And there was no day like that before it or after it, That the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man, CHAPTER 89. (1) "Then spake Joshua this song, on the day that the Lord had given the Amorites into the hand of Joshua, and the children of and he said, in the sight of all Israel, Israel; (2) Thou hast done mighty things, O Lord, Thou hast performed great deeds, Who is like unto thee? My lips shall sing to thy name. (3) My goodness, my fortress, my high tower, I will sing a new song unto thee, Thou art the strength of my salvation. (4) All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, (5) To thee, O Lord, did we confide; For thou wast our shelter And strong tower against our enemies. (6) To thee we cried and were not ashamed, In thee we trusted and were delivered; When we cried unto thee thou didst hear our voice, Thou didst deliver our souls from the sword, Thou didst show unto us thy grace, Thou didst give unto us thy salvation, Thou didst rejoice our hearts with thy strength. (7) Thou didst go forth for our salvation, With thine arm thou didst redeem thy people, Thou didst answer us from the heavens of thy holiness, (8) The sun and moon stood still in heaven, (see Hab. 3:11) And thou didst stand in thy wrath against our oppressors, And didst command thy judgments over them. (9) All the princes of the earth stood up, The kings of the nations had gathered themselves together, They desired thy battles. (10) Thou didst rise against them in thine anger, And didst bring down thy wrath upon them; Thou didst destroy them in thine anger, And cut them off in thine heart. (11) Nations have been consumed with thy fury, Kingdoms have declined because of thy wrath, (12) Thou didst pour out thy fury upon them, And didst cut them off in their wickedness. (13) They did spread a trap, they fell therein, (Ps.7:15.57:6) In the net they hid their foot was caught. (14) Thine hand was ready for all thine enemies, Who said, through their sword they possessed the land, Thou didst fill their faces with shame, Thou didst bring their horns down to the ground, (15) The earth trembled and shook, At the sound of thy storm over them, Thou didst not withhold their souls from death, (16) Thou didst pursue them in thy storm, Thou didst consume them in thy whirlwind, They fell in deep pits so that they could not rise. (17) Their carcases were like rubbish Cast out in the middle of the streets. (18) They were consumed and destroyed in thine anger, Thou didst save thy people with thy might. (19) Therefore our hearts rejoice in thee, Our souls exult in thy salvation. (20) Our tongues shall relate thy might, We will sing and praise thy wondrous works. (21) For thou didst save us from our enemies, Thou didst deliver us from those who rose up against us, And depress them beneath our feet. (22) Thus shall all thine enemies perish, O Lord, And the wicked shall be like chaff driven by the wind, And thy beloved shall be like trees planted by the waters. (23) So Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp at Gilgal, after having smitten all the kings, so that not a remnant was left of them. (24) And the five kings fled alone on foot from battle, and hid themselves in a cave,”—[all this, kind reader, after they had all been smitten so that not a remnant was left,] "And Joshua sought for them in the field of battle, and did not find them. (25) And it was afterwards told to Joshua, saying, the kings are found and behold they are hidden in a cave," etc. etc. (See Josh. 10:16, et seq. Almost word for word!) Here are the facts in the case; and here "the song," which Joshua sung, if we may credit the book of Jasher, when the Lord had given up the Amorites into the hand of Israel! But this song, which claims to have been written immediately upon the occurrence of the events which it recounts, is made up, as any one may see, of detached sentences from the Psalms of David, the writings of Solomon and of the Prophets. In the midst of it, (verse 8,) we have the. passage which undoubtedly originated the story of the sun and moon standing still;-a passage either quoted from Hab. 3: 11, or Hab. 3: 11 is a quotation from that. The reader may have his choice here between the two suppositions: the Reviewer it seems has already made his election. It is, in his estimation, far more reasonable to suppose that the poetic effusion (the song by Jasher) should be antecedent to the prose record; and as no one believes that Habakkuk was written before the book of Joshua, it follows, that Habakkuk is a literal quotation from the book of Jasher! At the close of the whole, we have the famous passage which terminates the extract as we find it in Joshua: "And Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp at Gilgal." We submit now, whether the theory, which, in the opinion of our Reviewer, smells so rank of German Rationalism, and which he seems to think would look very foolish even to its author, if he would bestow ten years more of study upon it, is not a plausible one? Nay, more; is it not the only one which an intelligent, careful reader will regard as worthy of any confidence ?