perishing. In like manner, Rahab undoubtedly was informed of Gon's will, by some revelation, and acted in obedience to it; or she could not have been an instance of that faith which the inspired writer treats of in the chapter where she is mentioned. Had she proceeded upon a general report, or had she enquired and been assured upon the best information, that the people who were about invading her country, had been wonderfully raised up and preserved by the miraculous power of God; and that they were likely to conquer and destroy all who would not submit to them; and been hence induced to think, that it would be prudent for her to ingratiate herself with them, if possibly she might thereby save herself and family from ruin. All this, I think, would not have justified her conduct; but her concealing the spies upon these motives would have been a treachery to her country, might at last have proved a vain, as well as wicked action; for unless she certainly knew that God designed to give the Israelites possession of Jericho, his having hitherto protected them, could be no argument, that they would be enabled to destroy every city which they might have a mind to attack and depopulate. But if the design of GoD towards the inhabitants of Canaan had been made known to the king and people of Jericho; and he and they had been suffi ciently warned to save themselves from the destruction which was coming upon them; if they would not obey, but upon their refusal, if Rahab believed, and obediently acted according to what was required of her; her whole behaviour will stand clear of every

imputation. Now this appears to me to have been her case; Rahab perished not with them that believed not; the Greek words are, not rois amigos, with the unbelievers, but ras areincas, that is, with them who were disobedient. But how can the inhabitants of Jericho be said to have been disobedient, if GOD had required nothing of them? Some sufficient information both they and Rahab must particularly have had, or they could not have been condemned as disobedient, refusing to obey what they were directed to; nor could she have been an instance of one, who was saved by her faith, i. e. by believing and acting according to the will of Gon, made known to her. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews suggests nothing which contradicts any fact recorded in Joshua; but by mentioning Rahab's case, it is evident, that there were some circumstances attending it, which in Joshua are not recounted. Admit these circumstances; and her behaviour is clear of every appearance of a crime, nay it is just and commendable. And the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews needed not to have made Rahab an instance of the faith he was treating of, if he had not sufficient grounds for what he intimates about her; especially when he had so many illustrious patterns in his mind, as not to have room particularly to treat about many of them. Thus, after all, what our modern reasoners think they have to insinuate against Rahab, as guilty of a treachery to

? Heb. ubi sup. Heb. xi. 32.

41 Pet. iii. 20.

her country, is but an unjust accusation, founded upon a partial view of the circumstances attending what she did, and the motives she had to do it.

The day after the return of the spies from Jericho, early in the morning, Joshua removed the camp to the banks of Jordan; where they halted for three days. After these three days the proper officers instructed the people how they were to pass the river, according to the directions which God had given;" and on the next day the waters of Jordan were miraculously divided; so that the Israelites marched through the channel on dry ground. They were near a whole day in their march through the river, and made their passage through it, on the tenth day of the first month of the year; and it is easy to adjust the particular transactions, mentioned from the beginning of the month unto this tenth day, to the several days to which they belonged. On the first day of the month Joshua sent spies to Jericho; and the king of Jericho ordered a search for them the very night they came thither." Rahab, before they went to sleep, conferred with them, and let them down out of the city from the window of her house. They hid themselves in the mountain for three days, and therefore came to Joshua on the evening of the fourth day. On the fifth day of the month the camp removed

a

from Shittim to Jordan. After three days, or on the ninth day, the officers went through the host to instruct the people for going over the river, and on the morrow they were to see the wonders which the LORD designed to do among them; and accordingly, on the tenth day of the month, the waters were divided and they passed over Jordan.

When all the people were clean passed over Jordan, GOD commanded Joshua to send twelve men, one out of each tribe, back to the place, where the priests who bare the ark stood in the midst of the river; and to order each man to take upon his shoulders a stone out of the river, and bring it on shore with him ;* and on the next day Joshua pitched these stones in Gilgal for a monument, to perpetuate to future generations a remembrance of the waters of Jordan being miracu lously divided for the Israelites marching through the river into Canaan. The ninth verse of this chapter seems to intimate, that besides the twelve stones which were pitched in Gilgal, Joshua set up also twelve other stones in the midst of the river. The LXX and the Chaldee Paraphrast took the text in this sense;*

3 Έζησε δε Ιησες και άλλες δώδεκα λίθες εν αυτώ τω Ιορδανη,

&c. Versio txx. Græc.

Vid. Targ. Jonathan, in Loc.

but the Syriac and Arabic translators " thought otherwise; and Josephus seems to have had no notion of any more than one monument set up on this occasion." We read of no command given to Joshua to erect any in the midst of the river; and if he really designed any thing of this nature, what would twelve stones no bigger than such as a man could carry, have signified, if they had been laid upon one another in the channel? When the waters of Jordan returned to their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before, such a monument would have been washed away by them. The Hebrew words do indeed imply, that Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests, which bare the ark of the covenant stood; but I would submit it to the judgment of the learned, whether a small mistake of ancient copyists, may not be supposed to have happened in this passage:

pn, be tok ha jarden, does indeed signify in the midst of Jordan; but if the text was originally

Lapides, inquam, duodecim erexerunt, quos tulerunt, è medio Jordanis de sub pedibus sacerdotum. Versio Syriac. in loc.

The Arabic version leaves out the ninth verse.

n Vid. Joseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. 1, c. 4.

Joshua iv. 18.

The Hebrew words of the text are, Josh. v. 9.

בתיק היררן יהושע ושתים עשרה אבנים הקים תחת מצב רגלי הכהנים נשאי ארון הברית