Joshua 1

1. Now it came to pass after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that the LORD spake unto 2 Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the 3 children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given 4 it, as I spake unto Moses. From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down 5 of the sun, shall be your border. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake 6 thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land 7 which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee : turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest. 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein : for then 9 thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage ; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed : for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

At the outset, it is earnestly recommended that every reader of these volumes, before giving attention to the comment, will very carefully read the text, so as accurately to note and clearly to apprehend the several details of thought or fact. In that way alone can the worth and helpfulness of the comment be fully realized, as in that way alone, every section of this entire work has been prepared. B.

Here begins the second division of the Hebrew Bible,—the earlier Prophets, comprising the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The Book of Joshua has fine characteristics as a history, and is, moreover, very rich in Christian suggestion. Like the Books of Moses, it is free from any hero-worship, or glorying in man ; but Joshua, whether the author of the book or no, is throughout the chief figure—the narrative opening with his installation to office, and closing with his death. This Joshua was a prince of the tribe of Ephraim, born in Egypt, and selected by Moses as his attendant or adjutant-general in the host of Israel. Like the great leader he had been most carefully trained and proved for his lofty enterprise, and entered on his command apparently about the same age as his predecessor,—at or about eighty years. He filled his post for nearly thirty years, and died at the ripe age of one hundred and ten. He exhibited throughout the very mind of Moses,—the same loyalty to God, love to Israel, and personal disinterestedness, taking nothing for himself, his private enrichment, or family promotion, but seeking the good of all Israel, and finding his own joy in their obedience and prosperity. D. F.

The Book of Joshua describes the history of the theocracy under the presidency of Joshua, the son of Nun. Joshua had previously been the servant of Moses, and was appointed by the Lord to be his successor, and to bring his work to completion by leading the people of Israel into Canaan, the land promised to their fathers. The book commences, therefore, with the issue of a divine command to Joshua after the death of Moses, to enter upon the office, to which he had already been appointed. The design of the writer was to furnish historical evidence that

Joshua by the help of God faithfully performed the work to which the Lord had called him ; and by the side of that to show how in fulfilment of the promises which He gave to the patriarchs God drove out the Canaanites before Israel, and gave their land to the twelve tribes of Jacob for a permanent inheritance. Hence notwithstanding the close connection between this book and the Pentateuch, it is in itself a complete and independent work, being the historical record of the conquest and distribution of the land, which the Lord gave to his chosen people as their possession, that they might dwell therein, serving their God and Lord in truth and love. Keil.

The name of Joshua is given to this book because without doubt the greater part of it was written by him. The division of the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel occupies a large portion of the book ; and an accurate and authentic description of the territory of each was requisite for the prevention of disputes. No one could be better qualified to furnish these than Joshua himself. C. G. B.

The Book of Joshua has been divided into three sections : the conquest of Canaan (chs. 1-12) ; the division of the land (chs. 13-22) ; while chs. 23, 24, are devoted to a statement concerning the closing days of the soldier Joshua. The main action of the book comprises a period of twenty-five years. J. P. (See p. 25.)

The history of Israel as a nation may be said to commence with their entrance into their own land. All previous to this—from the Paschal night on which Israel was born as a people to the overthrow of Sihon and of Og, the last who would have barred Israel’s way to their home—had been only preparatory. But now, when the Lion of Judah couched by the banks of Jordan, Israel was face to face with its grand mission, and the grand task of its national life commenced : to dispossess heathenism, and to plant in its stead the kingdom of God, which was destined to strike root and to grow, till in the fulness of time it would extend to all nations of the world. The history records, first, certain events which had to take place immediately before entering the Land of Promise ; next, the conquest, and then the apportionment of the land among the tribes of Israel; and, lastly, in the time of the Judges, side by side, the unfolding of Israel’s religious and national condition, and the assertion of those fundamental principles which underlay its very existence as a God-called people. These principles are:—The special relationship of Israel as the people of God toward Jehovah, and Jehovah’s special dealings toward them as their King. The history of the wilderness period had, indeed, been shaped by this twofold relationship, but its consequences appeared more clearly under Joshua, and most fully in the time of the Judges. When not only Moses, but Joshua, and even the elders who had been his contemporaries had passed away, the people, now settled in the land, were left free to develop those tendencies which had all along existed. Then ensued that alternation of national apostasy and judgment, and of penitent return to God and deliverance, which constitutes the framework on which the Book of Judges is constructed. The Books of Joshua and the Judges give, not a chronicle of the nation, but a history of the Kingdom of God in Israel. This explains certain peculiarities of form and style. There are evidently large blanks left in the history of the times; while some events or reigns of considerable duration are only cursorily mentioned, very detailed and circumstantial narratives are given of persons and occurrences which only occupied the scene for a comparatively short period. But as the writers of these books must have had at command ample material for a full history, we conclude that the selection, Divinely guided, was made in accordance with the “Spirit of Prophecy,” to mark the progress of the Kingdom of God in connection with Israel. The more fully these narratives are studied, the more luminous will they become; the more will their Divine meaning appear; and the more will they carry to the mind conviction of their truthfulness, and to the heart lessons of their spiritual import. A. E.

