Origen rightly notes (homily 11) that those who — leaving behind [their] old vices and the wicked companions of [their] disgraceful deeds, as [it were] the Chananaeans and Amorites — betake themselves to the true Jesus, at once stir up against themselves the enmities, hatreds, and arms of all. “When the human soul,” he says, “has joined itself to the word of God, it ought not to doubt that it will at once have enemies, and that those whom it had before as friends are to be turned into adversaries; and let it hope to suffer this not only from men, but let it know for certain that [foes] from the contrary virtues and spiritual wickednesses [also] threaten it.” And so it is, that whoever seeks the friendship of Jesus, let him know that the enmities of many [are his]. “All who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution” [2 Tim. 3:12]. And Solomon, too, says similar [things]: “Son,” he says, “coming to the service of the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation” [Sir. 2:1]. Therefore even now [those who pass over to Christ] are assailed; and although [you be] “hewers of wood and carriers of water” — that is, although you be the least in merits in the Church — yet for this very reason, because you belong to Jesus, you will be assailed by the five Kings. But what must the good Gabaonites, now joined to Christ Jesus, do? At once they ought to send messengers to Jesus, [and] beg and importune help from Him. Now these messengers are the good Angels, who offer our prayers to God, as I said on Tobit (chapter 3, questions 7, 8, 9). And the same Origen interprets the five Chananaean Kings as our five senses, which beset and assail us with their allurements. But to me they seem to signify the temptations which more closely seek and attack [our] souls. Of these Kings, then, the first and chief is Adoni-zedek [“lord of justice”], King of Jerusalem — that is, that demon-Prince who feigns justice and sanctity, makes a show of kindly peace, prates nothing but the sacred word of God, [while] meanwhile he stirs up all the monsters of the vices into arms against us, and calls all the shapes and specters of every crime under [his] standards. Look at the heresy of our time, and the author of the heretics: he is Adoni-zedek; and all his Doctors and masters are Adoni-zedekian captains, trumpeters, and centurions. The second is Hoham, King of Hebron — which is interpreted “college, society” (and, as Chytraeus adds, κοινότης, “community”); but heba [is interpreted] “tumult,”…
(col. 1049)
…[the second King signifies] those who, in the Churches, in the gatherings of the pious, and in the colleges, stir up dissensions, disturbances, and tumults — the “false brethren,” I say, of whom the Apostle complains (2 Corinthians 11, verse 26; and Galatians 2[:4]). The third is Piram, that is, “wild”; King of Jarmuth, that is, “of the doctrine of death.” This King leads the Legions of the saddest thoughts, which solicit to despair, melancholy, [and] blasphemy. The fourth, Japhia, that is, “illuminating,” or “illustrious”; King of Lachish, that is, “as it were of one going,” or “of one existing for himself” — and it signifies all those allurements which flood the mind with joy and empty gladness, as with some light, and yet at once recede and desert the man; it signifies also [the things] by which one is puffed up with the opinion of some good, gleams with a little vainglory in his own eyes, trusts in himself, and yet at once goes off and vanishes. The fifth: Debir, that is, “eloquent,” or “oracle”; King of Eglon — which name signifies “globe” and “orb.” Does not this King rightly signify the literature of the Gentiles, Poetry, eloquence, [and] Philosophy, which once swept the circuit of the earth with admiration of itself, and still sometimes grazes and disturbs the minds of some? These [Kings], with their innumerable forces, come to besiege the Gabaonites — who have now joined themselves to Christ by a holy covenant, have dismissed [their] depraved associations and habits, and are now received into the sacred ministry of the Lord’s temple — and to assail them with various engines and darts of temptation. But, O our good Leader Jesus Christ, do not draw back Thy hands from the help of Thy servants: “Ascend quickly, and free us, and bring aid; for all the Kings of the Amorites, who dwell in the mountains, have gathered against us” [cf. Josh. 10:6] — truly “in the mountains,” because they all have [their] seat in pride and pre-eminence, as on certain high mountains, since “the beginning of all sin is pride” (Ecclesiasticus 10, verse 15 [al. 13]). But that good Jesus, [when] invoked, is never wanting to His [own] name [= Savior]: He comes to save those whom the evil demons wish to destroy; He spares no labor, runs up at once and helps, [and] terrifies, routs, puts to flight, [and] tramples the enemy. In His hand are the treasuries of the hail; on His nod hang the Sun and Moon; the elements obey His command, and all the heavens. “Whom,” says the Ecclesiastical hymn, “earth, sea, [and] upper air worship, adore, [and] proclaim, ruling the threefold engine [of the world]; whom the Moon, the Sun, and all things serve through the ages.” He terrifies, when by the fear of the infernal and eternal punishments He routs the vices, [and] by threats of greater chastisements restrains the demons. He sends down storms of hail, when He inflicts diseases, wants, [and] calamities upon sinners, or [permits] some to be tormented by demons. Juvenal mocked [this], in Satire 13, who [says]:
…if they have begun to suffer the wakeful pain of the side, with fever, they believe that the disease sent upon their bodies [comes] from a hostile divinity. These they think the stones and weapons of the Gods.
And indeed they are to be mocked, for thinking these the stones and weapons of [many] Gods, not of the one God — since in reality they are of this one [God], without whose nod not even the least hair can fall from anyone’s head (Matthew 5:36; chapter 10:30; Luke 21:18). The same Lord makes the Sun and Moon stand still, for scattering and trampling the enemy, when,
awaiting our penance, or a greater integrity of life and fervor of charity, He prolongs for us the enjoyment of this life; when He makes the light of the sacred word and of the examples of the saints to be ever before our eyes; when He sets before our souls the rays of His grace, and as it were certain flashes of the divine glory, more and more.
But if we regard not ourselves as individuals, but the whole Church — “We wish,” says Origen (in the cited place), “if we can, to show how our Lord Jesus has prolonged the light, even for the destruction of the contrary [hostile] virtues. From the time the Savior came, the end of the world was [already] near. Finally, He Himself said, ‘Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven will draw near.’ But He held back, and repressed the day of consummation, and forbade it to be present. For God the Father, seeing that the salvation of the nations could be established through Him, says to Him: ‘Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations [for] thy inheritance, and thy possession the ends of the earth’ [Ps. 2:8]. Until, then, the paternal promise be fulfilled, and the Church grow from the various nations, and the whole fullness of the nations enter in, and then at last all Israel be saved — the day is prolonged, the setting is deferred, and the Sun never sets, but always rises, while in the hearts of believers the Sun of justice pours in the light of truth. But when the measure of believers shall have been filled, and the worse and discolored last age of the [final] generation shall have come — when, with iniquity increasing, the charity of many shall grow cold, and very few shall remain in whom faith may be found — then, at that time, the days shall be shortened.” The same Lord, then, both knows and [is able] to extend the day when it is a time of salvation, and to shorten the day when it is a time of tribulation and perdition. But we, while we have the day, and the space of light is prolonged for us, let us walk honestly as in the day, and work the works of light [Rom. 13:13].
