In the next page †, but the fame chapter ftill, he writes, That Joshua made all the inhabitants of Jericho perish in the flames.' Is not this, however, cred hiftory. But upon what authority doth he fix the dimensions of the country, against the inhabitants of which the Ifraelites, under Mofes, now waged war, in the manner he hath done? Midian, in the larger sense, seems to have reached from the coast of the Red fea to the river Arnon, on the east of the Dead sea, or Asphaltic lake, as was obferved already. Accordingly Jofephus places the Midian where Jethro dwelt, and to which Mofes retired when Pharaoh fought to flay him, Exod. ii. 13. on the border of the Red fea. Antiq. 2. II. I. Ες τε πολιν Μαδιηνην αφικόμενος, προς τη μεν ερυθρα θαλασση και perny, &c. But furely Midian, in this fenfe, which ought to have been Mr. Voltaire's, from his affigning Jethro a refidence in it, as will be seen immediately as well as the people by Arnon, was a country which contained many more than nine square leagues; for fo many are in a country which is only three leagues, or nine miles broad, and three leagues, or nine miles long, but the length and breadth of this far exceeded. Even in the narrower acceptation again, which, I believe, is that of the term Midian in Numbers, it furpaffed these dimensions he hath given it more than a little. Suitably, we find it was divided into a kind of pentarchy then, or comprehended five kingdoms; for fo many kings of Midian are recorded to have been flain in the war, Numb. xxxi. 8. Joshua, xiii. 21. He fubjoins also to the paffage recited, this reflection, The remarkable part of this acknowledgment is, that this ⚫ fame Mofes was a kinfman of Jethro, the high priest of the Midianites, who had done him the most fignal services, and heaped kindneffes upon him.' And thus he would infinuate, that in the fevere treatment of the Midianites, Moses acted against all the ties of gratitude and natural affection. But befides that Mofes, in the havock Ifrael made among the Midianites, was only the executioner of a divine order, which, wherever it is interpofed, fuperfedes all private obligations to tenderness, let it be obferved there was no fuch near conpection between Jethro, whose daughter Moses had married, and these porthern Midianites, that is, these inhabitants of Midian in the more + Philofophy of History, page 173. in flat contradiction to Scripture, which relates that the Ifraelites utterly deftroyed all living in the city, except Rahab and her friends, with the edge of the fword? Jofh. vi. 21. It is true it is faid afterwards they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein; but this must be understood, not with respect to the inhabitants, of whom it is already affirmed they were flain, but with respect to the houses and fur niture, under the restriction mentioned, ver. 24, 25. Accordingly himself, in his Dialogues †, fays, The Jews put all to the sword in Jericho, having previ ⚫oufly devoted them to deftruction, except Rahab a "harlot, who had affifted them in furprising the town.' Yet even here, where he states the fact aright, how confined meaning of the word, with whom the Ifraelites fought, as our author would lead us to fuppofe. It is true both dwelt in that region which bore the general name of Midian; but then this region was an immenfe tract of land, in which were feveral principalities or fovereignties, with feparate, and, no doubt, sometimes jarring interests. It may be true alfo, that the progenitor of the fouthern Midianites, in the neighbourhood of the Red fea, among whom Jethro prefided in facred, or as others, from a different verfion of the title of his office, think, in civil matters, and the progenitor of the northern Midianites, whom the Ifraelites destroyed, was the fame person, even Midian, a son of Abraham by Keturah, as from him the whole territory had its denomination. This union, however, in Midian, as their common father, as it was a thing which took place about 400 years before, would, by this time, have loft all influence upon their mutual conduct, or reciprocal behaviour toward each other.