'The burial place of the five kings was marked out to posterity by a lasting monument—a heap of stones which Joshua caused to be placed over the cave where they were buried.
'"Verse 27. 'And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain until this very day?"
Chapter xi., v. 6. 'Thou shalt hough (or hamstring) their horses and burn their chariots with fire.' Will any man attempt to defend this as a command from the Deity to Joshua? Is it consistent that the eternal omnipotent and merciful Creator of all things should order harmless and unoffending animals to be cruelly and inhumanly maltreated? We are sometimes told that the Canaanites were murdered because they were idolaters, but surely their horses took no part in the worship of Moloch or of Baal.
Chapter xiv., 14. 'Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenezite, unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims; and the land had rest from war. (See chap, xv., 13 to 19.) 'Every part of this verse shows a later writer and a later age. The city had lost its ancient name of Kirjath-Arba, and was known by the name of Hebron: it had become the inheritance of Caleb, by which is implied that Caleb was dead, and his descendants were in possession of it, until this day—i.e., for a great length of time. And this is further confirmed by the concluding words, "And the land had rest from war." The war of the invasion was over, and the children of Israel had quiet possession of the country when the Book of Joshua was written.
'Chap, xv., 8—10. And the border went up the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward: and the border was drawn from the top of the hill unto the fountain of the water of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of Mount Ephron; and the border was drawn to Baalah, which is Kirjath-jearim: and the border compassed from Baalah westward unto Mount Seir, and passed along unto the side of Mount Jearim, which is Chesalon, on the north side, and went down to Beth-shemesh, and passed onto Timnah.
'The observations concerning the anachronisms which occur in the names of places, apply in all their force to this passage; we have three distinct places here mentioned, each of them designated both by its ancient and modern appellation, Jebusi, Jerusalem—Baalah, Kirjath-jearim—Mount Jearim, Chesalon. We know, also, that Jebusi did not receive the name of Jerusalem until the reign of David, proving that the book in which the word Jerusalem occurs was not written until the reign of David, or that, if written before that time, it has since been interpolated. Of these two probabilities the former is the stronger: because we find it confirmed by the last verse of the same chapter:—
'Chap, xv., 63. As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
'It has been asserted that these words can apply only to the few years which immediately followed the death of Joshua; for, say the commentators, the Jebusites were then driven out, as we read the account in Judges i., 7, 8. We shall find, on inquiry, that they were not then driven out; at least, it is not so stated in Judges i., 7, 8, nor can any such meaning be inferred from the narrative there contained.'
'In the 1st chapter of Judges, the writer, after announcing the death of Joshua, proceeds to tell what happened between the children of Judah and the native inhabitants of the land of Canaan. In this statement, the writer, having abruptly mentioned Jerusalem in the seventh verse, says immediately after, in the eighth verse, by way of explanation, "Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it:" consequently, this book could not have been written before Jerusalem had been taken. In the quotation just made from the 15th chapter of Joshua, verse 63, it is said, that the Jebusitea dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day, meaning the time when the Book of Joshua was written.
'The evidence I have already produced, to prove that the books I have hitherto treated of were not written by the persons to whom they are ascribed, nor till many years after their death, if such persons ever lived, is already so abundant, that I can afford to admit this passage with less weight than I am entitled to draw from it. For the case is, that so far as the Bible can be credited as a history, the city of Jerusalem was not taken till the time of David; and consequently, that the Books of Joshua and of Judges were not written till after the commencement of the reign of David, which was 370 years after the death of Joshua.