First. The mode of destroying so innumerable a multitude of enemies is delivered (v. 7) [as] twofold. One [is] the industry, speed, labor, and fighting of Joshua, and of his whole army; and this is signified by these words: “Joshua came, and all the army with him, against the Waters of Merom suddenly, and fell upon them.” The other mode is the hand and help of God, which is shown by these words: “And the Lord delivered them into the hands of Israel.”
Secondly. A triple terminus is shown (v. 8), up to which the Israelites put to flight and cut down those enemies, [now] cast down and straggling: “As far as,” it says, “great Sidon, and the Waters of Maserephoth, and the field of Maspha.” The first [terminus]. And Sidon is a well-known city of Phoenicia, on the shore of the Mediterranean sea, under Antilibanus, concerning which above (ch. 1). Josephus (bk. 1, Antiq., ch. 7), in the Greek, says it was named “Sidon” from Sidon, son of the Canaanite, which by the Greeks is called σιδών [sidōn]. But indeed, by the Hebrews themselves it is called “Sidon” or “Tsidon” — both that son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15; 1 Chron. 1:13), and the city itself everywhere — and indeed [named] “from the abundance of hunting [venatio],” as Origen indicates (homily 14), or “from the abundance of fish,” as Justin says (bk. 18); and this is quite likely, because in Syriac “thsaiid” is “a hunter” and “a fisher” (Gen. 10, in the Jerusalem Targum; Isaiah 10 and 33; Matt. 4); and even today that city is called “Saiid.” But not [so called] because, as Justin adds in the same place, “the Phoenicians call a fish ‘Sidon’” — although in Hebrew too, everything which is caught by any hunting on land, in water, [or] in air — nay, all food and provision — is called “tsaid” or “tsid” (above, ch. 9, v. 5; Gen. 10:9; ch. 27:24; Prov. 12:27; Neh. 13:15), and likewise “tsidah” (above, ch. 1; Gen. 42:25). But Stephanus and Eustathius note (on Iliad 7 and the Odyssey) [that] in “Sidon” the second syllable is [both] shortened and lengthened, and its citizens [are] called “Sidones” and “Sidonii,” as will appear below from Homer and others. But in the text, why is it called “great”? First: not by comparison with another. “I indeed,” says Origen (homily 14, cited), “although I have several times lingered in the places of Sidon, have never found there to be two Sidons — one great and another small — as far as pertains to the earthly place.” Secondly: it is called “great” for various causes. First: by the amplitude of the place. Secondly: by the amenity and beauty of the place. For therefore Dionysius writes: σιδόνα ἀνθεμόεσσαν ναιομένην χαρίεντος ἐφ᾽ ὕδασι Βοστρηνοῦ [sidona anthemoessan naiomenēn charientos eph’ hydasi Bostrēnou], that is, “flowery Sidon,” or as Priscian renders [it]: “—and beautiful Sidon, beside which the Bostrenus runs with clear stream.” Strabo (bk. 16): Σιδὼν ἐπὶ εὐφυεῖ λιμένι τῆς ἠπείρου τὴν ἵδρυσιν ἔχει [Sidōn epi euphyei limeni tēs ēpeirou tēn hidrysin echei, “Sidon has its situation on a well-formed harbor of the mainland”]. Thirdly: by antiquity. For although Strabo (bk. 16) does not put Tyre after it [Sidon] by reason of age, and Dionysius in [his] Periegesis calls this [Tyre] “Ogygian” — that is, ancient — yet [Sidon] appears more ancient than it [Tyre], from Gen. ch. 10 and 49; and from Homer, who mentions Sidon, but Tyre never; from Posidonius, who, in Strabo (in the cited book), relates it to have existed before the Trojan times; from Pliny (bk. 5, ch. 19), where it is called “Sidon, parent of Boeotian Thebes” — but these Thebes, it is agreed, are most ancient. Nay, clearly (in the cited book) Justin relates “Tyre” [to have been] “built by the Sidonians one year before the Trojan disaster.” Fourthly: from the exceeding fame of the name. For in Homer’s age, indeed, Tyre already existed, as is clear from our Prophets and from the already-cited Justin; but because it was much more obscure than Sidon, therefore he [Homer], as I said, does not mention it. Fifthly: by resources and riches. The mother of Eumaeus, in Homer (Odyssey [bk.] 15): ἐκ μὲν Σιδῶνος πολυχάλκου εὔχομαι εἶναι [ek men Sidōnos polychalkou euchomai einai, “I claim to be from Sidon rich in bronze”]. “On account of the purple [dye],” says Eustathius in the same place; but also on account of [its] most gainful commerce, and other [things], concerning which below. Sixthly: by [its] various and excellent
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arts or sciences. Whence Achilles (Iliad, [book] 23) set up, [as] a prize for those who should contend in speed of foot, a silver mixing-bowl [crater], most elaborately wrought, which surpassed by far in beauty all that were anywhere in the lands: ἐπεὶ σιδόνες πολυδαίδαλοι εὖ ἤσκησαν [epei sidones polydaidaloi eu ēskēsan, “since the Sidonians, cunning in craft, had wrought it well”]. For, in the same place, Eustathius says: καλλίτεχνοι καὶ ἐξαίρετοι οἱ σιδόνες, καὶ μὴν καὶ πολύτεχνοι [kallitechnoi kai exairetoi hoi sidones, kai mēn kai polytechnoi, “the Sidonians [are] excellent in art and choice, and indeed skilled in many arts”]. Pliny (bk. 5, ch. 19): “Sidon, craftsman of glass”; and (bk. 36, ch. 26): “Sidon, once noble for its