Joshuachapter 23
16 verses · Joshua, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · History
And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.
Introduction
Joshua, by tradition, History, Joshua Overview.
This chapter records the last charge of an old commander to the men who would lead Israel after him. Joshua had served Moses in the wilderness, led every campaign in the land and seen the tribes receive their portions. Now he speaks to elders, judges and officers who would govern without him. His hearers lived beside peoples who still held towns and gods of their own. Listen for the charge he once received from God, now handed on to them. Listen also for how he joins the promise to the warning, and for what he tells them to love.
Context
- Who
- The men who would govern Israel after the conquest generation died
- What
- Joshua's farewell charge to Israel's leaders, calling them to keep the Book of the Law and to hold fast to the LORD.
- Where
- An assembly of all Israel's leaders, at a place the chapter leaves unnamed.
- When
- About 1380 BC on the fifteenth-century date for the conquest, a long time after the land had rest.
- Why
- To prepare the next leaders to stay faithful once Joshua was gone, while the nations and their gods remained in the land.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Joshua at the end of his life. He is old and well along in years, which is the wording Joshua 13:1 used of him and the wording 1 Kings 1:1 uses of David.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
It stands a long time after the rest recorded at Joshua 21:44, and it comes before the covenant ceremony at Shechem in chapter 24.
The setting is an assembly rather than a place. Joshua calls the four ranks who ran daily life, elders, leaders, judges and officers, and he calls the same four again at Joshua 24:1. Moses gathered Israel by a like list at Deuteronomy 29:10.
The occasion is a handover. This is a briefing for the governing class rather than a sermon to the nation.
A first hearer knew that intermarriage was the practical mechanism of religious change. Marriage joined households and their household gods, a wife brought her family's worship with her, and the children were raised in it.
Such a hearer also knew the warning being quoted. Numbers 33:55 had said that those left in the land would be pricks in the eyes and thorns in the sides, and Joshua swaps the pair and adds snares and traps.
The last thing a first hearer heard in the room was an argument from evidence. One man of you has put a thousand to flight because the LORD fights for you, and you have seen it yourselves.
Significance
The leaders were meant to carry one sentence out of that assembly. Just as every good promise came true, every threatened word will come true, because the same faithfulness runs in both directions.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
First hearers were also being handed the charge God had given Joshua alone at Joshua 1:7. The courage asked of them is courage to keep a book.
The threat is pressed three times in the chapter, at verses 13, 15 and 16, and each time it ends at the same place, perishing from this good land.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus carries three kept notes of Rashi for this chapter, and they are short. On the fourth verse he reads the allotting of the nations as done by lot, for an inheritance, and takes the remainder of the nations as those that remain to be conquered (Rashi on Joshua 23:4:1 and 23:4:2, the Metsudah Publications translation of 1997, CC-BY). The two notes together keep Joshua's farewell honest about its own situation: the land is assigned in full and held in part.
The thirteenth verse carries his one substantial note of the chapter, and it is a disagreement stated as a gloss. Where the verse warns that the remaining nations will become a snare, a trap, a scourge in the sides and thorns in the eyes, Rashi takes the Hebrew word for the scourge from a root for prowling rather than from a word for a rod, and reads it as a warning about plunder, that "They will prowl around you to loot and ransack" (Rashi on Joshua 23:13:1). The Metsudah translation's own note records that other commentaries take the word as a goad, so this is a place where the classical readings differ over the picture the verse draws while agreeing on the danger it names.
The weight of the commentary on this chapter is linked rather than quotable, and it is the heaviest linked run of the twelve. The corpus carries twenty one refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand cited and unquoted: Metzudat David on Joshua 23:1:1, 23:3:1, 23:5:1, 23:6:1, 23:7:1, 23:9:1, 23:10:1, 23:11:1, 23:12:1 and 23:16:1; Malbim on Joshua 23:2:1, 23:3:1, 23:6:1, 23:8:1, 23:11:1 and 23:12:1; and Radak on Joshua 23:5:1, 23:7:1, 23:10:1, 23:14:1 and 23:15:1. Radak and Metzudat David both stand on the fourteenth verse, where Joshua says that not one thing has failed, and neither can be quoted here.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries ten rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. It is the second shortest rabbinic list of these twelve chapters.
