably with that blessing, as the praised Torniellus judges, which the Lord had prescribed through Moses to Aaron and his sons, Numbers chapter 6 at the end: Thus shall you bless the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: The Lord bless thee and keep thee: the Lord show his face to thee and have mercy on thee: the Lord turn his countenance to thee and give thee peace.

[161] the blessings and curses being proclaimed, After this (verse 34) he read, that is, bade to be read by the Levites, all the words of the blessing and the cursing, of which Deuteronomy chapter 27, from verse 14: And the Levites shall pronounce and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice: Cursed be the man that maketh a graven and molten thing, the abomination of the Lord, the work of the hands of artificers, and shall put it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say: Amen. Cursed be he that honoureth not his father and mother: and all the people shall say: Amen. Besides these two, ten other curses are read in the same place. The Levites therefore, at the sign given by the holy Governor of the whole ceremony, after the manner of heralds (the words are those of Tirinus on this place) for renewing and confirming the covenant between God and the Israelites, first turned toward mount Garizim and with a loud voice thundered out in set words the blessings each separately: to which all those who stood by mount Garizim answered Amen, or LET IT BE DONE. Then, turning to Hebal, in like manner they pronounced each of the curses or execrations, to which answered those who were on and around Hebal. And the curses indeed are here expressed one by one, twelve in number, perhaps the primary and chief ones, but the blessings you nowhere have expressed in express words: yet it is easy to gather from the curses what those blessings were, namely such as decreed goods and rewards for the contrary actions of the virtues. Other ways in which that proclamation of blessings and curses could have been made, and perhaps was made, you will find in other interpreters.

[162] he reads Deuteronomy aloud; and thus the covenant, The auspicious prayers and imprecations being ended, and approved by all Israel acclaiming Amen, the whole law or Deuteronomy, as it had been inscribed on the stones, so also was read aloud to all the people; for that covenant which was here to be renewed with God turned upon the law. Verse 34 seems to indicate this: After this he read all the words of the blessing and the cursing, and all things that were written in the volume of the law. Many restrict these words, And all things etc., to the curses and blessings, or to the explanation of them which is given in Deuteronomy chapter 28: but against their obvious sense, which requires that we say the particle and here discharges its office, which is to join distinct things, and that the explanation of the blessings and curses is not all things that were written in the volume of the law. Besides, since the laws and precepts comprised in Deuteronomy, which God and the lawgiver willed to be so inculcated upon all, had not yet after the latter's death been set before the Israelites entire and solemnly, it lay upon their supreme Prince to bring it about that this should be done as soon as possible. And at what time could it be done more conveniently and opportunely than now? To the people therefore there were more probably now read aloud word for word all things that were written in the volume of the law. Nothing of these things (verse 35) which Moses had commanded in all Deuteronomy did the Saint leave untouched, but he repeated all before all the multitude of Israel, the women and little ones and strangers that dwelt among them.

[163] And thus exactly, by the pious Prince's care, the acceptance of the Mosaic law was anew renewed, about which Deuteronomy chapter 27 speaks, he renews between the people and God. established, and confirmed by the whole multitude; which besides was on mount Hebal clearly and openly written out on stones for the benefit of the whole people. These things being completed, Joshua with all the people returned to the camp in Gilgal, as is plain from chapter 9, verse 6, and chapter 10, verses 6 and 43. At what time all these things were done, the context of the sacred narrative sufficiently hints, which, after it had related in chapter 8, verse 29, the punishment of the king of Hai, at once subjoins in verse 30: Then Josue built an altar to the Lord the God of Israel in mount Hebal; namely immediately after the destruction of the city of Hai, which began to be attacked at the beginning of the second month, as was said at num. 139 and can be gathered from num. 127. Josephus narrates that the Saint led his people to those mountains after all Canaan had been subdued and the sacred tabernacle removed to Shiloh, but he is deserted by almost all.

[164] In the meantime rumor, the messenger, had carried through all Canaan the destruction of Jericho and Hai and the slaughter of all their inhabitants: The conspiracy of the Canaanites against Joshua. Which things being heard, all the kings beyond the Jordan, that dwelt in the mountains and in the plains, in the places near the sea and on the shore of the great sea, they also that dwell by Libanus, the Hethite and the Amorrhite, the Chanaanite, the Pherezite and the Hevite and the Jebusite gathered themselves together and entered into a fellowship of war, to fight against Josue and Israel with one mind and one resolution, chapter 9, verses 1 and 2. But the execution of this conspiracy Salianus at num. 145 judges was undertaken only in the second year of Joshua's princedom at the waters of Merom: nor is his opinion improbable; for chapter XI, narrating that many peoples flowed together to those waters to fight against Israel, seems to treat of the same men of whom mention is here made. But in the remaining time of the first year the covenant with the Gabaonites was entered into, the battle was fought against Adonisedec and four other kings who had surrounded Gabaon with a siege, and war was waged in southern Canaan. Of the covenant with the Gabaonites we shall begin to treat in the following paragraph.

§ XVII. The fraud of the Gabaonites: Joshua enters into a covenant with them, which he confirms by an oath: it is proved by various arguments that the Saint neither believed them rashly nor sinned in not first consulting the Lord.

[ ] The Gabaonites, fearing for their affairs, deal fraudulently with Joshua: The Gabaonites, who, being nearer to Israel, deservedly feared the more for themselves, determined to provide for their affairs in whatever way. For since they despaired of accomplishing anything by arms, as they themselves afterwards confessed in chapter 9, verse 24, they turned their minds to fraud, and sent envoys to conclude a covenant with the Israelites, who should falsely say that they came from a far country, and, to confirm this lie, should adapt their victuals, clothing, and the rest accordingly. The matter is thus narrated in chapter 9, from verse 3:

But they that dwelt in Gabaon, hearing all that Josue had done to Jericho and Hai, and craftily devising, took for themselves victuals, laying old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles rent and sewed up, and very old shoes, which for a show of age were clouted with patches, and they were clad in old garments: the loaves also which they carried for provisions by the way were hard and broken into pieces: and they went to Josue, who then abode in the camp at Galgal, and said to him and to all Israel with him: We are come from a far country, desiring to make peace with you. And the men of Israel answered them and said: Perhaps you dwell in the land which falls to our lot, and we cannot make a covenant with you. But they said to Josue: We are thy servants. Josue said to them: Who are you? and whence came you? They answered: From a very far country thy servants are come in the name of the Lord thy God. For we have heard the fame of his power, all the things that he did in Egypt, and to the two kings of the Amorrhites that were beyond the Jordan, Sehon king of Hesebon and Og king of Basan, that was in Astaroth: and our ancients and all the inhabitants of our country said to us: Take with you victuals for the very long way, and go meet them and say: We are your servants, make ye a league with us. Behold these loaves, when we came out of our houses to come to you, we took them hot, now they are become dry and broken in pieces by reason of the exceeding great age. These bottles of wine when we filled them were new, now they are rent and burst. These garments we have on and the shoes we have on our feet, by reason of the very long journey are worn out and almost consumed.

[166] they obtain a sworn peace: the sincere Prince The Israelites therefore took, giving credit to the words of the Gabaonites, of their victuals, and consulted not the mouth of the Lord. And Josue made peace with them, and entering into a league promised that they should not be slain: the princes also of the multitude swore to them. From Deuteronomy chapter 20, from verse 10, it is plain that it was not forbidden the Israelites to contract friendship and security of life with peoples who were not Canaanites. The covenants which in Exodus chapter 23, verse 32, chapter 34, from verse 12, and elsewhere are forbidden the Hebrews, do not extend to any others than the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, which the Lord had delivered to His people to possess. Whence it is manifest that the holy Prince acted neither imprudently nor against the divine precept when he struck a covenant with the Gabaonites, inhabitants of the promised land, and confirmed it by an oath — provided that he prudently believed that they dwelt outside the borders of Canaan, and that on no head was he bound first to consult the oracle of the Lord. Whether from the sacred words just given it is rightly deduced that the Saint sinned by omitting the consultation of the oracle, and so was bound to it, we shall begin to examine from number 168. The making of the covenant with the Gabaonites was preceded by the belief with which Joshua believed that they were not inhabitants of Canaan but of far distant regions. Whether this was light and imprudent, let us discuss in the first place. It is the agreeing opinion of almost all the moderns who have given their judgment on this question, that Joshua departed from the rule of prudence by his excessive readiness, with which he gave credit to the words of the Gabaonites, men unknown to him: but they bring no reasons by which they sufficiently prove it. St. Ambrose too indeed confesses, book 3 On Duties, chapter 10, that the Saint believed quickly and easily; but in this he finds not only nothing worthy of rebuke, but even matter for praising the sincere Prince. Receive the holy Doctor's words: The Gabaonites, fearing his strong hand, came with cunning … and began to ask of Jesus Nave that he would establish a fellowship with them. And because he was still ignorant of the places and unacquainted with the inhabitants, he did not know their frauds, nor did he ask God; but believed quickly. So holy was men's good faith in those times that it was not thought that any could deceive. Who would rebuke this in holy men, who judge others by their own affection; and because truth is dear to themselves, think that no one lies, know not what deceiving is, gladly believe others to be what they themselves are, and cannot hold suspect what they are not? Hence Solomon says: "The innocent believeth every word." Readiness is not to be blamed, but goodness to be praised. This is to be innocent: to be ignorant of what harms: and if he is circumvented by someone, yet he judges well of all, who thinks there is good faith in all. Inclined therefore by this devotion of his mind to believe, he made a testament, gave peace, confirmed the fellowship.

[167] With the Doctor of the Church we acknowledge and praise in our holy Prince those virtues from which he says it flowed that he believed the Gabaonites sincere and truthful rather than fraudulent and lying — namely sincerity, truthfulness, and a mind averse to conceiving sinister suspicions; and that he neither believed them imprudently, nor to us and we say that the said virtues were joined in Joshua by a beautiful bond with the prudence required in a leader of an army; and that he always and everywhere measured his counsels and actions by its laws, and this assent of belief also, given to the Gabaonite impostors. And indeed what, I ask, was there of imprudence in this, that he did not hold suspect of lies envoys sent in the name of a whole people which had not hitherto been caught circumventing the Israelites by guile? Ought he then to have suspected that the Gabaonites were as incautious as they really were — so incautious, I say, and so unwise as to use frauds that would be revealed within a few days, on account of which they could deservedly fear lest the immense indignation of the Israelites should blaze up against them as impostors, and lest they themselves should be visited with a crueler death than the rest of the peoples of Canaan? Did not the worn garments, the hardened loaves, and the other circumstances which are read in the sacred narrative — did not the use of a fraud soon to be detected, from which they could fear greater evils for themselves than from its omission — prudently make it credible that that nation had its seats outside Canaan? But, you will say, they had sent envoys furnished with guile, that Joshua, deceived, might make peace with them and confirm it by an oath; and so, according to the gravity of the matter, he ought to have examined more diligently whether fraud lay beneath. To this I shall answer below at num. 171 and following, where I shall sufficiently prove that he did nothing precipitately, nor used less diligence than he ought.

[168] nor does he seem to have sinned in not consulting the Lord: But did he not contract the fault of rashness or imprudence from another quarter, namely because he entered into a covenant with the Gabaonites without consulting God's oracle? Against the Saint it can be argued thus: Although he prudently believed that the Gabaonites were foreigners, yet he was not certain of it, and so he ought to have made himself certain by consulting the divine oracle, as the Lord had commanded him in Numbers chapter 27, verse 21. Of the authors who were at hand I have met none who excuses the Saint here. All everywhere assert that he imprudently and against the divine precept made peace with the Gabaonites; and they contend that Scripture in verse 14, They took therefore of their victuals, and consulted not the mouth of the Lord, rebukes both the supreme prince and the other princes of the people because they did not first consult the Lord through the priest clad in the Rational, in which were Urim and Thummim. Nevertheless I cannot but undertake the defense of the Saint's cause; because verse 14 not only admits the kindly interpretation which we shall give at num. 175, but also various sacred passages, which we shall bring forward in the following paragraph, altogether require it: nay, what I greatly wonder at, the interpreters everywhere, as at verse 14 they are against the holy Prince, so elsewhere either excuse him, or at least furnish us with such arguments as make it lawfully follow that the divine oracle ought not to have been consulted by Joshua before the making of the covenant, although he was uncertain whether the Gabaonites were inhabitants of Canaan or not; and so that he did not sin by omitting the consultation of the oracle, to which he was not bound. The reader will doubtless fear lest I have here rashly said more than I can prove. But, I beg, let him suspend judgment for a while, until he has attentively read through this and the following paragraph.

[169] from the doctrine of many who accuse the Saint, I shall take my beginning from two divine laws, and from the sense in which the interpreters understand them. The first is given in Exodus chapter 23, from verse 32: Thou shalt not enter into a league with them (the Canaanites), nor with their gods. Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps they make thee sin against me, if thou serve their gods: which undoubtedly will be a scandal to thee. Chapter 34, verse 15: Make no covenant with the men of those countries, lest, when they have committed fornication with their gods and adored their idols, some one call thee to eat of the things sacrificed. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 2: Thou shalt utterly destroy those nations. Thou shalt make no league with them, nor show mercy to them, etc. The same law is repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 16, and elsewhere. This does not extend to absolutely all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, otherwise Joshua would have sinned not only when he made a covenant with the Gabaonites, but also — what no one asserts — when he kept the covenant made, and granted life to Rahab and her family. That law regards only those Canaanites who were obstinate in the worship of false gods, so that the making of a covenant with that nation is not forbidden the Hebrews, if, idolatry being abjured, it submits itself to them. So all everywhere. The other law is that which the Lord laid down in Deuteronomy chapter 20, from verse 10: If at any time thou come to fight against a city, thou shalt first offer it peace. If it receive it and open its gates to thee, all the people that are therein shall be saved and shall serve thee under tribute, etc. Here the interpreters are divided into two parties. To many the words of this law seem to treat of foreign nations only, and to decide nothing about the Canaanites: but on the contrary not a few think that in this place it is commanded the Israelites to spare all nations whatsoever, even Canaanites, provided they sue for peace, or accept the same when offered under certain conditions. The conditions which were exacted of the Canaanites were, according to all, these: first, that they should yield their cities, fields, and dominions to the Hebrews; for these had been given them by God. Secondly, that, their idols being left, they should take up the faith and worship of the true God, and pass into one Church and commonwealth with the Israelites. For the cause why God had commanded the Canaanites to be slain was that they adored strange gods, and that there was danger lest they should draw the Hebrews to their idols and crimes. But that danger ceasing, peace and life had to be granted under the said conditions by the divine precept.

[170] From this doctrine of very many interpreters, adduced at the end of the preceding number, it is proved that he omitted the consultation of the oracle without fault, I deduce this argument for the Saint's defense. By the Lord's precept in Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 10 and following, all nations had to be spared, whether of Canaan or of other

regions they might be inhabitants, provided they accepted the conditions of peace proposed: but the Gabaonites accepted them, and such indeed that, these being admitted, not even Canaanites could be rejected from a covenant: therefore by the Lord's precept Joshua had to spare them. The minor cannot be denied: for unless the Gabaonites had done this, and had been unwilling to yield their lands to the Hebrews and to forsake the worship of idols, the holy Prince would have sinned in keeping the covenant and the oath after the fraud was detected: for no promise, even a sworn one, if it be about a thing forbidden by God, can be validly or lawfully made or fulfilled. Now I infer: Therefore Joshua, about to strike a covenant with the Gabaonites, was not bound first to consult the Lord. Which I prove thus. He who is about to do what he knows to be commanded by a divine oracle is not bound first to consult God anew whether it is lawful: but, as the said authors who make the Saint guilty of sin confess, it had been commanded by Moses from the Lord's own mouth that all nations whatsoever, even Canaanites, should be spared if they did not reject peace and its terms; and the holy Commander was not ignorant that this was commanded, being filled with the Spirit of wisdom, Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse 9, and so most learned in the divine laws: therefore he was not bound again to consult God whether he might lawfully make a compact with the Gabaonites.

[171] With the doctrine of the same interpreters there seems to me also not sufficiently to cohere that opinion of theirs nor did he believe the Gabaonites rashly, which asserts that the Saint acted rashly and precipitately in entering into a covenant with the Gabaonites while uncertain of their country. He ought, they say, to have examined better whether fraud lay beneath, etc. But whence do they prove that he was less diligent in examining than he ought to have been? If the Gabaonites offered conditions of peace under which, as they themselves say, life had to be granted by God's command to all nations, even to the inhabitants of the promised land, what was there to be deliberated on so much and so long? Why could he not make a compact with that people first, and defer to another time a further inquiry about their country? What if a few Canaanites, feigning themselves Egyptians, had come to our Commander and had asked to be enrolled in the number of proselytes — would he have acted rashly and precipitately if he had admitted them before he had laboriously investigated of what country they were? But the Gabaonites desired to become proselytes, since they subjected themselves and all their goods to him and offered themselves ready to embrace the faith of the Hebrews: therefore, etc.

[172] if, as must be presumed, he determined to use a certain precaution: But, you will say, the Gabaonite people was numerous and wicked, and so, although they renounced idolatry, yet because they did it from fear of death, the Prince of the Israelites had to fear lest they should relapse into their former impiety, whence there was greater danger of the perverting of the faithful Hebrews. But neither does it follow from this that the sanctioning of the covenant with that nation had to be deferred until it was certainly established about their country: for it can be said that the prudent Commander determined thus with himself: If the Gabaonites, whom I believe foreigners, be found to have their seats in the promised land, I will test their mind and constancy, I will give them teachers by whom they may be taught the Hebrew rites, I will appoint some who shall observe all their actions and report to me whether any returns to idols; and when I detect this, according to the law of Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 2, I will punish them with death. If, as must be presumed, the holy Man decreed to use this caution after the fraud was detected, he seems to have been in no part imprudent in making the compact. Tell me, pray, now that it has become known that the Gabaonites are Canaanites, was the danger of perversion any less? That knowledge certainly could not lessen it: and yet, according to all, he lawfully and without fault of imprudence kept the faith he had given and the oath: therefore also without any fault he gave his faith and confirmed it by an oath. Just as a Lapide here at verse 19 at the end asserts that the Saint without doubt, the fraud being discovered, used that caution of which we have just made mention: so we likewise say that without doubt, before he made the compact, he determined to use the same caution, if perchance guile should afterwards be found to lie beneath.

[173] the same things must be admitted on the principles of others Now let us pass to the other interpreters, who with the former indeed concede that the covenants forbidden the Hebrew people by the first law, which I gave at the beginning of number 169, pertain only to Canaanites obstinate in idolatry; but deny that it is certain whether God by the other law, Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 10 and following, bids peace and life be granted to the same, even though they ask it, ready to renounce the possession of their lands and the worship of idols. This law seems to them to treat of foreign nations only, and to determine nothing about the Canaanites. They teach besides, with others, on chapter 9 of the book of Joshua, that the Saint lawfully kept the faith given and sworn to the Gabaonites; nay, some, that he was bound in justice and religion to keep it. Now I ask of them, why the faith was not also lawfully given and sworn by the holy Prince? On their principles they must answer: because the Gabaonites, who said they were foreigners, could be Canaanites; and since God had not declared His will about entering into peace with the Canaanites, Joshua was obliged to make himself certain of it by consulting the oracle. But I so turn this back upon them and infer: therefore he also unlawfully kept the covenant struck and the oath; because when, the guile being discovered, he now knew the Gabaonites really to be Canaanites, he was no less than before bound to make himself certain of the divine will. It cannot be said that the Commander made peace without consulting God, but that, the fraud being discovered, he explored His will through the priest before he determined to keep the faith given: for the contrary is gathered from verse 18: And the Israelites struck them not, because the princes of the multitude had sworn to them in the name of the Lord the God of Israel. Wherefore all the common people murmured against the princes. Would the common soldiery have murmured against their leaders when they were restrained from slaughter, if God, being consulted, had commanded that the Gabaonites be spared? Would not the princes, to calm the minds of the murmurers, have at once declared that the Lord had spoken and had bidden it be so done? No answer could have appeased them more effectively. Yet they did not give this: they used no other than this, verse 19: We have sworn to them in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, and therefore we may not touch them. But this we will do to them, etc. Why say more? It sufficiently appears that that evasion, which pleases a few, was devised by some in order that they might the more easily extricate themselves from the difficulty objected. Therefore, if the Saint did not consult the Lord's oracle when he fulfilled the compact, he was then no more certain of the divine will than when he entered into the compact; and so, if in entering into it he sinned because he did not first explore God's will, he sinned also in fulfilling it, for the same reason.

[174] But you will say with Suarez, book 2 On the Oath, chapter 18, num. 12, must be admitted, especially that the holy Prince and the rest did not so doubt, when without consulting the oracle they performed their sworn promises, but that they definitely judged that that deed was not against the law rightly understood; and that the interpretation of the law set forth above (in Suarez, ibid., num. 8 and 9, in us above at num. 169) is so agreeable to God's intention and to the words of the law and to reason, that without any practical doubt (whatever be the case with speculative doubt) they judged the keeping of the oath to have been lawful, and consequently necessary. But if without the consultation of the oracle they could make themselves practically certain, as the theologians speak, that they lawfully fulfilled the sworn covenant, why could they not without it also be thus certain that they lawfully entered into it? Those who with Suarez assert the first ought to favor the holy Prince and admit the second also, and consequently all that we have said for the Saint at num. 171 and 172. For since from that phrase, They consulted not the mouth of the Lord, it does not lawfully follow, as will presently be said: Therefore they were not otherwise certain of the honesty of their action — the adverse party does not rightly conclude, relying on this text alone, that they made peace uncertain whether they were acting well. Let it suffice to have thus far turned these things back against the interpreters whose doctrine I set forth at num. 173. In the following paragraph I shall press them with stronger arguments, being about to prove from sacred Scripture that God willed the Gabaonites to be spared, and that the Saint had so great a certitude of this will of His that he was not bound to the consultation of the oracle, and so did not sin by omitting it.

[175] But what then does Scripture mean to signify by that phrase, because verse 14 does not reject a kinder interpretation. the mouth of the Lord etc.? I answer that it means nothing else than to give the cause why Joshua and the other leaders were deceived. If the divine oracle had been consulted, they would have understood from it whether the Gabaonites were Canaanites or not. Yet do not infer from this that they at least sinned because they did not remove that ignorance before they struck a covenant with them; for if they were certain that they lawfully made a compact with any nation under such conditions as the Gabaonites offered, they were not bound to defer the making of the covenant until they knew whether they dwelt in this rather than in that region, as I tried to show at num. 172: but of that they were certain; for first of all they did not doubt that it was lawful to admit to covenant and friendship those dwelling outside the promised land; for this, according to all, God had commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 20, from verse 10: but neither did they doubt that it was lawful to make a compact with inhabitants of the promised land: this first of all the authors whom we dealt with at num. 170 cannot deny; and against the rest we shall prove it solidly, as we hope, below at num. 178 and following: and so, although they were ignorant whether the Gabaonites dwelt within or outside the borders of the land granted by the Lord to the Israelites, they did not sin in entering into a covenant with them without consulting the oracle, at least if they had beforehand determined to inquire into their country at a fit time and to use those cautions of which num. 172 speaks. On this hypothesis, ignorance for a short time about that people's dwelling could not be the cause of any evil or inconvenience. But ignorance which accompanies a work, and from whose company no evil can arise, need never be removed under pain of any fault, although it can be. Further, the kindly interpretation which I have given I did not myself find out; St. Augustine suggested it to me, when in question 13 on the book of Joshua he speaks thus: Nor was the Lord angry with those who swore or those who spared, although they had not asked Him who those men were, and therefore they (the Gabaonites) had been able to deceive them; and in question 14: So then He (God) could, although not consulted, have warned them about those very Gabaonites, who they were, when they lied that they were from far away, had not that swearing pleased Him, which purposed to spare the submissive. If the oath by which the peace was confirmed pleased God, then Scripture does not rebuke Joshua and the other princes for any fault,

but only signifies that the Gabaonites had been able to deceive them, as the holy Doctor says, because they consulted not the mouth of the Lord. Lest this paragraph be too long, the remaining things by which we shall establish our milder interpretation we shall bring forward in the next.

§ XVIII. By arguments drawn from Scripture the milder opinion is established: the Gabaonites, the fraud being detected, are condemned to perpetual servitude.

