tes that they belong to a later age of
Hebrew literature. Certain peculiarities of expression which
occasionally appear in them may be naturally explained as
provincialisms, or as belonging to the language of conversation
and common life.

5. The book of Joshua bears every internal mark of _authenticity_ and
_credibility_. The main transaction which it records--the extirpation of
the Canaanites by the immediate help of Jehovah, and the gift of their
country to the Israelites--was contemplated from the very first by the
Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 13:14, 15; 15:18-21; 17:8, etc.), and also by
the entire body of the Mosaic laws. Why God chose to accomplish this by
the sword of his covenant people, has been already sufficiently
considered. Chap. 10, No. 7. The stupendous miracles recorded in the
book of Joshua are in harmony with the entire plan of redemption, the
great and decisive movements of which have been especially marked by
signal manifestations of God's presence and power. The man who denies
the credibility of this book on the ground of these miracles, must, for
consistency's sake, go much farther, and deny altogether the
supernatural manifestations of God recorded in the Bible, including the
mission, miraculous works, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus
Christ himself.

In chap. 10:12-14 we read that, at the word of Joshua, the sun
stood still and the moon stayed in the midst of heaven about a
whole day, so that "there was no day like that before it or
after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man." Some
have sought to explain the whole passage as a quotation from
"the book of Jasher" expressed in the language of poetic
hyperbole; and they have compared with it such poetic
amplifications as those contained in Psa. 18:7-16; Hab., chap.
3, etc. But this interpretation is forced and unnatural; and
besides this, there remains the analogous event of which we have
a double record in 2 Kings 20:8-11; Isa. 38: 7, 8, and which is
expressly ascribed to divine power: "Behold, I will bring again
the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of
Ahaz, ten degrees backward." Here it is manifest that to human
vision the sun, and with it the shadow, went backward ten
degrees. _How_ this was accomplished we need not attempt to
determine. We are not shut up to the supposition that the earth
was turned back o