But when the Kings of this world die, and are buried in their mausoleums, do they not seem to penetrate and hide themselves in caves? And indeed they will be detained there (Job 3, verse 14), until the true Joshua, [who is] to come, shall call them forth — [those] seen and dead [to His people] — into His sight. For [as] the stones of a necessity which cannot be broken or changed, the Lord here set [both stones] and guards: namely, the dissolution of the human body itself, and [the fact] that the re-gluing and re-animation of its dust is to be done by the power of no creature [but God’s]. But when the holy victors of God shall have returned from the hard and troublesome battle of this world, and shall have applied themselves to their leader Jesus, safe and unharmed, those Kings, bound and chained, will be dragged from their caves and sepulchres, set before the Judge, [and] will receive from Jesus Himself the saddest sentence of the uttermost contempt and punishment. And then will be fulfilled much more perfectly that which was cited above from Psalm 149: “They shall exult,” etc. Then those who always looked at high and vain [things] will be hanged on the highest gibbets, from which, however, they will never be taken down, but will be tormented and butchered eternally. And this pertains not only to wicked men — who are the masters and authors of wickedness to others — but also to the demons themselves. For these too will be judged (1 Corinthians 6) and tormented by the fire which is prepared and handed over to them (Matthew 25, verse 41). O how great the misery, contempt, [and] torment of these! O how great [the happiness] of those who followed Jesus [as their] leader, and by His leadership and auspices [trampled] the world, the flesh, the devil, and all the hosts of these…
(col. 1051)
…overcame [the world, the flesh, the devil] — happiness, glory, joy! Contemplating this, St. Jerome wrote (in [his] Epistle) to a certain illustrious [friend] of his: “When the Lord is about to judge, the world will bellow mournfully; tribe will beat [their] breasts to tribe. Kings, once most powerful, will throb with naked flank; Venus will be shown forth with her offspring. Then fiery Jupiter will be led forth, and Plato with his foolish disciples. To Aristotle his arguments will be of no profit. Then you, the rustic and the poor [man], will exult and laugh, and will say: ‘Behold my Crucified One; behold the Judge, who, wrapped in swaddling-cloths, wailed in the manger. This is that son of the laborer and the working-woman; this [is He] who, carried in [His] mother’s bosom, [as] God fled into Egypt; this [is He] clothed in scarlet, this [is He] crowned with thorns; this [is He called] a magician, [one] having a demon, [and] a Samaritan. Behold the hands, O Jew, which you nailed; behold the side, O Roman, which you pierced. See whether the body be the same — which you said the disciples secretly carried off by night.’” Your love has compelled me to say these things to you, brother, that we may then be among those for whom now the labor is hard. But it will never in any way be permitted [the damned] to go out from that most wretched and most blind cave of hell. Here are the huge stones of eternity, which can be rolled away by no one, nor even moved a tiny bit. St. Jerome, on Isaiah: “Hell is a firm and fortified city,” concerning which [is said] in the Psalms [cf. Ps. 59/60:11], “Who will lead me into the fortified city?” — in which the souls of the dead are shut up, and [which] is surrounded by the strongest guards. In hell [there is] no redemption, no exit from it.
When once the funereal laws have entered the infernal [regions], the black door is opened to no prayers.
Whence also the otherwise wanton and amatory Gentile Poet [Anacreon], when he considered the brevity of his life and the everlasting horror of this place, said:
Διὰ ταῦτ’ ἀνασταλύζω, / θαμὰ Τάρταρον δέδοικως· / Ἀΐδεω γάρ ἐστι δεινὸς / μυχός, ἀργαλέη δ’ ἐς αὐτὸν / κάθοδος· καὶ γὰρ ἑτοῖμον / καταβάντι μὴ ἀναβῆναι.
(For this I sob, often dreading Tartarus; for the recess of Hades is terrible, and the descent into it grievous; and it is certain that, for one who has gone down, [there is] no coming up again.)
THE FIFTH WAR, THE SOUTHERN [WAR]; and the second part of the tenth chapter.
This fifth war is a continuation, and as it were an appendix, of the previous war. Yet, for the sake of greater distinction, it seemed more convenient to expound it separately, and to call it “Southern” — because, in respect of the camp at Gilgal, all the cities and kingdoms which will now be captured by Joshua are, either all or for the greater part, toward the South. Now six cities are enumerated individually; then, summarily, some regions.