[ ] [The milder interpretation which we gave above is required by the sacred words of chapter XI, verse 15,] That it may appear to the reader more manifestly that we do not rashly defend the Saint against the most common opinion, we shall bring forward some passages of Scripture which, as they stand under the explanation of grave interpreters, altogether require that kindly interpretation of verse 14 which we gave in the preceding number and paragraph. It is required first of all by that honorable testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Joshua in chapter XI, verse 15: As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses Moyles, so printed command Josue, and he FULFILLED ALL THINGS: he left not out of all the commandments NOT SO MUCH AS ONE WORD which the Lord had commanded Moses. Arias Montanus, Abulensis, Magalianus, and others judge that in this place it is signified that the Saint from the very beginning of his princedom administered all things according to the prescription of God and of Moses. If from that time he left not out of all the commandments NOT SO MUCH AS ONE WORD, etc., then neither did he leave out that of Numbers chapter 27, verse 21: If anything be to be done for him, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord, etc., when he made a compact with the Gabaonites without first consulting the oracle; namely because he was not bound to it. Just as Natalis Alexander in his Ecclesiastical History of the Old Testament, dissertation 12, infers from the said passage that Joshua did not violate God's law by keeping the covenant entered into with the Gabaonites, so we infer from the same against him that he did not violate God's law by entering into the covenant.

[177] I have carefully turned over the commentaries of the interpreters to see whether I might find any as they are expounded by most; who restricted that eulogy of the Saint to the time in which war was waged in northern Canaan. I found only one, Masius, who does so: the rest either keep silence, perhaps lest they contradict themselves, or extend the adduced eulogy of the Saint to his whole princedom, perhaps having forgotten what they had before asserted, that he did wrong by not consulting the mouth of the Lord; perhaps also they wished to retract their former opinion. I scarcely doubt that Arias Montanus did so deliberately. Writing on verse 14 of chapter 9 he accuses of imprudence as many as did not consult the oracle of the Lord, and so our Saint also: but on verse 15 of chapter XI, alleged above, he runs out thus into Joshua's praises: This note regards not only what has preceded, but also what follows, and indeed the whole charge and office of Joshua as leader. Therefore whatever pertained either to the private ordering of his mind, counsel, and morals, or to the public care, or to the office of war and of PEACE, or even to the partition of the land, is by this sacred testimony asserted to have been faithfully, sedulously, diligently, and carefully, and also WISELY observed and held by Joshua; so that NOTHING RASHLY, NOTHING WITHOUT COUNSEL, nothing cruelly, nothing foolishly, ambitiously or greedily, nothing contentiously or enviously, was done or transacted by that supreme Leader and commander amid so many and so great occasions, opportunities, varieties, and successes of affairs and places; but that ALL THINGS ARE ESTABLISHED TO HAVE BEEN OBSERVED ACCORDING TO THE PRESCRIPTION OF THE DIVINE COMMAND, cared for, procured, and dispatched — the prescription, I say, made and commanded divinely to Moses the servant of God, which was with the highest observance received, cultivated, cared for, and effected by this most excellent Man, turning aside to neither part, neither to the right nor to the left, so that whatever can privately and singly be doubted and inquired about Joshua's duties and offices is settled and taken care of by this one testimony: namely, that Joshua with great care learned, observed, cultivated, and carried out the laws of his office received from God through Moses, as an illustrious and living example of all pious princes and commanders. Could Arias have favored us more openly, or more openly retracted what he had before taught?

[178] Our milder exposition, given at num. 175, the same is required by verse 19, from which is favored also by chapter XI, verses 19 and 20: There was not a city that delivered itself to the children of Israel, except the Hevite who dwelt in Gabaon: for he took all by fight. For it was the sentence of the Lord that their hearts should be hardened, and that they should fight against Israel and fall, AND SHOULD NOT DESERVE ANY CLEMENCY, and should perish, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Cornelius a Lapide on chapter 9, verse 19, proving that the Saint was obliged to keep the covenant sworn with the Gabaonites, alleges this text and thus explains it: God therefore commanded the Canaanites to be destroyed because they obstinately resisted the Hebrews; but because the Gabaonites, who were Hevites, did not do this, but sought peace, therefore God WILLED it to be given them. In the same place a little below he speaks thus to our purpose: Joshua could and OUGHT, and therefore would have willed, to spare them, if they had without guile, confessing themselves Canaanites, subjected themselves and made themselves over as servants. For this WAS the MIND of God, as I have already shown. Therefore since they now do the same thing, he OUGHT TO HAVE SPARED them, granted that some guile intervenes: whence also in fact, the guile being known, he spared them. Therefore, according to a Lapide, God WILLED the Gabaonites to be spared; THIS WAS His MIND; and because Joshua knew it, he OUGHT to spare them: he was not therefore bound to explore by the oracle His mind, which was known from elsewhere. It is not necessary to bring forward the commentaries of others. All must confess that it is rightly deduced from the sacred text that the Canaanites, if they had not hardened their mind in their crimes and in rejecting peace, would have deserved clemency; but the Gabaonites did not do this; therefore they deserved clemency. Ought Joshua to have consulted God's oracle in order to be clement toward those worthy of clemency; in order to grant life to those who suppliantly and of their own accord sought life and peace and offered themselves ready to fulfill all the conditions of peace? The Saint knew that the law of nature prescribes that such men are not to be slain, unless God alone, the Lord of human life, command it: the Commander, most understanding of the divine laws, knew also that that precept about destroying the Canaanites to the last man was to be understood not of those who by the abjuring of idolatry, the embracing of the Hebrew religion, and the voluntary surrender of their cities should forestall a siege and the assault of the Israelites; but only of those who should be unwilling to do this. How therefore could he doubt whether it was lawful for him to grant peace and life to the suppliant Gabaonites? If he was certain of the honesty of his action, to what end was the oracle to be consulted? Truly I do not see how the interpreters can reconcile the passages of Scripture adduced, as they themselves expound them, with what they assert on chapter 9, verse 14, the mouth of the Lord, etc. Nor do I see how the adverse party can extricate itself from the difficulties which from its own doctrine I objected in the preceding paragraph.

[179] [and from the reason of the law laid down by the Lord about killing the Canaanites,] But, you will say, whence could Joshua be so certain that the divine law about killing the Canaanites did not extend to the suppliant Gabaonites, that he had no doubt for the removal of which he ought to have sought a divine answer? I answer: from the very words of the law in which the Lord conceived it. It is repeated in various places, and almost everywhere there is added the reason for which it was given. Exodus chapter 23, verse 33: Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps they make thee sin against me, if thou serve their gods. Chapter 34, verse 15: Make no covenant with the men of those countries, lest, when they have committed fornication with their gods and adored their idols, some one call thee to eat of the things sacrificed. Deuteronomy chapter 20, from verse 17: But thou shalt kill them with the edge of the sword, to wit, the Hethite … lest perhaps they teach you to do all the abominations which they have done to their gods. Therefore the reason of the law laid down, why the inhabitants of the promised land were to be excluded from every covenant, was lest God's people should be drawn away from the true religion to their superstitions, if it dwelt with them when their life was spared. Who then does not understand that where there was no danger from such contagion, there that divine sanction had no place? But what contagion was to be feared from the Gabaonites, who, having denied idolatry, had become or were ready to become enrolled Israelites — especially where the prudent Prince had determined to use that caution of which num. 172 speaks? I add another argument too, by which perhaps the reader will be more fully convinced that the Saint in no way doubted that he lawfully entered into a covenant with suppliant neophytes, and consequently that he ought not to have had recourse to the oracle.

[180] Joshua knew that the patriarch Noe by a prophecy proceeding from the hidden counsels of God had cursed that progeny of his son Cham which was to be born of Chanaan; and also from Noe's prophecy the kinder opinion is rightly deduced, of which Genesis chapter 9, from verse 24, speaks thus: And Noe awaking … said: Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren. And he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Sem; be Chanaan his servant. Now the descendants of Chanaan were those who had occupied the lands assigned by God to the Israelites in the place of an inheritance: which nation the sacred History often calls Canaanites, sometimes Amorrhites, sometimes by seven different names, at times by more, at times by fewer. Since therefore the Israelites were begotten of Sem, to whose grandsons Noe had of old foretold that the descendants of Chanaan would be servants, our Prophet certainly knew it to be God's will that not absolutely all the Canaanites should be destroyed to the last man: for if he had killed the suppliants, and those ready to fulfill all the conditions of peace, equally with the obstinate, whom at last could the Israelites, the progeny of Sem, have used as servants? From these things it is concluded that the Saint too was not ignorant that that law which bids that nation be cut off in a war of extermination, and that no age or sex be spared, cannot be taken universally, but must be tempered by some equity. And what that equity is, reason itself dictates, and it is manifest from the end of the law added in express words: namely, that pardon is rather to be given to those who seek peace and turn themselves to the true religion than to the stubborn, to idolaters, to the enemies of God and to those attacking God's people. Let now the fair reader judge whether the passages of Scripture adduced, and the arguments which I have deduced from them and from the very doctrine of those who dissent, are not sufficient to make it lawful for me to undertake the defense of the Saint's cause. But that he may also understand that the context of the sacred narrative of chapter 9 is not adverse to the milder opinion, I subjoin this commentary on it.

[181] When the Gabaonites, feigning that they came from far distant lands, agreeable to the narrative had sought peace, the Israelites answered in verse 7: Perhaps you dwell in the land which falls to our lot, and we cannot make a covenant with you — such a covenant, namely, as it is lawful for us to make with foreign nations, by which the possession of their cities and fields

and full liberty of religion is left them. So, among others, Calmet, and the notes in the Bible of du Hamel, published at Louvain in the year 1740 after a most careful revision. Hearing this, the Gabaonites say thus to Joshua: We are thy servants, verse 8. And again, verse 9: From a very far country thy servants are come in the name of the Lord thy God. For we have heard the fame of his power, all the things that he did in Egypt, etc. By these words, by the testimony of St. Augustine, question 14, of Lyranus, Menochius, Tirinus, and most others, they subject themselves and their lands and cities to the Hebrews, and profess that they believe in the God of Israel, or at least show themselves prompt and ready to believe in Him and worship Him. Then from verse XI they try to gain credence that they truly, as they had before asserted, come from remote regions, showing in confirmation of it the burst wine bottles, the hard loaves, and the worn garments: to which Joshua and the other princes gave credit. That this credit was neither light nor too precipitate has been shown at numbers 169, 171, and 172. They took therefore of their victuals, and consulted not the mouth of the Lord, verse 14. That these words can be and must be understood in a kinder sense, the arguments adduced in this and the preceding paragraph sufficiently persuade, as it seems to me — arguments which the interpreters, expounding that passage against the Saint, not only do not resolve but do not even touch. And Josue made peace with them, and entering into a league promised that they should not be slain: the princes also of the multitude swore to them, verse 15.

[182] [of Scripture: the fraud being detected, the people murmur; Joshua and the other princes] But three days after the covenant was entered into, they heard perhaps from explorers sent by the supreme Leader that they dwelt in the neighborhood and would be among them. And the children of Israel removed the camp and came into their cities on the third day, the names of which are these: Gabaon and Caphira and Beroth and Cariathiarim. And they struck them not, because the princes of the multitude had sworn to them in the name of the Lord the God of Israel. Wherefore all the common people murmured against the princes, verse 16 and following. Many think that the common people bore ill the rashness and precipitation of the princes in making the compact. But it is not necessary to say this: for the cause of the tumult could have been that the leaders spared those whom the common soldiers, more skilled in warfare than in law, taking no account of the oath, judged should be slaughtered as the penalty of the fraud; or that these feared lest, the Gabaonites being permitted to live, they should be cheated of a part of the land divinely promised. They could suspect this from the fact that they had been believed foreigners, to whom the possession of their goods was left. Perhaps too they had thus far learned nothing of the peace confirmed by oath; whence they judged that they could not be forbidden to destroy that nation and to occupy its lands.

[183] keep the sworn covenant; The princes, to suppress the tumult, answered them: We have sworn to them in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, and therefore we may not touch them. But this we will do to them: Let their lives be saved, lest the wrath of the Lord be stirred up against us if we should be forsworn: but let them so live that, according to the terms of peace deprived of their lands and converted to the Hebrew rites, they besides pay the penalties of their fraud, and cut wood and carry water for the use of all the multitude, verse 19 and following. The people, having heard the speech of their princes, acquiesced. The interpreters here debate a famous question about the obligation of fulfilling the sworn covenant. Masius, Arias, Serarius, and others deny that Joshua and the other princes of the people had to keep it: but Cajetan, Bonfrerius, and many others better affirm it, with St. Ambrose, book 3 On Duties, chapter 10. To their opinion we subscribe, although guile intervened: for this (the words of Cornelius a Lapide on verse 19 follow) was not about the substance of the matter, or about that which the oath required in order to be valid; but only about an accident, namely about the nearness or remoteness of their (the Gabaonites') dwelling: therefore it did not vitiate or annul the oath, nor the sworn covenant. It would have been about the substance if they had wished to retain their cities and their idolatry and so to enter into a covenant with the Hebrews, for this was forbidden by God; and therefore the Hebrews could bind themselves to this by no oath. But now, since they offer their estates to the Hebrews and desire to embrace their religion, they render the substance of a covenant permitted, nay commanded, by God: nor does guile violate [] or destroy it. Wherefore this was not an error of the person, but of some accident of the person. For the Hebrews wished to contract a covenant with the Gabaonites present, but they erred in an accident, thinking that they dwelt far off and not near, which does not vitiate the covenant. These things are greatly confirmed by what we read in the eighth book of Kings so printed, chapter 21, from verse 1: There was also a famine in the days of David for three years continually: and David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gabaonites… Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but the remains of the Amorrhites: for the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, as it were for the children of Israel and Juda. From these things it is plain that a famine of three years was sent because Saul and his family, by killing the Gabaonites, had violated the sworn covenant which Joshua and the princes of the people had once entered into with them. If by violating it they sinned, then it was not void, nor was the guile of the Gabaonites about the substance of the matter or about that which the covenant and the oath required for their validity. To prove this I have wished here to bring forward only those things which seemed to me to bring some light to the arguments by which in this and the preceding paragraph I have tried to show that the peace sworn with the Gabaonites was neither imprudent nor against the Lord's precept. Moreover, whoever desires more about its validity and the obligation arising from it, let him go to our Francisco Suarez, book 2 On the Oath*, chapter 18, and to a Lapide here.

[184] The supreme judge and prince of the people, Joshua, approved the sentence of the lower princes, but condemn the impostors to perpetual servitude. by which they condemned the impostors to perpetual servitude: of which thus verses 21 and following: While they, namely the princes, were speaking these things, Josue called the Gabaonites and said to them: Why would you deceive us by fraud, so as to say: We dwell very far off from you, whereas you are in the midst of us? Therefore you shall be under a curse, and your race shall always be hewers of wood and carriers of water into the house of my God. They answered: It was told us thy servants that the Lord thy God had promised his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants thereof. Therefore we feared exceedingly and provided for our lives, compelled by the dread we had of you, and we took this counsel. And now we are in thy hand: do with us what seemeth good and right to thee. Josue therefore did as he had said, and delivered them from the hand of the children of Israel, that they should not be slain. And he decreed in that day that they should be in the service of all the people and of the altar of the Lord, hewing wood and carrying water, until this present time, in the place which the Lord had chosen. And thus was fulfilled what Noe had foretold, Genesis chapter 9, verse 25: Cursed be Chanaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren. See above, num. 180. Of the service of the Gabaonites, who were afterwards called Nathinites, Bonfrerius deserves to be read.

[185] Let us see further what Josephus has related about the covenant struck with the Gabaonites: The narrative of the same history from Josephus. But the Gabaonites, who dwell not far from Jerusalem, learning the fate of the men of Jericho and of Aina, and now suspecting that the enemy would come against themselves, did not indeed attempt to move Jesus by prayers, thinking these would be vain with one who waged a war of extermination with the Canaanites: but preferred to take into fellowship their neighbors the Cepherites and the Cathieremites (this and what follows does not sufficiently agree with verse 17, which makes them subjects of the Gabaonites), saying that they too could not escape the danger unless they made timely provision: and that if they followed their counsel, a remedy was not wanting. And when they had persuaded them, they send envoys to Jesus about a covenant, whom they thought most fit for concluding the business. Who, judging it dangerous if they confessed themselves Canaanites, and far safer if they should say that they had nothing in common with them but had seats far different, say that, stirred by the Man's fame, they had made a journey of many days, and they proved this to be true from their dress: for the garments which they had put on new when setting out on the way were worn out by the long journey; for they had purposely taken worn ones, that they might seem to speak likely things. In this dress, entering the assembly, they say that they were sent by the Gabaonites and the neighboring cities, that, their ancestral institutions being safe, they might come into friendship with them. For having learned that God had granted them the land of the Canaanites as a free gift, they congratulate them and ask the right of citizenship. Josephus wrongly adds of his own that they sought friendship with their ancestral institutions safe. If the condition of peace had been that the ancestral religion, which among all peoples holds the first place in ancestral institutions, should be permitted to the idolatrous Gabaonites, then Joshua, when he knew them to be Canaanites, sinned gravely by keeping an invalid oath, against the law of Exodus chapter 23 at the end: this cannot be said; therefore neither can that. These things being said, and their garments displayed as a sign of a long journey, they begged to be admitted to covenant and friendship. But Jesus, believing their words that they were not Canaanites, receives them into faith and friendship: and Eleazar the pontiff with the senate swore that they would hold them as friends and allies and would attempt nothing unjust against them, the whole people approving that covenant. Having by this craft obtained their wish, they returned home to their own people. But Jesus, having led his army into the submontane tract of Canaan, when he heard that the Gabaonites dwelt not far from Jerusalem and were of the Canaanite race, called out their more honorable men and charged them with their fraud. And when they excused themselves, saying that they had no other way of seeking safety and had therefore turned to guile under the compulsion of necessity, he calls together Eleazar the pontiff and the senate. And when it was decreed that the faith sanctioned by oath must not be violated, but that they should be appointed to public services, they were afterwards held in this condition: and by this compact they withdrew themselves from the impending danger.

perhaps vitiat*

§ XIX. Joshua brings aid to Gabaon besieged by the army of five kings; he puts the enemy to flight; many of whom are crushed by a prodigious shower of stones; which ceasing, lest the rest should slip away, he stays the course of the sun and moon by his command.

[ ] Five kings besiege Gabaon, to which, being asked, From the covenant with the Gabaonites arose the wars which with the king of Jerusalem and four others

confederated with him Joshua waged and most happily brought to an end, the heavens themselves fighting for him and his army. Sacred Scripture thus begins to set them forth in chapter 10, from verse 1: When Adonisedec king of Jerusalem had heard these things, namely that Josue had taken Hai and destroyed it (for as he had done to Jericho and its king, so did he to Hai and its king), and that the Gabaonites had gone over to Israel and were their confederates, he was exceedingly afraid. For Gabaon was a great city and one of the royal cities, and greater than the town of Hai, and all its fighting men were most valiant. Therefore Adonisedec king of Jerusalem sent to Oham king of Hebron, and to Pharam king of Jerimoth, to Japhia also king of Lachis, and to Dabir king of Eglon, saying: Come up to me and bring help, that we may take Gabaon, because it hath gone over to Josue and to the children of Israel. So the five kings of the Amorrhites being assembled went up, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jerimoth, the king of Lachis, the king of Eglon, together with their armies; and they camped about Gabaon, laying siege to it. But the inhabitants of the besieged city of Gabaon sent to Josue, who then abode in the camp at Galgal, and said to him: Withdraw not thy hands from helping thy servants; come up quickly and save us and bring us succor: for all the kings of the Amorrhites who dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.

[187] The holy Prince, hearing of the danger of his clients, at once determined to bring aid to the besieged: Joshua brings aid; God strikes terror into the enemy, and And Josue went up (verse 7) from Galgal, and all the army of the warriors with him, most valiant men, excepting however those who were necessary for the defense of the camp: And the Lord said (verse 8) to Josue: Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thy hands: none of them shall be able to stand against thee. St. Augustine, question 14, judges that this oracle was not asked of God but given of His own accord. Although if you should wish to think with Salianus and others that Eleazar the pontiff set forth God's answers to the Commander, I shall not oppose it. But then you would say more rightly that the Lord was consulted before Joshua led his men out of camp on the expedition. However it be, the Saint, animated by so great a hope, hastens to free the Gabaonites from the siege, nor does he neglect the supports of human industry: for the excellent Leader in war, understanding that victory is often placed in speed, and that an enemy is never more easily overwhelmed than if he be attacked free of fear and unexpectedly, marching all night from Gilgal came at earliest morning to the besieged Gabaon; and, his army drawn up, suddenly rushed upon the enemy: who at the unlooked-for assault of the Hebrews were so divinely confounded that, after a huge slaughter of their men wrought by the Israelites, they threw themselves headlong into flight, the siege being raised, by the way by which one goes up to Bethhoron. Thence they fled toward Azeca and Maceda, the victorious army pursuing and striking their backs. These things verses 9 and 10 comprise in a few words: So Josue rushed upon them suddenly, having marched all night up from Galgal: and the Lord troubled them before the face of Israel: and he slew them with a great slaughter in Gabaon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them unto Azeca and Maceda. Nor did the enemy cease from flight at this city, nor the Israelites from pursuing them further; for in verse 21 they are said to have returned to Maceda, where Joshua was with the rest of the army which had flowed together thither. But how great a slaughter of the fugitives was made in so long a time and in so many places, what follows will teach.

[188] At Gabaon the fight against the columns of the five kings went happily, [drives them in flight and crushes them with a shower of stones, obtained by the Saint's prayers:] because a terror divinely struck into them had confounded their minds and ranks. With a more manifest benefit the Lord favored the Hebrews when they pursued the enemy between Azeca and Bethhoron: for the fugitives had scarcely passed this place when the God of hosts joined Himself to Israel as a companion in slaying them, sending upon them a tempest horrible with hail of unusual size; which, wrought by the work of angels in the region of the air and hurled as it were by their hands with a sure and destined stroke, sought out the Canaanites, the Israelites being unharmed and untouched. Of this wonderful rain of stones thus verse XI: And when they fled from the children of Israel and were in the descent of Beth-horon (for it was situated in a high place, so that from one side there was an ascent, from the other a descent), the Lord cast down upon them great stones from heaven as far as Azeca, so that they were struck by the Israelites pressing on their rear, and crushed by stones rolled down with force from on high. And how great a disaster these stones brought is at once explained, when it is said: And many more died with the hailstones than those whom the children of Israel had slain with the sword. That this storm of rocks was obtained from God by the prayers of St. Joshua the context of this chapter does not indeed assert, but Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, verse 6, does: He called upon the most high Sovereign when the enemies assaulted him on every side, and the great and holy God heard him with hailstones of exceeding great force. Whether the stones sent upon the enemy were of the same nature as common hail, or whether they were properly rocks which fell abundantly after the manner of hail, is uncertain. Calmet, in his Dissertation on the shower of stones prefixed to his Commentaries on the book of Joshua, believes the latter to come nearer to the letter and to the mind of the sacred Writer. The same seems so to me. St. Augustine favors it, book 3 On the City of God, chapter 31: When it rains earth, when it rains chalk, when it rains stones — not as hail is wont to be called by this name, but altogether stones. These indeed could also grievously injure.

[189] On the same day God left His singular providence over His people attested by another more evident and far more illustrious prodigy at whose command the sun and moon stay their course, that time than the showers of stones sent upon the enemy. It is related from verse 12: Then Josue spoke to the Lord in the day that he delivered the Amorrhite in the sight of the children of Israel, and he said before them: Move not, O sun, toward Gabaon, nor thou, O moon, toward the valley of Aialon. And the sun and the moon stood still till the people revenged themselves of their enemies. Is not this written in the book of the just? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down the space of one day. There was not before nor after so long a day, the Lord obeying the voice of a man and fighting for Israel. Arias Montanus, an interpreter of most illustrious name, on the book of Joshua thus begins the exposition of this passage: The history shows us the excellence and prudence of Joshua's faith, to be observed, admired, and imitated; who, when he had learned from God's answer that those armies of five kings would be delivered into his hands, and that none of them would stand, that most prudent Man understood that heaven and earth and all nature could sooner be changed than that God's word should be changed for those by whom it was received with firm and constant faith. This is what that reading indicates (verse 12): Then … in the day that he delivered the Amorrhite in the sight of the children of Israel. On which day Joshua, having now received that answer, I have delivered them into thy hands, and None of them shall be able to stand against thee (verse 8), saw this promise begun — that is, the Amorrhites confounded before the face of the children of Israel, and a great slaughter made among them; then also many more slain by hail than by the sword, and that the hail lasted as far as Azecha; and yet that many still survived who thought to escape by strained flight and by prolonging their course farther: nevertheless, confirmed by the faith of that promise, I have delivered them into thy hands, he foresaw that those who remained would be dispatched by the hands and arms of the Israelites, that the promise might be fulfilled, I have delivered them into thy hands: which was the end of the whole answer. Already he had seen that fulfilled, None shall be able to resist thee, or none shall stand before thy face: for the Lord had troubled them before the face of Israel, and, a great slaughter being made among very many, had compelled the rest to flight, and in that very flight had killed a great number: but there remained others who, Azecha being passed by, were fleeing toward Maceda: these he believed delivered into his hands, and hoped to slay.

