Verse 14
14. Scattered kings These kings are enumerated in Joshua 12:0.
In it That is, in the land. The allusion seems to be specially to the conquest of the nations of Canaan by Joshua. See chapters 10 and 12.
White as snow in Salmon It is not necessary to add the word “white” to the translation, and the Hebrew conjunction for “as” is wanting. The English Version proceeds upon the supposition that the whiteness of “snow” is the point of the figure. But the word is a verb in Hiphil, and simply means, Thou wilt cause it to snow; or, understanding it in the preterite, Thou didst cause it to snow. It is the falling of snow flakes, not the whiteness of snow, which is the point intended; and if we are to seek a historical basis of the allusion as in the preceding member of the verse, taking “Salmon” or Zalmon, (the words are the same in Hebrew,) not as an appellative, but the name of a mountain near Shechem, Judges 9:48, it is easy to perceive that an atmosphere that would discharge so terrible a hail storm at Bethhoron (see Joshua 10:11) might be darkened by snowflakes at Salmon, twenty-five miles distant, and thus, by such an unprecedented phenomenon, spread alarm among the mustering tribes of the northern section.
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