The first: the city of Maceda (verse 28), which has [its] name from “burning” or “hearth.” It was captured, and its King, citizens, and all the inhabitants utterly destroyed — these, indeed, by the sword, but the King by the gibbet. For that he was slain by the sword, along with the crowd [of citizens], Radak indeed teaches; but this [text, at] verse 38, hands down that he suffered the death of the King of Jericho — who, as was said above, was put on the evil cross. But when was this city captured? “On the same day,” says the text. And Abulensis thus explains it — to whom Arias nearly adheres — that, when the Kings had been hanged, Joshua went on that same day, before the Sun set, to assault this city, and likewise Libnah and Lachish; but [that] he stormed those two former ones on the same day, yet not the third, but prolonged the assault into the following day also, a part of the forces being left there; and into the camp,
the Sun now setting, he returned, and afterward ordered the hanged Kings to be taken down from the crosses. Yet it seems incredible that all these [things] were done on that same day on which the victory over the five Kings was reported. For, first, it is probable that three royal cities — fortified by some advantage of place and art, even if struck with the greatest fear on account of the slaughter of the Kings — could not be captured without some [act] of battle being engaged in at the gates and walls, or some conditions of surrender proposed; and in all these [things] some time had to be spent. Secondly: moreover, all who were in these cities are said to have been slain and utterly destroyed; and how [was] this done without some longer delay? — especially since the spoils of these cities were not devoted to the anathema [ban], but went to the profit of the Israelites. Thirdly: the cities being captured, some garrison had at once to be set [in them]; and so the fortification, strength, position, and supply-routes of the places had in some way to be examined. Fourthly: these cities were so far apart that more hours were needed to go round to them. And therefore, after the victory won and the Kings fixed to the cross, the Sun would have had to stand still still longer. And yet the end of its standstill is indicated above (verse 13) [to be] the victory, or the vengeance on the enemy — namely on those who had gathered for that war, but not on all who were in any way enemies; otherwise, the Sun would have had to tarry in the same place until they had subdued all the inhabitants of all Chanaan. Fifthly: the text says that all returned from the battle into the camp, which had been placed near Maceda (verse 21); and it goes on to narrate what was further done there in that daylight, and at last adds (verse 27) that the Sun set; and afterward the narration about the storming of the city of Maceda begins. Whence either the order of the narration must be interrupted — which Abulensis and Arias grant without necessity — or it must be confessed that Maceda was captured on the same day after the Sun’s setting; and that not the whole army, but certain parts of it, were sent — some to Libnah, others to Lachish — to harass them that same evening, and, if it succeeded, to take them, but if not, to surround them with a siege. And this latter [course], as the course of the war and of the victories then was, could have happened — were it not said (verse 29) that Joshua, with all Israel, occupied both Maceda and Libnah. For we see how, in one evening, in one hour or another, the victorious leaders — having sent into the citadels, villages, and various towns the tribunes and some standards of their forces — take all things at once. I would therefore think it more probable that Joshua, content with that far most noble victory, gave that evening time partly to celebrating the praises of God and giving Him thanks, [and] partly to caring for [their] bodies — which, after such great labors endured night and day, was necessary; and that therefore “day” is here said for “the same time,” as in the preceding verse 27. For where our [Latin] says “up to the present” — namely, “time” — the Hebrew has “up to this very day,” the Greek ἕως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας [“until the present day”]. For so “day” is often taken, both in the Scriptures and in profane books — as:
A long day [stretch of time] has taught the lion to obey man. A long day eats away the stones with soft water.
Cajetan, indeed, thinks it also a marvel that Libnah was captured not on the same day on which the five Kings were triumphed over; but [he holds] that this same day…
(col. 1053)
…refers this same “day” not to the deeds [done] above, but to the assault of this city itself, in this sense: that on the same day on which it began to be assaulted, it was stormed; or, to keep his [own] words, “Joshua did not take the city of Maceda on different days.” For it is explained [thus]: that he was occupied one single day in taking Maceda — whence also in the Hebrew it is had, “And Joshua took Maceda on that day.” But since the Hebrew [words] are rather to be translated “on this day,” and since it is harsh to interpret “on this day” as “on one day,” I prefer to say “at this time,” or “at the same time.”