The fourteenth verse, where Joshua says he is going the way of all the earth and that not one word has failed, draws four of the ten: Kohelet Rabbah 12:11:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 15:21:6, Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 2:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 683:1. Two of those four are the same locators the corpus carries on the thesis at Joshua 21:43 and 21:45, so the rabbinic tradition reads the two statements of the promise kept together.
The warning against intermarriage with the remaining nations at the twelfth verse carries Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:8:4. The fifteenth, where the same LORD who brought the good will bring the evil, carries Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 7:3 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:4, and the sixteenth carries Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 951:33. Joshua's old age at the first verse carries Midrash Tanchuma, Chayei Sara 2:1, and the corpus also holds Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 13:1 anchored past the chapter's end at a twenty-fourth verse. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Joshua 23:4:1, 23:4:2 and 23:13:1, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Joshua 23:1:1 to 23:16:1, ten refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Joshua 23:2:1 to 23:12:1, six refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Joshua 23:5:1, 23:7:1, 23:10:1, 23:14:1 and 23:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/joshua/23.json, the 10 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Joshua's charge: cleave to Jehovah, and love him
Joshua 23:1-2
The rest of verse 1 repeats the narrator's summary at 21:44, and verse 9 repeats its other half, that no one could stand against them. Hebrews 4:8 takes up the word: if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day. Joshua is "old and well along in years", as at 13:1 and as David is at 1 Kings 1:1.
Joshua 23:1
“This and the next chapter contain the last addresses of Joshua. These addresses were no doubt among the closing acts of Joshua’s life, but were evidently given on different occasions, and are of different character and scope.”
The chapter names no place, and readers have set this assembly at Shiloh, where the Tent of Meeting had stood since 18:1. Chapter 24 sets the second assembly at Shechem. Moses opened his own farewell at Deuteronomy 31:2 the same way, with his age of a hundred and twenty years.
Joshua 23:2
“Joshua called for all Israel - There are four degrees of civil distinction mentioned here: 1. זקנים zekenim, the elders or senate, the Princes of the tribes. 2. ראשים rashim or rashey aboth, the Chiefs or Heads of families. 3. שפטים shophetim, the Judges who interpreted and decided according to the law. 4. שטרים shoterim, the Officers, serjeants, etc., who executed the decisions of the judges. Whether this assembly was held at Timnath-serah, where Joshua lived, or at Shiloh, where the ark was, or at Shechem, as in Jos 24:1, we cannot tell.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 23:3-5
Verse 3 puts in the past tense, "the LORD your God who fought for you", what Exodus 14:14 and Deuteronomy 3:22 promised. Verse 4 counts the remaining nations as already allotted, so title came before the ground was held, the seam opened at 13:1. Gill reads possession as held on condition of obedience; Clarke reads the surviving Canaanites as left through Israel's slackness rather than their strength.
Joshua 23:3
“This had been promised (De 1:30; 3:22); and the reality of the divine aid was seen in the rapid overthrow of the Canaanites, which had already led to the division of the whole land among the tribes [Jos 23:4].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Dividing land still held by its nations was the LORD's own order at 13:6, where He promised to drive them out Himself. The Great Sea is the Mediterranean, the western bound set at 1:4. Conquered and unconquered stand in one inheritance.
