John Wesley

At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he…

“In his youngest son - That is, he shall lose all his children in the work, the first at the beginning, others in the progress of it by degrees, and the youngest in the close of it, when the gates use to be set up.”

So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

“The word of the Lord was with him - (So the Chaldee:) Even Christ himself, the same that was with Moses. Nothing makes a man appear more truly great, than to have the evidences of God's presence with him.”

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them.

“When I saw - He accurately describes the progress of his sin, which began at his eye, which he permitted to gaze upon them, which inflamed his desire, and made him covet them; and that desire made him take them; and having taken, resolve to…”

Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his…

“If it be pretended that some of them were infants; the text doth not say so, but only calls them sons and daughters.”

“Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today the LORD will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death.

“They were stoned (which was the punishment of such offenders, Lev. xxiv, 14 Num. xv, 35,) and not burned to death; but God would have their dead carcases burned to shew his utmost detestation of such persons as break forth into sins of such a…”

And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So the LORD turned from His burning anger.

“A great heap of stones - As a monument of the sin and judgment here mentioned, that others might be warned by the example; and as a brand of infamy, as chap. viii, 29;”

Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

“That we - I and the twenty five thousand with me. Sent them - The same party. Among the people - Hebrew. that people, the people of war as they are called, ver.”

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out your battle lance toward Ai, for into your hand I will deliver the city.”

“Stretch out the spear - This was, either, 1. for a sign to his host present with him, to stop their flight, and make head against the pursuers: or, 2. for a signal to the liers in wait, or, 3.”

And there in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.

“Upon the stones - Not upon the stones of the altar, which were to be rough and unpolished, ver. 31, but upon other stones, smooth and plaistered, as is manifest from Deut. xxvii, 2.”

All Israel, foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD facing the Levitical priests who…

“All Israel - That is, the whole congregation, old and young, male and female. That side - Some on one side of it, and some on the other.”

Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.

“Afterward - After the altar was built, and the stones plaistered and writ upon. He read - That is, he commanded the priests or Levites to read, Deut. xxvii, 14.”

There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, the little ones, and the…

“Read not - Therefore he read not the blessings and curses only, as some think, but the whole law, as the manner was when all Israel, men and women, were assembled together, or the ten commandments.”

Then the men of Israel sampled their provisions, but did not seek the counsel of the LORD.

“For though it is probable, if God had been consulted, he would have consented to the sparing of the Gibeonites; yet it should have been done with more caution, and an obligation upon them to embrace the true religion.”

As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by…

“Josephus affirms, that thunder and lightning were mixed with the hail, which may seem probable from Hab. iii, 11.”

So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar?

“Avenged them on their enemies - That is, till they bad utterly destroyed them. Book of Jasher - This book was written and published before Joshua wrote his, and so is fitly alluded here.”

Now the five kings had fled and hidden in the cave at Makkedah.

“A cave - A place of the greatest secrecy; but there is no escaping the eye or hand of God. At Makkedah - Hebrew. in Makkedah, not in the city, for that was not yet taken; but in the territory of it.”

On that day Joshua captured Makkedah and put it to the sword, along with its king. He devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors.

“And that day - On which the sun stood still. Nor is it strange that so much work was done, and places so far distant taken in one day, when the day was so long, and the Canaanites struck with such a terror.”

to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites at the foot of Hermon in the…

“The Canaanite - The Canaanites properly so called, lived part of them on the east near Jordan, and part on the west near the sea, and both are here united.”

At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword, because Hazor was formerly the head of all these kingdoms.

“The king - In his royal city, to which he fled out of the battle. Head of these kingdoms - Not of all Canaan, but of all those who were confederate with him in this expedition.”

Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds, except Hazor, which Joshua burned.

“In their strength - Hebrew. with their fence, walls or bulwarks, that is, which were not ruined with their walls in taking them. Save Hazor - Because this city began the war, and being the chief and royal city, might renew the war.”

Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along the middle of the valley, up to the Jabbok…

“Half Gilead - Hebrew. and the half Gilead, that is, half of the country of Gilead; this doth not denote the bound from which his dominion began, but the country, over which his dominion was, which began at Arnon, and took in half Gilead, and…”

as well as the Arabah east of the Sea of Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), eastward through Beth-jeshimoth, and southward below the slopes of Pisgah.

“And this was indeed the situation of the plains of Moab, which are here spoken of; they lay between the two seas, that of Cinneroth and the salt sea, and eastward to them both.”

the hill country, the foothills, the Arabah, the slopes, the wilderness, and the Negev—the lands of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites):

“The Gargashites either were now incorporated with some other of these nations, or as the tradition of the Jews is, upon the approach of Israel under Joshua, they all withdrew and went unto Africk, leaving their land to be possessed by the Israelites, with whom…”

the king of Dor in Naphath-dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one;

“King of Gilgal - Not of that Gilgal where Joshua first lodged after his passage over Jordan; where it doth not appear, that there was either king or city; but of a city of the same name, probably in Galilee towards the sea, where divers…”

All the territory of the Philistines and the Geshurites, from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the…

“Counted to the Canaanites - That is, which though now possessed by the Philistines, who drove out the Canaanites the old inhabitants of it, Deut. ii, 23 Amos ix, 7, yet is a part of the land of Canaan, and therefore belongs to the Israelites.”