Joshua 6:13

6:6-16 Wherever the ark went, the people attended it. God's ministers, by the trumpet of the everlasting gospel, which proclaims liberty and victory, must encourage the followers of Christ in their spiritual warfare. As promised deliverances must be expected in God's way, so they must be expected in his time. At last the people were to shout: they did so, and the walls fell. This was a shout of faith; they believed the walls of Jericho would fall. It was a shout of prayer; they cry to Heaven for help, and help came.

And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord,.... See Gill on Joshua 6:4 , went on continually; or, "going they went" (b): kept on going, making no stop at all, until they had compassed the city: and blew with the trumpets; as they went along: and the armed men went before them, but the rereward came after the ark of the Lord; which the Targum paraphrases as on Joshua 6:9, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets; See Gill on Joshua 6:9. (b) "euntes eundo", Montanus.

And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the {i} rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. (i) The tribe of Dan was so called, because it marched last and gathered up whatever was left of others.

12-14. Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord—The second day's procession seems to have taken place in the morning. In all other respects, down even to the smallest details, the arrangements of the first day continued to be the rule followed on the other six.

He said - The reading in the Hebrew text is "they said." Joshua no doubt issued his orders through the "officers of the people" (compare Joshua 1:10 ). Him that is armed - i. e. the warriors generally, not a division only. "The rereward" Joshua 6:9 was merely a detachment, and not a substantial portiere of the host; and was told off, perhaps, from the tribe of Dan (compare the marginal reference) to close the procession and guard the ark from behind. Thus the order would be (1) the warriors, (2) the seven priests blowing the cornets, (3) the ark, (4) the rear-guard.

Verse 13. - The rereward (see Joshua 5:9 ). Literally, the gathering together and then the body of troops which collects the stragglers, the rear guard , as in Numbers 10:25 ; Isaiah 52:12 ; Isaiah 58:8 . Calvin renders here by quia cogebat agmen. But the LXX. and Vulgate render by ὁ λοιπὸς ὄχλος and vulgus reliquum. So Luther, der Haufe. The LXX., however, in ver. 9 translates the same word by οὐραγοῦντες , i.e. , "qui extremum agmen ducunt, et quasi caudam efficiunt" (Rosenmuller). The word is not the same as that translated rereward in 1 Samuel 29:2 , the only other place where our version has "rereward," where there can be no question of the rendering being correct, since the literal meaning there is the hindermost. Joshua 6:13

The march on each of the next five days resembled that on the first. "So they did six days." In Joshua 6:13 , ותקעוּ does not stand for ותקוע, but corresponds to ותקעוּ in Joshua 6:8 ; and the participle הולך is used interchangeably with the inf. abs. הלוך, as in Genesis 26:13 ; Judges 4:24 , etc., so that the Keri הלוך is an unnecessary emendation.

36 . save ] Heb. zûlathî , in the Hex. only here, Deuteronomy 4:12 and Joshua 11:13 . Caleb the son of Jephunneh ] In the O. T. Kaleb—probably meaning dog (as from a tribal totem, W. R. Smith, Kinship , 200, 219), though other meanings have been suggested1[110]—is the name both of an individual and of a tribe, as among other Semites; Nabatean Kalba (Cooke, N. Sem. Inscr. 237); Arab. Kilâb (Wellh. Reste , 176 f., 217) and el-Kleib, a small tribe, (Musil, Ar. Petr. iii. 120 f.). In JE frequently Kaleb alone ( Numbers 13:30 ; Numbers 14:24 ; Joshua 15:14 ; Joshua 15:16 f.); those passages in JE in which he is called son of Yephunneh 2[111] are usually regarded as editorial, but it would be rash to say that the name of his father was not already found in JE by the deuteronomists. In D and P Kaleb the son of Yephunneh ( Numbers 13:6 ; Numbers 14:6 ; Numbers 32:12 ; Numbers 34:19 ). According to J, Joshua 15:17 (= Jdg 1:13 ) Kaleb was the brother of Ḳçnaz (the sons of Ḳçnaz were Edomite, Genesis 36:11 ; Genesis 36:15 ; Genesis 36:42 ) and is called the Kenizzite in secondary passages of JE, Joshua 14:6 ; Joshua 14:13 f., which also explain along with Joshua 15:13 how Joshua gave him Ḥebron in fulfilment of Moses’ promise to him. In David’s time the clan was still distinct from Judah or at least the memory of its original distinction was then preserved, 1 Samuel 30:14 .

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