[190] But indeed both the nature of the places and the shortness of the time that it might suffice for utterly destroying the enemy: him, when the could be a hindrance to this being accomplished by the Israelites: and he had understood that the thing was to be accomplished by the Israelites, since this regarded the truth and constancy of the divine promise, and the authority and dignity of the Israelites themselves, whom God had willed to magnify: that the other nations might understand that the Israelites were not only helped and advanced by miracles wrought from heaven, but were also increased in strength and might for carrying on the business by hand and arms; and so might dread them in the remaining fights and battles. But since the remaining time was short after that space of the long flight, and the sun was now tending to its setting, and there remained a great tract, and the valley of Aialon convenient for the enemy to escape — as unknown to strangers, so inconvenient — Joshua, most constant in faith, first dealt with God by prayer about the finishing of that day's expedition; then called heaven itself to observe and to follow with obedience the truth and constancy of God's promise and word. We therefore distinguish a double address in this verse: one by which God was entreated to confirm His word by a second event: that is, Then Josue spoke to the Lord (verse 12): the other by which the luminaries were bidden to stand still. The argument of the speech or prayer was that that was the day on which He had delivered the Amorrhite into the sight of the children of Israel: he wished therefore that on the same day it should altogether be accomplished, that the Israelites might slay the Amorrhite delivered to them. And since this could not be effected by human strength in the short time of daylight that remained, and yet by God's promise it had to be effected by the hand of men, one thing remained: that that day should rather be prolonged than that the human hand should cease to accomplish it: for in this way it was manifestly known, both by those who cultivated piety and by other nations averse from God, that all the ways of nature, of the heavens, and of the seasons obey and give place to the efficacy and constancy of the divine word and promise. Therefore, after the prayer made to God, with the same Israelites present and hearing, turning his face to heaven, he does not hesitate to command the sun and the moon and the heavens. Thus he: to which I add from Salianus and others, that the Saint after pouring out his prayers knew it to be the Lord's will that before the people he should command the stars effectually, that by so unheard-of a prodigy he might acknowledge on whose protection he relied, and the unbelievers might understand that they had moved arms against heaven.

[191] Most interpreters judge that our Wonder-worker had not yet come to Azeca hail of stones ceased, we think commanded the sun and moon to stand still: when he commanded the sun and moon to rest. If you wish to follow these, you must also admit that the sun and moon to

Joshua's command stood unmoved while the former miracle had not yet ceased: for since the falling of stones from heaven began at the descent of Beth-horon and lasted as far as Azeca, the sun and moon must have already stood still before the storm of stones ceased. Arias attaches the occurrence of each prodigy to a different time and place, and lays down this order of events: namely, that the stones were sent from heaven from Beth-horon as far as Azeca; then that the Saint, when he saw that of the most numerous armies of the five kings many still survived unhurt by the hail and were slipping away in swift flight toward Maceda, halted near Azeca, and there, after prayers poured out to God with great confidence, checked the course of the sun by his command. Arias' conjecture seems to me more conformable to the sacred narrative. I wonder that those depart from it who believe that the hail fell from dense clouds, and that the storm sent upon the Canaanites was like the Egyptian one of which Exodus chapter 9 speaks from verse 23. These must grant that as far as Azeca the sun could not be seen. But now, is it credible that Joshua, with all the people hearing, commanded the sun to stand still, that it at once halted unmoved, and that meanwhile from the descent of Beth-horon, where the hail began, as far as Azeca the prodigy could be observed by no one? These things it has seemed good to note, that the historical order of events may be more distinctly known. What difficulties can be objected against it are no graver than those which must be resolved by whoever affirms that the Saint, when he stayed the sun by his command, halted elsewhere than near Azeca.

[192] Josephus' narrative. The remaining things which we have judged worthy of record about this signal prodigy we shall bring forward in the following paragraph. This one shall be closed by the history of Josephus, who describes what has thus far been narrated as follows: But when the king of the men of Jerusalem took it ill that the Gabaonites had gone over to Jesus, and had called in four kings of the nearest nations to wage war against them, the Gabaonites, seeing themselves attacked and the enemy, their camp being placed near a spring (of which the sacred writer kept silence) not far from the city, making ready for the assault, call Jesus to their aid. For matters had then come to this, that from these they expected destruction, but in those who had come for the destruction of the Canaanites they placed, on account of their new friendship, their only hope of safety. Then Jesus, hastening with his whole army to the rescue, having made his march by day and by night, at daybreak attacks them as they were preparing the assault. If the holy Commander had made his march by day, as Josephus writes, his coming would easily have become known to the enemy; which does not cohere sufficiently with verse 9: So Josue rushed upon them suddenly, or by an unforeseen assault, having marched all night up from Galgal. Then he goes on thus: And when they had turned their backs, he pursued them as they fled down the slope. That place is called Bethora. That divine help was present at this battle appeared by evident prodigies, the heaven thundering and with frequent strokes of lightning, and hail besides falling greater than usual. There was added also that thing never before seen, that the day was made longer, lest by the coming on of night the enemy should be snatched from the Victor. Whereby it came about that Jesus took those kings seeking hiding places in a certain cave near Macchida, and punished them all. And that that day grew beyond custom is on record in the sacred volumes which are kept in the temple. Of the slaughter which the hailstones wrought Josephus says nothing; nor of Joshua's command by which he stayed the sun and moon for the space of one day. It was enough for him to say that hail greater than usual fell, and that that day was longer than the rest. Perhaps he suspected that those prodigies, if they had been described as they stand in the sacred Letters, would have met with more wonder than belief among the gentiles.

§ XX. Testimonies about the standing still of the sun and moon and about the Saint's faith; the vindication, duration, and greatness of the miracle; the captivity of the V kings; the disaster of the enemy; the strength of the Israelites more probably sustained divinely.

[ ] [The testimonies of the sacred writers about the prodigious standing still of the sun and moon,] The sacred text in verse 13, narrating the prodigy of the sun and moon standing still, brings forward a book known in ancient times into which it had been reported: Is not this written in the book of the just? Who and of what sort that was, is unknown. Besides the interpreters here, Scipio Sgambatus may be consulted about it in the Archives of the Old Testament, page 264. Why that book is here cited Theodoret explains, question 13: The author, wishing to teach us the power of this Prophet, namely that by a word alone he had checked the advance of the great luminaries until he had conquered according to the dignity of his command, and suspecting that someone might not give credit to his words, said that this is found in an ancient commentary. The prophet Habacuc, among the other divine miracles which he enumerates in prayer in chapter 3, records the Joshuan one also in verse XI: The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation. Ecclesiasticus too celebrates the prodigy of the sun standing still, chapter 46, verse 5: Was not the sun stopped in his anger, and one day made as two? This passage teaches us that the Saint from zeal and just anger against the enemies of God's people checked the sun's course by his command, that the time might suffice for utterly destroying them.

[194] But how greatly he trusted in the divine power and kindness when, the Holy Spirit impelling him, he gave this command to the heavens, understand from the testimonies of the Fathers. and the testimonies of the holy Fathers about the faith and sanctity of Joshua: St. Jerome on chapter 28 of Isaiah: In the confidence of God dwelling in him, Jesus said: Let the sun stand still. St. Ambrose, book 1 On Duties, chapter 40: Jesus Nave, when battle arose against the Gabaonites, and he feared lest night should hinder the victory, cried out with greatness of mind and of faith: Let the sun stand still; and it stood still, until this victory was consummated. St. Sulpicius Severus, book 1 of the Sacred History: When the day was failing those who were slaying, and night seemed about to be a protection to the conquered, by the merit of his faith the Hebrew Leader turned away the night, and the day persevered; so there was no escape for the enemy. St. Bernard, in the author of his Life, book 2, chapter 7, when he urged that they should act constantly and pray ardently against the Leonine schismatics, says: Joshua fights, and, that the day prolonged may suffice for the consummation of the victory, he not so much prays the sun to stand still as commands it, and his faith merits both the obedience of the sun and the victory over the prostrated enemy. St. Chrysostom attributes to the sanctity and merits of the Prince beloved of God that the Lord obeyed his voice and interrupted the motion of both planets: Consider, he says in Homily 27 on the Epistle to the Hebrews, how great a thing a just man is. Jesus Nave said: Let the sun stand still over against Gabaon, and the moon over against the valley of Elom: and it was done. Let then the whole round world come, nay rather two and three and even four and twenty round worlds, and let them say this and do this. But they will not be able. But God's Friend commanded the creatures of his Friend: nay rather, he asked his Friend, and the things that served gave way, and the lower commanded the things above. Dost thou see that they were made in service, fulfilling their appointed course? This is greater than the things done by Moses. Why? For it is not the same to command the sea and the things that are in heaven. For that too is great and very great, but not equal. But hear why such an effect was wrought. Why? Jesus' name was a type of Christ. For this reason therefore, and on account of that very appellation in type, the creature stood in awe. But what — was not another called Jesus? But this man was so called in figure.

[195] the vindication, Although the Holy Spirit has consecrated the memory of this miracle not only by this history of the book of Joshua but also by other monuments of the sacred Letters, yet Maimonides and other Hebrews, in Masius, deny that the accustomed motion of the sun and moon was really interrupted or hindered; but they assert that a change appeared in heaven for this reason, that Joshua accomplished on earth such great things with such speed that the day was rather prolonged, and the sun and moon seemed to have stood still, than that that great Leader accomplished them so swiftly. This therefore they think was Joshua's wish, that that single day might suffice for routing the enemy: just as if he had used these words: Grant, O Lord, that before the sun and moon set, Thy people may be able to exact punishment from their enemies; and that this day had only this of miracle, that at a man's prayers God wrought so great a slaughter in so small a space of time. David Kimhi and others will have it that God after the setting of the sun created in heaven a body of a new kind which should represent the sun and in its place illumine the round world, while the slaughter of the enemy was accomplished by the Israelites and a full victory won. Who would ever have believed that, where the Holy Spirit so openly testifies this miracle of the sun and moon standing still, there would be some among Christians who would patronize these fictions of the Rabbis: yet there have been some among the moderns. First of all Grotius, who in his Annotations on the book of Joshua says that the figments of Maimonides are probable. Monsieur le Clerc, in Calmet's dissertation On the Standing Still of the Sun and Moon prefixed to his Commentaries on the book of Joshua, openly denies that on that day the sun was seen above the horizon longer than usual, but says that its rays, after it had set, flashed out by some unusual refraction; or that another light appeared in place of the sun, which God created in heaven, and which the Israelites thought to be the sun itself. That critic feigns a new miracle, which perhaps happened, while he imprudently and rashly denies that which Scripture expressly records. The same Calmet brings forward two others who acknowledge here no miracle at all, but shamelessly blurt out that a chance parhelion was the cause of so long-lasting a light. Their inept arguments I shall not here refute, both because Calmet has done it laboriously, and Natalis Alexander in his Ecclesiastical History of the Old Testament, dissertation 13, and because Scripture in the places cited expresses this portent so clearly and so manifestly that the sacred words can in no way be bent to that figurative manner of speaking which they fasten upon them. This I add, lest I should seem to touch the defenders of the Copernican system, who teach that the sun is at rest but the earth moves. Although I dissent from these, yet I confess that it can still somehow be understood how, according to those philosophers, the utterance of sacred Scripture is true, which is wont so to express things as men commonly speak and conceive in mind, as St. Augustine testifies on chapter 9 of Genesis. But was the common speech of men ever such that, when they wish to signify some commander's speed in warlike expeditions, or to express that a parhelion or another luminous body different in appearance appeared in heaven after the sun's setting, they should say: The sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down, etc.? What author, sacred or profane, ever used such a metaphor or hyperbole?

[196] The authors labor greatly to attain

in what month of the year, the duration on what day of the month, and in what part of the day the sun began to stand still. In these disputes I do not interpose myself, because these circumstances of time contribute nothing to the greatness of the miracle or to the Saint's commendation. See the interpreters everywhere at hand, of whom several conjecture that Joshua commanded the sun to rest when its setting was at hand, and therefore he feared lest the enemy should escape through the darkness. Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew writes that this Joshuan day was of 36 hours. He judged that the sun's motion above the horizon lasted twelve hours, but its standing still twenty-four. Namely, that phrase of verse 13, And the sun hasted not to go down the space of one day, he understood of the civil day of 24 hours, which the philosophers call natural. You may more truly take it of the artificial day, as the same men speak, that is, of the time in which the sun is wont to give light: for in Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, verse 5, it is said: One day was made as two; which words seem to me to have this sense: The artificial day, which is wont to be, say, of 12 or 14 hours, was made of 24 or 28 hours. If you say with Lyranus, Genebrard, and others that this miracle happened at the summer solstice, which falls on the third day of the fourth month of the ecclesiastical year of the Hebrews, the sun shone for 28 hours; for from the elevation of the pole at Jerusalem it is evident that it then gives its light for the space of 14 hours. But according to many others the sun did not appear so many hours above the horizon of Judea on that day, because they contend that this prodigy happened some days before the solstice. Serarius, question 22, thinks that a whole month intervened between the one and the other. Verse 14, There was not before nor after so long a day, has given matter for another question: namely, whether the Joshuan day was longer than the day of king Ezechias, on which the sun went back ten degrees: of which, besides the interpreters, the praised Natalis Alexander may be consulted.

[197] The author of the 7th letter to Polycarp, whom many believe to have been St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and the greatness of the miracle; lays down a twofold manner of this prodigy, each an exceptional argument of the divine power: either that together with the sun and moon the whole machine of the celestial globes stood still, or that, the sun and moon alone halting, the remaining spheres, both those above and those between, performed their ordinary course: which the same writer professes to be more admirable; but he does not disclose his own opinion on either side. Yet the former manner appears more likely to all the moderns, and this because it was not expedient that the perpetual order, tenor, and harmony established by God at the creation of the world among the heavens and the stars should be disturbed by the unequal advance of two planets. Together therefore with the sun and moon the remaining stars began to stand still, God bidding the angels that move them to desist for a while from their office. Commonly too the authors teach that, the motion of the heavens ceasing, there ceased also in the sublunary world all those things of which that motion is the particular cause — for example, the tide of the sea, which depends on the moon. And this is the express opinion of the author of the Marvels of Sacred Scripture, book 2, chapter 4: Since, he says, we have shown that the course of the sea agrees in all things with the lunar course, and that it then rested, although it is kept silent in the words of Scripture, does not the observable going and coming of those things itself proclaim it? But the moon not only rested in this standing still, but also could not meanwhile carry on its custom of waxing or waning, etc. Yet, the motion of the heavens ceasing, there did not then cease all those other sublunary things of which that motion is only the universal cause: because between the universal influx of the heavens and these lower things there is no necessary connection, as Suarez expounds copiously and subtly in volume 1 of the Metaphysics, disputation 22 On the First Cause, section 5.

[198] in this Joshua was greater than Moses: Although, if we consider the divine omnipotence, all miracles are equal, yet one is greater than another if we regard the wonder which it begets in human minds. What can appear to man more wonderful and more astounding than that a man should command the heavens, fix laws for them, and hold back and bridle the sun and moon with all the other planets and stars by his voice alone, as if by reins? In the last chapter of Deuteronomy indeed we read that there arose no prophet in Israel greater than Moses in all the signs and wonders which (the Lord) sent by him to do in the land of Egypt, etc. But this passage is so to be understood, namely, that the lawgiver surpassed the other prophets in working miracles if these are all taken together and cumulatively; for if you take them singly, the Disciple was greater than his master, at least as regards this wonderful prodigy of the sun and moon standing still. See St. Thomas, 22, question 174, article 4.

[199] the 5 kings taken in a cave; their forces almost destroyed to the last man, Besides what has already been recounted, we believe that another signal miracle also was wrought on this memorable day. Of this there will be a more fitting place to treat below at num. 201, after we have narrated the things which happened after the sun was commanded to rest. When therefore Joshua, halting near Azeca, as we said at num. 191, had commanded the heavens before all the multitude, and the multitude had noticed that the Lord had obeyed the voice of a man and was fighting for Israel, they, increased in courage, press more sharply on the backs of the enemy fleeing toward Maceda. But the five kings, seeing all their army scattered, and that they had to do not only with men but with God Himself, come together into one place to avoid their own destruction, not knowing that they were divinely gathered for vengeance; and unawares they cast themselves into prison, when they shut themselves in the hiding places of a cave near the city of Maceda: For the five kings had fled, says Scripture from verse 16, and had hid themselves in a cave of the city of Maceda. And it was told Josue that the five kings were found hid in a cave of the city of Maceda. And he commanded his companions and said: Roll great stones to the mouth of the cave, and set careful men to keep them shut up. And stay you not, but pursue after the enemy and kill all the hindermost of them as they flee: and do not suffer them whom the Lord God hath delivered into your hands to shelter themselves in their cities.

[200] none of the Israelites being missing; So the enemy being slain with a great slaughter and almost utterly consumed to the last man, they that were able to escape from Israel entered into fenced cities. A full victory being won over the enemy, the machine of the heavens began to revolve with its former motion, and the sun to go down; and all the army returned to Josue in Maceda, where the camp then was. Its place the Commander had not assigned within the very walls of the city (for it had not yet come into his power, as is plain from what follows), but in its plains, and perhaps near the cave in which the captured kings were held. In verse 15 indeed it is said: And Josue returned with all Israel into the camp of Galgal, but this, as the interpreters note, is inserted by anticipation. For first the whole army flowed together near Maceda, where Joshua was, and punishment was exacted of the kings, and the other things were accomplished which are contained in the rest of the tenth chapter; at whose end it is repeated in its own proper place that the holy Prince returned with all Israel to the place of the camp in Gilgal; where he withdrew to winter quarters, the business having been well carried on through the whole time fit for warfare. On that day therefore the Israelites returned, not into Gilgal, but into a place near the city of Maceda, safe and in undiminished number, as is added in verse 21, so that none of them was missing. There is subjoined: And no man durst move his tongue against the children of Israel. They kept themselves, namely, shut within their walls and gates, nor did they dare to make an assault upon the retiring Hebrews or to hurl weapons, nay, not even to move a tongue against them, being no less broken by wounds than transfixed with stupor.

[201] But how could Joshua and the whole people bear the weight and heat of so long a day? [who do not seem to have been able to endure so many labors on that long day without a miracle.] Behold, all night they marched in arms from Gilgal to the besieged Gabaon: in the morning they rushed upon the enemy, and pursued him in flight as far as Maceda and farther (for on that day they are read in verse 21 to have returned), so that in one night and day they accomplished a march of about 16 hours, as can be gathered from Adrichomius' topographical chart of the promised land. To the length of the march was added the continuous labor of fighting and slaying, which lasted from the beginning of the day until evening — until evening, I say, which came at last not after 13 or 14 hours, as it is otherwise wont to be in Palestine at the time of the solstice or somewhat before, but after 26, 27, or 28. But who is of such iron hands and feet, of so robust a body, as to be able to bear so long-lasting a labor of fighting, running, and killing? Especially since no rest was interposed, nay, perhaps no refreshment of the body. That our Commander with his whole army passed this long day fasting St. Jerome writes, book 2 against Jovinian: Jesus the son of Nave commanded a standing still to the sun and the moon, and prolonged the fast of the Victorious army beyond one day: and Tertullian, in the book On Fasts, chapter 10: Do we suppose that Jesus Nave, subduing the Amorrhites, dined on that day on which he commanded a standing still to the very elements? It can indeed happen that in a great multitude one or another is so robust and so patient of labors as to endure over so great an interval of time watching, heat, and every straining of the body; but that so many, so different in bodily strength, should persevere so long in those troubles and labors, and so persevere as to remain safe and in undiminished number — this, I say, seems to me unable to be done without a miracle. I say therefore that God sustained by His divine influx the natural strength of the Commander and of the rest warring under him, so that neither were the organs of motion wearied nor the vital spirits failed. This miracle must be admitted, at least on the opinion of the said Fathers, who deny that the Israelites refreshed their bodies with food on that day.

§ XXI. The punishment of the V kings; the storming of Maceda, Lebna, Lachis, Eglon, Hebron, and Dabir; the utter destruction of the king of Gazer: were Hebron and Dabir taken more than once under the holy Commander? He occupies other cities in southern Canaan with wonderful speed.

[ ] The necks of the five kings are trodden by the feet of the Israelites, On the following day the business began with the punishment of the five kings: for this, as Cajetan rightly notes, was not done on that day most famous for prodigies, but on the following, as the text itself signifies not obscurely, affirming that they were first led out of the cave, then in insult trampled underfoot, then hanged and remained on the gibbets until evening: but only toward evening on the day before had he returned into the camp

the army, having well used the benefit of the long-lasting light; therefore the said kings were punished not on the same but on the following day. On the next day therefore Joshua ordered the mouth of the cave to be opened, the huge rocks being rolled back which the soldiers had rolled up the day before to prevent their flight: And Josue commanded, says the sacred Lesson from verse 22, saying: Open the mouth of the cave and bring out to me the five kings that lie hid therein. And the ministers did as they had been commanded: and they brought out to him the five kings out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jerimoth, the king of Lachis, the king of Eglon. And when they were brought out to him, he called all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the army that were with him: Go and set your feet on the necks of these kings. And when they had gone and put their feet upon the necks of them that lay under them, he said again to them: Fear not, neither be ye dismayed, take courage and be strong: for so will the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. On this passage I read among other things in Masius: That Joshua bids his tribunes insult the necks of the kings, who conquered, captured, prostrate, and suppliant lay before his feet, might make some think that it had much of the appearance of a commander cruelly using his victory. But who would believe that that Man, who had been instructed in the school of Moses — than whom no mortal ever lived milder in all the earth, as is in the sacred Letters, Numbers chapter 12, verse 3 — could have grown insolent beyond measure in this way? It is therefore plainly to be judged that in this matter Joshua, as in all others, did nothing except by a heavenly prompting… Nay, this manner of triumphing… Moses, prophesying at his departure, not only foretold, but also wonderfully extolled as the greatest argument of the dignity and happiness of the Israelite people, when he sang thus (Deuteronomy chapter 33, last verse): "Blessed art thou, Israel: who is like to thee, O people that art saved by the Lord? He is the shield of thy help and the sword of thy glory. For thy enemies shall be subjected to thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places" (others render necks).

[203] After these things those impious tyrants, condemned not so much by our Prince's as by God the avenger's sentence, pay the deserved penalties of death, as is narrated from verse 26: And Josue struck and slew them, and hanged them upon five gibbets: they are killed and hanged: Maceda is stormed, and they hung until evening. And when the sun was going down he commanded his companions to take them down from the gibbets, according to the law of Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23. And when they were taken down they cast them into the cave where they had lain hid, and put great stones on the mouth thereof, which remain until this present. The same day also Josue took Maceda and struck it with the edge of the sword, and killed the king and all the inhabitants thereof: he left not in it the least remains. And he did to the king of Maceda as he had done to the king of Jericho. This verse 28, which treats of the storming of Maceda, Salianus thus explains in his Epitome, num. 46: While those kinglets hung on the gibbets, Joshua did not give himself to rest; for on the same day he took Maceda, and thence carried his victorious army round to the cities of those kings lying about, some others also being taken on the march. But Maceda first received the blow, the nearness of the place inviting the army: the Commander also had to use his victory when he saw the spirits of his men kindled by the prosperous success of affairs, but those of the enemy weakened by so great a disaster. He therefore occupied Maceda and destroyed its king with all its inhabitants to the last man, and that within one and the same day. Nor yet is it absurd to say that the king of Maceda was kept alive to the next day, that hanging for one day he might remain as an example and a document of human inconstancy, but toward evening by the decree of the law should be taken down and committed to burial. Which day also, and perhaps not one only, was spent in the plundering of the city and in some rest; since the Israelites found God so favorable to them that almost single days sufficed for the taking of single cities. Therefore the day of the advance to the city of Lebna, or Lobna, as it is elsewhere called, is not defined.

