The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Joshua Reviews Israel’s History
Joshua 24:1–13 — Joshua Reviews Israel’s History. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ ’eṯ- way·ye·’e·sōp̄ kāl- šiḇ·ṭê yiś·rā·’êl šə·ḵe·māh way·yiq·rā lə·ziq·nê ū·lə·rā·šāw ū·lə·šō·p̄ə·ṭāw ū·lə·šō·ṭə·rāw yiś·rā·’êl way·yiṯ·yaṣ·ṣə·ḇū lip̄·nê hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua gathered all the-tribes-of Israel to-Shechem; and-he-called for-the-elders-of Israel, and-for-its-heads, and-for-its-judges, and-for-its-officers; and-they-stationed-themselves before God.
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We must never think our work for God done, till our life is done. If he lengthen out our days beyond what we expected, like those of Joshua, it is because he has some further service for us to do.Henry reads the second assembly as proof that Joshua's commission did not expire with his strength.
At the former address the rulers alone appear to have been present; on this occasion all Israel was gathered. And what is spoken is addressed to the people in the hearing of the rulers. In the speech that now follows Joshua briefly recapitulates the national historyEllicott marks what is new in this second assembly: the whole people, not just the rulers (ch. 23), now hear the recital.
For this solemn act he did not choose Shiloh, the site of the national sanctuary, as some MSS of the lxx read, but Shechem, a place which was sanctified as no other was for such a purpose as this by the most sacred reminiscences from the times of the patriarchs.Names the Shiloh-vs-Shechem textual variant and defends Shechem on the weight of patriarchal memory.
those now assembled there were gathered “before God;” comp. Job 1:6 ; Job 2:1 , or, as it is in the Hebrew, with the article, “the God,” the only true and living Elohim .Recovers the articular hā-’ĕlōhîm — "the God" — that BSB's bare "God" obscures.
the words "they presented themselves (literally, took up their station ) before God"Gives the literal force of the Hithpael way·yiṯ·yaṣ·ṣə·ḇū: a station taken up, not a mere appearance.
2And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ way·yō·mer ’el- kāl- hā·‘ām kōh- Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl ’ā·mar mê·‘ō·w·lām ’ă·ḇō·w·ṯê·ḵem te·raḥ ’ă·ḇî ’aḇ·rā·hām wa·’ă·ḇî nā·ḥō·wr yā·šə·ḇū bə·‘ê·ḇer han·nā·hār way·ya·‘aḇ·ḏū ’ă·ḥê·rîm ’ĕ·lō·hîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua said unto all the-people: Thus-says Yahweh, the-God-of Israel — From-of-old your-fathers dwelt beyond the-River, Terah father-of Abraham and-father-of Nahor, and-they-served other gods.
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He spake to them in God’s name, and as from him, in the language of a prophet. Thus saith the Lord — Jehovah, the great God, and the God of Israel, whom you are peculiarly bound to hear.Benson reads kōh ’āmar Yahweh as a genuine prophetic oracle, not mere oratory.
The reference in the text to the original state of those who were the forefathers of the nation, is made to show that they were no better than others: God chose them not for their excellences but of His own mere motion.Barnes draws the doctrine of unmerited election straight out of the fathers' idolatry.
Joshua recalls to the minds of the people the mercies of God as displayed in five great events:— (i) The Call of Abraham; (ii) The Deliverance from Egypt; (iii) The Defeat of the Amorites on the east of the Jordan, and the frustration of the machinations of Balaam; (iv) The Passage of the Jordan and Capture of Jericho; (v) The Victories over all the nations of Canaan.Cambridge supplies the five-movement skeleton that organizes the whole recital (vv. 2-13).
The ancestors of Israel dwelt "from eternity," i.e., from time immemorial, on the other side of the stream (the Euphrates), viz., in Ur of the Chaldees, and then at Haran in MesopotamiaGlosses mê·‘ô·lām ("from eternity / time immemorial") and locates the fathers in Ur and Haran.
3But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’eq·qaḥ ’eṯ- ’ă·ḇî·ḵem ’eṯ- ’aḇ·rā·hām mê·‘ê·ḇer han·nā·hār wā·’ō·w·lêḵ ’ō·w·ṯōw bə·ḵāl ’e·reṣ kə·nā·‘an wå̄·ʾɛ·rɛḇ ’eṯ- zar·‘ōw wā·’et·ten- lōw ’eṯ- yiṣ·ḥāq
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-took your-father Abraham from-beyond the-River, and-I-led him through-all the-land-of Canaan, and-I-multiplied his-seed, and-I-gave to-him Isaac.
