Commentaria in Josue
24. AND ARE OVERTHROWN WITH FEAR.—The Hebrew: melted with fear. See what was said on verse 9.
Allegorically St. Augustine, Origen, Rupert: Rahab, they say, represents the Church of the Gentiles. First, because, as Rupert says, chapter x, she was before a brothel of demons and a stew of idols, but from unfaithful and unchaste, by receiving the Hebrew spies, became faithful and chaste: so the idolatrous and impure Gentiles, by receiving the Apostles, became Christian and holy. Secondly, as Rahab was saved by the scarlet cord, so the Church by the blood of Christ. Thirdly, Rahab saved all her kindred, and so, as it seems, brought them all to the faith and worship of the true God; hence Rahab in Hebrew is the same as widening: so the Church has widened herself through all nations. Fourthly, outside Rahab’s house all were slain: so outside the Church all perish; to none is salvation granted. Fifthly, Rahab was justified by faith and hospitality, so also the Church by faith and charity.
Tropologically, Rahab is every sinner and penitent after the likeness of Magdalen, who through Josue and the spies, that is, through JESUS and apostolic men, from lustful becomes chaste and holy, and is therefore saved from the destruction of gehenna, and even saves others, while by her word and example she persuades them to the same penance and purity.
CHAPTER THREE. The Jordan is miraculously divided, and the Hebrews, with the ark of the covenant going before, cross dry-foot. 1. Then Josue rising in the night, removed the camp: and departing from Setim they came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and they abode there three days. 2. After which, the heralds went through the midst of the camp, 3. And began to proclaim: When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the race of Levi carrying it, rise you up also, and follow them as they go before: 4. And let there be between you and the ark the space of two thousand cubits: that you may see it from afar, and know which way you go: because you have not walked this way before: and take care you come not near the ark. 5. And Josue said to the people: Be ye sanctified: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. 6. And he said to the priests: Take up the ark of the covenant, and go before the people. And they fulfilling his commands, took it up, and walked before them. 7. And the Lord said to Josue: This day will I begin to exalt thee before all Israel: that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I am with thee also. 8. And do thou command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, and say to them: When you shall have entered into part of the water of the Jordan, stand in it. 9. And Josue said to the children of Israel: Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God. 10. And again: In this, saith he, you shall know that the Lord the living God is in the midst of you, and that he shall destroy, in your sight, the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, the Hevite, and the Pherezite, the Gergesite also, and the Jebusite, and the Amorrhite. 11. Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan. 12. Prepare twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe. 13. And when the priests, that carry the ark of the Lord the God of the whole earth, shall have set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are beneath shall run down and go off: and those that come from above shall stand together upon one heap. 14. So the people went out of their tents to pass over the Jordan: and the priests, that carried the ark of the covenant, went on before them. 15. And as soon as they came into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in part of the water (now it was the time of the harvest, and the banks of the Jordan were filled to the brim), 16. The waters that came down from above stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain, were seen afar off, from the city that is called Adom, to the place of Sarthan: but those that were beneath ran down into the sea of the wilderness (which is now called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed. 17. And the people went over against Jericho: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood girded upon the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over through the channel that was dried up.
1. THEN JOSUE RISING IN THE NIGHT REMOVED THE CAMP,—namely as it was ending, that is, in the morning twilight. For the Hebrew is, he rose early in the morning. So the Septuagint; or, as the Chaldee, at dawn. So our Vulgate also takes night in chapter vi, verse 15. For not dark night, but the light-bringing dawn is fit for moving camps and warlike expeditions. Let the prince and leader of war here learn not to snore till broad daylight, but to rise before the sun at dawn, according to Homer:
It is not fitting for a counselling man to sleep all night.
The Hebrews think that this night or dawn was the ninth day of Nisan, or March. For they assert that Moses died on the seventh day of February, and on the seventh day of the following March, namely toward the end of the thirty days of mourning, the Lord spoke to Josue, and the same day the proclamation was made to the people to prepare food; and that on the fifth day of the same month the spies were sent, and on the eighth day they returned; and on the ninth day the children of Israel, setting out from Setim, came to the bank of the Jordan, and on the tenth day crossed the Jordan.
But the order is more fitting if we say that Moses died about the third day of February; thence after thirty days of mourning, about the third day of March, God roused Josue to invade Chanaan. Wherefore Josue the same day sent the spies, who after three days, on the sixth of March, returning at evening to Josue, encouraged him to attack the Chanaanites, who were struck with terror. Josue therefore on the next morning of the seventh day moved camp to the Jordan, and by a herald bade all prepare for the crossing of the Jordan, to take place after three days. They prepared, therefore, for three days, namely the seventh, eighth and ninth, and on the tenth day crossed the Jordan, as I said in chapter i, verse 11.
AND THEY ABODE THERE THREE DAYS—as just said, preparing for the crossing. These words are not in the Hebrew, Septuagint and Chaldee in this verse, but in the next, whence our Interpreter has transferred them here for clearness. 2. AFTER WHICH,—that is, as they were drawing to an end, namely toward evening of the ninth day.
3. WHEN YOU SHALL SEE THE ARK OF THE COVENANT,—in which God sat upon the mercy-seat and the Cherubim, and thence gave oracles, Exodus xxv, 10. God, therefore, sitting here in the ark, went before the camp, and divided the Jordan, and led the people dry-foot through it. AND THE PRIESTS OF THE RACE OF LEVI (sprung from the patriarch Levi) CARRYING IT.—For although in the journey through the desert the Levites, namely the Caathites, carried the ark, as God had commanded in Numbers iv, 15, yet in a grave and miraculous matter priests carried it, as here for dividing the Jordan, and in chapter vi, for overthrowing the walls of Jericho, and for bringing it with majesty into the magnificent temple of Solomon newly built by him, 3 Kings viii. Wrongly therefore Sigonius, book v On the Hebrew Republic, chapter iv, understands by priests of the race of Levi here Levites. Less rightly also the Chaldee renders, Priests and Levites. RISE YOU UP ALSO, AND FOLLOW THEM AS THEY GO BEFORE.—The Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint have: after it, namely the ark; but the ark was carried by the priests: so by following them they equally followed the ark.