Joshua 1
PATVer.l. JYoW, after the.death of Moses. Thus those books are wont to begin, whose argument relates to the book beforegoing. As the book of Judges is in this manner connected with this of Joshua, and the book of Ruth with that of Judges; and the LXX. make such a prQface to join the book of Lamentations with the prophecy of Jeremiah. After the death of Moses.] I suppose immediately after the days of mourning for him were ended, (Deut. xxxiv. 8.) The servant of the Lord.] See Deut. xxxiv. 5. It came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the soil of Nun.] Out of the sanctuary, it is most likely, from whence he had spoken to him a little before Moses’s death, and made him a promise of w r hat he orders him now to accomplish, (Deut. xxxi. 14. 23.) and where Eleazar was appointed long before to ask counsel for him, when there w T as great occasion, (Numb, xxvii. 21.) Moses’s minister^ Who had attended upon Moses from the beginning, in his highest employment, (Exod. xxiv. 13. Deut. i. 38.) ■
Joshua 1:2
Moses my servant is dead. He hath finished his work, and can do me no farther service. Now therefore arise.] Put an end therefore unto your mourning for him, and go about the business which he hath left thee to perform. Go over this Jordan.] Within sight of which they lay encamped. Thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.] As he promised when he changed his name from Osheainto Joshua, (Numb. xiii. 10. Deut. i. 38. Deut. iii. 28.)
Joshua 1:3
Every place. Within the limits mentioned in the next verse. _* That the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you, as I said unto Moses.] He would not have them dotibt of what Moses said from him (Deut. xi. 24.) though he were dead.
Joshua 1:4
From the wilderness. This was the bounds of the country on the south. And this Lebanon.] Which was the bounds on the north. And Joshua seems now to have been in sight of it; to which the Divine Majesty directed his observation, as the most eminent mountain in those parts of the world. Even unto the great river, the river Euphrates.] Which was the eastern bounds, and called by other authors the ijreat river, as I have observed on Dent. i. 7. All the land of the Hittites.] Who^were a very powerful people in the country, dwelling, together with the Amorites,in the mountainous parts of it; (Numb. xiii. 29.) some of which were of the race of the giants, and are therefore particularly mentioned, to shew t.at the most terrible people should not be able to stand before Joshua; but he should either destroy them, or expel them, and make them flee their country, as these Hittites did; of whom we read, and of their kings, 2 Kings vii. G. Unto the great sea.] The Mediterranean, which was the western border, as it here follows. Towards the going down of the sun, shall be your coastJ\ See upon Deut. xi. 24. and other places.
Joshua 1:5
There shall not any viau be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. Deut. vii. 24. As I teas ivith Moses, so Itcill be with thee.] To subdue all the people of Canaan before him; as he did the Egyptians, the two kings of the Amoritcs, and the Midianites before Moses: to counsel also, and advise him in all difficulties, as he had done Moses. I tvill not fail thee, nor forsake thee. ~] See upon Deut. xxxi. G. 8. On wjiich promise they relied in future times, (1 Kings viii. 57.) Ver. G. Be strong, and of a good courage.] This charge he had given him before the death of Moses; (Deut. xxxi. 23.) and David gave the. same to Solomon, (1 Chron. xxviii. 20.) For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them.] He had promised him, in the place beforenamed, that he shoidd bring them into the land, &c. and here now adds, that he should settle them in the possession of it, by assigning every one their portion in it; which he did by such a Divine.direction, as silenced all disputes about it.
Joshua 1:7
Only be thou strong, and very courageous, that ihou mayest observe to do according to all the4aw which Moses my servant commanded thee. It requires the greatest courage and resolution, especially in a governor, to be truly pious and religious, by observing the laws himself, and seeing them observed by others. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left.] By adding to it, or taking a^vay-from it, (Deut. xii. ult.) or, more simply, no way deviate from it; for it is a metaphor from men in a journey, who go straight forward in the plain highway, and turn not aside into by-paths, which lead they know not whither. x That thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.] Or do wisely, as’it is in. the margin; for it is the greatest policy to be truly religious.
Joshua 1:8
This book of the law. The original of which was preserved in the sanctuary; from whence God now spake to him, (Deut. xxxi. 2G.) Shall not depart out of thy mouth.] He was to read in it continually, that he might instruct others, and be thereby an example to all future governors and kings, according to the law, (Deut. xvii. 18, 19.) By which it is evident, that Joshua had a copy of the law; which was then written and extant in his time. f Bnt thou shalt meditate therein day and nighty His other weighty employments were not to hinder him from pondering, as well.as reading, the law of God; because it was to be his rule in all his private transactions and public administrations. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that, is CHAP. I.] UPON JOSHUA. written therein.] Which was not p6ssible, without the serious and attentive consideration beforementioned. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then ihoushalt have good success.] Or do wisely. Prudence and prosperity go together; but no prudence comparable to the strict observance of the laws of God, upon which the felicity of kingdoms and states depends.