* We think the supposition a most reasonable one, that he who had the temerity to introduce the passage where we find it in Joshu, tenth chapter, saw Devoutly were it to be wished, that this so-called "poetic effusion" had never seen the light: or, that no one had ever thought to illuminate the sacred record by introducing extracts from it. We feel bound to say of it as a whole, something as a clear-minded, sound-hearted old man once said of a sermon from a Universalist: "The scripture that he quoted, and quoted right, was good." So of the self-styled "Sepher Hajasher," or "correct record;" that which it contains, which is scripture, is well enough; unless so combined with the fancy and conceit of him who has gathered it up, as to pervert utterly its meaning; which is the case before us. The reader, we think, will sympathize with us in our disgust for this book, when we assure him, that among all the Apocryphal writings now extant, there are few, if any, more replete with absurdities, vain and inconsistent surmises, or more deeply imbued throughout with the smut and moonshine of monkish superstition and folly. It commences with the history of the creation of man; it claims (as indeed it must) to have been extant when Joshua was written, in order to be quoted. And yet, (O consistency, thou art a jewel!) near the close, and immediately after the record of Joshua's exploits, it speaks of the conquest of Britain by the Latins! Chapters three and four are occupied with an account of Enoch; he is represented by the writer as having been a king, a great king, a king of kings! Query, where could he have obtained subjects at this age of the world? Next, that we might be thoroughly penetrated with the exaltation and renown of Enoch, the historian represents him as passing most of his time in retirement; thus modestly intimating or sug the evident inconsistency of quoting the book of Jasher as a book that was extant when that of Joshua was written. Hence the appeal, verse 13, "Is not this written?" etc. These words we regard as his own: while all the rest is from the book of Jasher. The song, too, which had been gathered up, as we have proved, from all parts of the Old Testament, was too long to be inserted entire; therefore, we have only the beginning and the end of it. Hence the astounding absurdity involved in it: "And Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp at Gilgal;" since verse 16 of Joshua x., and verse 24 of the song before us, are a plain contradiction of it. gesting that Enoch was a monk! A circumstance which indicates the age of the document itself. But the writer, in order to lend a finishing touch to the exalted character of Enoch, after having spoken of him in the language of the Bible, as walking with God here below, sends him to heaven on a pacing horse! Was not this the original of our Reviewer's "winged Pegasus?" Jasher's account of Nimrod's hatred of Abraham, is but a garbled reiteration of Matthew's record of Herod attempting to destroy Christ. The star which he represents as making its appearance at the birth of Abraham, needs no explanation. He describes Babel with great particularity. It was a tower ten miles in diameter, and thirty miles round; was carried up to such a height, that when a brick started at the bottom early in the morning, being tossed from man to man, one directly over the other, it would arrive at the top late in the evening! Moreover, as those on the top amused themselves with shooting arrows directly up, they perceived, on the descent of these arrows, they were covered with blood by which they inferred, says the writer, that they had mortally wounded many in heaven! And at the dispersion, he is careful to name all the countries colonized and settled by the various tribes which were scattered abroad. Among them we have an account of the settlement of France and of Italia! The only shadow of a misgiving in the mind of the writer as to the consistency of these things, manifests itself in an awkward attempt to furnish the name "Roman," and that of the river "Tiber," with Hebrew terminations! Still, we maintain that this book, in order to have been referred to in Joshua, must have been extant when Joshua was written. Our heroic Reviewer felt this, and manfully girded up himself to the task of making all appear smooth and credible. He says, (Review, p. 509,) "We claim it as the more reasonable to suppose, that the poetic effusion," (the poem by Jasher,) "should have been antecedent to the prose record;" (the record made by Joshua.) He even claims "that it is more reasonable to suppose, that the flight of the winged Pegasus should have outstripped the |