glass-workshops. Indeed it had even devised mirrors [specula].” And, that I may not pursue more: concerning these [things] Strabo (bk. 16): Σιδόνιοι δὲ πολύτεχνοί τινες παραδίδονται καὶ καλλίτεχνοι, καθάπερ καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς δηλοῖ· πρὸς δὲ καὶ φιλόσοφοι περί τε ἀστρονομίαν καὶ ἀριθμητικήν, ἀπὸ τῆς λογιστικῆς ἀρξάμενοι, καὶ τῆς νυκτιπλοΐας· ἐμπορικὸν γὰρ καὶ ναυκληρικὸν ἑκάτερον [Sidonioi de polytechnoi tines paradidontai kai kallitechnoi, kathaper kai ho poiētēs dēloi; pros de kai philosophoi peri te astronomian kai arithmētikēn, apo tēs logistikēs arxamenoi, kai tēs nyktiploïas; emporikon gar kai nauklērikon hekateron, “The Sidonians are handed down [to be] certain [men] skilled in many arts and excellent in art, as the poet too shows; and moreover [they are] philosophers concerning astronomy and arithmetic, having begun from calculation and night-sailing [navigation]; for each [of these] is [a matter both] mercantile and nautical”]. And afterward he enumerates the excellent Sidonian Philosophers — “Moschus,” who was before the Trojan times; “Boethus, with whom we philosophized” (he says), “we [studying] the Aristotelian [doctrines]”; and “Diodotus,” his brother. Finally Strabo writes (in the cited place) [that] a contest [was], even in his own time, between Sidon and Tyre, [as to] which was the metropolis of the Phoenicians. “Between the two,” says St. Willibald in his itinerary [hodoeporicon], “there are six miles.”
Second [terminus]. What are called “the Waters of Maserephoth” by our [Interpreter], following Aquila, are by Symmachus rendered “Misrephoth from the sea”; by certain Greeks, μασρεφὼθ μαΐμ [masrephōth maïm]; by the Roman [text of the] 70, μασερῶν [maserōn]; by Masius, “the burning-place [furnace] of the waters”; by others, “the burnings of the waters.” For whether the noun here be appellative or proper — since “Saraph” is “to burn” — there is a threefold opinion about it. The first, of the Chaldee Targum and of certain Rabbis: [that] in that place there were ditches and pools, into which the salt waters, drawn off from the sea, would, by the heat of the Sun, congeal into salt and be dried out. The second, of Radak and Pagninus: [that] there were here boilings of hot waters — of which kind there are, in our neighborhood, Wiesbaden, near the confluence of the Ems; in Belgium, Aachen; in Lorraine, Plombières; in Judaea, Emmaus — as Josephus writes (bk. 18, Antiq., ch. 3, [in the] Greek; and bk. 4, Captivity, ch. 2), where he also interprets the very name “Emmaus” [as] λουτρὰ θερμά [loutra therma, “hot baths”], as [if] from the vulgar Hebrew “chamme maiim,” or “maia” — that is, “hot water.” For as to what Scaliger objects against this etymology (p. 212, in the Animadversions on Eusebius), concerning the ending “-us” — what, I pray, is [it]? But waters of this kind were also “Callirrhoë” beyond the Jordan, as the same [Josephus] writes (bk. 17, ch. 8). The third: [that] there were glass-furnaces. For Pliny is [the] author (bk. 36, ch. 26), and Strabo (bk. 16): [that] there was glass-making sand [ὑάλινην, hyalinēn] between Ptolemais and Tyre, which was carried to Sidon and boiled into glass; and [that] the Cendenian marsh, within the roots of Mount Carmel, poured forth the river “Belus,” from which [comes] sand of this kind — with which even today the ships of the Venetians are ballasted, so that from it, at Venice, glass is made, with fires continually applied beneath. But either “the waters themselves burn” — and the “first” opinion would fit, if mention of hot waters of this kind were made anywhere in those places, as was said above of other places, from Josephus; or “the waters are burned” — and so the “second” opinion would agree, if anything about salt-pans were read there; or if, by catachresis — as now “clepsydra” [water-clock] is said for “clepsammium” [sand-clock] — by “waters” the sand from the waters were understood, the opinion would be fitting. The third [opinion], which, on account of the cited authors, by no means displeases. For among us too, [it] is said, by a wonderful phrase, “Wasser brennen [to burn water]” for “to press out, by fire, water from certain herbs, flowers, and berries”; and likewise “Branntwein [brandy],” the wine which, by the heat of fire, is likewise distilled from the dregs. And [that] in his own age the most excellent glass was made at Sidon, Benjamin relates (in the cited place).
The third terminus, the field of Maspha. The 70: τὰ πεδία μασσώχ [ta pedia massōch, “the plains of Massoch”]. But where that field is, is added: “which is on the East part of it [illius].” In the Hebrew [it is] only “toward the East,” and in Greek κατ᾽ ἀνατολάς [kat’ anatolas]. Yet since our [Interpreter] adds “of it,” he seems to have read in the Hebrew a mappik-ed “he” [the letter ה with mappik], “mitzrachah,” and to have referred [it] to Maspha. Three parts, therefore, into which the enemies tried to escape by flight, and three termini, up to which the Israelites pressed [them] as they fled, are here shown: the western indeed and northern, “Sidon”; the western and more southern, “Masrephoth”; the eastern, “the field of Maspha,” toward the Jordan — as was also signified above (q. 2).