144 
if only a few thousand escaped from Egypt, two and a hall tribes could not 
have sent 40,000 armed men over the Jordan. Yet this number is not too 
great a proportion for those tribes, when we consider all tnat was achieved 
on the west of the Jordan in Palestine proper. Jericho and Ai are taken 
and destroyed. Against Ai, a small city, 3,000 are first sen and defeated 
Then an ambush of 30,000 is despatched ; while the main body is led on by 
Joshua. I cannot see how Dr. Thornton can admit these facts consistently 
with his hypothesis. So numerous are the Israelites represented in Joshua, 
that the Hivites, who possessed four important cities, practise subtilty t 
make a league with them. Soon the kings of the south come against the 
Hivites to punish them for the alliance. They are overthrown, pursued with 
terrible slaughter, and their fenced cities taken and destroyer. n 
Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea even unto Gaza, and all the country 
of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. And all these kings and their land did 
Joshua take at one time” (Josh. x. 41, 42). 
Soon after the great victory of Beth-horon, and the slaughter of the kin 
of the south, they meet Jabin, king of Hazor, and all the kings o e 
north, at the waters of Merom. Here, again, their triumph ^ complete 
Thus from Lebanon in the north, to Kadesh-barnea m *e south, Joshua 
subdued the country, and smote thirty-one kings, inclusive of Bihon and i Ofr 
Each of these occupied at least one defenced city, and possessed port, 
of territory around it. Some of them reigned over many cities. How, 
accept the hypothesis that only a few thousand Israelites left Egypt, and you 
certainly do not improve the credibility of the sacred narrative. I ca 
believe the different testimonies in the Pentateuch as to the ^ers m 
Exod xii. 37, for I find in them consistency, and consistency too with the 
numbers of Joshua acknowledged to be correct ; but the 
paper I cannot reconcile with the numbers, the promises, or the history 
me pleasure to strengthen my argument by the tet) m ony of Pro- 
fessor Edward Harold Browne. I quote from his book, ‘ The Pentateu h 
and the Elohistic Psalms, in reply to Bishop Colenzo. Five lectures e 
in the University of Cambridge.” London : 1863. 
jssssss , as eras s 
teTi—iK rsStnrsiit . p s ,™. s 
fallen before their enemies, or exchanged their bondage m E 0 y| 
-isas-t d .«p 