The second [city]: Libnah (verse 29), which is also sometimes written “Libna” and “Lobna,” [and] got its name from “whiteness” — just as once in Latium there was “Alba,” and now in Hungary “Alba Regalis” [Székesfehérvár], in Transylvania “Alba Iulia” [Gyulafehérvár]. Libnah, below (chapter 21), [is] a priestly [Levitical] city; and, when it had revolted from the Kings of Judah (4 Kings [2 Kings] 8), it was afterward besieged by Sennacherib (4 Kings [2 Kings] 19).
The third: Lachish (verse 31), whose name was set forth above (question 40). How rightly it is explained by Chytraeus as “Ethiopian,” let him see [to that] himself. It was no small city of the tribe of Judah (below, chapter 15, verse 39), and excellently fortified by King Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11); besieged by Sennacherib (2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 36). But when did Joshua take it? “On the second day,” says the text (verse 32) — or, what is exactly the same in the Greek and the Hebrew, “on the second day.” After that long solstitial day? After Libnah was captured? Or rather after the camp and the assault [were] brought to it? — which last [view] Radak, Cajetan, Masius, and I assert. For why it was not captured by the first onset, or [on the first] day, the cause is intimated in verse 33: namely, they had resolved to defend themselves fiercely, and were awaiting aid from the King of Gezer — either because they had sought it, or because he had offered it of his own accord; but when he had come, he was at once routed, with [his] whole army, and utterly destroyed by slaughter.
Now Gezer, properly so called, is threefold: the first, the Ephraimite [one] (below, chapter 16, verse 3; [and] 3 Kings [1 Kings] 9); the second, the Judaic [one] (2 Kings [2 Samuel] 5; 1 Chronicles 14, verse 16, where it is called “Gazara”); the third, the Transjordanian [one] (1 Maccabees 5, verse 8, as I expounded there, folio 659; Mark 5, verse 1; and Polybius, book 5). Concerning the first, Eusebius hands down (in the book On Hebrew Places) that the discourse here is [about it]: “Gezer,” he says, “in the lot of the tribe of Ephraim, [is] a city separated to the Levites; which Jesus [Joshua] himself also stormed, its king being slain. It was afterward built by Solomon; it is now called Gazara, a village at the fourth milestone from Nicopolis, toward the north. But it must be known that Ephraim could not expel the foreigners from it.” But it was rather far from Lachish, and the Transjordanian [one] much more so; the second, however, was much nearer. That all these are sometimes called “Gazara” is no wonder; but it is also called “Gadara” or “Gadaris.” For Josephus calls the first [so] (book 5 of the Antiquities, chapter 1); the second, Strabo (book 16); the third, St. Mark (chapter 5, verse 1) and Polybius (book 5). But that all are distinct from Gaza is clear both from [their] position and from what I said on chapter 10 of the second book of Maccabees (folio 676 and following) — although some Greek Codices read in this place Γαζήρ and Γάζαρα, as is in the Notes of the Seventy. Stephanus says that Gadara was also called Antiochia and Seleucia (but by whom?). And today Gaza is commonly called “Gazera.”
The fourth: Eglon (verse 35), concerning which above (question 4 [al. 40]). And Joshua [took] it rather on the same day on which he brought war to it, not on the [day] on which he laid Lachish waste; for these cities are too far apart, Eglon inclining more toward the South.
The fifth: Hebron (verse 36), and with it all the cities which were under it, as [under] a royal city (verse 37).
[Verse] 37. But since we have seen above, near Maceda, the Kings both of Eglon and of Hebron hanged, it must necessarily be said that here their death is repeated — but [their death] wrapped up in the common slaughter of their cities; or certainly, [that] when they had been taken from life, others succeeded them on the spot, whether they were their sons or not.