[204] And he passed (the sacred words are from verse 29) with all Israel from Maceda to Lebna, Lebna, and fought against it: which the Lord delivered with its king into the hands of Israel: and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, and all the inhabitants thereof. They left not in it any remains. And they did to the king of Lebna as they had done to the king of Jericho. These things the same founder of the Annals thus illuminates at num. 47: And Joshua passed with all Israel — except those, however, who were in Gilgal — from Maceda to Lebna, between which Adrichomius sets a journey of no more than one hour. And that city, either by the nature of the place or by art, was so firm and fortified that in later ages it withstood even Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, fourth book of Kings chapter 19, verse 8. And it seems to have withstood Joshua for some time; for that word hints it, "And he fought against it." For since they saw most certainly that they must perish, they thought it therefore all one whether they died resisting or yielding. They resisted therefore perhaps some days, yet soon the Israelites burst into it; and they behaved in the same way against the king of Lebna and his people as against Maceda. For all were destroyed, and none was left, no sex or age, namely, being spared.

[205] The sacred Historian goes on to recount the victories of the unconquered Hero from verse 31: and Lachis; the utter destruction of the king of Gazer, From Lebna he passed to Lachis, which was two hours distant from it by Adrichomius' testimony, with all Israel: and the army being disposed round about, he laid siege to it. And the Lord delivered Lachis into the hands of Israel, and he took it the next day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every soul that was in it, as he had done to Lebna. And Lachis was easier to storm because its king Japhia with the chief part of the people, who had come against Gabaon, had fallen a little before. There is subjoined in verse 33: At that time came up Horam king of Gazer to help Lachis under siege. This king, whether bound by some treaty, or called out by the prayers of the desolate city, or moved by the nearness of the danger, hastened with all his people to bring aid to the men of Lachis. But if, the city being stormed, he came too late, certainly he came in good time for his own and his people's destruction; for Josue struck him with all his people unto utter destruction.

[206] and of the cities Eglon, About one day's journey from Lachis toward the south, in the tribe of Juda, is situated Eglon, whose king Dabir was also one of those five who had been hanged at the Prince's command. To this the victorious Israelites went on, and on the very day on which it began to be encircled with a siege it was stormed: for it was almost destitute of defenders, since its inhabitants, except perhaps a few who had been left in garrison, had set out with their king to besiege Gabaon, and had for the greatest part fallen on that famous day. Of this expedition thus briefly verses 34 and 35: And (Josue) passed from Lachis to Eglon and surrounded it and stormed it the same day: and he struck with the edge of the sword all the souls that were in it, according to all that he had done to Lachis.

[207] Hebron, Eglon being taken, he led the army to the interior parts of the tribe of Juda, toward the south, to its mountains. For in these was situated Hebron, one of the most powerful cities of Canaan for the bravery of its inhabitants, the extent of the fields subject to it, and the number of its towns. Of its storming there is treatment from verse 36: He went up also with all Israel from Eglon to Hebron and fought against it: he took it and struck it with the edge of the sword, its king also and all the towns of that region, and all the souls that had dwelt in it: he left not therein any remains: as he had done to Eglon, so did he also to Hebron, consuming with the sword all that he found in it. But had not its king already been killed and hanged at Maceda? One of two things must be said: either that a new king had been chosen in it, perhaps his son, or another by the people, lest in those most difficult times the city should long lack a ruler; or that here mention is repeated of king Oham, killed at the cave.

[208] and Dabir: There follows in the sacred text from verse 38: Returning thence to Dabir, he took it and destroyed it: its king also and all the towns round about he struck with the edge of the sword: he left not in it any remains: as he had done to Hebron and Lebna and to their kings, so did he to Dabir and to its king. Masius conjectures that the commander Joshua, after Hebron was stormed, ran out somewhat farther to the borders of the Idumeans and Philistines; for presently in verse 41 it is said that he ravaged with arms as far as Cadesbarne and Gaza; and that thence he returned to the city of Dabir, nearer to Hebron. Salianus approves this conjecture in the Annals, num. 193, whom consult if you please.

[209] while the holy Commander lived, Hebron and Dabir The war which was waged and finished on that great day against the five kings, the interpreters and writers of Annals call the Gabaonite war, because it was undertaken for the Gabaonites' sake; or the Adonisedechian, because its author and chief leader was Adonisedec. But the prosecution of it the same men are wont to call the Southern war, because the holy Commander waged it having advanced to the south. What has been said of the storming of Hebron and Dabir and the neighboring towns we believe, with Torniellus, Tirinus, and Calmet, to be repeated in chapter XI, verses 21 and 22, where some circumstances passed over in chapter 10 are added: At that time Josue came and killed the Enacim from the mountains of Hebron and Dabir and Anab, and from all the mountain of Juda and Israel, and destroyed their cities. He left not any of the stock of the Enacim in the land of the children of Israel: except the cities of Gaza and Geth and Azotus, in which alone they were left. From which it is understood that the inhabitants of the kingdoms of Hebron and Dabir were those monsters of men of the giant stock, whose bravery and cruelty narrated by the explorers had struck such horror into the Israelites that, despairing of being able to conquer so formidable an enemy, they seditiously thought of a return into Egypt, Numbers chapter 13, from verse 29. As many of those giants as could not slip away in flight into the nearer cities of the Philistines, Gaza, Geth, and Azotus, were killed by the victorious army. Those who had betaken themselves to these cities were left in them; for the holy Prince did not storm them. Whence it came about that, while all Israel was occupied in subduing the kings of northern Canaan, to their former

seats they migrated back and repaired and fortified their cities situated in southern Canaan, and especially Hebron itself and Dabir. That this happened at the time in which war was waged toward the north for about five years is manifest from this, that before Joshua divided the land among the twelve tribes, Hebron in chapter 14, verse 12, is said to have been under the power of the enemy, under which it remained for the rest of the holy Prince's life, as we shall say in the following number.

[210] Bonfrerius and others will have it that the alleged verses of chapter XI do not repeat what is here reported in chapter 10 about Hebron and Dabir; we believe were stormed by the Israelites only once: but that the holy Commander, the northern war being finished, returned to southern Canaan to subdue the giants of the Enacim, who had reclaimed their lands: but how will you reconcile this with the words of Caleb to Joshua, chapter 14, verse 12: Give me therefore this mountain (Hebron) which the Lord promised, in thy hearing also, in which are the Enacim and cities great and strong; if so be the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to destroy them, as he promised me. From these it is plain that Caleb asks for land occupied by the enemy. And this petition was made before the partition of the land was begun, between which and the end of the Northern war a very short time, according to all, intervened. Therefore Hebron and Dabir were more likely occupied only once before the distribution of the land, and that when the southern region of Canaan was the seat of war; and when this was transferred to its northern parts, they were retaken by the enemy and remained under their power as long as the Saint lived. Chapter 15 indeed from verse 14 narrates that Caleb and Othoniel stormed both cities; but this, according to St. Augustine, question 3 on Judges, and most others, happened after the death of Joshua; since the same thing is reported in almost the same words in Judges chapter 1 from verse 10. But, you will say, in chapter 14 there is subjoined to Caleb's petition: And Josue blessed him and gave him Hebron in possession. And from that time Hebron belonged to Caleb the son of Jephone the Cenezite until this present day: but it does not follow from this that possession was at once entered upon by Caleb, the enemy being slain or driven out. Consult the interpreters everywhere at hand on the passages cited in this and the preceding number. All opinions being examined, this seems to me the more probable, which lays down that in chapter XI, verses 21 and 22, there is repeated what is reported in chapter 10 from verse 36; but that in chapter 15, from verse 14, the victories of Caleb and Othoniel, which Judges chapter 1 from verse 10 narrates, are anticipated; and that in chapter 14, verse 14, there is treatment of possession by right: from which it follows that Hebron and Dabir were taken only once under the holy Commander.

[211] besides the six named, other cities in Scripture mentions only six royal cities occupied in the Southern war: Maceda, Lebna, Lachis, Eglon, Hebron, and Dabir. Although he is not read to have advanced to subdue Jerusalem, Jerimoth, and Gazer, yet since it is evident from chapter 10, verses 3, 26, and 33, that their kings with their army were slain, I do not doubt that our Leader, judging that he must use his victory, took the said cities, dismayed by the destruction of their kings, in this year also, in which war was waged toward the south. In chapter 12, from verse 9, thirty-one kings are enumerated as conquered by the Saint, among whom, besides those nine whose royal seats we have just now named, there are recounted four others who reigned in those lands which afterwards fell by lot to the tribe of Juda, namely the kings of Gader, Herma, Hered, and Odullam. These too I think were subdued in the Southern war.

[212] But that besides the six cities named in chapter 10 in southern Canaan Joshua takes the holy Leader took other cities also in the Southern war, is manifest from verse 40 and following: So Josue struck all the mountain country and the south and the plain country and Asedoth (most understand by this word out-of-the-way places and valleys) with their kings: he left not any remains therein, but slew all that could breathe of the human race, as the Lord the God of Israel had commanded him, from Cadesbarne even to Gaza. All the land of Gozen as far as Gabaon, and all their kings and their regions he took and laid waste at one onset: for the Lord the God of Israel fought for him. Scripture here sets before our eyes a great space of places which at one onset — that is, by a single continued sally or expedition, without any interruption of longer delay in any place — he ran through like a thunderbolt and subjected to Israel. But that it may not recount one by one the several names of cities and regions to which he carried round his victorious arms, it says in general that he reduced into his power all the lands of southern Canaan which are situated between Cadesbarne and Gaza, Gabaon and the land of Gozen. But all the royal cities mentioned above are placed within those four points in the topographical charts of Calmet and of the other geographers: whence follows what we just now asserted. In chapter 12, verses 17 and 18, in the catalogue of the conquered kings there are also placed the kings of Taphua, Opher, and Aphec. If Scripture here speaks of the Taphua and Aphec which in chapter 15, verses 34 and 53, are assigned to the tribe of Juda, and of the Opher which in chapter 18, verse 23, fell to the Benjaminites, I judge that their kings perished with their people in the same expedition as the rest before named. But if it treats of the Taphua which in chapter 16, verse 8, and chapter 17, verse 8, it places on the borders of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasse, of the Aphec which in chapter 19, verse 30, fell to the sons of Aser, and of the Opher situated in the tribe of Zabulon, they must be numbered among the kings conquered in the Northern war, of which the following paragraph speaks. Whoever desires a fuller knowledge of these places and of the others of which mention has thus far been made, let him go to Calmet's Biblical Dictionary and his Commentaries on Joshua chapter 10 from verse 28 and chapter 12 from verse 9, to Adrichomius, and to others.

[213] That the holy Leader with almost incredible speed within the first year of his rule besieged and stormed so many cities, routed so many armies, slew so many kings, and accomplished so many marches, is the very probable conjecture of the most learned Salianus, which we follow. with almost incredible speed; he returns with the army to Gilgal. Verse 42 favors it: And all their kings and their regions he took and laid waste at one onset, that is, by a single continued sally. The cause of so great success and speed is added: for the Lord the God of Israel fought for him. Which you may refer not only to the shower of stones hurled upon the enemy and to the checked course of the sun and moon, but also to the terror cast into the minds of the enemy and to the bravery and alacrity supplied to the Hebrews: But as (the words are those of the same Salianus in the Epitome, num. 51) this help of God avails to lessen wonder and to gain belief, so that command of the same God which verse 40 of chapter 10 mentions not only excuses or mitigates that incredible and unusual severity with which the Hebrews raged against the Canaanites with no difference of age or sex, but even makes it just and praiseworthy. For God's sentence upon this nation, passed many ages before, assuredly most just and unequal to their most monstrous crimes, they at length at this time carried out, that supreme Judge commanding. On the contrary, they did not escape just rebuke who, whether from sloth or from a perverse clemency, spared very many Canaanites, God opposing, to their own destruction. I would not think that Salianus means that the Lord passed the sentence of death upon absolutely all the Canaanites; but that he speaks only of those whom the holy Commander did not spare, because they preferred war to peace, refusing to yield their lands to the Israelites and to forsake idolatry. If it was God's law that even those subjecting themselves and their goods to the Hebrews and embracing the true religion should be killed, then it was by a perverse clemency and with God opposing that he kept the covenant sworn with the Gabaonites. See above, num. 178 and following, and below, num. 225. Further, southern Canaan being subdued, the Commander turned his march back toward Gabaon, and returned with all Israel to the place of the camp in Galgal, verse 43; where namely the ark of the Lord was. What Scripture has about the Southern war Josephus thus contracted, hastening namely to other matters: The kings who had attacked the Gabaonites being thus subdued, Jesus leads his army into the mountains of Canaan: and, a great slaughter being made in that region and booty driven off, he leads the army back to Galgala.

§ XXII. Jabin and the other northern kings gather a huge army: the Saint gains a victory foretold by God; he takes the most strongly fortified Asor and other cities; he divides the booty: God willed that some lands in Canaan should not be stormed under Joshua.

[ ] The king of Asor with the other confederate kings of northern Canaan While Joshua tarries in winter quarters at Gilgal and refreshes his army with some rest, the second year of his rule dawns, and the forty-second of Israelite liberty. In the meantime the kings who in the former year had conspired for the destruction of the Hebrews (for we think with Salianus that these are the same as those spoken of here, as we said at num. 164) drew together into one place forces almost innumerable, that they might destroy the common enemy by a common war, and that in one and the same cause of all there might be one and the same peril. The king of Asor, named Jabin, the most powerful of the kings ruling in northern Canaan, offered himself as the author and leader of the war against the Israelites. Which kings joined allied arms, and out of what peoples the army of immense multitude was made up, we learn from Scripture, chapter XI, from verse 1: And when Jabin king of Asor had heard these things, he sent to Jobab king of Madon and to the king of Semeron and to the king of Achsaph: and to the kings of the north that dwelt in the mountains and in the plain over against the south side of Ceneroth, and in the plains also and in the countries of Dor by the sea side: to the Chanaanite also on the east and on the west, and the Amorrhite and the Hethite and the Pherezite and the Jebusite in the mountains; to the Hevite also that dwelt at the foot of Hermon in the land of Maspha. And they all came out with their troops, a people exceeding numerous as the sand that is on the sea shore; their horses also and chariots a very great multitude. The proper names of nations and places of which mention is here made and will be made below, see examined in Salianus at the year of the world 2585, in Calmet, Bonfrerius, and others here.

[215] gathers a most numerous army against Joshua, If we believe Lyranus, Dionysius the Carthusian, Adrichomius, and others, twenty-four kings conspired against the Israelites. But since all the kings conquered by the Saint down to this time were only thirty-one, as is said

in chapter 12 at the last verse, and since already before the war against Jabin and his allies Scripture expresses the defeat and death of eleven kings overcome in the wars of Jericho, of Hai, of Gabaon, and of the south, only twenty must remain: from whom more probably five others, and perhaps more, must be subtracted, who were conquered not in this Northern war but in those earlier ones. Therefore the kings conquered in northern Canaan were fewer in number than 24. See below, num. 227. Only four of them are named in this chapter XI, verse 1: the rest are comprised in verse 2 and elsewhere under general terms. Josephus writes that in the army gathered by them there were three hundred thousand foot, ten thousand horse, and twenty thousand chariots. But Scripture determines no number. To the most numerous forces of so many kings, because they came out not only from different but also from widely separated places, a fixed place was assigned to which all should flow together: And all these kings assembled together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel, verse 5.

[216] to whom, as he advances to meet the enemy, the Lord announces victory: When these things had become known to the provident Commander, he did not wait until so great an army should besiege him in Gilgal; but, judging that he must forestall it, he preferred to fight in the enemy's country rather than in his own. This availed for the terror of the enemy and the strengthening of his own men. He therefore set out on the march with his men, on which the Lord announced victory to him; and at the same time bade the sinews of the legs of the captured horses be cut and the enemy's chariots be burned, lest perhaps afterwards the Israelites should use them in this or that battle; whom He willed to place all their trust not in chariots and in horses but in God alone. Of this precept thus verse 6: And the Lord said to Josue: Fear them not: for tomorrow at this same hour I will deliver all these to be slain in the sight of Israel: thou shalt hamstring their horses and shalt burn their chariots with fire. The Lord spoke these things on the day before the battle, as is evident from the word tomorrow; not in Gilgal, but on the march itself, as has been said: for all the interpreters place the waters of Merom too far from the camp for the journey from the one to the other to have been accomplished in one day.

[217] There follows the battle, slaughter, and flight of the enemy, from verse 7: the battle, slaughter, and flight of the enemy: And Josue came, and all the army with him, against them suddenly at the waters of Merom — for he had now learned by experience how much weight lies in diligence and speed — and rushed upon them, when perhaps they were not yet ready and drawn up for battle. And the Lord delivered them into the hands of Israel. And they struck them and pursued them as far as the great Sidon and the waters of Maserephoth and the field of Masphe, which is on the east part thereof. He struck them all, so that he left no remains of them: And he did as the Lord had commanded him, he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire, verses 8 and following. But that the Victor is said to have left none of his adversaries remaining does not conflict with many having slipped away in flight into fortified cities. For this is certain of the king of Asor from verse 10. Therefore to have left no remains is here the same as to have given life to none who came into his power. In the same way I understand the same words often repeated in the tenth chapter in the enumeration of the cities taken in the Southern war.

[218] After the affairs of the Canaanites were cut down by that unhappy battle, he takes the most strongly fortified Asor and Joshua had recalled his army from pursuing and slaying the enemy to their standards, he soon turned his hostile arms against Asor, the head of the enemy's cities, and, having occupied it, all its inhabitants with their king being slain, burnt it. The matter is thus narrated in Scripture from verse 10: And returning he immediately took Asor: and struck its king with the sword. For Asor of old held the sovereignty among all these kingdoms. And he struck all the souls that abode there: he left not in it any remains, but wasted all unto utter destruction, and destroyed the city itself with fire.

[219] The stormings of very many cities which then followed Scripture does not pursue one by one in this chapter, and other cities; he kills the inhabitants of all; he lays some waste with fire; content to signify all things in general in a few words: And, it says in verse 12, he took all the cities round about and their kings, and struck and destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded him, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 2, and chapter 20, verse 16. But what it subjoins about the burnt cities has some difficulty: Except the cities, it says in verse 13, that were on hills and in mounds, Israel burnt the rest: only Asor, the best fortified, was consumed with flame. Scripture seems here to speak things at variance: But, says Salianus in the Epitome at the year 2586, num. 2, two kinds of cities must be posited: some were girt with mounds and ramparts and difficult to storm; others on the contrary easy to take and open to injury: and these indeed the Israelites burnt, but the former they preserved for their own use and habitation, and did not burn, except Asor, which was consumed with flames for the terror of the others. Abulensis, a Lapide, etc., agree. In this chapter, as I said just now, the names of the cities taken in the Northern war are kept silent; the chief cities, however, which were the seats of kings, are named at the end of the following chapter.

[220] And the children of Israel divided among themselves all the booty of those cities and the cattle, he distributes the booty: in wars and other affairs killing all the men, verse 14. Again I subjoin the words of the praised Salianus at num. 3: The greatness of that booty Scripture kept silent: yet if anyone should wish to estimate it from the Midianite booty, Numbers chapter 31, which was a modest province among the Moabites, he did not depart from God's law. he will easily understand that immense wealth and an infinite quantity of cattle were heaped up from the fields and cities of so many provinces. Further, the division was made not only among those warriors who served with Joshua; but those also were partakers of it who had remained in Gilgal, and those who were left in garrison in the conquered cities. For it appears that Joshua followed the example of Moses in the distribution of the Midianite booty, and was not forgetful of the priests and Levites. Yet among the spoils distributed by the Commander there were not gold, silver, or other material out of which idols had been made: for all this had to be consumed by fire according to the Lord's law, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 25. But that he everywhere overthrew all idols and their altars and groves, as is commanded in the same book, chapter 12, verse 3, and, to conclude in a word, fulfilled all the divine laws whose execution he had by his office to press upon himself and his subjects, Scripture confirms by a signal and shining testimony here in verse 15: As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Josue; and he fulfilled all things: he left not out of all the commandments not so much as one word which the Lord had commanded Moses. See above, num. 176 and 177.

[221] The Northern war from Josephus, who, while it was impending, In Scripture there are afterwards no more wars reported which were waged by the common arms of the Israelites under Joshua's leadership. The rest of the eleventh chapter and the twelfth repeat and summarily touch on what was done before, with some circumstances added which had before been passed over. Before we go on to these with Scripture, let us weigh what Josephus wrote about the Northern war: And when far and wide through the regions lying round about rumor was spread of the deeds bravely done by the Hebrews, and of the astonishing multitude of the slain, there were roused against them the kings dwelling near Libanus, themselves also of the Canaanite race, and as many Canaanites as inhabit the plains, and, the Philistines being called in, they pitched camp at the Galilean city Berotha, not far from upper Cadesa, which is also situated in the territory of the Galileans. These places are near the lake Semeschon in the tribe of Nephthali, which many will have to be the waters of Merom of which verse 5 speaks. And all these forces were three hundred thousand foot, ten thousand horse, twenty thousand chariots. Which so great multitude of enemies terrified both Jesus himself and the other Israelites so much that for fear they were very little short of despair. But when God had reproached them with their dread, and that they did not think themselves safe enough under His protection; and, having promised victory, had commanded that the captured horses be hamstrung and the chariots burned: confidence being conceived from these promises, Joshua leads his men against the enemy: whom, reaching them on the fifth day, he gives opportunity of fighting, and a strong conflict takes place, and a slaughter greater than can easily be believed was made. In the flight too very many fell, so that except a few the whole hostile army perished. The kings also were all slain to a man, and such fury was used against the conquered that, the men being destroyed, they turned the sword upon the horses and burned the chariots. Finally he ranged over the whole region, and, none daring to engage, stormed the towns and killed as many as came into his hands.

[222] wrongly fastens on the Saint a fear close to despair: The Jewish historian departs from Scripture in this, that whereas God in verse 6 announced victory to the holy Prince on the day before the contest, he writes that this was done before the fifth day. He departs besides in this, that he says that all the kings to a man were slain in that conflict, whereas from verse 10 it is evident that the king of Asor escaped from the battle and afterwards perished with his city. By another error less tolerable than the former he vitiates his narrative. He does not blush to fasten upon the army victorious over so many kings, and indeed upon our most brave Hero, a fear next to despair, and to assert that this was reproached to him by the Lord; to him, I say, who lately had such signal trust in God that he did not hesitate to hope for, nay even to command, the standing still of the sun and moon; who had so experienced the God of hosts fighting with him that he saw the enemy slaughtered by hailstones far and wide from the descent of Beth-horon as far as Azeca. What trace of such great fear can be shown in Scripture? For what, if the Lord said to him, Fear not, was he therefore very little short of despair? The same surely could be said of Abraham, to whom, when he returned victorious, the Lord said, Genesis chapter 15, verse 1: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector.

[223] From verse 16 there is related in summary whatever the Saint subdued from the first year of his princedom: Joshua attacked the Canaanites over a space of about six years: So Josue took all the mountain country and the south and the land of Gosen and the plain and the west country and the mountain of Israel and its plains: and part of the mountain that goes up to Seir as far as Baalgad by the plain of Libanus under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, struck, and slew. Josue fought a long time against these kings. The land of Gosen and mount Seir on the south, but the plain of Libanus and the mountains Baalgad and Hermon on the north

bound Canaan. Salianus defines the time in which the holy Prince, after the crossing of the Jordan, waged war against the inhabitants of the promised land as five years. It is truer that it lasted six whole years; as is sufficiently gathered from Caleb's age in chapter 14. See num. 230. In the first year all the wars were finished which are described in the book of Joshua as far as chapter XI: in the second we think that king Jabin with the northern kings confederated with him was conquered, and the city of Asor taken: but that the remaining four years were spent in pursuing the remnants of the war and in besieging and taking fortified cities.