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I took your father; I apprehended him by my grace, and snatched him out of that idolatrous and wicked place, and took him into acquaintance and covenant with myself, which was the highest honour and happiness he was capable of.Poole presses lâqach ("took") into its strong sense — a snatching of grace out of idolatry.
It was an irresistible impulse of divine grace which led the patriarch to leave his country and relatives, to migrate to Canaan, and live a "stranger and pilgrim" in that land.JFB reads the chain of causative verbs as the work of "irresistible" grace.
and gave him Isaac ] Which means “ Laughter ” as one “born out of due time,” when Hope might have ceased to hope, and all fulfilment of the Promise seemed impossible.On the name Isaac as "laughter" against the impossibility of the promise.
he led him as far as Shechem, where Israel was now assembled, and then to Bethel, and still onward to the south, Genesis 12:6 ; that he might have a view of the land his posterity was to inheritGill notes the geographic irony: Abraham was led to Shechem — the very ground on which Israel now stands.
4and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·yiṣ·ḥāq ’eṯ- wā·’et·tên ya·‘ă·qōḇ wə·’eṯ- ‘ê·śāw wā·’et·tên lə·‘ê·śāw ’eṯ- har śê·‘îr lā·re·šeṯ ’ō·w·ṯōw wə·ya·‘ă·qōḇ ū·ḇā·nāw yā·rə·ḏū miṣ·rā·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-gave to-Isaac Jacob and-Esau; and-I-gave to-Esau Mount Seir to-possess it, but-Jacob and-his-sons went-down to-Egypt.
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I gave unto Esau mount Seir — That he might leave Canaan entire to his brother Jacob and his posterity, Genesis 36:7-8 . But Jacob went down into Egypt — Compelled by a grievous famine, and because the time was not come when God intended to plant him and his posterity in Canaan.Benson supplies the providential logic of the division: Seir for Esau so that Canaan stays whole for Jacob.
Jacob and his children went down into Egypt, where they long lived in grievous bondage; which God having delivered us from, I shall now pass it over.Poole catches the recital's deliberate compression — the bondage named, then "passed over."
Jacob ] = he that holds by the heel , or supplanter ( Genesis 25:26 ). Esau ] = hairy, rough ; whose robust frame and rough aspect were the type of a wild and daring nature.On the meanings of the brothers' names, which the recital lays side by side.
Joshua took for granted that his hearers were well acquainted with the history of the patriarchs, and satisfied himself with mentioning the migration of Jacob and his sons to EgyptExplains the recital's speed: the patriarchal story is assumed, not retold.
5Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and afterward I brought you out.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’eš·laḥ ’eṯ- mō·šeh wə·’eṯ- ’a·hă·rōn wā·’eg·gōp̄ ’eṯ- miṣ·ra·yim ka·’ă·šer ‘ā·śî·ṯî bə·qir·bōw wə·’a·ḥar hō·w·ṣê·ṯî ’eṯ·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-sent Moses and-Aaron, and-I-struck Egypt by-that-which I-did in-its-midst, and-afterward I-brought-you-out.
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"I smote Egypt," i.e., both land and people. נגף is used in Exodus 8:2 and Exodus 12:23 , Exodus 12:27 , in connection with the plague of frogs and the slaying of the first-born in Egypt.Roots the verb nâgaph ("smite") in the specific plague-texts of Exodus.
This is the second proof of the Divine favour, the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt . The chief incidents of this great event are succinctly alluded to; (1) the mission of Moses and Aaron; (2) the infliction of the plagues upon Egypt; (3) the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea.Marks v. 5 as the second of the five movements, and lists its three compressed incidents.
The word rendered "plagued" is literally smote , but usually with the idea of a visitation from God.On the literal sense of nâgaph — a striking that is always a divine visitation.
I sent Moses also and Aaron,.... To demand Israel's dismission of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to be the deliverers of them: and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did amongst them; inflicting ten plagues upon them for refusing to let Israel goGill fills in the ten plagues that the recital leaves unspoken.
6When I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’ō·w·ṣî ’ă·ḇō·w·ṯê·ḵem ’eṯ- mim·miṣ·ra·yim wat·tā·ḇō·’ū hay·yām·māh miṣ·ra·yim way·yir·də·p̄ū ’a·ḥă·rê ’ă·ḇō·w·ṯê·ḵem bə·re·ḵeḇ ū·ḇə·p̄ā·rā·šîm yam- sūp̄
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-brought your-fathers out-of Egypt, and-you-came to-the-sea; and-the-Egyptians pursued after your-fathers with-chariot and-with-horsemen to-the-Sea-of-Reeds.