1. Now it came to pass after the death of Moses. The opening word is literally “and;” though a new section of the history here begins, it is a direct continuation of what preceded. The situation is precisely that with which the Book of Deuteronomy ended. Israel is encamped in the plains of Moab, in near proximity to the Jordan. Their great leader has just died, and the thirty days of mourning for him are ended. They were not allowed to spend their time further in grief and inaction. A task lay before them demanding their full energy and activity, if they were really to possess themselves of that land to the borders of which Moses had brought them. W. H. G.

The faithful Covenant-God was with Joshua, as he waited expectantly, in that mourning camp of Abel-Shittim, for a fresh message from God. Though he had been previously designated by God and set apart to the leadership, it was well he should so wait, not only for his own sake, but also “that the people might afterward not hesitate gladly to follow his leadership who had not moved a foot without the leading of God.” And in due time the longed for direction came: not in doubtful language, but renewing alike the commission of Joshua and the promises to Israel. A. E.

Moses the servant of the Lord. A high and honorable title, applied with reference to the peculiar nature of the service in which Moses was employed, viz., that of a minister, mediator, deputy, or vicegerent of God, the honored organ through whom he communicated his will to his chosen people and managed all their varied interests. It is in this character that he stands so highly commended in the sacred volume, having received the divine testimony to his being “found faithful in all God’s house as a servant,” and being expressly distinguished by this title, not only here, where God himself is pleased so to denominate him (verse 2), but also in Rev. 15:3, where it is said of the company standing upon the sea of glass, that they “sing the song of Moses the servant of God.” Bush.

The Lord spake. Jehovah alone was king. Moses claimed no rank or title, demanded no observance, assumed no authority as for himself, but always appears only as the mouthpiece through whom the God of their fathers spake to the people. The whole scheme of government, the ordinances and laws and the selection of the men by whom these were to be administered, emanated directly from Jehovah speaking through the mouth of Moses. In this way, too, the succession to the leadership of the people, after the death of him who was, humanly speaking, their great deliverer, guide, legislator, and judge, was to be provided for;—not through election by the people; not by hereditary descent, so as to pass to the children of Moses; but by the favor of the Lord attending all the enterprises, and crowning with success all the undertakings, of the valiant and righteous man, who, inspired by Jehovah, should step forward to assume the vacant place. F. Bowen.

Joshua the son of Nun. His original name was Hoshea or Oshea, which Moses changed into Jehoshua (Nu. 13:16), and by contraction, Joshua or Jeshua, or Jesus (according to the Greek pronunciation), (Acts 7 : 45 ; Heb. 4 : 8), signifying “Saviour.” He therefore was a type of Christ both in his name and in his actions, as well as Moses. The first notice of him is on the occasion of the Amalekite war (Ex. 17 : 9), where he was appointed captain of a chosen party to repel their attack, at which time he was about forty-four years of age and was called a young man (Ex. 33 : 11). Even then he was pre-ordained by the Lord to put the Israelites in possession of the promised land, as appears from the injunction to Moses to record in a book the aggression of the Amalekites and the decree of their extermination, and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua as a memorial to him and the future judges (Ex. 17 : 14). The Lord appointed him to succeed Moses at Nu. 27 : 18. Joshua was about the age of eighty-four, when after Moses’ death he was commanded to pass over Jordan and take possession of the promised land. Hales.

He had grown up to mature age in the state of Egyptian bondage; he had shared the experience and trials of the wilderness, as the chosen servant of Moses; he had proved his military capacity at Rephidim and in the conquest of the land east of Jordan; and his steadfast obedience at Kadesh, when he stood alone with Caleb, “faithful among the faithless,” and he lived for about twenty-five years more to finish his allotted work. These three periods of his life thus embrace the whole history of the moulding of the nation from its state of hopeless bondage, when Moses fled to Midian, till God “brought them in and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance.” His character was in accordance with his career: a devout warrior, blameless and fearless, who has been taught by serving as a youth how to command as a man; who earns by manly vigor a quiet, honored old age; who combines strength with gentleness, ever looking up for and obeying the Divine impulse with the simplicity of a child, while he wields great power, and directs it calmly and without swerving, to the accomplishment of a high unselfish purpose. He is one of the very few worthies of the Old Testament on whose character there is no stain, though his history is recorded with unusual fulness. P. S.

The character of Joshua is, confessedly, one of the grandest and most spotless in the whole Bible. The greatness of the man is indeed to some extent overshadowed by the greatness of the events through which he moved: we know him more as a conqueror than as a man. He is one of the very few personages of Holy Writ of whom no evil is recorded. Free from all desire of self-aggrandizement or lust of gain, no taint of selfishness mars the simple nobility of Joshua’s character. In whatever circumstances we find him placed his one desire is to know what the will of God is, and his one resolve to do it at all costs. Of him, as of his true heart-brother Caleb, the unerring verdict of the Word of Truth is, “He wholly followed the Lord” (Nu. 32 : 12). Who, then, was more worthy to be the first bearer of that “Name which is above every name,” which in fulness of time was to be the human designation of Him who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners,” Jesus, the Captain of His people’s salvation in their conflict for the heavenly Canaan? It is as a warrior that Joshua is first presented to us, and this is the character he chiefly maintains throughout the Scripture record. His gifts and virtues are those of the warrior. Dauntless courage, indomitable perseverance, cheerful confidence in the face of difficulties, promptitude of action, high honor, unselfish disregard of his own interests, unswerving rectitude, care for the interests of those committed to him—all built upon and based in faith in the Living God. E. V.

