and not till after this had been repeated seven times on the seventh day, and then amidst the blast of the jubilee trumpets and the war-cry of the soldiers of the people of God, the destruction of this town, the key to Canaan, was intended by God to become a type of the final destruction at the last day of the power of this world, which exalts itself against the kingdom of God. In this way He not only showed to His congregation that it would not be all at once, but only after long-continued conflict, and at the end of the world, that the worldly power by which it was opposed would be overthrown, but also proved to the enemies of His kingdom, that however long their power might sustain itself in opposition to the kingdom of God, it would at last be destroyed in a moment.
Verses 21-23
After the taking of Jericho, man and beast were banned, i.e., put to death without quarter (Jos 6:21; cf. Jos 6:17); Rahab and her relations being the only exceptions. Joshua had directed the two spies to fetch them out of her house, and in the first instance had them taken to a place of safety outside the camp of Israel (Jos 6:22, Jos 6:23). “Her brethren,” i.e., her brothers and sisters, as in Jos 2:13, not her brothers only. “All that she had” does not mean all her possessions, but all the persons belonging to her house; and “all her kindred” are all her relations by birth or marriage, with their dependants (cf. Jos 2:13). Clericus is correct in observing, that as Rahab's house was built against the town-wall, and rested partly upon it (Jos 2:15), when the wall fell down, that portion against or upon which the house stood cannot have fallen along with the rest, “otherwise when the wall fell no one would have dared to remain in the house.” But we must not draw the further inference, that when the town was burned Rahab's house was spared.[1] וגו מחוּץ ויּנּיחוּם (Jos 6:23; cf. Gen 19:16), “they let them rest,” i.e., placed them in safety, “outside the camp of Israel,” sc., till they had done all that was requisite for a formal reception into the congregation of the Lord, viz., by giving up idolatry and heathen superstition, and turning to the God of Israel as the only true God (to which circumcision had to be added in the case of the men), and by whatever lustrations and purifications were customary at the time in connection with reception into the covenant with Jehovah, of which we have no further information.
Verses 24-25
After man and beast had been put to death,
- ↑ The statements made by travellers in the middle ages, to the effect that they had seen Rahab's house (Rob. Pal. ii. pp. 295-6), belong to the delusions of pious superstition.