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the Egyptians pursued after your fathers, with chariots and horsemen, into the Red sea; of the number of their chariots and horsemen, see Exodus 14:7 ; with these they pursued the Israelites, not only unto, but into the Red sea, following them into itGill stresses that the pursuit ran into the sea itself — the trap that closes in the next verse.
Astonished that they had not made good their flight into Asia, and deeming them entangled in the land and shut in by the wilderness, the Egyptian monarch directed all his forces, his horses and his chariots, to give chase to the fugitives ( Exodus 14:9 ).Reconstructs Pharaoh's reasoning behind the chariot-pursuit.
Unto the Red Sea. There is no unto in the original. Perhaps the meaning here is into the midst of , the abruptness with which it is introduced meaning more than that the Israelites arrived at it.Flags a translation gap: the Hebrew has no "unto," only motion toward — perhaps into — the sea.
7So your fathers cried out to the LORD, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, over whom He brought the sea and engulfed them. Your very eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yiṣ·‘ă·qū ’el- Yah·weh way·yā·śem ma·’ă·p̄êl bê·nê·ḵem ū·ḇên ham·miṣ·rîm ‘ā·lāw ’eṯ- way·yā·ḇê hay·yām way·ḵas·sê·hū ‘ê·nê·ḵem ’êṯ wat·tir·’e·nāh ’ă·šer- ‘ā·śî·ṯî bə·miṣ·rā·yim wat·tê·šə·ḇū ḇam·miḏ·bār rab·bîm yā·mîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-cried-out unto Yahweh, and-he-put darkness between you and-the-Egyptians, and-he-brought upon-them the-sea and-it-covered them; and-your-eyes saw what I-did in-Egypt. Then-you-dwelt in-the-wilderness many days.
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He speaketh this to the elders, Joshua 24:1 , who were so, not only by power and dignity, but many of them by age; and there being now not sixty years past since those Egyptian plagues, it is very probable that a considerable number of those here present had seen those things in EgyptPoole grounds the jolt from "they" to "your eyes": some hearers were genuine eyewitnesses.
and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; or "upon him, and covered him" (y); on Pharaoh, as Kimchi; or on Egypt; that is, the Egyptians or on everyone of them, as Jarchi, none escapedGill preserves the singular Hebrew suffix ("covered him") and the rabbinic dispute over its referent.
In the midst of the terror and perplexity of the Israelites the Angel of God, who went before them in the pillar of cloud and fire, stationed himself behind them so as to deepen the gloom in which the Egyptians were advancing, and afford light and encouragement to the Israelites.Cambridge expounds the "darkness" of v. 7 as the cloud that divided light from gloom at the sea.
giving especial prominence to the crying of the Israelites to the Lord in their distress ( Exodus 14:10 ), and the relief of that distress by the angel of the Lord ( Exodus 14:19-20 ). And lastly, he notices their dwelling in the wilderness "many days," i.e., forty years ( Numbers 14:33 ).K&D reads the cry, the rescue, and the "many days" as the three beats of v. 7's Exodus précis.
8Later, I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your hand, that you should possess their land when I destroyed them before you.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wå̄·ʾå̄·ḇi·ʾå̄h ’eṯ·ḵem ’el- ’e·reṣ hā·’ĕ·mō·rî hay·yō·wō·šêḇ bə·‘ê·ḇer hay·yar·dên way·yil·lā·ḥă·mū ’it·tə·ḵem wā·’et·tên ’ō·w·ṯām bə·yeḏ·ḵem wat·tî·rə·šū ’eṯ- ’ar·ṣām wā·’aš·mî·ḏêm mip·pə·nê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-brought you to-the-land-of the-Amorite who-dwelt beyond the-Jordan, and-they-fought with-you; but-I-gave them into-your-hand, and-you-possessed their-land, and-I-destroyed them from-before you.
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And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan,.... The kingdoms of Sihon and Og, and they fought with you; the two kings of them, and their armies: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their landGill identifies the Amorites of v. 8 as Sihon and Og, the first Transjordan conquest.
Long afterwards the subjugation of these great kings, famous kings, mighty kings , was deemed worthy of being ranked with the deliverance from Egypt. See Psalm 135:10-12 ; Psalm 136:15-21 .Cambridge links the Amorite victory to the historical psalms — the same recital-genre as Joshua 24.
