that the war against the Midianites was undertaken (Numb. xxxi, 1-7), in which these five princes and Balaam were slain, (verse 8). They were not slain, therefore, together with Sihon, who was conquered and put to death before any hostility took place between the Midianites and Israelites, and before Balaam had done the Israelites any harm. In this 21st, therefore, after , I would read,

אשר הכה משה אתו ואתנשיאיו ואת ישבי הארץ

-"in Heshbon, whom Moses smote, him and his great men, and the inhabitants of the land." See Numb. xxi, 34, 35.

The 22d I would omit entirely.

Verse 23.

"Jordan and the border thereof."

וגבול omit with Vulgate הירדן After

This was the inheritance," &c.

-"Jordan.

Verse 25.-" and half the land of the children of Ammon." The Israelites were strictly forbidden to meddle with the Ammonites, and are told they should have no part of their land, Deut. ii, 19. Accordingly, it is said that they meddled not with their land, verse 37. The Hebrew text, therefore, in this place must be corrupt. Perhaps for

וחצי ארץ t and all- ; מחוצה לארץ the true reading may be

the cities of Gilead that lay without the land of the

children of Ammon." Some of the cities of Gilead

belonged to the Ammonites. See Deut. ii, 37. Verse 26. " of Debir;" rather, "of Lodebir." 2 Sam. ix, 4, 5.

Verse 27." Heshbon, Jordan and his border," &c.

; הירדן גבול I would read הירדן וגבל For

"Heshbon. Jordan was the boundary to the end of the sea of Cinneroth, east by Jordan."

Verse 32. "These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance;" rather, "These are

they to whom Moses gave inheritance."

CHAP. XIV. I am persuaded that between the 1st and 2d verses of this chapter we ought to find an enumeration of the tribes (the nine tribes and half) that were settled west by Jordan, ending with the half tribe of Manasseh, and that the 1st verse should be thus rendered:

1. "These are the children of Israel who received > an inheritance in the land of Canaan, to whom Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes, assigned their respective inheritances." To this effect it is rendered both by the LXX and by Houbigant. And this is the natural sense of the Hebrew word, in which

there is no ellipsis; for the order of construction in the first clause is this,

ואלה בני ישראל אשר נחלו בארץ כנען :

The manifest deficiency of the narrative, without apodosis of the pronoun these' by an enumeration of the tribes, put our English translators upon devising another sense for the passage, by supposing an ellipsis of the word countries.' It did not occur to them that in this sense of the passage the narrative will be equally deficient, without an apodosis of the pronoun 'these' by an enumeration of the countries. Verse 6. "Then came," &c. rather, "Now

-had come." The sacred historian is going back to facts antecedent to the time of this division of the land.

Verse 12. " then I shall be able to drive them out". "Cum supra narretur, xi, 21, 22, Josuam expulisse Enacæos ex monte Hebron, nec ullos fuisse superstites nisi in Gath, in Gaza, et in Ashdod, satis intelligitur quæ in hoc capite narrantur antea evenisse quàm quæ in fine cap. xi. Nec tamen propterea crediderim ordinem fuisse perturbatum. Nam hæc de Caleb memorantur, occasione acceptâ, de sortibus quæ ducendæ erant; ut lectores doceantur, quo

modo Caleb Hebron possedisset; nempe non sorte, sed Mosis de eo promissis re complendis, et quanquam regio in quâ est Hebron, tribui Judæ in quâ natus erat Caleb, non sorte obtigisset, tamen futurum fuisse ut Caleb Hebron possideret, ne non staret id quod Moses promiserat. Sed sortes Deus ita temperavit ut promissa Mosis starent. Denique non pugnat id quod narratur cap. xi, Josuam expulisse Enacæos, cum eo quod hic promittit Caleb se eos expulsurum. Nam recte attribuitur Josuæ id, quod ipso imperante fecit Caleb, et quod ipse Caleb non fecisset, nisi ei Josua copias suppeditasset." Houbigant ad locum.

CHAP. XV, 1. "This then was the lot," &c. rather, "Now the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families was upon the border of Edom, towards the wilderness of Zin southward, at the southernmost extremity [of the whole land]."

This 1st verse is a general account of the situation of the lot of the tribe of Judah. The writer then proceeds to a particular description of its limits.

Verse 4." this shall be your south coast." For

this * להם read with LXX and Houbigant לכם

was their southern border."

Verse 7. "Gilgal." See chap. xviii, 17.

Verse 18." she moved him to ask of her father a field;" i. e. she sollicited him to permit her to ask. See the sequel of the verse. Without the husband's consent the wife had no right to make such a request. See Houbigant.

Verse 32.-"all the cities are twenty and nine." See Reland's Palestine, 143–147.

Verse 47. " and the great sea and the border thereof;" read, “and the great sea was the boundary."

CHAP. Xvi, xvii. I despair of making out the chorography of these two chapters. In general, it ap pears that the entire allotment of the sons of Joseph, west of Jordan, was a triangle, the base of which was the coast of the Mediterranean from Japho to Dor, and the vertex a point on the western bank of Jordan due east of Jericho. The nook left between the river, and a line drawn from this vertical point to Dor, made part of Issachar's portion. The partition line between Ephraim and Manasseh was a curve, concave on Manasseh's side, and convex towards Ephraim's. Upon this curve, or near it, stood the towns of Atarothaddar, and the Upper Bethoron. Upon the southern leg of the triangle, extending from the vertical point Japho, was Jericho, Naarath,