2. Now therefore arise.** Though Moses is dead the work must go on, therefore arise and go about it. When God has work to do, he will either find or make instruments fit to carry it on. Moses the servant is dead, but God the Master is not, he lives forever. H.

Moses dies, but God lives. The same plan must go forward, but by other hands. The same methods are used. God speaks to Joshua as to Moses, renews the promise, defines the limits of Canaan, and lays down the imperious necessity of exactest obedience. Warren.—The rod may drop from the hand of Moses; but God keeps firm hold of Joshua, and, whoever fails Israel, its God will not. That is the true lesson which we are all meant to learn from the inroads of death on church and home. The perishing of the perishable is to teach the abiding of the immortal. Dying men reveal a living God. A. M.

The host of Israel was still on the eastern side of Jordan. The first step in the fulfilment of Joshua’s commission was to carry the people over that river: “Arise,” is God’s first word to him, “go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them.” The command does not seem to have been accompanied with any intimation of the manner in which the river, then at its full, was to be crossed. But Joshua had long since learned that whatever God enjoins he renders possible to those who in simple faith seek to obey. If He bade Israel go over the river, the way to do so would be opened when they set themselves to do his bidding. E. V.

The grant of the land of Canaan to the children of Israel is here repeated (verse 2), I do give it them. To the patriarchs it was promised, I will give it, but now that the fourth generation was expired the iniquity of the Amorites was full, and the time was come for the performance of the promise, it is actually conveyed, and they are put in possession of that which they had long been in expectation of, “I do give it, enter upon it, it is all your own, nay (verse 3), I have given it; though it be yet unconquered, it is as sure to you as if it were in your hands.” H.

The possession of Canaan by the Israelites is constantly set forth as a free gift of the Divine favor, by which all ideas of human right are completely excluded. But while the donation of this land was an act of the Lord’s free favor to the Israelites, the taking it away from the Canaanites was no less an act of his retributive justice—of such justice as it behooved the moral governor of the world to administer against a people laden with iniquity. Gen. 15 : 13-16 proves this clearly. When the time was fully come, the Canaanites became a doomed people—doomed to expulsion or extermination by the Israelites, to whom was committed the sword of judgment, and who were the destined inheritors of the land of which the Canaanites had proved themselves unworthy. So, too, the Israelites, favored as they were for their father’s sake, were warned that even they held the land by no other tenure than that which the Canaanites were to be destroyed for infringing. Over and over again were they warned that if they fell into the same dreadful transgressions for which the Canaanites had been cast out, they would subject themselves to the same doom—be like them destroyed—like them cast out of the good land which they had defiled. We are not left altogether in the dark as to the nature of the abominations which pervaded the land, and which cried to God to show himself as abhorring iniquity and to prove that the world was not left fatherless of his care. Kit.

3. As I said unto Moses. The words here used are a literal repetition of the promise made (De. 11 : 24). Indeed, nearly every sentence in this address to Joshua occurs somewhere in the course of the foregoing history, especially in the Book of Deuteronomy.

4. From the wilderness, etc. God here proceeds, in very brief terms, to mark out and define the boundaries of the land of promise. Its utmost limits should be from the wilderness of Sin, or the desert of Arabia Petraea on the South, to Lebanon on the North; and from the Euphrates on the East, to the great sea, or the Mediterranean, on the West. The Israelites did not indeed possess the full extent of this grant till the time of David, but their failure to do so was owing entirely to their own remissness, unbelief, and disobedience, as was every reverse with which they met during the whole period of their history. They were not straitened in God, but in themselves; and the same remark holds good with regard to his people in all ages. This Lebanon. Particularized in this manner, because it could doubtless be seen from the spot where Joshua now stood, rearing its lofty summits toward the clouds in the northern extremity of Canaan. The name “Lebanon” comes from the Heb. root Laban, while, from its summits being covered with snow. Bush.

5. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. The presence of God should never be withdrawn from him. Moses had assured him of this (De. 31 : 8), that though he must now leave him God never would; and here God himself confirms that word of his servant Moses, and engages never to leave Joshua. This we may be sure of, that the Lord is with us while we are with him. This promise here made to Joshua is applied to all believers, and improved as an argument against covetousness (Heb. 13 : 5). H.

That gracious promise in the Epistle to the Hebrews—“It is written—I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” originally appears in the Bible as a promise to Joshua alone, in his peculiar and special circumstances as leader of the Lord’s people; yet we find it applied by the Apostle in a wide sense to the whole body of believers. Applications of Scripture of this kind, when regulated by strict regard to the proportion of faith, are exceedingly effective and consolatory, opening up to the mind a sudden view of the infinite power and depth of meaning of the Word of God. Cameron.