The third great act of God for Israel was his giving up the Amorites into the hands of the Israelites, so that they were able to conquer their land ( Numbers 21:21-35 ), and the frustration of the attack made by Balak king of the Moabites, through the instrumentality of BalaamK&D pairs the Amorite war and the Balaam episode as one "third great act" of God (vv. 8-10).
9Then Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bā·lāq ben- ṣip·pō·wr me·leḵ mō·w·’āḇ way·yā·qām way·yil·lā·ḥem bə·yiś·rā·’êl way·yiš·laḥ way·yiq·rā lə·ḇil·‘ām ben- bə·‘ō·wr lə·qal·lêl ’eṯ·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Balak son-of Zippor, king-of Moab, arose and-fought against Israel; and-he-sent and-called for-Balaam son-of Beor to-curse you.
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Balak warred against Israel. Quest. How is this true, when Balak did never fight against Israel, Judges 11:25 ? Answ. One prince may commence a war against another, though he never come to a battle, nor strike one stroke; so Balak warred, though not by open force, yet by crafty counsel and warlike stratagems, by magical arts, by wicked devicesPoole resolves the lâcham ("warred") problem: a war of curses and stratagems, never of swords.
Warred against Israel. —The sending for Balaam was a distinct act of hostility. Whether Balak himself ever led an army against Israel we are not informed.Ellicott reads the summons of Balaam as itself the act of war.
to curse you ] For he was regarded throughout the whole East as a Prophet, whose blessing or whose curse was irresistible. Balak, who lacked the courage to meet the Israelites in arms, thought to lay upon them the powerful ban of the mighty seer.Cambridge explains why a curse counted as warfare: Balaam's word was believed "irresistible."
Balak warred against Israel — Not indeed by open force, but by crafty counsels, warlike stratagems, and wicked devices.Benson's parallel reading of the "war" of Balak — by counsel and device, not arms.
10but I would not listen to Balaam. So he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you from his hand.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ā·ḇî·ṯî wə·lō liš·mō·a‘ lə·ḇil·‘ām way·ḇā·reḵ bā·rō·wḵ ’eṯ·ḵem wā·’aṣ·ṣil ’eṯ·ḵem mî·yā·ḏōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
But-I-was-not-willing to-listen to-Balaam, and-he-blessed, kept-blessing you, and-I-delivered you from-his-hand.
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But I would not. The Hebrew shows that this is not simply the conditional form of the verb, but that it means I willed not. It was God's "determinate purpose" that Israel should not be accursed.Recovers the volitional force of ’âbâh: a willed refusal, not a mere outcome.
therefore he blessed you still; went on blessing Israel to the last, when Balak hoped every time he would have cursed them; and Balaam himself was very desirous of doing it; but could not, being overruled by the Lord, and under his restraintGill catches the doubled blessing — Balaam blessing "to the last," against his own will.
Three times the altars were built and the victims slain, but each time the seer found himself unable to comply with the wishes of the king; he could not curse him whom God had not cursed, or defy him whom Jehovah had not defied.Cambridge recounts the threefold failed curse behind the single line of v. 10.
I would not hearken unto Balaam, who hereby appears to have desired of God leave to curse Israel; and therefore it is not strange that God, who permitted him simply to go, was highly angry with him for going with so wicked an intentPoole reads Balaam's appetite for the curse, restrained only by God's refusal.
11After this, you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I delivered them into your hand.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·ta·‘aḇ·rū ’eṯ- hay·yar·dên wat·tā·ḇō·’ū ’el- yə·rî·ḥōw ba·‘ă·lê- yə·rî·ḥōw way·yil·lā·ḥă·mū ḇā·ḵem hā·’ĕ·mō·rî wə·hap·pə·riz·zî wə·hak·kə·na·‘ă·nî wə·ha·ḥit·tî wə·hag·gir·gā·šî ha·ḥiw·wî wə·hay·ḇū·sî wā·’et·tên ’ō·w·ṯām bə·yeḏ·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-crossed-over the-Jordan and-came to-Jericho; and-the-lords-of Jericho fought against-you — the-Amorite, and-the-Perizzite, and-the-Canaanite, and-the-Hittite, and-the-Girgashite, the-Hivite, and-the-Jebusite — and-I-gave them into-your-hand.
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His leading them by miracles of His omnipotence across the Jordan into Canaan, delivering the Lords (or possessors) of Jericho," not "the rulers, i.e., the king and his heroes," as Knobel maintainsK&D recovers ba‘ălê as "lords / possessors," against the reading "rulers."