Joshua 23:4
“I have divided - these nations that remain - The whole of the promised land had been portioned out, as well those parts which had not yet been conquered, as those from which the ancient inhabitants had been expelled. The Canaanitish armies had long ago been broken in pieces, so that they could make no head against the Israelites, but in many districts the old inhabitants remained, more through the supineness of the Israelites, than through their own bravery.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 23:4
“That remain - Not yet conquered. An inheritance - You shall certainly subdue them, and inherit their hand, as you have done the rest, if you be not wanting to yourselves. All the nations - That is, with the land of those nations; the people put for their land, as we have seen before; and as sometimes on the contrary, the land is put for the people.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Exodus 23:29 to 30 and Deuteronomy 7:22 set the pace of this driving out in advance, little by little, so the wild animals would not multiply over an empty land. Verse 5 promises the same work on the same timetable.
Joshua 23:5
“And drive them - out - and ye shall possess - The same Hebrew word ירש yarash is used here to signify to expel from an inheritance, and to succeed those thus expelled. Ye shall disinherit them from your sight, and ye shall inherit their land.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 23:6-8
The charge given Joshua at 1:7, to keep the law without turning right or left, now goes to the whole nation, and the courage asked is courage to keep a book. Verse 7 forbids even invoking their gods' names, as Exodus 23:13 does. The Hebrew verb behind "hold fast" in verse 8, used at Deuteronomy 11:22 and 13:4, turns against the nations at verse 12.
Joshua 23:6
“Very courageous - For it will require great courage and resolution to execute all the commands of Moses, and particularly, that of expelling and destroying the residue of the Canaanites. The right hand or the left - That is, in one kind or other, by adding to the law, or diminishing from it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
swear by them: Deuteronomy 6:13 reserves the oath for the LORD alone: fear Him, serve Him, and take your oaths in His name. An oath calls a god to witness. Jeremiah 12:16 later names the neighbouring nations as the ones who taught Israel to swear by Baal.
Joshua 23:7
“Come not among these nations - Have no civil or social contracts with them, (see Jos 23:12), as these will infallibly lead to spiritual affinities, in consequence of which ye will make honorable mention of the name of their gods, swear by them as the judges of your motives and actions, serve them in their abominable rites, and bow yourselves unto them as your creators and preservers; thus giving the whole worship of God to idols: and all this will follow from simply coming among them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Joshua 23:7
“It is to be observed, however, that he does not expressly mention either bending of the knee, or sacrifices, or other rites, but designates all perverse modes of worship by the terms naming them and swearing by them. Whence we infer that God is defrauded of his honor when ever any particle, however small, of all the things which he claims for himself is transferred to idols.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Joshua 23:7
“Learning literature is allowable for believers, rather than teaching; for the principle of learning and of teaching is different. If a believer teaches literature, while he is teaching doubtless he commends, while he delivers he affirms, while he recalls he bears testimony to, the praises of idols interspersed therein. He seals the gods themselves with this name [of gods]; whereas the Law, as we have said, prohibits "the names of gods to be pronounced," and this name [of God] to be conferred on vanity. Hence the devil gets men's early faith built up from the beginnings of their erudition.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · ON IDOLATRY 10patristic
As you have done to this day credits the nation with holding fast through the years of the conquest. Phinehas had used the same closing words at 22:17 of the sin of Peor, still uncleansed to this day. Joshua commends the nation's course as a whole.
Joshua 23:8
“To this day - To wit, since you came in to Canaan; since which time the body of the people (for of them he speaks, not of every particular person) had behaved themselves much better than they did in the wilderness, and had not been guilty of any gross and general apostacy from God, or rebellion against him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 23:9-11
No one standing against Israel is the second half of 21:44, with one exception at 7:12 after Achan. One putting a thousand to flight raises Leviticus 26:8, where five pursue a hundred, and Deuteronomy 32:30, "How could one man pursue a thousand"; Judges 2:14 turns it around. Clarke reads verse 11 as watching your souls, the Hebrew word covering the whole person.