[224] Before we go on to other things, we judge that the reader must be warned God for reasons willed that the Saint should not storm some of their lands; that the sacred words of chapter XI given in the preceding number, and verse 23 of the same, Josue therefore took all the land, etc., and other like expressions which afterwards often occur in the book of Joshua, must be understood in an accommodated sense, so that they can be reconciled with chapter XI, verse 22, chapter 13, verse 2 and following, and other places of the same book of Joshua; from which it is certain that the Saint never subjected some cities and regions of Canaan to Israel. And the apparently conflicting texts are commonly reconciled by the interpreters in two ways. Some say that Joshua took all Canaan, because he had conquered as it were all, or far the greater part of it, and the inhabitants to whose dominions he had not advanced to subject them did not dare to provoke him to war. Others say that he subdued all the land, namely which he had trodden with his feet or had gone to attack, as the Lord had promised him, Joshua chapter 1, verse 3: I will deliver to you every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, as I have said to Moses, Deuteronomy chapter XI, verse 24. But that it was the divine counsel that under Joshua's princedom not absolutely all Canaan should be reduced into the Israelites' power, is plain from Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 22: He (God) will consume these nations in thy sight by little and little and by degrees. Thou wilt not be able to destroy them altogether, lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase upon thee. The same reason is given in Exodus chapter 23, from verse 29; which see expounded among the interpreters. I read another in Judges chapter 2, last verse, and chapter 3, from verse 1: The Lord therefore left all these nations and would not quickly destroy them, neither did he deliver them into the hands of Josue. These are the nations which the Lord left, that by them he might instruct Israel and all that had not known the wars of the Chanaanites; that afterwards their children might learn to fight with their enemies and to be trained up to war: the five princes of the Philistines and all the Chanaanite and the Sidonian and the Hevite that dwelt in mount Libanus, from mount Baal Hermon to the entering into Emath. And he left them, that he might try Israel by them, whether they would hear the commandments of the Lord which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses, or not. Another reason is brought forward in Wisdom chapter 12, from verse 3: For those ancient inhabitants of thy holy land, whom thou didst abhor, because they did works hateful to thee, thou wouldst destroy by the hands of our fathers… But even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thy host, to destroy them by little and little: not that thou wast unable to bring the wicked under the just by war, or by cruel beasts or with a rough word to destroy them at once: but executing thy judgments by degrees thou gavest place for repentance, not being ignorant that their nation is wicked and their malice natural, and that their thought could never be changed. And below, verse 19: But thou hast taught thy people by such works, that they must be just and humane; and thou hast made thy children to be of a good hope: because in judging thou givest place for repentance for sins.

[225] those whom he subjected he conquered by war, the Gabaonites excepted: Although the Canaanites were afflicted with hornets or wasps and other evils divinely sent before the coming of the Hebrews, Exodus chapter 23, from verse 27, and after the entrance of the Israelites into their lands were visited with continual disasters, and God deferred their supreme destruction so many years that they might at last be converted to the knowledge of Him and to repentance; nevertheless they persisted so obstinately in idolatry and their other crimes that no one would make peace with the Israelites, except the Hevite, the inhabitant of Gabaon. Wherefore God willed those nations, which had filled up the measure of their sins, to be destroyed and cut off with Joshua as the executor: There was not a city, it is said in the text here from verse 19, which, leaving the worship of idols and its other crimes, delivered itself to the children of Israel, except the Hevite who dwelt in Gabaon: for all which came into Israel's power he took by fight. For it was the sentence of the Lord that their hearts should be hardened, or that He should permit their hardening, arising from the stubbornness of their own perverse will, and, peace being repudiated, that they should fight against Israel and fall and not deserve any clemency, and should perish, as the Lord had commanded Moses. From this passage it seems manifestly to follow that, if the Canaanites had not hardened their minds in their crimes and in rejecting peace, the Israelites would have used clemency toward them, and that the divine precept about destroying the Canaanites to the last man does not extend to the repentant Gabaonites who embraced the true religion and the other conditions of peace. Of these we have discoursed at sufficient length in paragraphs 17 and 18.

[226] the conclusion of things done and the taking up of things to be done. In verses 21 and 22 we believe that there is repeated what is narrated in the preceding chapter from verse 36. We gave the words at num. 209. Finally in verse 23 there is given a brief summary of all things done by Joshua both in war and in peace, in these words: Josue therefore took all the land, as the Lord spoke to Moses; and these things have thus far been set forth: And he delivered it in possession to the children of Israel according to their divisions and tribes; and this is the subject of almost all that is afterwards related in the whole book: so that it is as it were a transition to the other part of the business for which the Lord had taken up Joshua. There is subjoined: And the land rested from wars.

§ XXIII. The catalogue of the kings conquered by Joshua; he is bidden by God to divide the land; he grants Caleb the promised Hebron; the tribe of Ephraim and the half of Manasse complaining of their lot he admonishes to seek by arms wider spaces for dwelling.

[ ] The list of the kings conquered by the holy Commander; In chapter 12 there is prefixed to the division of the promised land an enumeration of the kings conquered under Moses and his Successor, whose dominions were distributed among the Israelites. In the catalogue of the kings conquered by our holy Commander some are recounted of whom no mention has been made in the victories recorded: from which you may understand that only the heads as it were of the things done in the Southern and Northern wars have been narrated. And it is woven thus from verse 7: These are the kings of the land whom Josue and the children of Israel struck beyond the Jordan on the west side, from Baalgad in the field of Libanus unto the mountain, part of which goeth up into Seir: and Josue delivered it in possession to the tribes of Israel, to every one their portions, as well in the mountains as in the plains and champaign country. In Asedoth and in the wilderness and in the south was the Hethite and the Amorrhite, the Chanaanite and the Pherezite, the Hevite and the Jebusite. The king of Jericho one, the king of Hai which is on the side of Bethel one, the king of Jerusalem one, the king of Hebron one, the king of Jerimoth one, the king of Lachis one, the king of Eglon one, the king of Gazer one, the king of Dabir one, the king of Gader one, the king of Herma one, the king of Hered one, the king of Lebna one, the king of Odullam one, the king of Maceda one, the king of Bethel one. All these were conquered in the Gabaonite and Southern wars, except the kings of Jericho, Hai, and Bethel. This last we think was slain with his people in the war of Hai. See num. 157. There follow: the king of Taphua one, the king of Opher one, the king of Aphec one. We said at num. 212 that it is uncertain whether these kings were northern or southern. Masius numbers the first among these, the two latter among those. Those whom the catalogue then recounts all reigned in northern Canaan and were conquered there: the king of Saron one, the king of Madon one, the king of Asor one, the king of Semeron one, the king of Acsaph one, the king of Thenac one, the king of Mageddo one, the king of Cades one, the king of Jachanan of Carmel one, the king of Dor and of the province of Dor one, the king of the nations of Galgal one, the king of Thersa one: all the kings thirty-one.

[228] But, you will say, if this catalogue be accurate, how in chapter 15, verse 63, is Jerusalem, in chapter 16, verse 10, Gazer, in chapter 17, verse XI, Dor, Thenac, and Mageddo read to be still occupied by the enemy? I judge that many of their inhabitants escaped Joshua's sword by headlong flight, yet a few of their royal seats were afterwards recovered by the enemy. and afterwards, as we said at num. 209 that the sons of Enac did, reclaimed and fortified their cities. At what time they did this — whether before the division of Canaan, when the Hebrews had transferred the seat of war to places farther from the said cities, or at the very time of the division, or after it, or even after the death of Joshua — I do not inquire. Some one of these can probably be asserted of some city: for it is certain that various things are inserted here and there in the book of Joshua, especially from chapter 13 to 22, which were done after the distribution of the promised land, nay, and after the Saint's death. Whence many infer that Joshua was not the author of this book, against others who will have it that those things were added by Esdras or another sacred writer. Go to number 267 and following.

[229] The migration into Africa of the Canaanites who slipped away in flight. Very many of the Canaanites whom fear of the war of extermination which the Israelites were waging against them had driven from their seats migrated into other lands. Procopius narrates a thing worthy of record, book 2 On the Vandal War, chapter 10. I shall give the words as our Claude Maltret published them rendered into Latin at Paris in the year 1662: When the Hebrews, having gone out of Egypt, were not far from the borders of Palestine, Moses, the guide of the way, a wise man, departed this life. The leadership was taken up by Jesus the son of Nave: who, having brought this nation into Palestine, obtained the region, displaying in war a valor greater than human; and, all the natives being conquered, easily gained possession of the cities, and was reputed plainly unconquerable. At that time all the maritime region from Sidon to the borders of Egypt was called Phœnice, and that there was of old but one king there is established by the confession of all who have written about the antiquities of the Phœnicians. There dwelt nations abounding in number: Gergesites, Jebusites, and others distinguished by other names in the History of the Hebrews. But when they understood that the newcomer Leader could not be conquered, leaving their country they migrated into neighboring Egypt. Here, no place being found which might afford them seats spacious enough, since

Egypt had already from a long age been crowded with peoples, they withdrew into Africa: which they held whole as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and filled it with many cities founded. The inhabitants use the Phœnician tongue even now. They also built a fortress in a Numidian city: where is the city already mentioned, Tigisis. There by a most abundant spring are seen two columns of white stone, which preserve this sentence carved in Phœnician letters and words: WE ARE THEY WHO FLED FROM THE FACE OF JESUS THE ROBBER, THE SON OF NAVE. Whatever be the case with this inscription and with some circumstances of the narrative, which there is no leisure here to examine, the migration of the Canaanites into Africa is confirmed by these testimonies of St. Augustine; in his Unfinished Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans he says: Our country people, being asked what they are, answering in Punic Chanani, one letter being corrupted, as is usual in such cases, what else do they answer than Canaanites? And in question 16 on Judges he says: Those tongues, the Punic and the Canaanite or Hebrew, do not differ much between themselves. Calmet may be consulted, who prefixed to his Commentaries on the book of Joshua a long dissertation on the migration of the Canaanites into other lands.

[230] In the seventh year of his princedom Joshua In the seventh year from the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan the distribution of that land on this side the Jordan to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasse was more likely begun. This is gathered from the years of Caleb in chapter 14, from verse 7, where he speaks thus: I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Cadesbarne to view the land, and I brought him word again as to me seemed true… And Moses swore in that day, saying: The land which thy foot hath trodden upon shall be thy possession and thy children's for ever, because thou hast followed the Lord my God… It is forty-five years since the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel journeyed through the wilderness: this day I am eighty-five years old. Let the reader recall to mind that from the going out of Egypt to the crossing of the Jordan forty years flowed by; that in the second year from the going out the explorers were sent, and in the remaining 38 the Israelites wandered in the desert; and it will at once appear to one who casts up the reckoning that the division was more probably begun in the year we have said. See this reckoning of time established against some dissenters in Torniellus at the year 2590, num. 1, and in Natalis Alexander, Ecclesiastical History of the Old Testament, volume 1, page 301, column 2.

[231] Therefore Joshua in the seventh year from the crossing of the Jordan, which was also the seventh of his princedom, being a hundred years old is bidden by the Lord to divide Canaan by lot: and about the hundredth of his age, is admonished by the Lord to set about fulfilling the other part of his office, namely the partition of the promised land. Already, as is credible, the Commander was girding himself to subdue the remaining kings of Canaan; for besides those thirty-one deprived of kingdom and life in the former wars, others too held kingdoms in that most fertile and most populous region: but God willed the distribution to be made first, and the storming of the remaining lands to be committed to the particular arms of each tribe, for the reasons which I transcribed from Scripture at num. 224. Of the division, commanded by God, of the land both subdued and afterwards to be subdued, chapter 13 treats from verse 1: Josue was old and far advanced in years, and the Lord said to him: Thou art grown old and advanced in age, and there is a very large country left which is not yet divided by lot. Then God enumerates the parts of Canaan not yet conquered, which are to fall by lot to the Israelites. Of which He says, verse 6: I am he who will destroy them from before the face of the children of Israel. Let it come therefore in the portion of the inheritance of Israel, as I have commanded thee. And now divide the land in possession to the nine tribes and to the half tribe of Manasse, with which, that is, with whose other part, Ruben and Gad have possessed the land which Moses the servant of the Lord delivered to them beyond the streams of the Jordan, on the east side. Of which land, then, distributed to the two tribes and a half, He pursues the extent in general from verse 9. Then from verse 15 He recounts one by one the limits by which the portion of the tribe of Ruben; from verse 24, by which the lot of the tribe of Gad; from verse 29, by which the inheritance of the half tribe of Manasse was bounded.

[232] At the beginning of chapter 14 the division of the land made to the remaining tribes on this side the Jordan is set forth in general, he blesses Caleb and delivers to him the promised Hebron: in these words: This is what the children of Israel possessed in the land of Chanaan, which Eleazar the priest and Josue the son of Nun and the princes of the families by the tribes of Israel gave to them: dividing all by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses (Numbers chapter 34, verse 13), to the nine tribes and the half tribe, etc. This division was not finished before the camp had been removed from Gilgal to Shiloh, as will be understood from what follows. But it was begun in this year, while Joshua still tarried in Gilgal. Further, the casting of lots for the land on this side the Jordan being at hand, the children of Juda came (from verse 6) to Josue in Galgal, and Caleb the son of Jephone the Cenezite spoke to him: Thou knowest what the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Cadesbarne. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Cadesbarne to view the land, and I brought him word again as to me seemed true. But my brethren that had gone up with me discouraged the heart of the people: and I nevertheless followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore in that day, saying: The land which thy foot hath trodden upon shall be thy possession and thy children's for ever, because thou hast followed the Lord my God. The Lord therefore hath granted me life, as he promised, until this present day… Give me therefore this mountain which the Lord promised, in thy hearing also, in which are the Enacim and cities great and strong: if so be the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to destroy them, as he promised me. And Josue blessed him and gave him Hebron in possession.

[233] [the lot of the tribes of Juda, Ephraim, and half of Manasse; the portion of the daughters of Salphaad:] After Caleb had obtained the portion of land which God had of old decreed for him through Moses for his constancy against the seditious, its own lot is assigned to the tribe of Juda, of which almost the whole of chapter 15 treats, first indeed in general, all its borders round about being described, then in particular, the cities of that tribe being recounted by name. From verse 13 to 20 there is inserted by prolepsis how after the death of Joshua Caleb occupied those things which had fallen to him outside the lot in that tribe. In chapter 16 are described the boundaries of the region which fell to the tribe of Ephraim. In chapter 17 is designated the lot of the half tribe of Manasse and of the daughters of Salphaad. Of these thus verse 4: And they came in the presence of Eleazar the priest and of Josue the son of Nun and of the princes, saying: The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses (Numbers chapter 27, from verse 1), that a possession should be given us in the midst of our brethren. And (Josue) gave them, according to the commandment of the Lord, a possession amongst the brethren of their father.

[234] the complaint of the sons of Joseph about their lot, The men of Manasse and the Ephraimites, having heard their lot, were not content: for Scripture subjoins from verse 14: And the children of Joseph spoke to Josue and said: Why hast thou given me — that is, us, who make two tribes — the possession of one lot and one portion, whereas I am of so great a multitude and the Lord hath blessed me? They say this, as appears from what follows, not because the regions assigned them by lot were insufficient for both tribes, but because a good part of them was wooded and was still possessed by the Canaanites, whom they distrusted their own power to expel; because they used iron chariots, and held citadels and cities on mountains and rocks, fortified by situation and by art. They hoped that they would obtain from the supreme Leader — as being a grandson of the same patriarch Joseph (for Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim) — that from the neighboring region, subject to Israel and destined to fall to another tribe, some part should be granted them. So, nearly, a Lapide.

[235] [whom Joshua exhorts to enlarge the spaces of their dwelling by cutting off the Canaanites.] But the excellent Prince, in no way moved by these complaints, stood firm and would not take away from any other tribe what he might bestow on the men of Manasse or on his own tribesmen the Ephraimites. He gave nothing to nearness of blood, but all to justice, as the following verse 15 indicates: And Josue said to them: If thou be a great people, and seek wider spaces to dwell in, do not demand them with injury to others; but go up to the wood, and cut down room for thyself in the land of the Pherezite and the Raphaim: because the possession of mount Ephraim is too narrow for thee. And the children of Joseph answered him (verse 16): We cannot go up to the mountains, since the Chanaanites who dwell in the plain country use iron chariots; in which are situated Bethsan with its villages, and Jezrael which possesses the middle valley. These things the Commander receives with the same firmness of mind, and with the same answer as before turns back against them what they had objected in support of their cause: And Josue said from verse 17 to the house of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasse: Thou art a great people and of great strength, thou shalt not have one lot only; but thou shalt pass to the mountain and shalt cut down and clear spaces for thyself to dwell in: and thou mayest proceed further, when thou shalt have destroyed the Chanaanite, who as thou sayest hath iron chariots and is very strong.

§ XXIV. He sees to it that the bones of the patriarch Joseph are buried, that the tabernacle is removed to Shiloh, and, the sloth of the VII tribes being rebuked, that the interrupted casting of lots is dispatched: notes on the narrative of Josephus.

[ ] The burial of the bones of the patriarch Joseph; The patriarch Joseph, when near death, had bound the Israelites by an oath, Genesis chapter 50, from verse 23, that they should carry his bones out of Egypt with them when one day they migrated into the land of Chanaan. That this was done we read in Exodus chapter 13, verse 19: Moses also took Joseph's bones with him, because he had adjured the children of Israel, saying: God shall visit you; carry out my bones from hence with you. And that they were committed to the earth is narrated in the book of Joshua chapter 24, verse 32: And the bones of Joseph also, which the children of Israel had brought out of Egypt, they buried in Sichem, in that part of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons of Hemor the father of Sichem for a hundred young ewes, and it was in the possession of the sons of Joseph, namely of the Ephraimites. Although the time of the said burial is nowhere found, yet it is not likely that the holy Prince long deferred an office of piety of this kind: doubtless at the first opportunity offered he performed it and saw to it that a solemn celebration of obsequies was held. And the first time fit for it was when, Canaan being for the greater part subdued and all war ceasing, the Israelites peacefully possessed that region in which was

that estate near Sichem which Jacob gave to Joseph his son, John chapter 4, verse 5: for the ancients were wont to bury the bodies of their own people in their own possessions. Whether Joseph's relics were buried before the division of the land on this side the Jordan was begun, or after the Ephraimites had already by lot obtained their inheritance in which the place of his burial lay, Torniellus examines at the year 2589, and at the same year Salianus in the Annals, num. 25. The latter conjectures the second, the former the first. That the relics of Joseph's father and brothers, which are likewise believed to have been carried out of Egypt by the children of Israel, were honorably buried by Joshua in the same place, is gathered from Acts chapter 7, verse 15, and from St. Jerome's letter 33, otherwise 101, to Pammachius On the Best Manner of Translating.

[237] In the eighth year both of Joshua's princedom and of the crossing of the Jordan we believe, with Torniellus and Bonfrerius, that the camp with the tabernacle of the covenant was removed from Gilgal to Shiloh. Of which chapter 18, verse 1: And all the children of Israel assembled together in Silo, and there they set up the tabernacle of the testimony, and the land was subdued before them. the removal of the tabernacle to Shiloh, Salianus at the year 2590 in his Epitome says: Although it may seem that Silo was chosen for the seat of the Sanctuary because it was in the lot of Ephraim, which was the Commander's tribe, and it seemed agreeable to reason that the sanctuary and the seat of the pontiff should be placed among the Ephraimites, since the princedom was then among them: and indeed in the power of that Man to whom religion and piety were the most ancient concern: yet it seems that Joshua sought out the divine counsel in this removal from Eleazar the pontiff, and followed it rather than fell in love with his own consolation: but that God willed to honor both the Prince and the sons of Joseph. Whatever be the case with the consultation of the oracle, I scarcely doubt that the tabernacle was placed in Shiloh by divine admonition: since it is indicated again and again in Deuteronomy chapter 12 that a place for it had to be appointed by God's election.

[238] where the interrupted casting of lots is resumed at the Saint's exhortation: The Sanctuary being established in Shiloh not without a varied solemnity of sacrifices (for this must deservedly be judged of so great an assembly, to which all the children of Israel had been gathered), Joshua sees to it that the partition begun in Gilgal is brought to its end as soon as possible: And there remained, says Scripture from verse 2, seven tribes of the children of Israel which as yet had not received their possessions. And Josue said to them: How long are you indolent and slothful, and go not in to possess the land which the Lord the God of your fathers hath given you? Choose of every tribe three men, that I may send them, and they may go and compass the land and describe it according to the number of each multitude: and bring back to me what they have described. Divide the land among you into seven parts: let Juda be in his bounds on the south side, and the house of Joseph on the north. Describe the land in the midst between these into seven parts: and you shall come hither to me, that I may cast lots for you before the Lord your God: for there is no part among you for the Levites, but the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. And Gad and Ruben and the half tribe of Manasse had already received their possessions beyond the Jordan on the east side, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them. And when the men were risen up to go to describe the land, Josue commanded them, saying: Go round the land and describe it, and return to me: that I may cast lots for you before the Lord in Silo. For what cause the partition, begun in Gilgal at God's own command, was interrupted, Scripture does not express. Bonfrerius' conjecture seems to me to come nearer to the truth than the rest. He may be consulted, and Salianus, who does not much differ from him, in the Epitome at the year 2590.

[239] the remaining tribes receive their portions by lot. So the surveyors went (the sacred words are from verse 8), and surveying it divided it into seven parts, writing it down in a volume. And they returned to Josue to the camp in Silo. And he cast lots before the Lord in Silo, and divided the land to the children of Israel into seven parts. And the first lot came up for the children of Benjamin by their families, etc. The boundaries and towns of this tribe are recounted in the rest of chapter 18. The second lot fell to the tribe of Simeon; the third to the tribe of Zabulon; the fourth to the tribe of Issachar; the fifth to the tribe of Aser; the sixth to the tribe of Nephthali; the seventh to the tribe of Dan: of whose limits and cities there is treatment down to verse 49 of chapter 19, at whose end it is repeated by whom and in what place this division was made: These are the possessions which Eleazar the priest and Josue the son of Nun and the princes of the families and of the tribes of the children of Israel divided by lot in Silo, before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and they divided the land.

[240] The disaster of the northern kings being narrated, Josephus thus continues his history: And now the fifth year of this war being ended, none of the Canaanites remained, Notes except any who had fled into the strongest places. He goes astray, unless he refers that five-year period to the Northern war: for from the crossing of the Jordan war was waged about six years, and in the seventh the Gilgal casting of lots was begun. Go to num. 230: But Jesus, the camp being removed from Galgala into the mountains, fixed the sacred tabernacle in the city of Silo; because that place seemed fit for its beauty (he would have said more truly, because it was chosen by God for it, as is gathered from Deuteronomy chapter 12), in which it should remain for a while, until a greater convenience for building a temple should offer itself. Thence, having set out with all the people toward Sicima, he set up an altar as Moses had commanded: and, the army being divided, he placed half of it on mount Garizeus, and the other half on Gibal, where the altar was, with the Levites and the priests. Where, victims being slain and the execrations performed and carved on the altar, they returned to Silo. The book of Deuteronomy was carved on twelve stones, distinct from those of which the altar was built: nor did Joshua set out for those two mountains from Shiloh, but from Gilgal in the first year of his princedom. See what was said at number 159 and 163. But Jesus, now an old man, when he saw that the cities of the Canaanites were almost impregnable, both because of their situation naturally secure and because of the fortifications added by art to frustrate the attempts of enemies: for, having learned of the Israelites' going out of Egypt and that they were hastening to their destruction, they had all that time been occupied in fortifying their towns: an assembly of the people being proclaimed at Silo, he calls a meeting. Josephus here seems to hint that the Saint proceeded to divide Canaan by lot, although not yet altogether subdued, because he distrusted his power to storm its remaining cities, most strongly fortified by nature and by art. But who would believe this of that Man, who thus far had such signal trust in God, and who had experienced that divine help had never thus far failed him in the gravest and most difficult expeditions? I acknowledge no other cause of the hastened partition than the divine precept which God gave him for the reasons expressed in Scripture, which I gave at num. 224.

