How long the time, may be determined by a few data given in these books. At the close of the war, when the land was about to be divided to the tribes, Caleb solicits Hebron as his portion. He says he is eighty-five years of age that he was forty when sent as a spy from Kadesh. The spies were sent into Canaan, after giving the law from Sinai, and sundry other events, that occupied about two years. Thirty-eight years later they enter Canaan, that is, just forty years from the time they left Egypt. Add this thirty-eight to forty, and you will have the age of Caleb when he entered Canaan, in other words, when the war began. Thirty-eight added to forty makes seventy-eight. Seventy-eight when the war began, and eighty-five when it closed, make its continuance to be seven years. There was no city that made peace with Joshua, but the Hivites, or inhabitants of Gibeon, and the other cities represented by them. The Gibeonites were so called from their chief city; but they were Hivites, as be ing members of that tribe. Hivite was one of the sons of Canaan. Gen. x. 17. "It was the Lord to harden their hearts." Joshua did not attack the kings of Canaan without provocation. They rose against him, and provoked his attacks. Those that stood still in their strength, he did not disturb. These must therefore be excepted from those that came against Israel. We must also except such parts of the land, as did not come within the limits of the campaigns here described. These limits did not embrace all the country, as we learn from another part of this history. The giants had been destroyed, or driven out of the country. They were still in Gaza, Ashdod and Gath. These had not been destroyed. Neither had Ashkelon nor Ekron, two other Philistine cities, making in all five. See xiii. 3. CONCLUDING REMARKS TO SECTION X. The Tribes of Canaan. In verse 3d of the foregoing chapter, mention is made of most of the tribes of Canaan; and some intimation is given as to the part of the country each inhabited. As this is a subject that frequently comes before us, in this part of the Bible; and as we can not get a clear and consistent view of the history, without some knowledge of their respective localities, we propose to lay before the reader the main facts bearing on this subject, as we gather them from sundry passages of Scripture. The names of the principal tribes of Canaan are found on the monuments of Egypt, that have been buried in the earth for thousands of years; and something may be gathered from the same source respecting their history. But the Bible is our chief source of information on this subject; though it requires much patient and careful study, to bring it out and put it in proper shape and form. Canaan is named after the man Canaan,the son of Ham. The land was settled by his sons; and their descendants are named from them. Some of the sons settled outside of Canaan. All the sons are named in Gen. x. 15-18; "And Canaan begat Sidon, his first born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite." The Sidonians settled on the northern borders of the land; but they are not reckoned as Canaanites. Heth is the head of the Hittites, at first probably called Hethites and shortened to Hittites. It is probable that some of the names were dropped, and others taken or given. There was a tribe of Perizzites, having been named from the valleys which they chiefly occupied. They may at first have been the Arkites. Then there was a tribe Canaanites, being named from the father and not the They may be the children of Sinite or Avadite. We find some other names besides these, that may and may not admit of the same explanation; or they may be interlopers from other nations. It may be added that in some instances the name of a tribe is extended to all the inhabitants of the land. Canaanites is a name given to all the people of Canaan, and to a single tribe of Canaan. Amorites has the same peculiarity. In a few instances, other names appear to be used in the same way. Once, Canaanites and Perizzites are mentioned together, as including all the inhabitants. Gen. xiii. 7. Once, three tribes are named in the same way; they are Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites. Then we have five, as in Ex. xiii. 5; then six, Ex. iii. 8, 17; then and often seven, Deut. vii. 1; Acts xiii. 19, etc., etc. Finally, we have ten names. They are the Kenites, Kenizites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites. Gen. xv. 19-21. Rephaim signifies giants, and probably denotes a branch of the original inhabitants, before the Canaanites settled in the land. Kenites is a name that denotes a branch of the Midianites to which Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, belonged. Kenizites denotes a branch of the Hebrews. Caleb is called a Kenizite. But there must be a reference here to a more ancient tribe, and one belonging to Palestine at the time referred to in the passage. Kadmonites, Calmet thinks, is another name for Hivites. With these modifications, we have left the seven tribes of Canaan, often brought to our notice in these books. The location of these tribes, is as follows: 1. Hivites. Two or three passages define, with some degree of exactness, the part of the country occupied by this tribe. They dwelt under mount Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. The residence of Jephthah, the Gileadite judge, was in Mizpeh, near mount Hermon. The Hivites were his neighbors. They also dwelt in mount Lebanon, from Baal-gad under mount Hermon to the entering in of Hamath. This places them along the north ern border of Palestine. Jos. xi. 3; xiii. 3. It will be observed, too, that the Gibeonites, whose residence was in the tribe of Benjamin, a little north of Jerusalem, are called Hivites. Jos. xi. 19. 2. Canaanites. "The Canaanite on the east and on the west." This language is indefinite; but defined by other passages, it is found to mean, on the east by the Jordan; and on the west by the Mediterranean sea. See Num. xiii. 29. Here the name denotes a tribe, and not the whole body of Canaanites. 3. Girgashites. The references to these do not enable us to locate them with any degree of certainty. In mentioning the tribes of Canaan, these are often omitted; and we infer that the tribe was not large. They probably had their dwelling place between the Canaanites in the valley of the Jordan, and the Jebusites in Jerusalem. 4. Jebusites. These had their residence in Jerusalem; and from them the place was called Jebus or Jebusi. We read of the Jebusite in Jerusalem, and of the Jebusite in the mountains. Jerusalem was in that part of Canaan called "the mountains." When David got possession of Jerusalem, he did not wholly drive them out. Jos. xv. 8, 63; xviii. 28; Jud. i. 21; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. 5. Amorites. Sometimes this name applies to all the people of Palestine; but when used to denote a separate tribe, the indications are that they were very numerous. In the time of Abraham, the Amorites are mentioned in connection with Hazezon-tamar, on the west coast of the Dead sea, The kings that Moses encountered east of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, were Amorites; from which it would appear that they had crossed the Jordan, and established two great kingdoms in that country. At the same time they had enlarged their borders on the west side; for the spies sent from Kadesh, report that the Amorites dwelt in the mountains with the Jebusites. They are alluded to, as being in that location, when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Gen. xiv. 7; Num, xiii. 29; xxxii. 33; Jos. v. 1 6. Hittites. The spies from Kadesh associated the Hittites with the Amorites and Jebusites in the moun. tains. It agrees with this view, that Abraham at Hebron negociated for a burial place with the sons of Heth or Hittites. It may be thought to conflict with this statement, that Mamre, after whom the place was named, is called an Amorite; but here the sense of Amorite is not restricted to the tribe, but extended to the people of the land. The Hittites are called Amorites, as the Jebusites are, etc. Calmet commits the strange mistake of using Jud. i. 26, to prove that Bethel or Luz was inhabited by the Hittites! The passage merely says, that the betrayer of Bethel went into the land of the Hittites, and built a new city and called it Luz. The Hittites are recognized to a late period. Uriah, one of David's faithful officers, was a Hittite. Some of the wives of David were Hittites; and we even read of the kings of the Hittites. 2 Sam. xi. 3; 1 K. ix. 20; 2 K. vii. 6; Ezra ix. 1. 7. Perizzites. These were found in various parts of Canaan. They may have descended from one of the sons of Canaan; but the name was changed because of their preference for the valleys. They are mentioned with the Canaanites, as being near to Bethel and Ai. They were in the vicinity of Shechem. They were in the north of Canaan, and in the south. Gen. xiii. 7; xxxiv. 30; Jos. xvii. 15; Jud. i. 4. SECTION XI.-RECAPITULATION. 1. Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan, toward the rising of the sun; from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east: 2. Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon: 3 And from the plain to the sea |