Joshua 23:9
“In every battle they carried the day, and in every siege they carried the city; their loss before Ai was upon a particular occasion, was inconsiderable, and only served to show them on what terms they stood with God; but, otherwise, never was army crowned with such a constant uninterrupted series of successes as the armies of Israel were in the wars of Canaan.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD fought for Israel is the narrator's line at Gibeon in 10:14 and over the whole southern campaign at 10:42. Deuteronomy 28:7 had promised that enemies who marched out in one direction would flee in seven. One man routing a thousand fulfils that word.
Joshua 23:10
“For faithful is he who has promised that "a thousand shall be chased by one," and that "ten thousand shall be put to flight by two," victory in battle being due not to numbers but to righteousness.”
Gregory of Nyssa · written before 395 · ANSWER TO EUNOMIUS'S SECOND BOOKpatristic
Joshua gave the eastern tribes this charge in the same order at 22:5, be very careful, to love the LORD your God. The love is the command of Deuteronomy 6:5, with all the heart, soul and strength, and Jesus names it the first and greatest commandment at Matthew 22:37 to 38. Watchfulness here guards love.
Joshua 23:11
“Take good heed - unto yourselves that ye love the Lord - לנפשתיכם lenaphshotheychem, Take heed To Your Souls, literally; but נפש nephesh and nefs, both in Hebrew and Arabic, signify the whole self, as well as soul and life; both soul and body must be joined in this work, for it is written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Snares and scourges if you turn back
Joshua 23:12-13
Numbers 33:55 is the warning quoted, "barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides". Joshua swaps the pair and adds snare and trap, the word of Exodus 23:33 and Deuteronomy 7:16 for serving their gods, which Judges 2:3 reports arriving. The marriages of verse 12 are what Deuteronomy 7:3 forbade, and 1 Kings 11:2 says Solomon "clung to these women", the verb used here.
Joshua 23:12
“Else if ye do - go back - The soldier who draws back when going to meet the enemy, forfeits his life. These were the Lord’s soldiers, and if they drew back they drew back unto perdition, their lives being forfeited by their infidelity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 23:12
“10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the L ORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. As to the date of this edict of Joshua, I. No mention at all is made of the place where this general assembly was held; some think it was at Timnath-serah, Joshua's own city, where he lived, and whence, being old, he could not well remove.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judges 2:21 records the LORD turning this warning into a sentence: He would no longer drive out any of the nations Joshua left when he died. Judges 3:1 to 4 gives the nations that stayed a second use, to test Israel and to teach warfare to a generation that had never known the wars of Canaan. The snare became a test.
Joshua 23:13
“They shall be snares - לפח lephach, a net or gin, set by the artful fowler to catch heedless birds. And traps - מוקש mokesh, any snare, toil, or trap, placed on the ground to catch the unwary traveler or wild beast by the foot. Scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes - Nothing can be conceived more vexatious and distressing than a continual goad in the side, or thorn in the eye. They will drive you into obedience to their false gods, and put out the eyes of your understandings by their idolatries.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The way of all the earth occurs here first in Scripture and once more, from David to Solomon at 1 Kings 2:2. Joshua twice speaks the narrator's line from 21:45, "not one promise has failed", while Judges 1 lists the towns never taken, and both accounts stand. Keil and Delitzsch read his words as what God had done; Gill holds the remainder at verse 5 under the condition of obedience.
Joshua 23:14
“The way of all the earth - I am about to die; I am going into the grave. Not one thing hath failed, etc. - God had so remarkably and literally fulfilled his promises, that not one of his enemies could state that even the smallest of them had not had its most literal accomplishment: this all Israel could testify.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 23:14
"Now," said he, "has God been thus true to you? Be not you false to him." It is the apostle's argument for perseverance ( Heb. x. 23 ), He is faithful that has promised.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joshua 23:15-16
The address turns on one hinge: the faithfulness that brought the good things will bring the calamity, and Clarke says God's veracity is pledged equally for both. Verse 16 closes almost word for word with Deuteronomy 11:17. Henry counts the threat pressed three times, at verses 13, 15 and 16, and 2 Kings 17:7-23 and 25:21 record where it landed.
