ct falsehoods; I mean, all this where no oath
was demanded of them, otherwise they never durst venture on such a
procedure. Nor was Josephus himself of any other opinion or practice, as
I shall remark in the note on Antiq. B. IX. ch. 4. sect. 3. And observe,
that I still call this woman Rahab, an innkeeper, not a harlot, the
whole history, both in our copies, and especially in Josephus, implying
no more. It was indeed so frequent a thing, that women who were
innkeepers were also harlots, or maintainers of harlots, that the word
commonly used for real harlots was usually given them. See Dr. Bernard's
note here, and Judges 11:1, and Antiq. B. V. ch. 7. sect. 8.

[3] Upon occasion of this devoting of Jericho to destruction, and the
exemplary punishment of Achar, who broke that duerein or anathema, and
of the punishment of the future breaker of it, Hiel, 1 Kings 16:34,
as also of the punishment of Saul, for breaking the like chefera or
anathema, against the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15., we may observe what was
the true meaning of that law, Leviticus 27:28: "None devoted which
shall be devoted of shall be redeemed; but shall be put to death;" i.e.
whenever any of the Jews' public enemies had been, for their wickedness,
solemnly devoted to destruction, according to the Divine command, as
were generally the seven wicked nations of Canaan, and those sinners
the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15:18, it was utterly unlawful to permit those
enemies to be redeemed; but they were to be all utterly destroyed. See
also Numbers 23:2, 3.

[4] That the name of this chief was not Achan, as in the common copies,
but Achar, as here in Josephus, and in the Apostolical Constit. B. VII.
ch. 2., and elsewhere, is evident by the allusion to that name in the
curse of Joshua, "Why hast thou troubled us?--the Lord shall trouble
thee;" where the Hebrew word alludes only to the name Achar, but not to
Achan. Accordingly, this Valley of Achar, or Achor, was and is a known
place, a little north of Gilgal, so called from the days of Joshua till
this day. See Joshua 7:26; Isaiah 65:10; Hosea 2:15; and Dr. Bernard's
notes here.

[5] Here Dr. Bernard very justly observes, that a few words are dropped
out of Josephus's copies, on account of the repetition of the word
shekels, and that it ought to be read thus:--"A piece of gold that
weighed fifty shekels, and one of silver that weighed two hundred
shekels," as in our other copies, Joshua 7:21.

[6] I agree here with D