[241] And when a numerous gathering had been made, he recounted the things thus far bravely and happily done, in Josephus' such as it was fitting should be done under God's auspices by a most religious people: thirty-one kings who had dared to join hands conquered, and most powerful armies overcome in battle and slain to the last man, so that not even the remains of the race survived. But since of the cities some had been taken, while others, more fortified and on that account more obstinate, needed a long siege, he judged that those who had set out from the region situated beyond the Jordan on the common expedition, and out of kinship had joined themselves as companions of the dangers, should first be thanked and sent back to their own seats. Then that from each tribe single men of attested probity should be chosen, who, having measured the whole region, should report its size in good faith and without guile. That opinion was adopted by the whole people: and presently he sent those men to measure the land, adding to them certain men skilled in geometry, who by reason of this science could not err or be deceived: and he gave them charge that they should make an estimate of the fields according to the goodness of the land… And the ten men appointed for this business, the region being surveyed and the estimate of the land completed, returned to him in the seventh month to Silo, where the seat of the tabernacle then was. Then Jesus, having taken Eleazar with the senate and the princes of the tribes, divided the region among the nine tribes and the half part of the Manassites, measuring out land to each tribe according to its size. Then he subjoins what lot fell to each tribe, in an order different from Scripture. After which he says: In this manner Jesus divided the region of the six nations named from the sons of Chanaan, and gave it to nine tribes and a half to dwell in. For Amorea, itself also named from one of his sons, Moses had already before divided among two tribes and a half, as we said above. But the lands of the Sidonians, the Arucæans, the Amathæans, and the Arithæans pertained nothing to this division.

[242] narrative Josephus, writing that the promised land was distributed to the nine tribes and a half at Shiloh, again contradicts Scripture, which expressly affirms that two tribes and a half received their portion in Gilgal, but the remaining seven in Shiloh. And the speech which he narrates that the Commander made to the people before the partition differs, as they say, by the whole heaven from the address which the Saint made in chapter 18 to the slothful Israelites before the Shiloh division. Before that same division, as we have from the sacred text in the same place, three men from each tribe were chosen to describe the land: but Josephus says that single men were sent from single tribes, to whom, however, some skilled surveyors were joined. But since he has confounded the Gilgal and the Shiloh castings of lots, and out of both mixed together has made one, and since the opinion of many holds that before the Gilgal one surveyors of the land to be divided were also sent out, and likely too that some speech was made beforehand by the holy Director of the whole business, it can be said that that speech, and the mission of the ten men and the surveyors of which Josephus here speaks, preceded the Gilgal distribution. Yet in the argument of the speech something displeases: namely that Joshua is said to have taken the counsel of dismissing the tribes of Ruben, Gad, and the half of Manasse because the more fortified cities remained to be taken, and on that account, being more obstinate, needed a long siege. Why does he not give the reason which Scripture suggests, namely because God had commanded the division of the land, and a cessation from war waged by common arms? Those seven nations, whose lands he writes were divided among the children of Israel, and the other peoples whom he names, were all of the stock of Chanaan, whom Noe had cursed. The curious reader may see about them Torniellus at the year 1931, num. 34 and following, and 2584, num. 23.

§ XXV. The reward of constancy against the seditious

he receives: the Saint's mind averse from covetousness: others never administered the commonwealth in his stead.

[The Lord's precept that a city which he himself should choose be granted the Saint,] And when the holy Prince had made an end of dividing the land by lot to each one by their tribes, the children of Israel gave a possession to Josue the son of Nun in the midst of them, according to the commandment of the Lord, the city which he asked for, Thamnath-Saraa in mount Ephraim: and he built up the city and dwelt in it, chapter 19, verses 49 and 50. Therefore according to the Lord's precept the holy Commander received his portion. But when was that precept given? It is likely that God at the same time at which in Numbers chapter 14, verse 24, He decreed a reward for Caleb for his cause so bravely maintained against the seditious, decreed his own for our Saint also. For why should Joshua have been passed over, who had had the same faith in God, and with the same zeal and bravery, as we proved above at num. 42 and following, had withstood the lies of the explorers and the murmurings of the credulous people? Why should he, otherwise than the other, receive no reward of this his fidelity, zeal, and constancy?

[244] Nor is it an obstacle (the words are those of Bonfrerius here) that Scripture records nothing of the kind in Numbers 14: it was more likely given as the reward of his constancy against the seditious: for Scripture does not express all things; but keeps silent many which can be gathered from another like case, and are probably left to be gathered. Add that Scripture sometimes supplies in another place what was passed over in its own place; which was done here in this matter: for both here it is supplied, and above in chapter 14, verse 6, it is indicated not obscurely that as much was promised to Joshua as to Caleb, when Caleb, addressing Joshua, says: "Thou knowest what the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Cadesbarne." But what then is it that God promised or commanded to be done to Joshua himself? Namely that which is signified by the following words: that whatever place he himself should will and choose for dwelling should be assigned to him by way of inheritance. Therefore to Caleb the possession of a certain place was even then assigned by God in Numbers 14; but to Joshua no certain place was assigned, but the choice was left him, so that whichever he himself should choose, the people and the other princes of the people should hold ratified.

[245] Joshua could, as one who still held the helm of rule, choosing a mean city he gives a signal example of self-restraint: have chosen for himself fertile fields and some ample and august city, in which above the rest of the people he might dwell splendidly according to his dignity; he could, I say, have chosen these, especially since to those things for which God had determined a singular reward for him there had been added so many other outstanding services to the Hebrew commonwealth that everyone would have approved the choice as most equitable. Nevertheless he did not do this: when he could have a better, he chose for himself a worse inheritance, leaving to princes and magistrates a signal example of self-restraint and of a mind averse from all covetousness. He asked to be given a single city among his tribesmen the Ephraimites, Thamnath-Saraa, and that a ruinous and almost demolished one, which had to be restored or rebuilt by him, as is gathered from verse 50. Nor was this situated on a fertile and pleasant soil, but on a dry and unfruitful one: for this city Thamnath was surnamed Saraa, say Arias Montanus, a Lapide, and others here, from the barrenness and unprofitableness of the place. This modesty of mind in so great a Commander holy Paula could not sufficiently wonder at, by the testimony of St. Jerome in her Epitaph, when she visited the sacred places of Palestine; and saw that so illustrious a Leader, marked by so many and so great victories, had borne himself so modestly and humbly in the division of so fruitful a land, and had chosen for himself nothing but a mean, rough, ruinous, or rather demolished place.

[246] 6 cities are assigned to fugitives, 48 to the Levites: The possessions of the Commander, of Caleb, and of each tribe being established, the Lord spoke to Josue, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: Appoint cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses, Numbers chapter 35 from verse XI, that whosoever shall kill a person unawares may flee to them, etc. Joshua reports the divine oracle to the people: and six cities of refuge are appointed, three on this side and as many beyond the Jordan. And, these things being done, the princes of the families of Levi came to Eleazar the priest and to Josue the son of Nun and to the rulers of the kindreds of each of the tribes of the children of Israel: and they spoke to them in Silo of the land of Chanaan and said: The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses, Numbers chapter 35 from verse 1, that cities should be given us to dwell in, and their suburbs to feed our cattle. And the children of Israel gave out of their possessions, according to the commandment of the Lord, cities and their suburbs. Chapter 21 after these words recounts by name the forty-eight cities assigned to the Levites. Of the six cities of refuge the preceding chapter treats.

[247] [it is indeed likely that the Saint admonished the people beforehand about the things which Josephus reports;] Josephus records that the Saint held an assembly with all Israel before the cities were chosen out of each tribe to be possessed by the Levites by hereditary right. Its argument, and the other things then done down to the dismissal of the two tribes and a half, of which presently, he thus describes: But Jesus, being now failing in age, since he was not strong enough to carry out his counsels by himself, and those who acted in his stead administered the commonwealth too negligently, commanded each tribe to remove the remnants of the Canaanites out of its own lot. For in this consisted both their own safety and the soundness of their discipline and religion: and this they had learned not only from Moses' admonitions but by their own experience: then, that they should give the Levites the thirty-eight cities destined for them, for they had already received ten in Amorea beyond the river. Out of these, in three of them, refuges were established for fugitives. For nothing was more his care than that nowhere should there be a departure from Moses' prescriptions. These were, in the tribe of Juda, Hebron; in that of Ephraim, Sicima; in that of Nephthali, Cedesis, which is in upper Galilee. After this he divided what remained of the booty: for very much remained. Whence no small increase of wealth was made both publicly and privately. So great was the quantity of gold and garments and other household stuff, so great also of beasts and cattle, that they could not be comprised in number.

[248] but that others administered the commonwealth in his stead we think false. It is certain that the assembly still lasted before the cities of the Levites were set apart from the others in each tribe: for in chapter 21, verse 1, the princes of the families of Levi are read to have come for that cause to the pontiff, the Commander, and the leaders of the tribes gathered with the people in Shiloh. That Josephus says that at this time the Saint commanded the Israelites not only to grant their cities to the Levites but also to destroy the Canaanites surviving in their lot, that both they themselves and the Levites might peacefully possess their inheritance, is likely enough. But that Joshua at this same time, on account of his great old age, could not carry out his counsels by himself, that men had already been appointed to administer the commonwealth in his stead, and that these did so more negligently — all these things, I say, have no appearance of truth, nor foundation in the Scriptures. I say that the holy Commander could now no less carry out his counsels by himself than at the beginning of his rule. The Saint's venerable old age, weighty with merits, diminished neither his authority over his subjects nor their reverence, love, and zeal of obedience toward him. Nor down to this time were any substitutes appointed who should act in the Saint's stead in administering the commonwealth: nay, after he had already, the assembly of Shiloh being dissolved, fixed his dwelling in Thamnath-Saraa, he exercised the supreme power no otherwise than before. To the very end of his life he sat at the helm of the commonwealth and directed it, nor ever committed it to the care of vicars. Through the whole time of his life the princes of the tribes or the elders of the people were only instruments by whose help he carried out his commands, communicated to them either by himself or through envoys. The truth of these things is manifestly gathered from the last chapters of the book of Joshua. But that Josephus writes that at this time only thirty-eight cities were given to the Levites, since they had already received ten in Amorrhea beyond the river, this I think cannot be proved from the sacred Letters: for in Numbers chapter 35 that distribution is commanded to be made thereafter, nor is it anywhere signified to have been begun except in chapter 21 of this book, where 48 cities are read to have been attributed to them. The same author falsely supposes too that three cities of refuge beyond the Jordan had been determined before by Moses; hence he mentions only the three others assigned on this side the Jordan. All six were appointed under Joshua in chapter 20, and in chapter 21 were given for the Levites' habitation. Of the division of the spoils we treated after the Northern war: if anyone will have it that this was made partly before, partly or even wholly after the distribution of the land, I shall not oppose him.

§ XXVI. To the Rubenites and their companions, about to return to their own, he gives salutary admonitions; he sends envoys to learn with what mind they had erected an altar; their innocence being heard, the tumults cease: he rebuilds the city of Thamnath-Saraa.

[ ] [To the Rubenites and their companions about to depart to their lands beyond the Jordan] The distributions being finished, when the assembly now seemed to be about to be dissolved, says Salianus at the year 2590, num. 33, Joshua judged too that the others who dwelt beyond the Jordan could equally be dismissed. Since therefore the army of the Rubenites and their companions no longer seemed necessary, and the common battles, and those to be carried through by common forces, were dispatched, and thereafter individual enemies would have to fight with individual tribes, and those indeed now not a little weakened by the former wars, he judged that exemption from military service should thereafter be granted them. The matter is thus described in chapter 22 from verse 1: At the same time — namely in which attention was given to the division of the land — Josue called the Rubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasse and said to them: You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: you have also obeyed me in all things, nor have you left your brethren for a long time until this present day, keeping the commandment of the Lord your God. This address is full of kindness, which, beginning from their praise, first commends the obedience rendered to God, to Moses, and to himself; then also their charity toward the other tribes, whose interests they had served so many years.

[250] the holy Prince commends the love of God and the keeping of the laws; There follows in verse 4 the dismissal itself: Since therefore the Lord your God hath given your brethren rest and peace, as he promised: return and go to your dwellings and to the land of your possession which Moses the servant of the Lord delivered you beyond the Jordan. But the excellent Prince does not forget to commend to those departing what he bore deeply fixed in his breast, and what he wills to stand for all admonitions, namely that they love God and keep His commandments: Yet so only,

he says in verse 5, that you observe attentively and in work fulfil the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God and walk in all his ways and keep all his commandments and cleave to him and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. In these few words the fervid piety of the good Old Man shows itself, and his solicitude for the salvation of his people.

[251] [he blesses them, and, having admonished them about dividing the booty with their brethren, dismisses them: on account of an altar] And Josue blessed them and sent them away. And they returned to their dwellings. Now to the half tribe of Manasse Moses had given a possession in Basan: and therefore to the half that remained Josue gave a lot among the rest of their brethren beyond the Jordan on the west side. And when he sent them away to their dwellings and had blessed them, he said to them: With much substance and riches you return to your seats, with silver and gold, brass and iron and much raiment. Then, making them mindful of the Divine precept, Numbers chapter 31, verse 27, he says: Divide the prey of the enemies with your brethren that remained beyond the Jordan. And the children of Ruben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasse returned and departed from the children of Israel from Silo, which is situate in Chanaan, to go into Galaad the land of their possession, which they had obtained according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. And when they came to the banks of the Jordan in the land of Chanaan, they built an altar of immense size beside the Jordan. The sacred words are from verse 6.

[252] [erected near the Jordan, they come under suspicion of impiety: the remaining tribes plan war against them:] What Scripture narrates at length in the rest of the chapter, learn from Theodoret, question 18, where he gives this synopsis of it: But the war being finished and the division made, those departed who had received lots beyond the river: but before they crossed the river they built a huge altar: and since those of the nine remaining tribes and a half were ignorant of the intention of this building, suspecting that such a structure tended to impiety, they plainly resolved, religion being set before kinship, to enter upon war against them. But the most wise Joshua and Eleazar sent Phinees (and ten princes of the tribes with him, as is said in verse 14) as one who with vehement zeal had avenged impiety in the desert, that he might recall to their memory their forefathers and the divine benefits, and admonish them of the iniquity committed. But when they heard that that altar had been built with a pious mind, and was called a Monument of the division lately made — namely, that their descendants might be able to produce it as an argument against those who might wish to exclude them from the divine assemblies and solemnities — they withdrew exceedingly glad, praising God for their brothers' piety and for the common tranquillity of all. The envoys on their return set forth to the Pontiff, the Commander, and the children of Israel — who, as verse 12 reports, had gathered in Shiloh to undertake war — the innocence of the Rubenites and their companions: And the speech pleased all that heard it. And the children of Israel praised God and said no more that they would go up against them and fight and destroy the land of their possession, verse 33.

[253] Josephus pursues this history in a lengthy narrative, but first the prudent Commander sends envoys to learn the whole matter out of which we excerpt what more nearly regards the Saint: After this, he says, the army being called to an assembly, he spoke to those who served together from the region situated beyond the Jordan, fifty thousand in number, to this effect. There follows the speech made by the holy Commander to the Rubenites and their companions about to depart: but these were not fifty but only forty thousand in number; for more of the auxiliary forces of the two tribes and a half had not crossed the Jordan, as is plain from chapter 4, verse 13. After the Saint's speech he goes on thus: Having spoken these things, and having said farewell to the chief men one by one and to the people in common, he himself remained in the same place: but all the rest of the multitude escorted them with tears, and they were with difficulty torn from one another. And so, the river being crossed, the tribe of Rubel and of Gad and as many of the Manassites as followed them erect an altar upon the bank of the Jordan, a monument for posterity and a sign of their union with the rest who dwell beyond the Jordan. And when this was heard among the other Israelites, since they knew that an altar had been built but not with what mind, they thought that they wished, religion being changed, to introduce the worship of strange deities: and rashly moved by this suspicion of religion violated, they had seized arms to vindicate their ancestral rites and to exact penalties from the violators. For they judged that account must be taken not so much of the kinship and dignity of those who were in this crime as of the divine will. And thus angered they girded themselves for the expedition.

[254] But Jesus and the pontiff Eleazar with the senate restrained them, the altar was erected for a good end, and the tumults cease. saying that the matter must be approached with words before arms, and that inquiry must be made with what mind they had done it: and if perhaps it should be found to have been done with an evil mind, then at last they should be assailed with arms. They send therefore envoys thither, Phinees the son of Eleazar and with him ten men honored among the people, to learn what they meant by building an altar on the bank. There follows the departure of the envoys, the speech of Phinees to the Rubenites and their companions, and their answer by which they clear themselves. After which he subjoins: These things being heard, Phinees, having praised their constancy, returned to Jesus and set forth the whole matter before the people. Who, glad that there was need neither of a levy nor of civil blood, gave thanks to God by sacrifices: and presently, the assembly being dissolved and each returning to his own, he himself chose a dwelling at Sicima. In Thamnath-Saraa was the Saint's place of habitation, which according to all the geographers is too far from Sichem for him to be said to have chosen a dwelling near it. Although all the things which about St. Joshua I have here inserted from Theodoret and Josephus are not expressed in the Scriptures, yet of their truth I do not doubt; if however you except those few things which we have noted in the Jewish historian.

[255] Since in the eighth year of Joshua's princedom the Shiloh division was more probably begun, the dismissal of the two tribes and a half was made not later than the same eighth or at most the ninth year: for it immediately followed the division of the land. He restores the ruinous city of Thamnath-Saraa: But the Saint made his exhortation to the Israelites, of which chapter 23 speaks, in the sixteenth or seventeenth year of his rule, that is, in the last or the last but one year of his life, as is gathered not obscurely from verses 1 and 14. What he did in all that intervening time Scripture willed to be hidden from us. It has left us only this one thing, verse 50 of chapter 19: And he built the city (Thamnath-Saraa) and dwelt in it. The same the Septuagint in the Roman codices repeat in chapter 21 before verse 41, and add: And Jesus took the stone knives with which he had circumcised the children of Israel who had been born in the way in the desert, and placed them in Thamnathsachar. But I do not judge that this whole city was raised from the foundations by the Saint, since Scripture in chapter 19, verse 50, says that there was given him the city which he asked for, Thamnath-Saraa: there was therefore a city which he asked for, but one fallen down either by the inroads of war or by age. This therefore the Commander restored for his own and his people's habitation, adorned with buildings, and girt with walls. In later times it was one of the most celebrated cities of all Palestine: for we read in Pliny, book 5, chapter 4, that of the ten toparchies into which the Romans had divided Judea one was named the Thamnitic. Josephus too mentions the toparchy of Thamna, book 5 On the Jewish War, chapter 4, and elsewhere. And that Thamna was that very city Thamnath-Saraa rebuilt by St. Joshua, Adrichomius testifies in his Theatre of the Holy Land, where he treats of the places of the Tribe of Ephraim: Thamnathsara, he says, Thamnathsare, and Thamna, Thamnata, under the Roman empire was called Thamnatica or Thamnitica, one of the eleven (the cited Pliny names only ten) toparchies of Judea, fourth in order, a region, a prefecture, and a very great city, situated in the mountains of Ephraim. It was given by the Israelites to Joshua the leader as a hereditary possession, who dwelt in it and was buried on the north side of mount Gaas.

[256] the Sabbatical year first celebrated under the Saint. Whence the epoch of the Sabbatical years is to be deduced — whether from the entering upon possession of the promised land, or from the time at which its fields first began to be tilled, or from the very entrance into it — is a famous controversy; of which the curious reader may see Natalis Alexander in the Ecclesiastical History of the Old Testament, dissertation 14, Salianus and Torniellus at the year 2590, and others. This is certain, that of the seventeen years for which we shall say below that Joshua more probably ruled, at least one was Sabbatical. See Exodus chapter 23 from verse 10, and Leviticus chapter 25 from verse 2; and the interpreters on both places. It is not to be doubted that the most religious and most vigilant Prince with Eleazar gave all his effort that the Sabbatical year, destined by God for rest and remission, should be duly celebrated, that the whole people should be gathered at the feast of tabernacles, that the law of Deuteronomy should be read aloud to it, as is commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 10; and that the rest should be observed which the Lord had prescribed. With the same care and diligence he introduced the use of the ceremonial laws given by God through Moses, and pressed the keeping of them. For to these the Israelites were now bound, as is understood from Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 5 and following, from the time at which the tabernacle began to have a fixed seat in Shiloh. This place the Lord had chosen in the land of promise, in which sacrifices and the other things pertaining to divine worship should be performed.

§ XXVII. The apparition of the angel rebuking the Israelites, of which Judges chapter II speaks, more probably did not happen under Joshua; an assembly being called, he rouses the people to their duty and to the worship of God.

[ ] [The crimes for which the Israelites are rebuked by the angel in Judges chapter 2,] Scripture narrates a wonderful apparition of an angel rebuking the Israelites, book of Judges chapter 2, from verse 1: And an angel of the Lord went up from Galgal to the Place of weeping and said: I made you go out of Egypt and have brought you into the land for which I swore to your fathers; and I promised that I would not make void my covenant with you for ever: on condition only that you should not make a league with the inhabitants of this land, but should throw down their altars: and you would not hear my voice. Why have you done this? Wherefore I would not destroy them from before your face, that you may have enemies, and their gods may be your ruin. And when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, they lifted up their voice and wept. And the name of that place was called The Place of weeping, or of tears: and they sacrificed there victims to the Lord. And Josue therefore sent away the people, and they went

the children of Israel every one to his own possession, to obtain it. The Israelites are here rebuked for the covenants entered into with the Canaanites and for the altars not overthrown which were sacred to their false gods. Whence it is plain that those nations had not taken up the true religion, as Rahab and the Gabaonites had done; but had been admitted to covenants, the liberty of publicly worshipping idols being left them: and this God had most severely forbidden in the places cited at num. 179.

[258] Theodoret, Abulensis, Torniellus at the year 2593, num. 1, more probably and Salianus at the year 2599, num. 10 and following, and others affirm that that angel appeared while our holy Prince was living. Procopius, Cajetan, Cornelius a Lapide, Calmet, and others deny it. To their opinion we subscribe, and we assert that under the vigilance of St. Joshua administering the commonwealth the piety of the Israelites and the observance of the divine commandments flourished too much for an angel to have had to be sent from heaven to rebuke them so sharply and with so grave a threat added. We have St. Augustine favoring us, question 12 on Judges: It is more credible, he says, that nothing of the sort for which the angel chided the Hebrews began to be done while Jesus Nave was living; and that the children of Israel held under him only as much land as sufficed them to settle in, although they had in their lots that from which, by growing and gaining strength, they might still exterminate their adversaries. Accordingly, after the death of Jesus, when they had grown strong enough to be able to do this, they preferred to have them, unconverted to the true faith, as tributaries according to their own will, rather than to kill and destroy them according to God's will. For this reason an angel was sent to reprove them. But what is recorded in the book of Jesus Nave (chapter 16, verse 10, and chapter 17, verse 13, about the sons of Ephraim and Manasse, who made the Canaanites, subdued by arms, tributary with their superstitious religion untouched) I rather judge was recorded by anticipation, since he already knew by the prophetic spirit that it would happen after his death, if the book which is called of Jesus Nave was written by him. If it should seem to the reader less likely that our holy Prophet committed to writing what happened after his death, he may judge with me that the unlawful covenants of the Ephraimites and the men of Manasse were inserted into the book of Joshua by a later sacred Writer. Certainly the holy Doctor does not err in this, that he says that those things happened when the Saint was dead. Those who deny it seem to me not only to depart farther from the truth, but also to involve the most religious Commander in the same crimes for which the Israelites incurred God's grave anger and the penalties announced by the angel: for since Joshua had his dwelling in the very tribe of Ephraim, in whose neighborhood the men of Manasse dwelt, how could these and his tribesmen the Ephraimites have made war upon the Canaanites, subjected them to themselves and made them tributary, and left untouched the public altars erected to idols, without the knowledge of the most vigilant Prince? If he was aware of them, what at last will you devise to excuse him? It can hardly be understood, on the opinion of the adverse party, how he was not implicated in the same crime as the rest.