Joshua 23:15
“So shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things - His faithfulness in fulfilling his promises is a proof that he will as faithfully accomplish his threatenings, for the veracity of God is equally pledged for both.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Transgressing the covenant is the charge laid against Achan at 7:11 and 7:15, where one man's theft brought defeat on the whole camp. Judges 2:20 uses the same words of the whole nation, and the anger of the LORD burned as this verse warned. One man's sin became the nation's.
Joshua 23:16
“Ye shall perish quickly from off the good land - The following note from Mr. John Trapp is very judicious: “This judgment Joshua inculcates Jos 23:13, Jos 23:15, and here, because he knew it would be a very grievous thing to them to forego so goodly a land, so lately gotten, and so short a while enjoyed. In the beginning of a speech τα ηθη, the milder affections, suit best; but towards the end τα παθη, passionate and piercing passages; according to the orator.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A farewell address in the shape of the Deuteronomic charge, with the promise and the threat set on the same ground, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The charge given to one man handed to a nation | Verse 6 gives Israel the words God gave Joshua alone at Joshua 1:7. Be very strong to keep and obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside neither to the right nor the left. The courage asked for is courage to keep a book.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Joshua 23:6 to 8. | Joshua 23:6 |
| The five clauses in order | Verse 7 forbids associating with the nations, then calling on the names of their gods, then swearing by them, then serving them, then bowing to them. The five fall in order from keeping company to speech to oath to service to worship.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Joshua 23:6 to 8. | Joshua 23:7 |
| One word turned two ways | Verse 8 tells Israel to hold fast to the LORD and verse 12 warns against clinging to the nations that remain. The same Hebrew verb stands in both places and nowhere else in the chapter, so the charge and the warning are one word apart.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Joshua 23:12 to 13. | Joshua 23:8, Joshua 23:12 |
| The threat pressed three times | Verse 13 ends with perishing from this good land, verse 15 with being destroyed from this good land, and verse 16 with perishing quickly from this good land. Matthew Henry counts the threat pressed three times in the chapter.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Joshua 23:15 to 16. | Joshua 23:13, Joshua 23:15, Joshua 23:16 |
The structure
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Sixteen verses in four movements. Verses 1 to 5 rehearse what God has done and what He will do. Verses 6 to 8 give the charge. Verses 9 to 13 set the record of victory against the danger of turning. Verses 14 to 16 close on the two halves of God's faithfulness.
The chapter turns on a single hinge at verse 15: the faithfulness that brought the good things will bring the harm. Adam Clarke puts it that the veracity of God is pledged equally for both.
Across the canon
Joshua 1:7 is the charge being handed on at verse 6. Exodus 23:13 is the ban on naming other gods behind verse 7. Deuteronomy 11:22 and 13:4 use the holding-fast verb of verse 8.
One man chasing a thousand at verse 10 raises the figure of Leviticus 26:8, where five chase a hundred, and Deuteronomy 32:30 asks how one could chase a thousand unless their Rock had sold them.
Numbers 33:55 is the warning quoted at verse 13, that those you let remain will be thorns and snares. Judges 2:3 reports it arriving in almost the same words, and Judges 2:14 turns verse 9 around by saying Israel could no longer stand before their enemies.
1 Kings 11:2 quotes the marriage prohibition of Deuteronomy 7:3 and then says Solomon clung to these in love, using the verb Joshua uses at verse 12.
The closing sentence of verse 16 is Deuteronomy 11:17 said again almost word for word. 2 Kings 17:7 to 23 and 2 Kings 25:21 record where that warning landed.
The book records one exception to the claim of verse 9, at Joshua 7:12 after Achan, where Israel could not stand before their enemies.
In the New Testament
No New Testament writer quotes this chapter. The rest of verse 1 is the word Hebrews 4:8 takes up when it argues that another day was spoken of afterward.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Joshua 23:15 to 16; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Joshua 23:5 and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 23:14.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.