The sixth: Debir (verse 38). But how both Hebron and Debir are handed down as first captured [only] after these very times (below, chapter 15, verse 14; and Judges 1, verse 20) will be expounded there.
Now, summarily, some regions — occupied by Joshua in this same onset of [his] war proceeding most successfully, and drained by the slaughters of [their] Kings and inhabitants — are reviewed in a twofold [manner]. First (verse 40): “all the hill-country region, and the southern, and the lowland, and Asedoth [the slopes].” In which words is signified both the position and the quality of the land, by, as it were, two pairs of oppositions. The former is: “mountainous land, and flat or lowland.” The latter: “land dried by the heat of the Sun, and watered by streams of waters.” That [land which is] dried, the Seventy, retaining the Hebrew name, call nageb [נגב]; our [Latin calls] “southern” — because [regions] which are toward the south, or the Auster, unless they take some moisture from elsewhere, are wont to be parched and dried up by the more vehement heat of the Sun. But that [land] which I said is watered with waters, the Seventy again call by the Hebrew word ἀσηδώθ (asēdōth); our [Latin], “Asedoth” (here, [and] below, chapter 12, verses 4 & 8 — where, however, certain books have, by an error, “Aseroth”). Now the common Rabbis of the Jews are wont to interpret this word [as] “outpourings of waters” — partly because in Chaldaean asad means “to pour,” partly because the Chaldaean Targum renders [it] mishpach merantha, as it were “by an outpouring from a higher place,” that is, the waters which are wont to burst forth from the mountains. But Elias Levita, in his Meturgeman, convicts these of error and ignorance — partly because in Chaldaean it is not asad but sada [that means] “to pour” (to which, however, in the hiphil, an aleph is prefixed), partly because the Chaldaean is not wont to use the word schaphach for marking the outpouring of waters. “I, therefore,” says Masius in this place, “think that the Chaldaean, by the words which he produced, meant to signify those places which are called by the Greeks [by a certain name]: that is, where [a mountain] extends mountains and hills into plains” — elevated not by a jutting-out or outpouring, [and] thus I interpret his words. Which opinion agrees wonderfully with the [present] purpose, and also with that place of Deuteronomy where the same Hebrew word is placed, when it is said thachat asdoth ha-pisgah: “From Chinnereth [Genesar] up to the sea of the wilderness, or the lowland sea — the sea, I say, the salt [Dead] sea — under the declivity, or the roots, of Mount Pisgah, toward the East” [Deut. 3:17]. For such places are mostly more cultivated and broader than the rest, because they are watered by the run-off from the mountains. But since schedah among the Chaldaeans properly is “the axle of a wheel” (as is clear from the Chaldaean Interpreter, on chapter 7 of the third book of Kings), and Aquila of Pontus interprets the same word as “cut off” (as is noted by my Syriac [text], and also, as I seem to remember, by Jerome) — one will not err, I think, if one supposes that here the word aschedoth signifies “valleys” which lie thrown between mountains or hills, either because they in a manner present the appearance of an axle (in that the parts on this side, by the collision of the mountains rising up on both sides, are like the axles of wheels), or rather because they seem made, as it were, by the mountains being cut through. This notion is indeed most fitting also in [the book of] Numbers, where words of this kind are brought forth from the Book of the Wars of the Lord: ve-eshed ha-nechalim asher natah la-shebeth ʿar [Num. 21:15]. For here eshed seems to be put for some river, which, like a valley, [makes the mountains] rise up on both sides…
(col. 1055)
…[the river’s] bank. But who doubts that valleys are rightly opposed to the southern and the dry land — especially in regions otherwise hot? For they are [of] soil [that is] moist and ever broad [well-watered], inasmuch as they receive moisture enough from the mountains, and are not afflicted by long-lasting heat, because of the shadows of the mountains — whence they are called by the poets both “shady” and “verdant,” and by the common folk “pleasant.”
