The Servant Changes; the Commission Holds

The book opens with “and”, joining it to Deuteronomy’s last page, and the Book of Judges opens the same way: “Now after the death of Joshua” (Judges 1:1). Joshua had been Moses’ attendant since Sinai, the young man who “departed not out of the tabernacle” (Exodus 33:11).

Joshua’s name, Yehoshua, means “the LORD saves”. In Greek it becomes Iesous, which is why the King James of Hebrews 4:8 says “if Jesus had given them rest”, meaning Joshua. “This Jordan” points at the river in sight of the camp.

God quotes Deuteronomy 11:24 almost word for word. Walking a piece of ground was a way of claiming it: “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee” (Genesis 13:17). Here the whole people’s feet do the claiming.

“This Lebanon” points to the mountains visible in the north. “All the land of the Hittites” recalls how Assyrian records later called all of Syria and Canaan Hatti land; the phrase is missing from the Greek Old Testament. The west border is “the going down of the sun”, the Mediterranean.

“All the days of thy life” ties the promise to Joshua’s lifetime. The Book of Judges will record what happened once he was gone: God “will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died” (Judges 2:21).

“Of a good courage” is the verb amats, to be firm, to hold fast. David gives Solomon the same double charge for building the temple (1 Chronicles 22:13; 28:20). The first of the three charges in this speech is attached to dividing the land, the work that fills Joshua 13–21.

“Only” is raq, and the chapter uses it three times. God’s “only” is obedience to the law. The people will answer with two of their own: “only the LORD thy God be with thee” (verse 17) and “only be strong and of a good courage” (verse 18).

“This book of the law” is the scroll Moses had just finished and set beside the ark (Deuteronomy 31:24–26). Psalm 1:2 reuses the line for every reader: “in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Joshua is the first person in the Bible handed a book to live by.

“Have not I commanded thee?” is the only question in God’s speech, and it is a reminder of rank: the charge to be brave is an order. The speech ends as verse 7 ended, with “whithersoever thou goest”, the presence following the man wherever the road leads.

The officers, shoterim, had first appeared in Egypt as Israelite foremen who were beaten when their people’s brick quotas fell short (Exodus 5:14). The office that served Pharaoh’s building projects now carries orders to cross into the land.

“Victuals” is tsedah, provisions for a journey, the word used when Joseph filled his brothers’ sacks (Genesis 42:25). Commentators have asked why food was needed while manna still fell; it did not stop until after the first Passover in the land (5:12).

The Hebrew puts these tribes first in the sentence for emphasis: “And to the Reubenite, and to the Gadite, and to half the tribe of Manasseh”. The other half of Manasseh would receive land west of the Jordan (Joshua 17). One tribe is split by the river.

“Rest” is from the verb nuach, the root of Noah’s name. The word becomes one of the book’s keys: “the LORD gave them rest round about” (21:44) and “the LORD had given rest unto Israel” (23:1) mark the end of the work begun here.

“Armed” is chamushim, arrayed for battle, the word used of Israel leaving Egypt “harnessed” (Exodus 13:18). The census of Numbers 26 counted over a hundred thousand fighting men in these tribes, but Joshua 4:13 says “about forty thousand” crossed: a fighting force, not every man.

“Toward the sunrising” is the east bank. “Enjoy it” translates the verb for possessing, the same one used of the western tribes a line earlier. The eastern tribes are promised their return in the terms of verse 14’s condition, and Joshua 22 records them sent home.

The speakers are not named. The answer follows the address to the two and a half tribes, so most read it as theirs; some take it as the whole people’s. Either way, the promise is total: everything commanded, everywhere sent.

The pledge has an edge. Reuben was the tribe of Dathan and Abiram, who refused to come up at Moses’ summons and were swallowed by the earth (Numbers 16:1, 12, 32). Hearkening “unto Moses in all things” was not the whole record.

“Rebel against thy commandment” is literally “rebel against thy mouth”, the phrase God used of Moses and Aaron at Meribah (Numbers 20:24). Deuteronomy 17:12 had set death for defying the priest or judge. The first man in the book to die under such a sentence will be Achan (7:25).