The men of Jericho. Literally, the lords or possessors of Jericho. The seven Canaanitish tribes that follow are not identical with, but supplementary to, the lords of Jericho. Fought against you. The word is the same as that translated "warred" in ver. 9. The people of Jericho did not fight actively. They confined themselves to defensive operations.Ties the verb back to v. 9's "warred" and notes Jericho's resistance was defensive only.
Because it was the chief city, under it he contains all the country: else they of the city fought not.Geneva reads Jericho as standing, by synecdoche, for the whole conquered land.
The fourth proof of the Divine favour: ( a ) the Passage of the Jordan , and ( b ) capture of Jericho ; and the fifth ( c ) the victory over the Canaanites .Marks v. 11 as the hinge of the fourth and fifth movements of the recital.
12I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove out the two Amorite kings before you, but not by your own sword or bow.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’eš·laḥ haṣ·ṣir·‘āh lip̄·nê·ḵem ’eṯ- wat·tə·ḡā·reš ’ō·w·ṯām šə·nê hā·’ĕ·mō·rî mal·ḵê mip·pə·nê·ḵem lō ḇə·ḥar·bə·ḵā wə·lō ḇə·qaš·te·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-sent before you the-hornet, and-it-drove-them-out from-before you — the-two kings-of the-Amorite — not by-your-sword and-not by-your-bow.
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The hornet. —There appears no reason for taking this word in any other than a literal sense. The possibility of what is recorded here has been abundantly illustrated by events reported in our own times.Ellicott argues for a literal hornet — one pole of a genuine interpretive split.
I sent the hornet before you—a particular species of wasp which swarms in warm countries and sometimes assumes the scourging character of a plague; or, as many think, it is a figurative expression for uncontrollable terrorJFB gives the other pole: the hornet as a figure for panic terror.
Not with thy sword, nor with thy bow; for though thou didst fight with them, and prevail against them in battle, yet this was not because thou hadst more force or courage than they; but because by my hornet, which I sent like a harbinger before thee, I had both broken their spirits, and greatly diminished their numbersPoole draws the verse's theology: the victory's true cause was the hornet, not Israel's arms.
particularly the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, though "not with their sword and their bow" (vid., Psalm 44:4 ); i.e., it was not with the weapons at their command that they were able to take the lands of these two kings.K&D cross-references Psalm 44 for the "not by sword" motif (Psalm 44:3 in the BSB versification).
13So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities that you did not build, and now you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’et·tên lā·ḵem ’e·reṣ ’ă·šer lō- yā·ḡa‘·tā bāh wə·‘ā·rîm ’ă·šer lō- ḇə·nî·ṯem wat·tê·šə·ḇū bā·hem ’at·tem ’ō·ḵə·lîm kə·rā·mîm wə·zê·ṯîm ’ă·šer lō- nə·ṭa‘·tem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-gave to-you a-land for-which you-did-not toil, and-cities which you-did-not build, and-you-dwell in-them; vineyards and-olive-groves which you-did-not plant, you eat.
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Labour . The word here used is expressive of the fatigue of labour, and is more equivalent to our word toil. The whole passage is suggested by Deuteronomy 6:10 .Gives the force of yâga‘ ("toil") and names the Deuteronomy 6:10 source of the whole verse.
thus far an account is given of the many mercies they had been and were favoured with, and thus far are the words of the Lord by Joshua; next follow the use and improvement Joshua made of them.Gill marks v. 13 as the exact close of the divine oracle — the recital ends, the appeal begins.
cities which ye built not ] All this happened as Jehovah had promised, Deuteronomy 6:10 .Cambridge reads the closing verse as the literal discharge of the Deuteronomic promise.
The application of this history of God's mercies to them, is an exhortation to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and that it might be continued.Henry names the rhetorical aim of the whole recital: gratitude that issues in service.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a gathering and a formula. Joshua way·ye·’e·sōp̄ — "gathered, ingathered" — all the tribes to Shechem, and they way·yiṯ·yaṣ·ṣə·ḇū, a reflexive Hithpael that the Pulpit Commentary renders literally "took up their station ... before God." They did not merely appear; they planted themselves. Keil & Delitzsch defend the reading "Shechem" against the Septuagint variant "Shiloh" precisely because Joshua chose "a place which was sanctified as no other was for such a purpose as this by the most sacred reminiscences from the times of the patriarchs" — Abraham's first altar, Jacob's burial of the foreign gods. Then comes the hinge: kōh ’āmar Yahweh, "Thus says Yahweh." Joseph Benson insists Joshua here "spake to them in God's name, and as from him, in the language of a prophet." What follows is not a farewell address but a divine oracle in the first person — Yahweh himself recounting his acts. And the oracle begins, scandalously, with idolatry: the fathers "served other gods" beyond the River. Albert Barnes draws the doctrine bare: "God chose them not for their excellences but of His own mere motion."