What God promises to any one of the Old Testament saints he promises to every believer, with such modification as suits his particular case. For all these promises are different leaves of the same tree of life, different expressions of the same covenant of grace. In this sense, whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through scriptural patience and comfort might have hope. It is in this way that thousands of believers have drunk at the same fountain; and what

God said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has been the refreshment of many souls in all generations. In the Greek these few words contain no less than five negatives; to give the full force of which we should have to read it thus: “I will never, never leave thee, I will never, never, never forsake thee.” The precious truth therefore which I commend to you for all coming years, is this: God engages in covenant, to be with the believer, for all needful good, now, henceforth, and forever. J. W. A.

6. Be strong.** The word is a command. It implies that the choice between strength and weakness, and therefore the responsibility for the choice, is ours. The servant of God is in duty bound to strive to make his life on the earth the largest possible success; he must, therefore, lose no righteous opportunity to be strong. He has no right to any selfish indulgence that weakens any physical or mental power. Moreover, he must study all the sources and elements of strength. “Knowledge is power,” and “in union is strength.” Organization, discipline, self-command, skill, all these are strength; and the command is “be strong.” Cable.—And of a good courage. There is animal courage and there is moral courage. And although the strength and courage which men share with the lower animals are not to be despised, but sought after in their degree, yet it is to the nobler qualities the text chiefly refers when it says, “Be strong and of a good courage.” God gave this word of good cheer to Joshua, and repeated it thrice over, so that he might never forget it. Joshua and his men needed it, or God would not have said it to him thrice so earnestly. Stalker.

To be “strong” is to take up a certain position in practical obedience and say clearly, “I am here: I stand by this.” To be “of good courage” is to maintain that position against the force of temptation and opposition of every kind. Strength and courage are needed at home and with ourselves before we meet the world at all. The critical part of the struggle is within. Strength and courage are needed when we go more fully out into the world. We need courage to live honestly, courage to live simply, courage to speak frankly and boldly in condemnation of the speech or the action of others. We have in the context direction how we may attain this temper and habit of Christian courage. It is fed by truth, by the law or the revealed truth of God. When the soul has found the flowing fountains of strength, and drinks of the same day by day, her courage will be day by day renewed. Raleigh.

All the land of the Hittites. The Biblical narrative indicates that while other Canaanitish tribes were of small power and importance, and were soon exterminated or absorbed into the Hebrew nationality, the Hittites stood on altogether another footing. The Hittites are the first and the last of these tribes to appear on the scene. As early as the time of Abraham we find them lords of the soil at Hebron; and in the time of Solomon, and even of Elisha, they are a mighty people, inhabiting a region to the north of Palestine, and distinguished by the possession of numerous war chariots, then the chief sign of military power. Though we are now able to perceive that this is the true signification of the references to them in the Old Testament, yet it was from the newly recovered monuments of Egypt and Assyria that the facts were actually gleaned. I. T.—Since the decipherment of the Egyptian and the Assyrian monuments it has become clear that the Bible is right and the too sceptical scholars were wrong. Seventeen centuries before Christ, Egypt knew the might of the great Hittite people. Nineteen centuries before Christ, Assyria had to do battle against the power of the Hittites. The records of Egypt and Assyria, read together, show the Hittites a strong and warlike power, occupying the very region laid down for it, incidentally, in the Bible narrative. And now, during the last twelve years, the monuments of these Hittites are being found, dotted here and there over the vast stretch between the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and the river Euphrates. S. S. T.

The gift had its limitations, but it had also its conditions. It must not only be conquered, but occupied. The offending nations then in possession must be driven out, and the land be held by constancy and courage. The conditions were never wholly accepted by the beneficiaries. The possible boundaries were never reached in actual dominion, and the “soles of their feet” (from sloth and faint-heartedness and long-continued disobedience) failed to tread upon the whole of the promised possession. Herein is suggested a plain rule for our every-day life. All the bounties of nature, all the wealth of production possible to industry and cunning invention, all that can fill the hands or enrich the mind, is offered to man on similar terms. It is not his by ancestral bequest, nor by the law of might, but it is given from the hands of a bountiful Benefactor. Like the gift to the Israelites it has its limitations. The snow-clad Lebanon and the wilderness, the great river and the shores of the sea, restrict all human acquisitions, mental or material. Every man has his sphere which he may not exceed, but within which all may be claimed as his own. And all the gifts have the same condition. The wisdom of the ages, the secrets of nature, the problems whose solution is the rich garniture of the soul, although freely offered from the Divine hand, and thus in every sense a Divine gift, must be conquered and occupied to become available. Here are the treasures of learning freely tendered, but the sluggard receives no mental impression from them. The gift cannot be received except on the one condition. The unwearied diligence is the cup into which it is poured; the assiduous application builds up the storehouse in which it may be garnered. Conquest and occupation are essential to every man’s possession. And it is the same with material things. God gives the harvest, but the earth is dumb to man’s plea for bread until he turns the furrow, and sows the seed, and thrusts in the sickle, and thrashes out the golden grain, and winnows it from the chaff, and grinds it into flour, and bakes it to his taste. The man who stands invoking the blessing with gaping mouth will waste his eloquence if he refuses to bend his back and blister his hands. Even in Paradise the first pair of the race had to dress and keep the garden that gave them its fruits, and though their offspring have been sustained by the Divine bounty ever since, they have enjoyed it only in the sweat of their face. The great mistake of the world, that which brings to grief and want so many of the children of men, is that they hold out their hands for the prize they covet, with little thought of the condition on which depends their enjoyment of the gift. This is one reason why genius so often fails where a dull intellect succeeds. The former holds his head aloft and looks for the gift of wisdom to come by intuition. The latter masters the alphabet and never dreams of a royal road to learning. How many a young man is waiting for an inheritance of wisdom or wealth to come to him, as the gifts do in a fairy story, from some unknown source. His hands are stretched out with upturned fingers as if the heavens were a full storehouse ready to drop blessings into every itching palm. And even where the promised possession is obtained the sluggard who will not exterminate the evils he dreads, and tread under the soles of his feet his besetting sins, will come far short of the possible boundary of noble living. Behrends.

