_IV. Book of Ruth._ 1. General Character, and Historical Ruth I: iv. All Bible Value. Dictionaries and Helps 2. Literary Beauty, Illustrated by cited in previous lessons Selected Passages. in Part II, under titles "Ruth and Book of Ruth." _SPECIAL TEXT: And Joshua, the Son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel harkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses."_--EZRA _(supposedly.)_ _NOTES._ 1. _The Hexateuch:_ The Book of Joshua is sometimes associated with the five books of Moses and the collection is then called the Hexateuch, a term meaning "the six books." The union is made on the ground that the Book of Joshua is the proper continuation and consummation of the former five books as recording the Conquest of the Land of Canaan, in fulfillment of the promise contained in the Pentateuch; the subject of the whole six books being "the election of Israel as a people to the service of Jehovah, and their settlement for this purpose in the Land of Promise." 2. _Israel Under Joshua:_ "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua." The high and commanding character of this eminent leader had given so decided a tone to the sentiments and manners of his contemporaries, and the memory of his fervent piety and many virtues continued so vividly impressed on the memories of the people, that the sacred historian has recorded it to his immortal honor, 'Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua.'" (Commentary, Explanatory and Critical, p. 158.) 3. _Contemporaneous Notices of Joshua:_ There occurs some references to the deeds of Joshua in other historians besides those of the Bible. Procopius mentions a Phoenecian inscription near the city of Tingis in Mauritania, the sense of which in Greek was: "We are those who fled before the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nun." Again Suidas says: "We are the Canaanites whom Joshua the robber persecuted." In a letter of Shaubech, king of Armenia Minor, in the Samaritan book of Joshua (chapter 26), styles Joshua "the murderous wolf; or, according to another reading, "the evening wolf." (Condensed from Kitto's Biblical Literature, Vol. II, p. 154.)