II. [verse] 41: “All the land from Cadesbarne to Gaza, all the land of Gosen to Gabaon.” Now Cadesbarne was, as is clear from the constant usage of Scripture, the farthest boundary of the land of Judaea toward the South — whence the explorers were sent (concerning whom above, book 1, chapter 8). It is called by Herodotus (book 2) Kadytis; by the Chaldaean Paraphrast [Targum], Rekem Gea, as it were “noble, magnificent, [and] proud rock.” For Petra is a very famous city, from which [comes] Arabia Petraea; and Cades was near to it, as Eusebius witnesses (book On Places) — and hence [comes] that sharing of names. But the epithet “Gea,” or “Magnificent,” is added to distinguish it from a lowlier Rekem in the tribe of Benjamin. There is another [Cades], in Naphtali — Cades of the tribe [of Naphtali] (Tobit 1; and Maccabees, book 1, chapter 11 and following).
But Gaza is a most well-known city of Palestine, on the Mediterranean sea, whose twofold etymology St. Jerome indicates (in the Epitaph of Paula), interpreting it [as] “power” or “riches.” And some, indeed — Stephanus of Byzantium (in the book On Cities) — [report] that it was so called “from Jove”; but Mela (book 1 of the Geography) hands down that it was so called from the treasures [gaza] of the Persian kings guarded there. But it is more truly so called from “strength” and “power,” since in Hebrew it is written from hotz — which is “strong, powerful, robust” — haza, or Gaza; and, by the roughness of the heth, the Hebrew Levita [pronounces it] Aza, as Stephanus reports (in the cited place) that it was pronounced in his time by the Syrians. But Curtius (book 4) and Strabo (book 16) relate that it was utterly laid waste and destroyed by Alexander — whence afterward it remained ἔρημος [“a desert”], as is also said in Acts 8, verse 26…
…some would rather have it [the verse] there say “a deserted way.” But that Gaza was famous even after Alexander, and before Strabo, is clear from the books of the Maccabees, and the histories of Diodorus Siculus and others — yet it was not exactly the same Gaza. For, the former site being abandoned, the Gazaeans moved their seats a little [away] from the sea, and brought it about that there were, as it were, two Gazas, of which the former [was] deserted — that is, less frequented. That [former one], however, was gradually restored, and called Maiuma; but afterward, by Constantius the son of Constantine the Great, [it was called] Constantia, as Sozomen explains (book 2). About this [city] Scripture [speaks] often, as below, chapter 15, verse 47; Judges 16:1 & 21; 1 Kings [1 Samuel] chapter 6; 3 Kings [1 Kings]; Jeremiah 25 & 47. St. Jerome (in [the Life] of St. Hilarion) shows that the vain god Marnas was especially worshipped there — whom Stephanus interprets [as] Jupiter at Gaza.
But Gosen was either a city in the mountainous places of Judaea (as below, chapter 15, verse 51), or some rich, grassy, and pasture-bearing place, after the likeness of that which Joseph gave to his brethren in Egypt (Genesis 46), as Arias and the Midrash [hold]; and so in the following chapter [11] it seems to be taken (verse 16), which some here write “Gessen,” against the Hebrew, Chaldaean, Greek, and Latin spelling [as] corrected at Rome. And although in the Hebrew the word here and in Genesis 46 is the same, Gose, yet there [in Gen. 46] it is written by our Interpreter “Gessen,” here “Gosen”; by the Seventy, there γεσέμ, here γεσώμ; and there too, in place of it, is put “the city of heroes [Heroopolis] in the land of Rameses.”
Thus, then — his arms having been carried round through the Southern region, and triumphing, as it were, in the noble victories he had won — Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal, laden, with his whole army, with spoils and all good fortune. And the cause of so great good fortune is to be noted [at] verse 42: “For the Lord God of Israel fought for him” — or, as the Chaldaean Paraphrast renders it, “Because the Lord God of Israel was making war, through His Word, for Israel.”