7. 8. Joshua must not only govern by law and take care that the people observe the law, but he must observe it himself, and so by his own example maintain the honor and power of it. He must do what was written; do according to what was written, exactly observing the law as his copy, and doing, not only that which was there required, but in all circumstances according to the appointment. He must do according to all that was written, without exception or reserve. And to encourage him in his obedience, God assures him that then he shall do wisely (as it is in the margin), and make his way prosperous. They that make the Word of God their rule and conscientiously walk by that rule, shall both do well and speed well; it will furnish them with the best maxims by which to order their conversation (Ps. 111 : 10). And it will entitle them to the best blessings; God shall give them the desire of their heart. H.

In nothing is there more scope for the display of the highest moral heroism than in daring, in all circumstances, to cleave steadfastly to the Word of God as the rule of our conduct. As the soldier of an earthly leader is to act in all things according to certain rules, laid down in a code drawn up for the purpose, so the Christian soldier has his code drawn up for him by God himself, and revealed to him in the oracles of truth. This code he is to study with all diligence, and meditate on it day and night, that he may conform himself to it in every particular, and never turn aside to the right hand or the left. However difficult or self-denying its injunctions, he must obey it, and so sacred must it be in his eyes, that he will rather die than depart from it. Bush.

This word, “all the law,” has a warning value on one hand to the easy conscience that would satisfy itself with obedience to mere statute laws and religious forms; and on the other to the morbid conscience that cannot consent to any legislation in Church or State which does not fulfil the Ten Commandments at a bound. Not “all the law which Moses commanded” did so. But “all the law” did this: It set the moral ideal up in perpetual view, and made all lower legislation, all laws and ordinances of imperfect State or Church, point faithfully and lead strongly and very courageously always toward that ideal. Under God’s hand Moses did not legislate down on the plane of the people’s caprice, though his brother once did; but he did legislate down on the plane of their capabilities, yet always up toward the Ten Commandments. Cable.

It is profitable for instruction (or teaching in the things of God), for conviction (or reproof), for correction, for discipline in righteousness; that is, for such a moral training as will lead those who submit to it to live in righteousness. All this, be it observed, is affirmed of the Old Testament Scriptures, even after the fuller light of the Gospel had come. They have such uses still to fulfil to the church of Christ. P. F.

A sufficient rule of guidance for life Joshua had; we have. There was a law of God then by the keeping of which he and all his people might approve themselves to the Lord, and be strong men and heroes. There is a law of God now, fuller, richer, more spiritual, more complete, in the keeping of which we may approve ourselves to the Master, Christ. Raleigh.

Propose me anything out of this book, and require whether I believe it or no, and seem it never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it hand and heart, as knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this, God hath said so, therefore it is true. I am fully assured that God does not and therefore that men ought not to require any more of any man than this, to believe the Scripture to be God’s Word, to endeavour to finde the true sense of it, and to live according to it. Chillingworth.

This is a Book, whose instructions are true, whose precepts are all good, and whose promises are happie; for ’tis the Word of God, who is the truth, goodness and happiness it selfe. This is a glasse, in which I see myself in a three-fold estate of innocence, corruption and regeneration. This is againe a glasse, in which I see both my selfe and all things in three different times, past, present and future. The first concerns me not, the second is but a moment, the last is perpetual. Yet time past gives me instructions, to order the present; this works for the future, and this future shall be happie or unhappie, as the present makes it. Herbert.

8. Shall not depart out of thy mouth. Thou shalt constantly read and ponder it, it shall incessantly employ thy lips, thou shalt have thy heart so imbued with its letter and spirit, that thy mouth shall, as it were, overflow with its rich contents, as “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” The same phrase occurs but once elsewhere in the Scriptures (Is. 59 : 21), where it is implied that the covenant promise should be deemed so precious, that it should be a perpetual theme of meditation and discourse. Thou shalt meditate therein day and night. This is the character of the good man as described by the Psalmist (Ps. 1 : 2), in words which are almost an exact transcript of those here employed. The Heb. term for “meditate” implies that kind of mental rumination which is apt to vent itself in an audible sound of the voice. Bush.