From v. 3 onward the recital becomes a chain of first-person verbs, and the chain is the argument. I took Abraham, I led him, I multiplied his seed, I gave Isaac; I gave Jacob and Esau, I sent Moses and Aaron, I struck Egypt, I brought you out. Matthew Poole presses the opening verb lâqach past "took" to its strong sense: "I apprehended him by my grace, and snatched him out of that idolatrous and wicked place." Israel is always the object, never the agent. Even the multiplying of the seed — the patriarchal promise — is reported as Yahweh's deed, with Isaac named as its proof; Cambridge hears "laughter" in the name, given when "Hope might have ceased to hope, and all fulfilment of the Promise seemed impossible." The Exodus is compressed to three beats — Moses sent, Egypt struck, Israel brought out — and even the cry at the sea (way·yiṣ·‘ă·qū, "they shrieked") is, says Keil & Delitzsch, given "especial prominence": the deliverance begins with a scream, not a sword. Then the recital does something quietly daring (v. 7): it slides from "they cried" to "your eyes saw." Matthew Poole notes that some hearers were old enough to be eyewitnesses — "not sixty years past since those Egyptian plagues" — so the fathers' history is folded into the present generation's memory. The deliverance is not theirs; it is yours.
The conquest section is governed by two words held in tension: lâcham ("they fought") and nâthan ("I gave"). The Amorites fought; Yahweh gave them into Israel's hand (v. 8). Balak "warred against Israel" — yet Matthew Poole raises the obvious objection, "How is this true, when Balak did never fight against Israel?", and answers that he warred "not by open force, yet by crafty counsel and warlike stratagems, by magical arts." The weapon was a curse, and Cambridge explains why that counted as war: Balaam "was regarded throughout the whole East as a Prophet, whose blessing or whose curse was irresistible." But Yahweh "was not willing" (’ā·ḇî·ṯî; the Pulpit Commentary stresses "it means I willed not") to let him curse, and turned the intended curse into an emphatic doubled blessing (way·ḇā·reḵ bā·rō·wḵ). The climax of the whole conquest is v. 12 and its grammar: the feminine verb wat·tə·ḡā·reš makes the hornet the one who drove out the kings — "not by your sword and not by your bow." Keil & Delitzsch cite Psalm 44 for the principle. The voices genuinely divide on the hornet itself: Ellicott takes it literally ("no reason for taking this word in any other than a literal sense"); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read "a figurative expression for uncontrollable terror." The synthesis does not resolve what the Hebrew leaves open.
The oracle closes where it opened — on the verb nâthan, "I gave." And the gift is a finished one: a land Israel did not yâga‘ ("toil" over — the Pulpit Commentary notes the word means "the fatigue of labour"), cities they did not build, vineyards and olive groves they did not plant. The final verb is a participle, ’ō·ḵə·lîm, "you are eating": the history of redemption ends not on a battlefield but at a table, Israel feeding on another's labor. John Gill draws the exact seam: "thus far are the words of the Lord by Joshua; next follow the use and improvement Joshua made of them." The recital is over; the appeal to "fear and serve God" (which Matthew Henry names as its whole aim) begins in the verse after our unit. Every gift named here is the ground of the demand to come — and the keyword the demand will seize is the one the fathers spent on idols in v. 2: ‘âbad, to serve.
A fallible reading, offered to be tested (Sola Scriptura). Read on its own terms, Joshua 24:2–13 is a sermon with almost no imperatives — and that is its point. It is thirteen verses of indicative: God did, God took, God led, God gave. The single command of the chapter ("now therefore fear and serve") does not arrive until v. 14, just past the edge of this unit. Everything the people are about to be asked to do rests entirely on what they are first told God has already done. The recital is also unflinchingly honest about origins: it begins not with a noble patriarch but with idolaters "beyond the River" who "served other gods." Israel's story does not start with their worthiness; it starts with their rescue. And the recital is studiously self-effacing about Israel's own strength: the sea-deliverance comes after a cry, the Balaam-deliverance without Israel knowing a curse was even attempted, the Amorite kings driven out "not by your sword." The land is a finished gift — built, planted, and handed over. If this reading is right, the logic of the whole covenant that follows is gratitude, not merit: because God has done all this, therefore serve him. The verb spent on false gods in v. 2 (‘âbad) is exactly the verb Israel is about to be asked to redirect. The sermon does not argue Israel into obedience; it overwhelms them with grace and lets the obligation follow. This is offered as one reading among the faithful, to be weighed against the text.