[259] were committed after the death of Joshua The crimes for which God rebuked the Israelites through His heavenly envoy the Ephraimites and the men of Manasse also committed, and they were those very ones which are narrated in Joshua chapter 16, verse 10, and chapter 17, verse 13, and also in Judges chapter 1 from verse 27. Now if I shall prove that in the book of Judges, whose beginning is After the death of Josue, these things are reported in their own place, but in the book of Joshua are anticipated, and that no other tribe either gave cause, while the Saint lived, for the angelic apparition and rebuke, I shall have freed the Saint from every suspicion of fault. After Scripture in Joshua chapter 16, verse 10, and chapter [ ], verse 13, had narrated that the children of Ephraim and Manasse had subjected to themselves the idolatrous Canaanites dwelling in their tribes, and, granting them life, had made them tributary, it at once subjoins their complaint to Joshua that they had received by lot land even then in part occupied by Canaanites, whom, as they used iron chariots, they distrusted their power to conquer in war. Whence it is first of all evident that in the places cited there is anticipated what happened only afterwards. Now that Judges chapter 1, from verse 27, reports nothing that was done before the Saint's death, I prove thus. No one doubts that the exhortation which chapter 23 of Joshua gives, the holy Prince made to the Israelites in the last or last but one year of his life. But in it not only the two tribes so often named, but all the rest also are praised in verse 8: But cleave to the Lord your God: which you have done until this day. If the crimes had already been committed for which the angel announced to the rebuked Israelites that the gods of the Canaanites would be their ruin, would the Saint have praised them for having faithfully cleaved to the Lord? Would he in the same place, verse 15, have said that hitherto all prosperous things had come to Israel? Would he finally, in the same exhortation, or in the other which we read that he made a little after toward the end of his life in chapter 24, not have touched even by a word on the angel's apparition or its cause, nor have admonished the people to do penance to appease or mitigate the divine anger? In the last speech indeed, chapter 24, verse 23, he exhorts the people to put away from their midst strange gods: but these were not the gods of the Canaanites, for whose altars not overthrown the Israelites were chidden by the angel; but the strange gods which Thare the father of Abraham and Nachor had served in Mesopotamia, ibid., verse 2. Verse 14 in the same place puts this beyond all doubt: Put away the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia. Yet do not infer from this that the Israelites under Joshua's rule at least erected altars to the idols of their forefathers and showed them public worship; for in the same place, verse 31, it is read: And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue. But how this passage is to be reconciled with the Saint's admonition about putting away the gods brought from Mesopotamia and from Egypt into Canaan will be said at num. 276. Let it suffice here to have shown that it does not treat of the strange gods of the inhabitants of the promised land, and consequently that nothing can be deduced from it against us.

[260] The argument on which the adverse party rests is were committed: that in Judges chapter 2 there is at once subjoined to the history of the angel appearing and rebuking the Israelites, verse 6: And Josue therefore sent away the people. But you will at once recognize its weakness if you attend to the context of the sacred narrative. That you may more clearly understand what that is, it helps first to set forth what immediately follows: And the children of Israel went every one to his own possession to obtain it: and they served the Lord all his (Joshua's) days and the days of the ancients that lived a long time after him, and who knew all the works of the Lord which he had done for Israel… And all that generation was gathered to their fathers: and there arose others that knew not the Lord and the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim. Now receive Bonfrerius' explanation: With what end Scripture here weaves in these things which are recorded about Joshua, outside the sequence of the narrative, must be sought partly from what precedes, partly from what follows. The angel had said that, because they had despised God's command and had not exterminated the altars and idols of the Canaanites, their gods would be their ruin, namely by drawing them into idolatry; whereby they would bring ruin and destruction upon themselves: now Scripture intends to declare how in fact it so came about. And that it may do this, it takes the matter up from farther back and declares when and how long the Israelites remained constant in their duty and in the divine worship, and by what helps this came about. The sense therefore is: When, the wars being finished and the casting of lots made, Joshua had dismissed each to his own lots and possessions, and they had entered upon their possessions, they remained constant in the worship of God as long as Joshua lived, who by his authority kept them in their duty; and again, as long as those elders lived who had seen the wondrous works of God in the leading out of the people from Egypt — of which sort were Caleb, Eleazar, and some Levites — and who cherished the people in the worship of God by example, exhortations, and authority. But Joshua being dead and those elders too, when the Israelites lacked these supports and spurs, and that piety did not flourish in those who had succeeded them, they easily suffered themselves to be drawn into idolatry, especially with the added enticement of those idolaters and idols left within their borders: whence they brought upon themselves that ruin and extreme destruction which the angel had foretold. How aptly that whole narrative about the dismissal made by Joshua and about his death, thus explained, agrees with what precedes and what follows, everyone sees… Therefore HE THEREFORE SENT AWAY is the same as NOW HE HAD SENT AWAY, or It came to pass therefore, when Joshua had sent away; in which explanation it is clear that there is nothing violent, nothing twisted, and that nothing stands against our opinion and explanation. Other arguments are at hand for me by which to unnerve the objection of the dissenters and to confirm our opinion: but I do not bring them forward, because what has been said thus far seems to me to have sufficiently accomplished both. Let us therefore go on to chapter 23 of the book of Joshua.

[261] the pious Old Man exhorts the people to keep the law and worship God, And when much time was passed after that the Lord had given peace to Israel, all the nations round about being subdued, and Josue being now old and far advanced in years: Josue called all Israel and the elders and the princes and the leaders and the masters, chapter 23 from verse 1. That this calling of an assembly and the Saint's exhortation which is subjoined were made when he was in the hundred and ninth or perhaps tenth year of his age, which was the last of his princedom and of his life, all everywhere deduce from the beginning of the chapter just given and from its verse 14. When those called together had flowed in either at Thamnath-Saraa, or, as others will have it, at the neighboring Shiloh, because the whole business pertained to the commending of God's worship, he began from the recalling of the benefits lately received from God, by which he might sweetly bend his hearers' minds to the love and worship of God: And he said to them, verse 2 and following: I am grown old and far advanced in years. And you see all that the Lord your God hath done to all the nations round about, how he himself hath fought for you: and now since he hath divided to you by lot all the land from the east side of the Jordan unto the great sea. But because those benefits, for the most just causes which we gave from Scripture at num. 224, had not yet been brought to their crown, he gives a most certain hope of perfect victory, as one which depends on their own alacrity and love toward God and observance of His commandments: And many nations, he says, are yet remaining: the Lord your God will destroy them and take them away from before your face, and you shall possess the land as he hath promised you. Only take courage and be careful to observe

all things that are written in the volume of the law of Moses: and turn not aside from them neither to the right hand nor to the left: lest, after that you are come in among the nations which shall be among you, you should swear by the name of their gods and serve them and adore them: but cleave ye to the Lord your God, which you have done until this day. And then the Lord God will take away before your eyes nations that are great and most strong, and no man shall be able to resist you. One of you shall chase a thousand men of the enemies: because the Lord your God himself will fight for you, as he hath promised. This only take care of with all diligence, that you love the Lord your God.

[262] nor contract covenants or friendship with idolaters. But since the whole hinge of the matter turned on this, that the Israelites should be frightened away from the worship of idols, and for that very cause from the company and affinity of a people given to idols, the pious Old Man insists on it the more sharply, with the threat added of the divine vengeance to be exacted through those very nations with whom they should contract familiarity or unlawful covenants: But if you will, he says, embrace the errors of these nations that dwell among you, and make marriages with them and join friendships: know ye for a certainty that the Lord your God will not destroy them before your face, but they shall be a pit and a snare to you and a stumbling-block at your side and stakes in your eyes, till he take you away and destroy you from this excellent land which he hath given you. Behold this day I am going into the way of all the earth, and you shall know with all your mind that of all the words which the Lord promised to perform for you not one hath failed. Therefore as he hath fulfilled in deed what he promised, and all prosperous things have come, so will he bring upon you whatsoever evils he hath threatened, till he take you away and destroy you from this excellent land which he hath given you; because you have broken the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you, and have served strange gods and adored them: quickly and speedily shall the wrath of the Lord rise up against you, and you shall be taken away from this excellent land which he hath delivered to you.

§ XXVIII. The Saint's other speech to the people assembled at Sichem, whom he leads to renew solemnly the covenant with God; he more probably wrote the book inscribed with his name, together with the last chapter of Deuteronomy.

[ ] About soon to die, he gathers the people at Sichem, and to fear The last exhortation which the pious Prince made to the people did not so long precede his death. When he felt that he would not long survive, or perhaps also knew his impending death by divine revelation, he again gathers the Israelites into one place, and turns himself, so to speak, in every direction to kindle their minds, to rouse them to the constant worship of God and the observance of His commandments, and at last to lead them to renew the covenant with God by a solemn rite. In chapter 24 from verse 1 the matter is thus narrated: And Josue gathered together all the tribes of Israel in Sichem, and called the ancients and the princes and the judges and the masters; and they stood in the sight of the Lord; and he spoke thus to the people: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt beyond the river in the beginning, etc. He begins here to repeat from the beginning the leading of Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans, and the multiplying of his seed from Isaac and Jacob. Then he recounts very many and the chief benefits of the Lord, done through the several successions of times. Finally he thus concludes the enumeration of the benefits conferred, verse 13, saying in the person of the Lord: And I gave you a land in which you had not labored, and cities to dwell in which you built not: vineyards and oliveyards which you planted not. Thence he passes to those things of which he had proposed to admonish the people. Now therefore fear the Lord, from whom you have received so many and so great benefits, and serve him with a perfect and most sincere heart: and put away the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

[264] But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, [and the worship of God he again exhorts them; he kindles the minds of all by a wonderful skill] you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorrhites in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said: God forbid we should leave the Lord and serve strange gods. The Lord our God he brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: and did very great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way by which we journeyed and among all the people through whom we passed. And he hath cast out all the nations, the Amorrhite the inhabitant of the land into which we are come. Therefore we will serve the Lord, for he is our God. And Josue said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord: for he is a holy God and a strong jealous one, nor will he forgive your wickednesses and sins. If you leave the Lord and serve strange gods, he will turn and will afflict you and will destroy you, after all the good he hath done you. And the people said to Josue: No, it shall not be so as thou sayest; but we will serve the Lord. And Josue said to the people: You are witnesses that you yourselves have chosen you the Lord to serve him. And they answered: We are witnesses. Now therefore, said he, put away strange gods from among you and incline your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel. And the people said to Josue: We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to his commandments.

[265] and leads them to renew the covenant with the Lord: In the whole discourse of the most wise Old Man there shines a wonderful skill and also an efficacy for persuading the people to constancy in the worship of the true God. And first, that choice offered to the Israelites, of serving the gods of the Amorrhites or of their fathers in Mesopotamia, is a certain dissembling, contrived for kindling their affection, as is more clearly recognized from what follows. For at once he provokes them by his own example to follow God. For why should they not resolve to imitate the religion of that Commander whose exceptional prudence in acting, success in executing, and holiness in all his life they had thus far experienced? Therefore they thus resolve and determine to serve the Lord, from whom they have received to this day so many benefits, which they enumerate. Yet because, as that poet says, We ever strive toward the forbidden and desire what is denied, Joshua, persevering in his dissembling — for the inconstancy of this people in a good purpose and its remarkable propensity to the worship of idols was not hidden from him — says, You will not be able to serve the Lord; and thus, their will being more kindled, he sets forth what things will be difficult in God's worship, who is a severe avenger of injuries done to Him, and above all of defection from Him to idols, that they may now resolve spiritedly to break through these and constantly to persevere in the good so ardently chosen. But after the wise Commander had by a kind of turning aside kindled the people's will more and more, he calls their conscience as witness, so that they may afterwards condemn themselves, if they prove faithless, without any other witness or judge. And thus the will of the whole people is accepted by the Lord, through the intervention of Joshua the prince of the people. In proof of which he says, Now therefore put away strange gods… The people answered again that they would serve the Lord. These things we have excerpted from the Epitome of Salianus at the year 2600, because they bring not a little light to the sacred words. That this admonition of the Saint, Now therefore put away strange gods, does not suppose that there were public worshippers of idols among the Israelites, we shall say in a fitting place below at num. 276.

[266] it is renewed by a solemn rite between the people and God; What was then done the sacred author thus touches from verse 25: Josue therefore on that day made a covenant and set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem. And he wrote all these things in the volume of the Law of the Lord: and he took a very great stone and set it under the oak that was in the Sanctuary of the Lord: and he said to all the people: Behold this stone shall be a testimony unto you that it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you will deny it and lie to the Lord your God. Each of the Saint's actions we shall illuminate with some commentary. First, he made a covenant: this consisted in this, say the interpreters, that the people promised that it would worship one God and keep His laws laid down by Moses; and that Joshua in turn in God's name promised the people that the Lord would be its protector and helper. The people on their part had already given these promises with repeated protestation; that the Commander did this too now on God's part, these sacred words signify, Josue therefore made a covenant, etc. But whether for that matter sacrifices were used, and other solemn ceremonies which in Exodus chapter 24 are read to have been used in the striking of the covenant made through Moses between God and the people, is uncertain: Yet it is most likely, says Masius here, that no solemn rite was omitted, that the covenant might be in every way most holy; and because by that compact the people was as it were again initiated in sacred religion, that not only was sacrifice offered, but also, as by a certain bond, partly God's altar, as it were God Himself, and partly the people were sprinkled with the victim's blood, by a solemn rite: since it is established that this was so done by Moses when he first struck that covenant of which the renewal is now in hand.

[267] Secondly, he set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem, the covenant is restored; the monuments of the covenant. that is, says a Lapide, he saw to it that there were read aloud by the priests from Deuteronomy the precepts of God, both moral and ceremonial and judicial, that he might refresh and inculcate upon the people the memory of those things whose observance it had promised. Others say that the Saint, in imitation of the dying Moses, recited the whole of Deuteronomy to the people. Then for a perpetual memory of the matter he instituted two signs, which should remind all posterity of this covenant renewed with God near Joshua's death. The first is that he set down in writing the admonitions and stipulations on his own part, and the attestations and promises on the people's, and the other things pertaining to the covenant, which could ever afterwards be consulted by the learned: And he wrote all these things in the volume of the Law of the Lord, that is, as many say, he added them to the end of the book of Deuteronomy; or, as others say, he wrote these things in the book of Joshua, by which as an appendix the volume of the Law of the Lord, or the book of Deuteronomy, was increased. The other sign was for the unlettered, namely the erection of a very great stone, and as often as the cause of it should be asked, so often the memory of this covenant should be renewed: And he took a very great stone, etc. These things being done, the assembly was dissolved; and the Commander sent away the people, every one to his own possession, verse 28. Of the renewed covenant Josephus makes not even a word of mention.

[268] That the Saint is the author at least of the last chapter of the book of Joshua as far as verse 29 we said in the preceding number. St. Joshua more likely wrote the book which bears his name; So few are they who call this into doubt that they scarcely make a number. There is greater disagreement among the learned as to who wrote the rest of the book of Joshua. Some say Eleazar the pontiff, others Samuel, others the prophet Isaiah, others Esdras; but most, both ancients and moderns, judge that Joshua himself is the writer of it. To these we think we should rather adhere than to those. Ecclesiasticus persuades this, chapter 46, verse 1: Jesus the son of Nave, it says, was valiant in war, the successor of Moses among the prophets, or, as the Greek has, in prophecies. But in what things a prophet, or a successor in prophecies, save in those things which the Lord had revealed, to be communicated to the people by voice and by writing? It can indeed be said that from this passage it can only be proved that he prophesied by voice alone. But is it not rather to be believed that the revelations and divine oracles which occur most frequently in the book of Joshua were committed to writing by him to whom alone they were made, rather than by some other? Scarcely anyone doubts that the Saint wrote the twenty-fourth chapter, for this is evident from its verse 29: And he wrote all these things in the volume of the Law of the Lord. If we attribute this chapter to the author Joshua, why not the others also? Who could better know and more accurately describe God's commands and the hidden counsels revealed to him, who the wars and expeditions undertaken against the Canaanites, and the other things contained in this book? Besides, he had seen Moses write down so carefully all the wondrous things which God had done through the Israelites and about them, lest posterity should lose the memory of them: who would not deservedly judge that the Disciple, and successor not only in rule but also in the prophetic office, imitated his master and predecessor; especially since that bringing in to the promised land, and the wars there waged in prodigious manner, demanded no less grateful a memory and made for the glory of God. I confess that all these reasons are not so effective but that it still remains uncertain whether the Saint wrote the book which is inscribed with his name. Yet they have this much weight, that they have inclined the judgments of most of the learned to assert that it is more probable. That in the book of Joshua some things are read which were done after the Saint's death proves nothing else than that the Acts of the holy Prince were revised by some later writer, whether he were Esdras or another, some words or clauses being inserted here and there for the sake of connection or explanation. That the Pentateuch, whose author is acknowledged by all to be Moses, was interpolated in many places, everyone confesses. What will others reply to one who objects this, save the same that we reply to them? It is not necessary to agitate this question at greater length: interpreters and other writers who treat it professedly are, or can most easily be, at anyone's hand.

[269] as also the last chapter of Deuteronomy. Those who say that the book which relates his acts was written by the Saint also make him the author of the last chapter of Deuteronomy, at least from verse 5, which narrates the death of Moses. They gather this everywhere from the beginning of the book of Joshua, And it came to pass after the death of Moses, which seems carefully connected with the end of Deuteronomy. Then he had succeeded Moses in the office of prophets and in the government of the people, and had been his minister and disciple; it was therefore chiefly his part to hand down to posterity the plainly admirable end of the lawgiver, which he himself had probably beheld with his own eyes, as we said at num. 81. Nay, I think the Saint wrote the first four verses also of the same chapter, which treat of Moses' ascent into the mountain and of the contemplation of the promised land which God showed him as he was about to die: for it is not likely that the lawgiver did this at almost the very point of death. I judge therefore that the whole last chapter of Deuteronomy was added to the Pentateuch by Joshua. Bonfrerius, in the Appendix to chapter 7 of the Prefatory Discourses on Sacred Scripture, section 5, which he subjoins to his Commentaries on the Pentateuch, thinks that it was written by him while the mourning of the Hebrews for the death of Moses still lasted; but that saying of Deuteronomy, last chapter, verse 8, The days of their mourning in which they mourned for Moses were ended, sufficiently shows that the writing was done after the mourning. But how much time passed between the one and the other, who shall determine? This one thing can be said, that Joshua more likely subjoined that finishing touch to the Mosaic history before he began his own: and I judge that he began his own after the distribution of the land, when he had already fixed his dwelling in Thamnath-Saraa and was very old. This is gathered from that frequent note of time until this present day: the like of which we read in Matthew chapter 27, verse 18, about the field Haceldama. The two last chapters of his book, except about the five last verses, he wrote toward the end of his life.

§ XXIX. Joshua dies, having more probably been over Israel about XVII years: the chronological order of his chief deeds; eulogies from the sacred Letters: while he lived there were no public idolaters among the Israelites: the Saint's chief virtues.

[ ] St. Joshua dies, having more probably And after these things, says verse 29 of the last chapter — that is, after the covenant renewed in Sichem and the people dismissed to their possessions — Josue the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten years old. Scripture hands down only the years of his life; but because it kept silent about the duration of his princedom, it opened a wide field of dispute for the Chronologists. But omitting the long enumeration of the various opinions, we depart from all those which attribute to the Saint 14 or fewer, 25 or more years of government. Those who assert that his princedom lasted a longer time than 14 and a shorter than 25 years define it as about 17. Their opinion comes nearer the truth than that of the others. First of all, that the duration of his magistracy cannot be extended to 25 or more years I show thus: From the third book of Kings, chapter 6, verse 1, it is evident that from the Exodus to the laying of the foundations of Solomon's temple four hundred and eighty years are counted; and that the four hundred and eightieth year is the fourth year of Solomon's reign: And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the going out of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year, in the month Zio (that is the second month), of the reign of Solomon over Israel, the house of the Lord began to be built. But that series of years cannot hold, the chronology being deduced through the years of the Judges as they are defined in the Hebrew text and in our Vulgate, if 25 or more years of rule be assigned to Joshua: therefore he did not govern the commonwealth of the Hebrews so long.

[271] The truth of the minor proposition is set before the eyes by the following scheme. and neither for more Moses from the going out ruled the people 40 years, Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 7; Othoniel, the first of the Judges after the death of Joshua, 40, Judges chapter 3, verse XI; Aod 80, ibid., verse 30; Samgar a few months; Barac and Debbora 40 years, Judges chapter 5, verse 32; Godeon 40, Judges chapter 8, verse 28; Abimelech 3, Judges chapter 9, verse 22; Thola 23, Judges chapter 10, verse 2; Jair 22, ibid., verse 3; Jephte 6, Judges chapter 12, verse 7; Abesan 7, ibid., verse 9; Ahialon 10, ibid., verse XI; Abdon 8, ibid., verse 14; Samson 20, Judges chapter 15, verse 20; Heli the pontiff 40, first book of Kings chapter 4, verse 18; Samuel and Saul the king 40, Acts chapter 13, verse [ ]; David the king 40, second book of Kings chapter 5, verse 5; Solomon laid the foundations of the temple in the 4th year of his reign, third book of Kings chapter 6, verse 1. If you make the addition of the years set down, there will result 463 years. If to this number you add 25 or more years of Joshua's princedom, you will find the sum of the years 488 or greater than that; and consequently the year of the founding of the temple will be faulty, which Scripture affirms was begun in the 4th year of king Solomon and the 480th from the going out of Egypt: but you will match this number if to the time in which Moses and the named judges and kings were set over Israel you join 17 years: it remains therefore that Joshua held the princedom about so long.

[272] nor for fewer than about 17 years: Those who restrict Joshua's rule to 14 or fewer years count separately either the time of some servitude, or that which they grant to the government of the elders whom verse 31 mentions: And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue and of the ancients that lived a long time after Josue. But since Scripture nowhere says that those elders administered the commonwealth after the holy Prince's death, they are rightly understood only to have shone before the whole people by the example of their piety and constant faith in God, and to have kept it in its duty by the authority which their very old age, long experience of affairs, and probity of life had won for them, so that none at least should publicly fall away to idols. We therefore leave to our Saint his about 17 years of princedom; but those in which the Israelites served the Lord under the elders we refer to the beginnings of Othoniel. We assert also that the years of no servitude are to be computed separately, and we say that every space of interregnum is comprised in the years of the judges and does not make a separate chronology; for example, the eighteen years of the servitude which happened under the king of the Moabites are contained in the 80 years of the judge Aod, and so of the rest. Therefore the years of each judge are the spaces of time lying between two judges — for example, from the death of Joshua to the death of Othoniel, from the death of Othoniel to the death of Aod, etc. From all which we conclude that the Saint ruled neither more nor fewer years than about 17. I have given my judgment here on a question much controverted and closely connected with various others; which therefore can be assailed with manifold objections. I do not detain the reader in resolving these, leaving him liberty to choose another opinion and to plunge himself into difficulties far graver than those which can be objected to us.

[273] of his chief If the about 17 years in which he acted as supreme leader of the Israelites in Canaan, and the 40 in which he was the minister of the great prophet Moses in the desert, be taken from the 110 years of his life, there will remain about 53 in which he lived in the Egyptian servitude. Toward the end of this Moses chose him as his minister. In the first year from the going out, at about the 54th of his age, he conquers the Amalekites, ascends with the lawgiver into Mount Sinai, on which for 40 days fasting, fed with spiritual delights, he likely led a life nearly equal to the angels; after the descent from the mountain the care of guarding the tabernacle is committed to him. In the second year from the going out, which we believe was the 55th of his life, there happened what Scripture records about his emulation on Moses' behalf; he is sent to explore Canaan; on his return, the signal

proofs of his bravery and zeal in stilling the sedition he gives; he is prodigiously snatched from the danger of stoning. In the 40th year of their sojourn in the desert, at about the 93rd of his age, he is named by the Lord successor of Moses, is inaugurated Prince of the Israelites, the Midianites are routed more probably under his leadership, and the dignity conferred on him is confirmed before the people by the lawgiver and by God Himself with a heavenly prodigy. Moses being dead, he begins to exercise the supreme power; whose first year, to pass over many other things, was chiefly made illustrious by his familiarity with God, of whose address he was often deemed worthy; by the wonderful crossing of the dried Jordan; by the apparition of the archangel Michael; by the prodigious overthrow of the walls of Jericho; by Hai taken by a wonderful stratagem; by Adonisedec with four other kings conquered at Gabaon; by the stony hail sent from the heavens upon their forces slipping away in flight; by the course of the sun and moon checked at his command until the enemy were wholly slain; by weariness more probably driven divinely from the bodies of the Israelites; by the army of the king of Gazer destroyed; and finally by all southern Canaan subdued with wonderful speed.