The meditation which is enjoined is the study of God’s Word for a purely practical purpose, to find out what sort of men we ought to be and what are the great laws for conduct and conflict. That sort of meditation is very unlike the half-asleep sentimental brooding which has usurped the name. It is essential to all vigorous Christian life; but it is wofully unfashionable nowadays, when people have so many newspapers and magazines to read that the Bible gets scant attention. If there is one thing more than another which should invigorate the feeble Christianity so common to-day, it is the earnest, systematic study of Scripture as the all-sufficient guide of morals for men and nations, both in the conflicts of the individual soul and in the great warfare against iniquity, to which Christ summons all his servants. A. M.—A man will never grow into the knowledge of God’s Word by idly waiting for some new gift of discernment, but by diligently using that which God has already bestowed upon him, and using at the same time all other helps that lie within his reach. Above all, let us give our whole mind in patient, loving study to the book itself; and where we fail, at any essential part, God will either send his evangelist Philip to our aid (Acts 8) or instruct us himself. But it is only to patient, loving meditation that help is given. God could have poured all knowledge into us by easy inspiration; but it is by earnest search alone that it can become the treasure of the soul. Ker.

We cleave to Christ by habitual contemplation. There can be no real continuous closeness of intercourse with Him, except by thought ever recurring to Him amidst all the tumult of our busy days. There is a mood of mind in which to approach our Lord—a mood sadly unfamiliar in these days, when poor Mary has hardly a chance of a reputation for “usefulness” by the side of busy, bustling Martha—that still contemplation of the truth, with the view of bringing our own souls more completely under its influence, and saturating our being with its fragrance. We are all so occupied arguing and deducing and elaborating, that we have no time for retired still contemplation, and, therefore, lose the finest aroma of the truth we profess to believe. There are few things more needed by our modern Religion than the old exhortation, “Come, my people, enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee.” And when the great truths embodied in Him stand clear before us, then let us remember that we have not done with them when we have seen them. Next must come into exercise the moral side of faith, the voluntary act of trust, the casting ourselves on Him whom we behold, the making our own of the blessings which He holds out to us. A. M.

Store your mind with God’s own truth. This supplies the vital sap of the soul. Let every fibre of your spirit drink it in, and you shall grow in grace and knowledge at once. “There is but one book,” said the dying novelist, when he was asked what he would hear read. There is but one book that is full of God, or which can fill us with all His fulness. Read it. Ponder it Not Plato or Bacon, or Addison, but He that spake as never man spake—speaks there. Go up with Him to the mount, and hear His sermon. Sit with Him at the table and listen to His words. Walk with Him in the fields and read His paragraphs syllable in flowers, and tares and fig-trees. Take David’s harp and sweep its strings to the music, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Sit at Isaiah’s feet and bow and adore, while he unveils the glorious greatness of Him “who weigheth the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.” . . . God’s utterance through the pens of all the inspired writers is like the breath of spring to winter’s blasted herbage. The soul freshens and blooms under it, and he that bears the best and noblest fruit of a devoted Christian life is he that is most devoutly conversant with the Divine word. Gillett.

The Book of God, when it is the one book, makes strong characters. Read it, study it, ponder over it; be not content to go over so much daily as a task, or to snatch a passage in the hurry of an odd moment; but lay yourself out to accomplish a thorough investigation of its contents, to acquaint yourself with its order, structure, and harmony, to grapple with its difficulties, to systematize its truths, and to enrich your memory with its golden sentences. Men, men, who can stand fast in the faith, who can stand alone, who have vertebral columns, who can bear, who can forbear, who can advance, who on due summons can strike, men armed with the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left—that is, with sword and shield, are, bred in great study of God’s Word, and great familiarity with those high evangelic truths which are the motive powers of the spiritual universe. The most intense heat, and consequently the most powerful action, proceed from deep inward conviction of religious truth, derived from laborious study of the Scripture. J. W. A.

6-9. The threefold admonition to “be strong and of a good courage” is supported by three different assurances on the part of God. In verse 6 it is supported by the assurance that God would fulfil his promise to the fathers,—in other words, of God’s covenant faithfulness; in verses 7 and 8 it is more clearly defined as within the lines of obedience to the law to which assuredly the promise was attached; while in verse 9 the fact that God had commanded is emphasized, and the promise of individual and personal help to Joshua attached to courageous and hearty action which God had enjoined. We mark the successive order of the grounds on which God’s assurance of help rests: first, his faithfulness to his covenant; secondly, our duty, and the promise which God has certainly attached to the discharge of duty; thirdly, individual faith and obedience which has a personal and individual promise of help. This, then, is the order in our grounds of confidence: God’s covenant, God’s promise, and God’s presence. Life, specially opening life, should be viewed in the light of this history. To each of us comes the divine direction. Work—all work—is to take possession in his name of what he assigns to us. What each of us most needs, what in these verses is thrice repeated, is to be of good courage, by which we understand a courage which is the outcome of faith. It comprises three elements. First, we are to go whither God directs us: we are not to be swayed by worldly and selfish motives, not to be inclined hither or thither by every passing wind, whether of passion, inclination, pleasure, or seeming advantage. In short, ours is to be a straightforward, simple, firm, initial resolution to occupy in our lives God’s portion. The second element is that in the shaping of our lives we are to be guided by the word and will of God. There must be a holy determination in that respect, and a holy perseverance in carrying it out. It needs courage to do the will of God in this world: courage not to swerve from it to the right or the left,—good courage in our open profession of adherence to the will of God; a hearty courage which springs from loving meditation upon his word and will. Such a way will surely be “prosperous” in the highest and only true sense of prosperity. The third element in such courage is a constant looking up to God, a daily walk as seeing him who is invisible. Thus we have holy resolution, or consecration at the outset; holy determination, or a careful observance of the will of God; and holy fellowship, or joyous communion with God. To the first of those attaches the covenant-promise of the Father; to the second, the promise of Christ to them that take up his cross and follow him; and to the third, the promise of the Holy Ghost, whereby we cry “Abba, Father!” A. E.