The chapter has thirteen verses of "I gave" before it asks for one act of service — grace is the whole argument. (An interpretive line from the synthesis layer, not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Joshua 24:12 reports as accomplished what Exodus 23:28 and Deuteronomy 7:20 had promised: "I will send the hornet before you." The link rests on a genuinely rare word — tsirʻâh ("hornet"), which occurs in only three verses in the entire Hebrew Bible, all three of them these. The recital quotes the promise-language back as history fulfilled. Whether the hornet is literal or a figure for panic is debated in the voices, but the verbal dependence is not in doubt.
Joshua 24:12 · Exodus 23:28 · Deuteronomy 7:20
basis: shared rare lexeme H6880 tsirʻâh (in only 3 vv — all three are these), plus H7971 shâlach and H6440 pânîym — Verifier-computed; the three-verse rarity of tsirʻâh confirms a verbal link, the promise reported as fulfilled
The catalogue of Canaan's peoples in Joshua 24:11 — Amorite, Perizzite, Canaanite, Hittite, Girgashite, Hivite, Jebusite — is a fixed liturgical formula recurring across the canon, anchored by the rare name Girgâshîy (Girgashite), found in only seven verses. The same roll appears in the land-grant to Abram (Genesis 15:21) and in Nehemiah's own historical recital centuries later (Nehemiah 9:8), where it is again tied to the gift of the land. The shared rare lexeme makes this a verbal, not merely thematic, connection.
Joshua 24:11 · Genesis 15:21 · Nehemiah 9:8
basis: shared rare lexeme H1622 Girgâshîy (in only 7 vv) with H567 ʼĔmôrîy, H3669 Kᵉnaʻanîy, H2983 Yᵉbûwçîy — Verifier-computed; the fixed seven-nation formula reproduced verbatim
Joshua 24:9–10 compresses the whole Balaam narrative (Numbers 22–24) into two verses, naming both principals by their patronymics. The link to Numbers 22 rests on two distinctive names: Bâlâq (Balak) and especially Tsippôwr (Zippor, "bird"), a rare name in only seven verses. The recital does not retell the three failed curses; it states the outcome — "I would not listen ... he blessed you." The verbal anchor is the proper names, which could only come from the Numbers source.
Joshua 24:9 · Numbers 22:2 · Deuteronomy 23:5
basis: shared rare lexeme H6834 Tsippôwr (in only 7 vv) with H1111 Bâlâq (in 40 vv) — Verifier-computed; the patronymics tie the verse directly to the Numbers 22 narrative
Joshua 24:13 — "a land on which you did not toil ... cities that you did not build ... vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant" — is nearly a verbatim discharge of the promise of Deuteronomy 6:10–11. The Pulpit Commentary and Cambridge both name Deuteronomy 6:10 as its direct source. The dependence has two strands of differing strength, and honesty requires keeping them apart. The closing clause of v. 13 echoes Deuteronomy 6:11 on a genuinely distinctive agricultural triad — kerem (vineyard, 81 vv), zayith (olive, only 36 vv), and nâṭaʻ (plant, 55 vv), eaten but not planted — a cluster too particular and too co-located to be coincidence; that strand is verbal. The opening clauses ("cities you did not build," v. 13 ↔ Deuteronomy 6:10) share only common words — bânâh (build), ‘îr (city), nâthan (give), with the negated relative — and are tiered structural. The two together make v. 13 the precise fulfillment-report of the Deuteronomic promise.
Joshua 24:13 · Deuteronomy 6:11 · Deuteronomy 6:10
basis: Joshua 24:13 ↔ Deuteronomy 6:11 share the distinctive vineyard/olive/plant cluster H3754 kerem (81 vv), H2132 zayith (36 vv), H5193 nâṭaʻ (55 vv), H398 ʼâkal — Verifier-computed; a semi-rare agricultural triad co-located in both, confirming verbal dependence. (The Deut 6:10 'cities you did not build' strand — H1129 bânâh, H5892 ʻîyr, H5414 nâthan, H3808 lôʼ — is common-word structural only.)