Joshua 1:9
Havenot I commanded thee? Be strong, and of a good courage; be not aj raid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.~. He confirms him in the resolution he had put into him, (ver.G.) by two arguments, the Divine vocation, and the Divine presence with him. (See Deut. i. 29, 30. “xxxi. 6— S.) The latter of which the Targnmthus cxpresseth, For the Word of the Lord thy God shall be for thy help, in every place where thou goest. (See ver. 14.)
Joshua 1:10
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying. I have often observed, that as schophetim were judges, who heard causes in their courts, and pronounced sentence; so schoterim were inferior officers belonging to the court, who summoned people to attend, and executed the sentence: for after Moses had mentioned (Deut. i. 15.) the chief of their tribes, captains over thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, be at last mentions these officers among their tribes; who were employed, it appears by this place, in the camp, as well as in the courts of justice.
Joshua 1:11
Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals. They were to make proclamation not only in all the four camps of Israel, but in the several tribes who wcro under those standards, to provide themselves with such victuals as the country of Sihon and Og, which they had lately conquered, afforded. For being, after three days, (iii. 1.) to remove very early in thd morning, perhaps they might not have had time to gather manna sufficient, and to prepare it before they began their march. For tvithin three days.] See iii. 1, 2. Ye shall pass over this Jordan.] Which was not so far from Shittim, where they now lay, but they could sec it. And go to possess the land, which the Ijord your God givelh you to possess it.] He constantly remembers them of this donation from God; both to strengthen their faith, and to excite their thankfulness. " For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their arm save them; but bis right hand, &c. because he had a favour to thein,” as the Psalmist speaks, xliv. 3.
Joshua 1:12
And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying. Here he begins to do according to the command of Moses, as God before directed him, ver. 7, 8. For Moses had given this charge to the lleubenites, &c. when he gave them their possession on this side Jordan, Numb, xxxii. 20, 21, &c. and put them in mind of it again, t)eut. iii. 18, &c.
Joshua 1:13
Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying. It is very observable,- how gently and not imperiously Joshua exercises his authority, at his first entrance upon his office. For he only puts them in mind of what Moses required from them, and leaves them to reflect upon the promise they made to him. The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.] That is, actually bestowed upon them a country to settle in. For here their wives, and children, and cattle remained (with a sufficient number of persons to look after them), when they marched into Canaan, as it follows in the next verse.
Joshua 1:14
Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed. March in the front of them, to shew their forwardness to bring them into the same happy condition with themselves. All the mighty men of valour to help them.] Such as Joshua picked out; for it is evident they did not all go over, but only forty thousand of them, (iv. 13.) The rest, though fit for war, were left to defend their wives, children, and flocks, while those mighty men of valour went to Ae/p their brethren.
Joshua 1:15
Until the Lord have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you. A settled possession of tbe land of Canaan, as they had of the land of the two kings of the Amorites. And they also have possessed the landivhich the Lord yonr God giveth them.] He would have them look upon tbe conquest of the land as certain, because God had made a grant of it to their brethren… Then ye shallreturn to the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave you on this r side Jordan, towards the sun-i-ising.] According to the agreement which Moses had made with them, (Numb. xxxiii. 20—22.) Ver. 1C. And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will’go.] It is likely, this was the answer hot only of the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites, but of all the rest of the tribes; before whom Joshua put these two tribes and a half in mind of their duty:.which they all engage to perform exactly; these words containing a. full, recognition, of Joshua’s authority, and their, absolute submission to it*
Joshua 1:17
According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so wilt we hearken unto thee. Here they acknowledge his authority to be equal to that of Moses, who was undoubtedly set over them by God, as they now own Joshua to be. Only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses.] These words are not’a restriction of their obedience, which did not depend upon his successes, but a solemn prayer to God, of whom they desired no other* governor than Joshua, that he would make him as victo-. rious as Moses was over all their enemies. Therefore, some translate the words, not only, but may the Lord thy God, &c. or, Since the Lord thy God hath promised to be icith thee. The Targum paraphrases these words as he did ver. 9. Only let the Word of the Lord thy. God be thy helper, as he was to Moses.
Joshua 1:18
Whosoever he be, that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy tvords in: all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death.") This seems to be the voice of all the people, and of their elders, or a decree made by the elders, as the Jews understand it: who, looking upon Joshua to be a king, as Moses was, extend this to all the kings of Israel in following times. So Guil. Schickard observes out of Maimonides in his Mischpat Hammclech, cap. 4. Theor. 14. p. 101. But it should rather be said, that Joshua was a king and a prophet as l2 [diiAP. it; Moses was; and the law, as Rasi observes, ordered him to “bo put to death that transgressed the orders of Moses, and of a prophet. Only be strong, and of a good courage.’] Ho had the greater reason to be courageous, since they resolved, as one man, to stand by him, and never to disobey him. And therefore the word rak, which we translate only, should rather be translated therefore, as it plainly signifies, xiii. ii. where, speaking of the land that remained to be possessed, God promises to drive out the inhabitants, and therefore bids Joshua to divide it to the Israelites for an inheritance.