9. Have I not commanded thee?** Every command of God carries with it the prophecy and assurance of ability to fulfil it, if heart and will are obediently responsive. Here, as most frequently, the promise of the Divine presence and help immediately follows the command. The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest! B.

All the after life of Joshua is the carrying out with a remarkable simplicity of unquestioning faith this first charge of his God. His obedience is immediate. The days of waiting are passed. There is no more sign of doubt or of misgiving. At once he assumes in all its breadth the office so committed to his hands, and as God’s vice-gerent “commands the officers of the people” (Josh. 1 : 10). Wilberforce.

§ 10, 11 THEN Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.

12. And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua,

13 saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The 14 LORD your God giveth you rest, and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall abide in the land which Moses gave you beyond Jordan; but ye shall pass 15 over before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them; until the LORD have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your pos- session, and possess it, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond Jordan toward 16 the sunrising. And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou hast commanded us we will 17 do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with 18 Moses. Whosoever he be that shall rebel against thy commandment, and shall not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage.

3 1 And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel; and they lodged there before they passed over. 2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go 4 after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go; for ye have not passed 5 this way heretofore. And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to-morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.

The mission and the man were both under God’s hand. Gifted and chosen for great office, Joshua was trained by successive promotion,— minister, confidential aid, lieutenant-general, absolute leader. To this end he was instructed in the presence of Moses, and within the verge of his great experiences; holding highest con- verse and highest trust; going with him farther than any man into the awful splendors that veiled the glory of the Given Law. When the supreme commission came, it found Joshua a man tried and true; a man of faith—undoubt- ing belief in the word and person with whom he stood in covenant; conviction of the justice of his cause, and uncompromising loyalty to both; force of personality, but of that high order which seeks to give out rather than take in, of good. Of his home life the picture is denied to us; possibly also denied to him. His great work might well absorb all thought and love into the one resolute will. The task laid on him was a great one. It was the consummation of a mighty movement—the migration of a People, the founding of a Nation. It was also the con- quest of a most difficult country and of powerful peoples. It was, hardest of all, to take a motley host, two millions of people, with all their en- cumbrances; their very numbers a source of weakness; lately escaped from bondage and with difficulty brought thus far by long and toilsome paths; through wildernesses and lands of luxury; through the buffetings of fierce foes and the seductions of their own undisciplined hearts; ever murmuring, ever prone to succumb, to falter go back, and march them on to mastery: to make good those years of toil and trial of battle, betrayal, and despair, with firm hand to make sure the stroke without which all that had been done were worse than in vain. J. L. Chamberlain.

10,11. The first command was one which showed his great faith, and tested strongly the obedience of the people. The river Jordan lay between the camp and the land of their prom- ised inheritance, and it must be passed over by them at the very outset of their march. But how could this be accomplished? Even if it were possible with difficulty and risk to trans- port over it a chosen handful of warriors, how could he possibly carry over the mixed multi- tude—the women and the children, and the flocks and the herds? Even over the fords of Jordan, under the most favorable circumstances of the river, this would have been almost im- possible; and at this season of the year, when from the melting of the snow upon the high- lands Jordan was greatly flooded (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of har- vest), it was more than ever impossible. Yet down to these threatening floods, on the hope- less errand of passing over them, all the people are ordered to march. Surely it must have been a sore strain upon the faith of the com- mander to issue such an order. But his faith was strong, and he commanded and was obeyed. Wilberforce.

Within three days. They crossed on the tenth day of Nisan (ch. 4: 19). Hence this order is given on the seventh of the month. As the spies returned to the camp before the people crossed (ch. 2 : 23), and as these spies had been three days (i e., parts of three days) in the mountain west of Jordan (ch. 2 : 22), they must have been sent out by Joshua on the sixth of the month, although the story of their expedition is not given until after this account of the command issued on the seventh. Crosby.

12-17. Joshua has a special word for the warriors of the two-and-a-half tribes already located in their national home on the east of Jordan. It was in the bond that their men of war, leaving their families in their eastern homes, should go over before their brethren, unincumbered, harnessed for battle. The record sets forth their prompt response to this call. We are ready! We wait for marching orders. “Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses. Be strong and of a good courage.” In these words we have the temper, the morale, of this army of conquest. The faith of God strong in their souls; their hearts on obedience to God; their eye on victory! H. C.

13. It is remarkable that Joshua does not plead the authority of the message which God had imparted to himself directly and personally, but bids them remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded them—thus acting as Moses’ minister even after his death. T. C.