[274] In the second year of his rule, the 95th of his life, the most numerous army of the northern kings was slain to the last man, the chronological order of his deeds: and Asor stormed. The four following years were spent in finishing off the remnants of the war. In the first six years of his rule he conquered thirty-one kings, whom, when killed, God so willing, he hanged on gibbets. In the seventh year of his princedom Joshua, now a hundred years old, is admonished by the Lord to divide Canaan by lots. In the following year the removal of the tabernacle from Gilgal to Shiloh takes place, where the interrupted partition of the promised land is continued at the Saint's urging. When he could have a better, the modest Prince chooses a worse portion for himself. The remaining nine years of his life he spends in building Thamnath-Saraa and in ordering the commonwealth. In extreme old age he holds two assemblies, in which he exhorts the people with fervent speech to the love and worship of the true God: in the last he renews the covenant between God and the people by a solemn rite. A little after, all the parts of his office being most excellently fulfilled according to the will of God and of the whole people, he was gathered to his Fathers in a good old age, being 110 years old. Only the chief heads of things have I inserted into this chronological order, the rest being passed over. The month too and the day on which each thing was done I have assigned, as far as I could, in their places.

[275] A few eulogies of the Saint drawn from the sacred Letters, eulogies from the sacred which may serve as illustrious epitaphs, we shall here subjoin. Moses, when the Lord had denied him entrance into the promised land for the sin at the Waters of contradiction, thus prayed to Him, Numbers chapter 27, from verse 16: May the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh provide a man that may be over this multitude: and may be able to go out and in before them and to lead them out or bring them in: lest the people of the Lord be as sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said: Take Josue the son of Nun, a Man in whom is the Spirit, and put thy hand upon him … and thou shalt give him precepts in the sight of all, and part of thy glory, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him. And Deuteronomy, last chapter, verse 9: And Josue was filled with the Spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. Therefore before all others God Himself chooses Joshua as successor in the government of the people to the greatest prince and prophet Moses. Eternal Truth testifies that the Holy Spirit is in him, and that he received the fullness of all His gifts when he was inaugurated. What more can be brought forward in praise of the holy Man? In Joshua chapter XI, verse 15, he is thus extolled for the exact observance of the precepts given him: As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Josue, and he fulfilled all things: he left not out of all the commandments not so much as one word which the Lord had commanded Moses. Although brief, no less honorable is that of chapter 24, verse 29: And after these things Josue the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died. Both living he served God, and professed that he would serve God until death (I, he says in the same place, verse 15, and my house will serve the Lord); and dead he deserved that illustrious surname Servant of the Lord, with which his teacher Moses was adorned after death, Deuteronomy last chapter, verse 5: And Moses died there, the Servant of the Lord.

[276] Letters: while the holy Prince lived no public worship was shown to idols: After narrating the Saint's burial, Scripture subjoins, Joshua chapter 24, verse 31: And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue. The same is repeated in Judges chapter 2, verse 7. By word and example, by his vigilance and authority, the excellent Prince so kept the Israelites, prone to idolatry, in the worship and piety of the true God, that no one, as long as he lived, publicly worshipped strange gods; publicly, I say, for that some showed them a private worship the Saint's own words in the same place, verse 23, seem to prove: Now therefore put away strange gods from among you. St. Augustine, however, in question 29 denies that any idol existed in Israel under Joshua's princedom; and by the commanded putting away of strange gods he thinks must be understood the laying aside of the empty phantasms which one fashions for oneself about God, when one imagines Him to be other than in fact He is: and he brings forward various arguments for it. Salianus at the year 2600 understands some condition in the Saint's words Put away the gods, etc.: namely that their images, if perchance any are secretly kept by some among the spoils, although not for worship, should be utterly removed. In the Scholia which he subjoins at the same year he defends this opinion of his, and proves by examples that the particle if is sometimes wanting in the sacred text. But this opinion, and that of St. Augustine, displeases most. Let there therefore have been some secret idolaters among the Israelites, such as it is plain there were also under Moses in the desert, from Amos chapter 5 from verse 25, and Acts chapter 7 from verse 42: nothing of praise is thence detracted from the most perfect Leader. What prince by human industry and prudence could take precaution that none of his subjects sin secretly? He fulfilled the parts of his office excellently if he prevented any crimes from being publicly committed. Our most vigilant Prince brought it about that no trace of public idolatry existed in Israel. He himself testifies this in the last but one assembly, held toward the end of his life, chapter 23, verse 8; where he praises his people for their constancy in the worship of the true God: he would certainly have rebuked them if he had known that they had fallen away from it. In the last exhortation indeed, made not long after, he admonished the people to put away strange gods from their midst; but this he said as a prophet from the mouth of the Lord, revealing that there were hidden in Israel some who secretly worshipped idols. This is plain from the beginning of the speech, chapter 24, verse 2: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel. From these things it is sufficiently understood that the Saint's admonition about removing idols from their midst does not stand in the way of its being true that Israel, as long as the Saint lived, served the Lord; and true indeed in that sense which wonderfully commends his princedom. Further, the idols to which we believe some Israelites showed a private worship were not the gods of the Canaanites, but those which their forefathers served in Mesopotamia, as is plain from verse 15. See num. 259.

[277] his eulogy from Ecclesiasticus: Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, verse 1 and following, follows the Saint with these praises: Jesus the son of Nave was valiant in war, the successor of Moses among the prophets, who was great according to his name, very great for the salvation of the elect of God, to overthrow the enemies that rose up against him, that he might obtain the inheritance of Israel. What glory did he gain in lifting up his hands and casting darts against the cities? Who before him hath so resisted? For the Lord himself brought the enemies to him. Was not the sun stopped in his anger, and one day made as two? He called upon the most high Sovereign when the enemies assaulted him on every side, and the great and holy God heard him with hailstones of exceeding great force. He made an assault upon the hostile nation, and in the descent he destroyed the adversaries, that the nations might know his power, that it is not easy to fight against God. And he followed close behind the Mighty One: and in the days of Moses he did a work of mercy, he and Caleb the son of Jephone, in standing against the enemy and hindering the nation from sins and breaking through the murmuring of wickedness. And they two being appointed were delivered from danger, from among the number of six hundred thousand men on foot, to bring them into their inheritance, into the land that floweth with milk and honey. I add Josephus' testimony about our Saint: He paid, he says, the debt of nature in the hundred and tenth year of his life: of which XL he spent as minister under his master Moses, and after his death he was set over the commonwealth twenty-five (that this is less likely I proved above at num. 270 and following), a man of incomparable prudence and eloquence alike, and besides brave and tireless in the business of a commander, and no less good and useful in peace: in short, outstanding in every virtue.

[278] The virtues which are summarily contained in these eulogies, and which shine forth from his Acts which we have given, the integrity of his life and his virginity, we shall not enumerate all one by one: we shall only set forth the chief ones from Bellarmine, book 2 On the Duties of a Prince, chapter 3, before the middle: I come now, he says, to the virtues and privileges of holy Joshua. First, Joshua the leader had innocence in common with the patriarch Joseph, from whom he descended: and in this part he surpassed even Moses himself. For Moses was rebuked by the Lord because he offended and did not sanctify the Lord Himself at the Waters of contradiction; and therefore he was punished with this penalty, that he should not enter into the land of promise, which he had so long desired and sought with so great labor. But of Joshua nothing at all is read to have been rebuked in the sacred Scriptures: and yet, as we said above, the Scriptures are not wont to omit the lapses of those whose deeds they narrate. That innocence therefore befitted him who bore the type of Jesus Christ, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 22. Another virtue, and that almost singular, was in our Joshua: virginal chastity, in which he surpassed the chastity of the patriarch Joseph and of his lord Moses. For these, although otherwise most chaste men, took each one wife and begot sons. But that our Joshua, as a true type of Jesus Christ our Lord, was a most chaste virgin, can be understood from this, that in the Scriptures no mention is made of his sons: whereas nevertheless in the Scripture of the Old Testament the generations of all the tribes of the children of Israel are most accurately described. Then Bellarmine brings forward the testimonies of SS. Ignatius the martyr, Chrysostom, and Jerome about the Saint's virginity, which we too have given at num. 136 and following.

[279] But now, the same Bellarmine goes on, that

we may come to the theological virtues, faith, I know not whether faith in God ever shone more brightly in anyone. Faith is chiefly discerned in the working of miracles, the Apostle saying, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 2: "If I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." Now in the working of miracles Moses shone above the other saints of the Old Testament; inasmuch as he divided the sea, drew waters out of the rock, made manna come down from heaven, and wrought many other things of the kind. Our Joshua divided the Jordan, made stones come down from heaven upon the enemies of his people: but, what is the greatest of all, he checked the sun and moon in heaven from their course by his command. Moses, being bidden to strike the rock with his rod and by that striking to draw forth water so abundant that men and beasts could drink, hesitated somewhat in faith. Our Joshua by the greatness of his faith commanded the sun and moon without any hesitation, saying: "Move not, O sun, toward Gabaon, nor thou, O moon, toward the valley of Ajalon"… Here plainly shone forth the greatest and most eminent faith of holy Joshua, who without hesitation believed that God would be present to him and would bring it about that he should stay the sun and moon: for therefore not timidly and with lowered voice, but boldly and most loudly he cried, Sun, move not, and thou moon likewise stay thy course; being certain, namely, that what he, God's dearest friend, bade be done would altogether come to pass. For what is subjoined, "The Lord obeying the voice of a man," does not signify that God properly obeyed the voice of a man; but is said by metaphor to have obeyed, because He brought it about that the sun and moon obeyed the voice of a man, His Servant and most faithful friend. And so Jesus Nave anticipated that promise of Jesus Christ, whose figure he bore: "Amen I say to you, if you shall have faith and stagger not, and shall say to this mountain: Take up and cast thyself into the sea, it shall be done. And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." Matthew chapter 21, verse 21. The Saint's faith praised by the Fathers see at num. 194.

[780] hope, Nor was Joshua's hope in God less than his faith. Since in the very first chapter of the book of Joshua God Himself not once but a second and a third time said to Joshua: "Take courage and be strong, fear not and be not dismayed, because the Lord thy God is with thee in all things whatsoever thou shalt go to." For these words of God were not only significative but also effective, without doubt. And so they took away from him all dread and fear, and clothed him with incredible confidence and admirable bravery, so that he easily came off victor against very many kings and stormed all their cities.

[281] charity toward God What now shall I say of his charity toward God and his neighbor? Joshua had commanded that, when the first city, which was called Jericho, should be taken, all the gold and silver found in it should be preserved for God's treasuries; that all the rest should be destroyed in God's honor, and that no one should dare to touch anything. But when a certain man named [] Charmi had secretly carried off some gold and silver and I know not what other things dedicated to God, this Joshua blazed up in zeal for God's honor, although he was otherwise most gentle, and, the guilty man being found with great diligence, ordered him to be stoned, and delivered all his goods — that is, his tent, sheep, oxen, asses, and all his substance — to be burned in the flames. The zeal of religion and of charity toward God appeared also at the end of his life, where with incredible ardor he exhorted the people to persist in the true religion of the one true God; and so fixed in the hearts of his hearers the zeal of religion that Scripture says: "Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue and of the ancients that lived a long time after Josue."*

[282] and toward his neighbors, Of his love and charity toward his neighbors two things can be adduced in testimony: one, that he never had any contention with Eleazar the high priest, nor with any of the princes of the people, but always lived with them all in incredible concord. The other, that when it came to the division of the towns and fields and vineyards, and indeed of all things acquired by force and arms, he did not choose first, as would have been fitting, all the best things: but after regions had been assigned to all the tribes of the children of Israel, then he himself asked of the people some place where he might dwell, Thamnath-Saraa… And that that place was rough and harsh, St. Jerome testifies in the Life of St. Paula the Roman matron… But this is not to be wondered at, since Joshua was not of this world, but a most holy man and an emulator of the virtues of Moses his master, who sought not the things that were his own but the things of others: nor did he wish to imitate Moses only, but much more Jesus Christ, whom he knew would come in the spirit, and that he himself bore His figure he was not ignorant, God revealing it. And so what a philosopher afterwards wrote, that this is the difference between a king and a tyrant, that a king seeks not his own but the people's advantage, while a tyrant on the contrary seeks his own and not the people's — this long before our Joshua showed in fact and in deed, forming kings by his example and detesting tyrants.

[283] I pass over what could have been said of his prudence and bravery in waging wars, and other virtues. namely how he always kept his armies [in] their duty, restrained them from crimes, instructed them in the fear of the Lord: and by what arts he turned aside or laid low the enemy, and finally subdued so many provinces in a short time; and, the inhabitants being killed or put to flight, delivered them to the children of Israel to be dwelt in and possessed. For these things can be sought from the book of Joshua. Thus Bellarmine, setting forth our Saint, a prince most perfect on every side, to be imitated by others placed in the same dignity. Tertullian, book 3 against Marcion, chapter 16, judged that St. Joshua is that angel and leader whom God promised in Exodus 23, saying: "Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall keep thee in the way and bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee: give heed to him and hear him, and do not disobey him: for he hath not hidden from thee, since my name is upon him." He called him an angel indeed on account of the greatness of the virtues which he was to display, and on account of the office of a prophet, namely one announcing the divine will: but Jesus on account of the future mystery of his name. The same other Fathers thought, in a Lapide on Exodus chapter 23, verse 20.

add Achan the son of*

§ XXX. The burial of Joshua: some wonders which are related of him: he heals one afflicted with fevers and the pains of gout: the Saint's cult, who was truly a prophet.

[ ] Joshua's sepulchre, which in St. Jerome's time holy Paula venerated: And they buried him, says Scripture, chapter 24, verse 30, in the borders of his possession in Thamnathsare, which is situate in mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaas. The Septuagint in the Roman edition add: There they placed with him in the tomb in which they buried him the stone knives with which Jesus had circumcised the children of Israel in Galgal, when he brought them out of Egypt, as the Lord had commanded; and they are there until this present day. There is no doubt that his funeral was honored by the whole people, and public mourning proclaimed according to custom, as at the death of Aaron and of Moses. Certainly this could not be denied to the Saint's merits. That toward the end of the fourth century Joshua's sepulchre still existed St. Jerome testifies in the Epitaph of Paula in these words: Paula venerated also the sepulchres in mount Ephraim of Jesus the son of Nave and, over against it, of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest; of whom the one is laid in Thamnathsare on the north side of mount Gaas, the other in Gabaa of his son Phinees: and she wondered enough that the Distributor of possessions had chosen for himself mountainous and rough places. In the same holy Doctor, in the book On the Hebrew Places, which, written by Eusebius Pamphili, he himself rendered into Latin, I read this: Gaas, a mountain in the tribe of Ephraim, on whose north side Jesus Nave was buried: and to this day near the village Thamna his notable sepulchre is shown.

[285] an earthquake, an image of the sun set over the Saint's tomb, Serarius on chapter 24 of Joshua, question 12, reports from the Rabbis that there was placed over Joshua's sepulchre an image of the sun, or rather a statue, by which the memory of that admirable standing still [] of the sun, divinely obtained by Joshua himself, of which above, chapter IX [], might endure famous to all posterity. And Masius judges this probable, so that he thinks that from this Joshua's city was called Thamnathsarach, the letters being transposed, which in Judges 11, verse X [], is called entire and rightly in the Hebrew text Thamnat cheres, that is, City of the sun. Calmet reckons this tradition among the other fables of the Rabbis: but Arias, Masius, Cajetan, and others admit it as a credible history. But my opinion is that the transposition of letters, or Metathesis, which the Hebrew text often uses in proper names, could as easily have given occasion to a fable as a true history to a metathesis. The praised Serarius reports another tradition of the Hebrews, namely that when Joshua was buried there was a great earthquake in mount Ephraim, and from it the mountain was called Gaas, that is, OF COMMOTION AND TREMBLING: for the verb GAHAS signifies TO BE MOVED AND TO TREMBLE. This is a most empty old wives' tale to Masius: but to deny it without argument and for no cause is perhaps rather empty and old-wifely. For this could have happened, and the ancients assert that it happened who anciently wrote the Midrash or Explanation of the book of Ruth, and the authors of the Seder Holam. Nor is there anything to conflict with it; nay rather this is very fit for signifying the death and burial of the true Jesus Christ the Lord: for at this THE EARTH WAS MOVED AND THE ROCKS WERE RENT, Matthew XXVI, verse XV []. So he; but I, that that earthquake may prudently be believed, require a greater authority than that of the Rabbis.

[286] Wonderful are the things which St. Gregory of Tours, published by Ruinart, reports in book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 18: and other wonders which are related of him: There are also, he says, at the city of Levida hot waters in which Jesus Nave was wont to bathe: where likewise lepers are cleansed: and it is twelve miles from Jericho. And near Jericho there are trees which bear wool. For they produce fruits after the manner of gourds, having hard shells round about, but within they are full of wool. And of these too they relate that garments were wont to be made for Jesus Nave himself. But even today they produce such

wool, of which we have seen some brought by certain persons, and we marveled either at their whiteness or at their fineness. He mentions these waters of the city of Levida also in the following chapter, where he says that he had seen many who, being dipped in them, had been cleansed from leprosy. Further, Levida, of which St. Gregory speaks, is according to Ruinart in his Notes that famous Livias or Libias, in the tribe of Ruben, which Herod built in honor of Livia Augusta, the mother of Tiberius Cæsar.

[287] The same St. Gregory in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 40, narrates he heals one afflicted with fevers and the pains of gout: that his own father, afflicted with fevers and the pains of gout, suddenly recovered health through the Saint: But neither is it absurd to believe, he says, that the Lord often deigns to reveal through experienced visions in what way either the Saints are honored or the sick obtain their remedies. For I recall a thing done in my infancy, when my father labored under the infirmity of the gouty humor, and, wasted by the heat of fevers and by many pains, lay upon his little bed: that I saw in a vision of the night a person saying to me: Hast thou read, he says, the book of Jesus Nave? To whom I: I have known nothing of letters beyond the characters, in the study of which I am now bound and afflicted. For I altogether know not whether this book exists. And he said: Go, make a little rod of wood which can receive this name, and, written in ink, place it under the support of thy father's head: for it will be a protection to him, if thou fulfil what I say. And when morning came, I told my mother what I had seen: she bids the commands of the vision be fulfilled. And when I had done this, my father at once recovered from his infirmity.

[288] The Hebrews, as is commanded in their Calendar in Genebrard, The Saint's cult among various peoples fasted on the XXVI day of the month Nisan, because it was, as they thought, the day of Joshua's death. The Arabo-Egyptian Martyrology in manuscript, rendered into Latin by Gratia Simonius the Maronite and sent from Rome to our predecessors by Athanasius Kircher, announces the Saint on 1 September. To this corresponds the fourth day of the month Toth, on which he is inscribed in the Calendar of the Copts of Egypt in Job Ludolf, page 389. The same, in the same author, page 419, at the XXV of the month Baune, as also the Ethiopians at the XXV of the month Sene, distinguish Joshua's name with a rubric, which is an indication that he is honored with a more solemn cult by those peoples. The XXV day of the month which is called by the Copts Baune and by the Ethiopians Sene is with us the XIX of June. But it is strange that in their Calendars published by Ludolf the XXVII day of the months Baune and Sene is celebrated with the memory of no Saint, whereas scarcely any other day of the year is found empty. Hence one might suspect that it happened by the printers' fault that the XXVI day was not set in the margin against St. Joshua or against the one immediately preceding, and that those were referred to this day which should have been fixed to the XXVII. Certainly Papebroch judged that Ludolf's edition must be corrected in this place, and with his pen prefixed the XXVI day in the margin to the Saint's announcement. Whether rightly, it is not worth while to inquire further. Brocardus in his Description of the Holy Land, published at Basle in the year 1537, says: From Tripoli at two leagues is the mountain of the Leopards, round and high, one league distant from Libanus. This mountain has at its north foot a cave in which is seen a tomb twenty-six feet in length, and it is devoutly frequented by the Saracens, who think that Joshua is buried there. Monsieur d'Herbelot in his Oriental Library at the name Joschova writes that by some superstitious Jews the Saint was believed to be a person who had passed beyond the human condition and had shared something of the divine nature. He adds that some Mohammedans gave credence to the same fiction.

[289] in the East, The Typicon of St. Sabas, the Menæa of the Dominican Fathers of the convent of St. Mark at Florence, of which we have a transcript, and all the other sacred Calendars of the Greeks which report him, have consecrated the first of September to his memory. The great Menæa, printed at Venice in the year 1595, after this announcement of him, The Falling Asleep of Jesus Nave, sing these little verses to him:

Ὄνπερ τρέχειν ἔστησεν ἥλιον πάλαι, Λιπὼν Ἰησοῦς, Ἥλιον δόξης βλέπει.

The sun which he saw stand still at his command, Jesus, leaving it, beholds the Sun of glory.

There is subjoined a eulogy of the Saint, scarcely differing from that which the Synaxary of the emperor Basil has. This lately by the care of the most eminent Cardinal Hannibal Albani came forth in Greek and Latin in elegant type, and thus announces and praises the Saint: On the same day the Falling Asleep of Josue the son of Nave. This Josue was indeed the son of Nave, and the successor of Moses the lawgiver of the Hebrews, a brave man and skilled in military affairs. For he stormed Jericho, the fortified city of the foreigners, and crossed the river Jordan on dry ground together with the people and the ark of God. He saw also Michael the prince of the heavenly host holding a sword in his hands: on knowing whom he at once cast away his own arms and, falling at his feet, said: What dost thou command thy servant? Besides this, when he was fighting a battle with the foreigners, and the sun was drawing near its setting, but he was held by the desire of conquering, having the greatest hope in God, he commanded the sun to stand still: and the sun stood still; nor did it set before he had most bravely put the enemy to flight. When therefore he had been over the army, and had rightly led the Israelite people out of the desert into the land of promise, which is Jerusalem, and had judged for twenty-seven years, he died and was honorably buried in the same land by his people. Of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan there is nothing in the eulogy which is extant in the Menæa: as to the rest the Basilian Synaxary nearly agrees with these. That in both places it is said that Joshua, casting away his own arms, fell at the Archangel's feet, is beyond Scripture, which mentions only the laying aside of his shoes. Nor does it seem to me true that the Saint was over them 27 years, as has been said from num. 270.

[290] and among the Latins: Georg Wicel the elder in his Exercises of True Piety, published in the year 1555, on the page marked below P III, brings forward from a most ancient codex of the library of Fulda a Mass in which, after the Commemoration for the dead, among other saints of the Old Testament St. Joshua is invoked. In the ancient Calendar which is called Julian, in Calvisius' Chronological Isagoge to his Chronological Work, the Saint is reported on the XXX day of April. But on the Kalends of September the old Roman, Ado, and Usuard announce him with St. Gideon in this manner: Of Jesus Nave and Gideon, prophets. Wandelbert sings thus of the Saint:

Him whom the lawgiver left heir of his own honor, who by lot marked out the land promised to the people by the stars, by places, by lofty mountains and by cities — Joshua holds and opens the Kalends of September.

[291] The title of prophets, with which the ancient Martyrologists honored the holy Joshua and Gideon, St. Joshua was truly a prophet as much as Moses. Notker was the first to suppress, whom among other moderns Baronius followed in the new Roman Martyrology. Yet do not therefore suspect that that title less befits our Saint: for although not equally great, he was nevertheless as truly a prophet as Moses. With both God dealt with wondrous familiarity, to both He revealed very many things; the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua are full of divine oracles made to both; both reported to the people various hidden things, both present and future, received from the Lord, in that manner in which they divinely understood they were to be reported; both also handed down in writing to posterity the things done by them, and all those things in which God willed to use them as go-betweens, or as interpreters of His will among the people. Finally, by the testimony of the Holy Spirit Himself St. Joshua was truly a prophet no otherwise than Moses: for in Ecclesiasticus chapter 46, verse 1, he is called the successor of Moses among the prophets, or, as the Greek has, in prophecies. Baronius in his Note on the Saint's announcement says: Joshua was of old numbered among the prophets, according to Epiphanius in the Panarion, heresy LXVI near the end. By prophet this holy father understands a sacred writer whose book is reckoned among the books of the prophets: and in this sense it is true that St. Joshua is not a prophet; for his book bearing his name, which among the Jews of old, by St. Jerome's testimony in his Helmeted Prologue, was the first of the prophets, is now numbered by the Church among the books of the sacred Historians. Therefore Baronius, who speaks according to the mind of St. Epiphanius, does not deny, nor can he deny, that he was a prophet, as Moses, Samuel, and David were, whose books are now likewise not held among the books of the prophets. Masinus in his Bologna Surveyed at 1 September writes that there in the Church of All Saints two teeth and other relics of the Saint are kept. I fear that the reader will not easily believe that these are truly of St. Joshua.

perhaps inhibitionis*

* read X

* read IX

* read XXVII, verse LI