-Jethro and the people, whofe priest or ruler he was, were at a great distance from the Midianites that were fubdued by Ifrael under Mofes; and remote as they were from th m in respect of their feat or habitation, they were no lefs removed from them, as was fhewed before, in their religious fentiments. See fection V. of this chapter, page 127. † Page 58. unfair is he in describing Rahab's service? For one would imagine from his expreffion, that she had intoxicated the centinels, thereby difabling them to found an alarm, or that she had bribed them to fuffer their enemies advances without giving any fignal of danger, or that she had received up fome of the Ifraelite foes at the back windows of her house, which seems to have been contiguous to the wall of the town, or that she had in fome other bafe manner contributed to their becoming mafters of the place. The cafe, however, was far otherwife. She had indeed concealed two fpies whom Joshua had made choice of to go and examine the condition of the people in the land, and secured their escape to the camp of the Hebrews, which was ftill beyond the Jordan, against all the attempts of the king's fearchers to intercept and feize them: but then their getting poffeffion of the city was not by any aid from her, but altogether miraculous. For at the circumvection of the ark the feventh time, on the feventh day, while the princes founded with rams horns, as had been done once during each of the preceding fix days, and the befiegers gave an univerfal fhout, the city wall fell, fo that every man entered at the breach which was next before him. See Jofhua, ii. and vi. chapters. He further adds, in his Philosophy of History †, That Joshua devoted to death 12000 inhabitants of the city of Ai.' But I do not read of any vow of their deftruction at all, which must be the fense of devoting as his act. And though he had bound himfelf and his people thus to their excifion, there would have been no fufficient ground for thinking it pro + Page 173. ceeded from a vindictive temper, or from the rage and hatred of an enemy. It might have been employed from a pious principle, as an additional fecurity, amidst the reluctancies of nature, for their fulfillment of God's general order with reference to the feven nations, upon their non-acceptance of their of fers of peace, which was above in its fubftance produced, and to his particular charge in this inftance, Jofh. viii. 2. even as we fuppofe him actuated by this motive in devoting Jericho, vi. 17. All that Jofhua did in this cafe, was only to declare the divine pleasure to the army, as a fubaltern officer carries to his corps the mandate and direction of the commander in chief, in confequence of which, all the people of Ai were cut off, even 12000, Jofh. viii. 25, 27. Mr. Voltaire fubjoins ftill another charge‡against him, 'He facrificed to the Lord thirty and two kings of the country, who were all anathematized and hanged.' And he renews it in thefe terms, chap. 41.† where indeed, as appears from Jofh. xii. 24. he gives a jufter account of the number of kings that loft their lives by his means, He hanged up thirty kings, and one of the principal burgeffes, who had dared to defend their firefides, their wives, and their ' children.' Of this explication I cannot however make any fenfe, unless we read thirty-one principal burgeffes, as to be fure these kings could not have authority over any extensive district; which Mr. Voltaire himself owns to have been the case with kings in antient times: for in this fame treatise, speaking of the Romans, he fays, Their territories, in the time of † Page 192, 193. Page 173. . their kings and firft confuls, were not fo extensive ' as thofe of Ragufa. We must not, by the title of king, understand a monarch fuch as Cyrus and his 'fucceffors. And how useful would it be to recollect this when perfons read of feveral kings in a small country in Scripture! But why does he fay fo many kings of Canaan were anathematized and hanged by him, as thirty-one? In the Bible it is only faid concerning fix of them, that he hanged them on trees; of the reft it is affirmed, that he fmote them and flew them with the edge of the sword. Nor were any of them all anathematized by him, that is, devoted to death by any vow or curfe on his part, fo far as we know, except the king of Jericho, though they were all fubjected to lofe their lives. Why farther does he say, they were facrificed to the Lord by him? Though they were destroyed in obedience to his command, they were not laid as victims upon his altar. It was fhewed before, that such human facrifices to him were most strictly prohibited, Deut. xii. 29, 31. with which also xviii. 10. may be compared; and there is not one phrafe in the narrative which authorizes to conclude, that the effufion of their blood and extinction of their life was confidered in this light. I may even produce Voltaire fagainst himself here, for in another work he afferts, Jephtha's daughter and 'king Agag, are the only two human facrifices we 'meet with among the Jews,' which fhould be remembered whenever he speaks, as in the paffage under confideration, of more of our species being facrificed by them; there being a plain inconfiftency here. Should any in his defence fay, his meaning is, that Philofophical Dictionary, article Religion, page 320. |