The closing disclaimer of Joshua 24:12 — "not by your own sword or bow" — matches the theology of Psalm 44:3, "not by their own sword did they win the land ... but Your right hand." Keil & Delitzsch explicitly cross-reference the psalm. The shared words (chereb sword, the negation) are common, and there is no quotation claim; this is a recurring biblical motif that victory is God's gift, not the army's achievement. Tiered structural for honesty.
Joshua 24:12 · Psalm 44:3
basis: shared lexemes H2719 chereb, H6440 pânîym, H3808 lôʼ — Verifier-computed; all common words — a shared 'not by sword' motif, not a verbal quotation
The whole sermon of vv. 2–13 belongs to a recognizable Old Testament form — the recital of saving deeds — shared with Nehemiah 9:7–25, Psalm 105, and Psalm 136. Cambridge independently links the Amorite victory to Psalm 135:10–12 and Psalm 136:15–21. The Verifier finds only one shared lexeme between Joshua 24:2 and Nehemiah 9:7 — the name Abraham — which by itself is thin. The connection here is one of genre and structure (a first-person divine review of redemptive history from Abraham to settlement), not of verbal dependence, and is tiered accordingly.
Joshua 24:2 · Nehemiah 9:7 · Psalm 105:42 · Psalm 136:21
basis: shared lexeme H85 ʼAbrâhâm only (Josh 24:2 ↔ Neh 9:7) — Verifier-computed; one shared name is thin, so the link is genre/structure (the saving-deeds recital), not verbal dependence
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The man who delivers this recital of God's saving acts bears the name Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ (24:1) — "Yahweh is salvation" — the very name carried in Greek by Jesus (Iēsous, Hebrews 4:8; Acts 7:45). It is fitting, on the ancient reading, that the one whose name means salvation should be the one who stands before all Israel to rehearse every act of God's saving grace. The synthesis notes only the name and the office; it does not allegorize the details.
Joshua 24:1 · Hebrews 4:8 · Acts 7:45
The structure of the recital — thirteen verses of unmerited gift before a single command — is read by the older expositors as the same logic Paul will later make explicit: God "chose them not for their excellences but of His own mere motion" (Barnes). The land "you did not toil for" (24:13) prefigures the inheritance received, not earned (Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 4:4–5). This is offered as a typological pattern — grace grounding obligation — not as a claim that Joshua 24 quotes the New Testament.
Joshua 24:13 · Ephesians 2:8 · Romans 4:4
In 24:9–10 the curse hired against Israel is overruled and turned into blessing — "I would not listen to Balaam ... he blessed you." The Christian tradition has long heard in this a foreshadow of the greater reversal: the curse borne and undone, so that the blessing of Abraham might come (Galatians 3:13–14). The figure is the pattern (intended curse becomes blessing by God's sovereign refusal), read typologically and marked as such — not a verbal link, since this is a Hebrew text and the New Testament makes no citation of it here.
Joshua 24:10 · Galatians 3:13 · Numbers 24:9
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
What is firm and what is soft in this unit. Three of the "verbal / quotation — confirmed" threads (the hornet, the seven-nation roll, the Balak/Balaam names) each rest on a genuinely rare lexeme — tsirʻâh (3 verses), Girgâshîy (7 verses), Tsippôwr (7 verses) — which is what licenses the "verbal" tier. A fourth verbal thread (the Deuteronomic gift) rests not on a single rarity but on a co-located cluster of distinctive words — kerem/zayith/nâṭaʻ (vineyard, olive, plant) reproduced together in Deuteronomy 6:11; that triad's joint improbability, not any one word, is what carries the verbal claim, while the "cities you did not build" half of the same verse (Deuteronomy 6:10) is only common-word structural. The "not by sword" and "recital genre" threads are deliberately held at structural: their shared words are common, or (in the Nehemiah case) amount to a single shared name, and the real connection is a repeated pattern, not a quotation. One textual decision underlies the whole unit: v. 1 reads "Shechem," but a minority of Septuagint manuscripts read "Shiloh." Keil & Delitzsch, the Pulpit Commentary, and Cambridge all defend Shechem on documentary and thematic grounds; the synthesis follows them but records the variant. One genuine ambiguity is left open: the "hornet" of v. 12 — Ellicott reads it literally, JFB and the Pulpit Commentary figuratively. The Hebrew does not settle it, and neither does this layer. The three Christ-readings are marked typological/widely-held, not verbal: Joshua 24 is a Hebrew text and makes no New Testament citation; the connections are figural patterns offered to be tested, not Strong's-number links (cross-Testament verbal links being impossible by definition).
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)