Joshua 22:10 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 10. And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan— From the first reading of these words, one would conceive that the sacred writer means to say, that the Israelites built the altar, of which he proceeds to speak, on this side Jordan, before they had repassed the river; but, from what follows, we shall soon be convinced that this cannot be the sense of the historian. Had the Israelites of the two tribes and a half built an altar on the west side of the river, they would not have executed their own design, which was, to shew by this monument that, though separated from their brethren, and from the altar of the Lord, by Jordan, they still made but one and the same people with them. Besides, is it likely that they would have ventured to erect this pile upon the territory of the other tribes? And even were this the case, how, in the verse following, could the altar in question be said to have been built over-against the land of Canaan? we must, therefore, necessarily suppose the author to have expressed himself here in such brief terms as leave something to be made out by the reader. It was evidently his intention to say, that the Israelites, on their coming up to the bank of the Jordan on the side of the land of Canaan, crossed that river, and built the altar beyond it in their own country. See Josephus. Hist. Jud. lib. v. cap. 1. and Rabb. in Seder.—Olam. c. xii. p. 32. We may add, that the Hebrew Geliloth, rendered in our version borders, may very probably be in this verse the proper name of a place situate on the side of the Jordan. The Vulgate translates, on the heights of Jordan; but the Vatican manuscript of the LXX has it Gilead or Geliloth; understanding it of a place near that where the Israelites crossed over the Jordan. The question then is, where Geliloth stood: if we understand by it the country of Gilead, the whole is clear; and then the Israelites, without any doubt, reared the altar after having passed the river. Le Clerc understands the matter very naturally, namely, that the Israelites came to Jordan, which bounds the land of Canaan, and, having crossed it, built there (i.e. on the other side,) the altar in question. This altar, we read, was of a remarkable size; such as might be perceived from afar. It was the work, not of an individual, but of a whole body of people, who thought they could not build it too magnificently. It was a heap of earth or stones. Bacchus, Hercules, Semiramis, Cyrus, and Alexander the Great, in after times, made others like it upon various occasions, to eternize the memory of their victories and travels. See Pliny, lib. 6: cap. 16, 17. Philostrat. Vit. Apollon. lib. 2: ad fin. See also Calmet and Le Clerc. By the stateliness and magnificence of this altar, it was rendered so different from that which Moses had dedicated to divine worship, that it is probable these Israelites thought it would therefore administer less occasion to their brethren to suspect that it was intended for sacrifice, or to rival the other.