also through him, to a sense of their significance and im portance, his attention is again attracted by the words, " Hear now, O Joshua " not only with the outer ear, but with the ears of the heart, namely, hearken and consider.
The words lia koJien Jia-gadol the high priest which are added, are intended once more to remind us that it is not in his private personal capacity, but as the head of his order and official representative of the people, that he is thus addressed. This is made clear by the words which immedi ately follow: " Thou and thy fellows which sit before thee, for they are men which are a sign"
" Thy fellows " (or " companions ") which sit before, are the ordinary priests who, in meetings of the order for the purpose of discussing or deciding matters connected with their office, " sat before " the high priest, who was the president of the assembly[1] not that they were there and then sitting before Joshua. The words anshei mopheth, rendered in the Authorised Version " men wondered at," and in the Revised Version " men that are a sign," are men who attract attention to themselves by something striking, and are types of what is to come. Thus Isaiah's sons, with their prophetic names, Shear Jashub (" a remnant shall return "), Maher-shalal-hash-baz (" Haste spoil speed prey "), were, with his own name " Isaiah," which signifies " the salvation of Jehovah," for signs and mopKthim portents and types to the people of what was going to take place in the nation (Isa. viii. I 8; see also Isa. xx. 3; Ezek. xii. 611). And if we ask wherein were Joshua and the whole order of Aaronic priesthood portents or types of things which were then yet to come, the answer is that in their persons they were imperfect images of the true Priest after the order of Melchizedek, " who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
- ↑ We find the expression in 2 Kings iv. 38 and in vi. I, used of the sons of the prophets as " sitting before " their master Elisha; and in Ezekiel it is used again and again of the elders of Judah who came and " sat before " the prophet, profess ing the desire to be taught by him the Word of God (Ezek. viii. I, xiv. i, and xx. i). Thus also in later times the Rabbinical students "sat before" and "at the feet of " their Rabbis, in the ycshibahs or Talmudic seats of learning.