3 : 1. The morrow after the return of the spies, the camp at Shittim was broken up, and the host of Israel moved forward. It consisted of all those tribes who were to have their possessions west of the Jordan, along with forty thousand chosen warriors from Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. A reference to Nu. 26 : 7, 18, 34, shows that 70 580 of the men of war in the tribes Reuben and Gad and half Manasseh must have been left behind for the protection of the territory east of the Jordan. A. E.—Came to Jordan and lodged there. The first stage of Joshua’s Conquest was the occupation of the vast trench, so to speak, which parted them from the mass of the Promised Land. Between it and them lay the deep valley of the Jordan with its mysterious river. “To pass over the Jordan and go in and possess the land,” was a crisis in their fate, such as they had not experienced since the crossing of the Red Sea. A. P. S.

The enormous host, amounting to more than two millions—601,730 was the number of adult males returned at the census in the plains of Moab—descends from Shittim, the acacia groves which line the upper terraces of the valley on either side of the river, to the bank of the surging stream. Arrived there, a delay of three days intervenes—an interval none too long for the completion of the necessary preparations, now that they were about to quit the comparative security of the wilderness, and enter on a hostile territory. E. V.—The people were already in point of numbers a great nation. The distinction into tribes already existed, and had been recognized even in Egypt. They had a standing army, consisting of all Israelites above twenty years of age; an army regularly organized; and an army which was inured to hardships and in some measure to war, as well as brought under discipline in the prolonged and trying march through the wilderness. The forms of worship and ceremonial observances had been already instituted. Their civil no less than their moral and ecclesiastical code was, as to all its leading provisions, already fixed. They had courts of justice and officers for the administration of the laws. In short, before they crossed the Jordan, they were already a nation, which only wanted a territory to take at once its place among the nations of the earth. Lee.

3. Go after it. Under the conduct of Moses, the ark was stationed in the centre while the host was encamped, and borne in the middle of the immense procession when it set forward. But they then had the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night to precede them. Now the cloud is removed, and the ark is transferred to the vanguard of the army, to go before. Bush.—The ark of the covenant must be their guide. During the reign of Moses, the cloud was their guide, but now, in Joshua’s reign, the ark; both were visible signs of God’s presence and presidency; but divine grace under the Mosaic dispensation was wrapped up as in a cloud and covered with a veil, while by Christ, our Joshua, it is revealed in the ark of the covenant unveiled. H.

4. There shall be a space—about two thousand cubits. Two thousand cubits amounted to about one thousand yards, or three quarters of a mile, and this space was to intervene between them and the ark, in order that they might be impressed with a becoming awe and reverence of the symbol of the divine presence. Bush.—That ark which before was as the heart is now as the head; it was in the midst of Israel, while they encamped in the desert; now when the cloud is removed, it is in the front of the army; that as before they depended upon it for life, so now they should for direction. It must go before them on the shoulders of the sons of Levi; they must follow it, but within sight, not within breathing. The Levites may not touch the ark, but only the bars: the Israelites may not approach nearer than a thousand paces to it. What awful respects doth God require to be given unto the testimonies of his presence! Bp. II.

That ye may know the way; for ye have not passed this way before. In the untried and untravelled path, they are still to follow the leading of the same Jehovah, B.—“Ye have not passed this way heretofore.” The vista of the bygone years was never so long as it is to-day. Time never carried such a burden of events on his shoulders. Changes have taken place in society and in ourselves, and these changes are sure to go on. We should watch for occasions, that we may seize them; for opportunities, that we may improve them; for God in His manifold revelations and comings to us, that we may receive Him as our God. Courage will often be needed to do what the hand finds to do. The possession and cultivation of moral courage therefore is a very necessary preparation for this way that we have not passed heretofore. Gentleness is a good word to put under the shelter of courage, and a good thing to put among the preparations for the untried way. And filial confidence in God will easily, when occasion comes, pass into resignation. Finally, whatever comes, there will always be not only need and occasion but ground and reason for serene, invincible hopefulness. “Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” Raleigh.

5. And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves.** Rather, “had said,” for as he speaks of “to-morrow,” the charge was probably given on the day previous to the one now current, on which they were passing over Jordan. The command now given was undoubtedly of the same import with that given by Moses, on the eve of the delivery of the law upon Mount Sinai (Ex. 19: 10-14). Bush.—An order of deep significance was to be first obeyed: “Sanctify yourselves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” The entrance of God’s peculiar people into the Land of Promise must be prepared for by ceremonial purification. All outward pollution must be put away. How forcibly does this recall warnings relating to that “better country, even a heavenly one,” of which the earthly Canaan was but the type. How does the external purity enjoined by Joshua, before the children of Israel could be permitted to enter their earthly inheritance, remind us that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord;” and that into the heavenly city “there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth.” E. V.

God’s purpose was ripe, and the hour of conquest was on the stroke; all that remained for them to do was to prepare themselves for its fulfilment. “Sanctify yourselves.” The words set before us the condition and the cause of the Church’s success. The condition of success in the work of God to which the Church is called, is holiness, or personal consecration. The cause of the Church’s success is the Divine power. When God says “Sanctify yourselves,” it is the height of presumption and unbelief for us to sit down and say we cannot do it. Is it true that the light is waiting for the light-bearers; that the power to be put forth is waiting for the condition on which it has pleased God to suspend it? Yes, the power is there. We dare not doubt that the Lord is able and willing to put it forth. Therefore “Sanctify yourselves, and the Lord will do wonders among you.” E. R. Conder.