many" of the combined armies of Palestine, though accompanied by soldiers "even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude," seemed no invincible force. "To-morrow about this time," said the Lord to him, "thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire;" and "Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him."* Occasionally, in the subsequent history of this people, the war chariots of their enemies were routed, when some captain, full of faith in God, was raised up to deliver Israel, as in the time of Deborah and Barak. But as a general rule horses and chariots proved too formidable for them, and their enemies invariably gathered courage whenever they could bring these into action. Five hundred years after the times of which we are now speaking, the Syrians encouraged each other to a renewed attack upon the Israelites by this argument: "Their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." So chronic was that condition + of unbelief which first developed itself among the hitherto faithful and victorious men of Judah, who "could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." The next failure related is that of the tribe of Benjamin. They They "did not drive out the Febusites that inhabited Ferusalem; but the Febusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Ferusalem unto this day;*—that is, to the time of the prophet Samuel, by whom probably the book of Judges was compiled. Although the Israelites made themselves masters, for the most part, of the hilly districts, there were some exceptions to this, of which the failure of Benjamin to take Jerusalem is the most remarkable. Soon after the tribes had crossed the Jordan, the then king of Jerusalem joined in a confederacy with other neighbouring kings, all of whom Joshua put to the sword. It does not appear that Joshua attacked the city itself; but the statement that he "smote all the country of the hills "+ would seem to imply that Jerusalem, one of the most important strongholds of that region, was subdued. The men of Judah, we read, had "taken Jerusalem, and set the city on fire;" but the Jebusites re-entered it, and dwelt with the children of Judah ‡ and Benjamin, the city lying upon the border line of the two tribes. It is spoken of in the book of Judges as a “city of the Jebusites," and a "city of a stranger;"§ nor was it recovered until the time of David, who, having offered rewards to any of his men who would scale the precipitous sides of the ravine, "took the stronghold of Zion," and, seeing no doubt at a glance the matchless strength of its situation, at once took up his residence. "in the fort," and "built round about" it. † Josh. x. 40. * Jud. i. 21. Josh. xv. 63. || 2 Sam. v. 7-9. The men of Benjamin, however, "could not drive out the Jebusites:" they could not retain what their predecessors had gained, but were content with a divided supremacy. We have here a key to the subsequent moral state of Jerusalem. The city was not in the beginning purged from idolaters; the tares and the wheat grew together from the beginning-" representing," as a commentator justly remarks, "a lax state of the Church of God, due to men's sin; nor can we wonder at its subsequent history and fall. Passing from the tribe of Benjamin to that of Manasseh, the sacred record enumerates the places which the men of that tribe were unable to subdue. "Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns"-her daughters, if we translate the text literally; that is, the smaller places situated near the principal city—“ nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor nor of Ibleam nor of Megiddo and her towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land."+ The situation of these places, with the exception of Ibleam, is well ascertained. From their positions, as well as from the way in which they are mentioned, both in earlier and in later records,‡ it is evident that they must have been among the most important places in Manasseh's territory. They are all situated in that great plain of Jezreel or of Esdraelon, § which extends ‡ Josh. xvii. 11; 1 Chron. vii. 29. § Esdraelon is merely the Greek form of the Heb. word Jezreel. quite across the centre of Palestine, from the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan on the east, cutting the country in two, and dividing the mountain. ranges of Samaria from those of Galilee. Beginning at the Jordan end of the plain, the writer first names Beth-shean, the "house of rest," called in later times Scythopolis and now Beisân, a place situated two or three miles west of that river, just on the brow of the descent where the plain begins to drop towards the Jordan level. Four streams run through or near the town. The abundance of water, the exuberance of the soil, and the facility afforded by the level country for the use of "chariots," may explain why the Canaanites struggled to keep, while the Manassites were unable to conquer, the fruitful Beth-shean. Taanach and Megiddo are situated at the western or seaward end of the plain. Taanach still retains its ancient name; and Megiddo, beside whose waters Sisera's host was routed, and whose name is associated with memories of Solomon and Josiah, and with the prophetic battle of Armageddon, or "mount Megiddo," "* is visible from it; where some columns and rubbish heaps and building stones along the banks of a little stream are the only vestiges left of the royal city of the Canaanites. Dor was upon the sea coast, not far from the base of mount Carmel. It was an ancient royal city of the Canaanites; it became afterwards a residence of one of Solomon's twelve * 1 Kings ix. 15; 2 Kings xxiii. 29; Rev. xvi. 16. purveyors; it went through various fortunes in the times of the Maccabees and Romans;* it is now a heap of low ruins, the district being almost wholly deserted, in consequence of the periodical raids of the wild Bedouin, who pasture their flocks on the plain of Sharon. "The Canaanites would dwell in that land," says the historian, repeating the words used in reference to the same tribe and the same places in the book of Joshua. The Hebrew word which our version renders "would dwell," intimates that the Canaanites wished to arrange the matter agreeably; that they made. friendly overtures to the men of Manasseh to be permitted to remain-a permission which was granted them on condition of their paying tribute. Such is the attitude which, in these latter days, the world frequently assumes toward the Church of Christ in Christian countries. It is willing enough to pay tribute, both in gold and outward forms of deference, if only the Church will allow it a peaceable lodging, and refrain from using against it the sword of the Spirit. Too often has the Church, like the men of Manasseh, consented to accept tribute money, whether of the state or of private individuals, as the price of permitting the world to remain unmolested within its borders; and how often has she found, in her bitter * Josh. xii. 21, 23; 1 Kings iv. II; I Macc. XV. II. † Josh. xvii. 12. Compare Gen. xviii. 27, Exod. ii. 21, 1 Sam. xii. 22, Josh. vii. 7; where the Hebrew Yaal (Hiphil) is variously rendered in our Authorized Version. |