Notes (NET Translation)
1 A long time passed after the LORD made Israel secure from all their enemies, and Joshua was very old.
According to Marten Woudstra, the “long time” that had passed should be understood from the events at the beginning of the book, when God began to secure the land. According to Howard and Firth, it should be understood from the events of chs. 13-21 or even ch. 22, when God had completed the process of securing the land.
On the one hand, Joshua was described as “very old” in 13:1 so only a short period of time may have elapsed since then. On the other hand, Caleb was 85 when the land was distributed (14:10) and if Joshua was approximately Caleb’s age then about 25 years may have elapsed since then. Joshua died at age 110 (24:29). The farewell speeches of chs. 23-24 appear to have come at the end of Joshua’s life (“Look, today I am about to die,” 23:14).
2 So Joshua summoned all Israel, including the elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and told them: “I am very old.
The exact distinction between the four groups of leaders is not entirely clear. The basic point is that Joshua summoned Israel and its leaders. By calling attention to his advanced age, Joshua intends his words to be understood as a last will and testament (cf. 23:14).
3 You saw everything the LORD your God did to all these nations on your behalf, for the LORD your God fights for you.
4 See, I have parceled out to your tribes these remaining nations, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the nations I defeated.
What is striking is that Joshua said he had allotted these nations to Israel as their inheritance, so the focus is not so much on the land that they occupied as on the people within the land who were to form Israel’s inheritance. This inheritance also included the nations that God had destroyed (כרת, not חֵרֶם) in the region between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. The verb in verse 4 does not mean that they were necessarily completely destroyed; thus again the focus was on the continued existence of these nations.1
Whereas in v. 3 Joshua speaks of what God did, in v. 4 he speaks of the nations he (Joshua) defeated.
It was Yahweh who had fought Israel’s battles, not any individual. Nevertheless, a precedent for this unusual claim is found in 11:21, which states that “Joshua went and destroyed (lit., “cut off” [krt]) the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir, and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns.” Later in the same passage we are told that “Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions” (11:23). Both in chap. 11 and here Joshua’s individual conquests are linked to his giving of lands as the Israelites’ proper inheritance. Even though he is said to have given the tribes their inheritances, we know that ultimately it was God who did this (i.e., Joshua acted as his agent). These references to Joshua’s fighting and conquering peoples must be understood in the same way: God fought for Israel, and Joshua was his agent in several cases.2
5 The LORD your God will drive them out from before you and remove them, so you can occupy their land as the LORD your God promised you.
God will drive out the remaining nations and Israel must respond by occupying their land.
6 Be very strong! Carefully obey all that is written in the law scroll of Moses so you won’t swerve from it to the right or the left, 7 or associate with these nations that remain near you. You must not invoke or make solemn declarations by the names of their gods! You must not worship or bow down to them! 8 But you must be loyal to the LORD your God, as you have been to this very day.
Joshua’s words to the Israelites are similar to God’s words to him in 1:6-9. “To avoid all temptation from the nations’ gods, Israel must avoid all contact with the nations.”3
The word rendered invoke means lit. “make mention of.” Possibly the prohibition went beyond the formal invoking of the name of the other god.4
Swearing an oath [make solemn declarations] was a religious act, and doing so by a false god was tantamount to recognition of that deity. Swearing by the Lord’s name, on the other hand, is sometimes described as the sum of true religion (Ps. 63:12 [Eng. 11]).5
In spite of Israel’s failures recounted in the book, they could still be said to have lived faithfully so far, an assessment based on overall trajectory.6
9 “The LORD drove out from before you great and mighty nations; no one has been able to resist you to this very day.
The Lord’s promise to drive out the nations has come true (1:5).
10 One of you makes a thousand run away, for the LORD your God fights for you, as he promised you he would.
The blessings of Lev 26:7-8; Deut 28:7; 32:20 have been realized.
11 Watch yourselves carefully! Love the LORD your God!
12 But if you ever turn away and make alliances with these nations that remain near you, and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them, 13 know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; they will be a whip that tears your sides and thorns that blind your eyes until you disappear from this good land the LORD your God gave you.
A wordplay in vv. 8 and 12 involves a contrast. In v. 8, Israel was to cling (dbq) to the Lord himself, and in v. 12, if Israel clung (dbq; NIV has “ally” here) instead to the nations, God would bring punishment.7
“If Israel does not do her part, then God will not do his.”8 The land is a gift of grace that can be rescinded if Israel breaks the covenant.
14 “Look, today I am about to die. You know with all your heart and being that not even one of all the faithful promises the LORD your God made to you is left unfulfilled; every one was realized–not one promise is unfulfilled!
The Hebrew literally reads “go the way of all the earth” where the NET has “die.” “Israel needed to remember that, as important as human leaders are (and we should not lose sight of the fact that Joshua was addressing Israel’s leaders), their relationship with God would ultimately shape their future.”9
15 But in the same way that every faithful promise the LORD your God made to you has been realized, it is just as certain that if you disobey, then the LORD will bring on you every judgment until he destroys you from this good land that the LORD your God gave you.
“God is indeed faithful to his promises, but those promises included judgment if Israel failed to maintain their distinctiveness as the people of God and instead became indistinguishable from the peoples who lived among them.”10 Note the curses in Deut 28:15-68, for example.
16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the LORD your God which he commanded you to keep, and you follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, then the LORD will be very angry with you and you will disappear quickly from the good land that he gave to you.”
Bibliography
Butler, Trent C. Joshua 13-24. Second Edition. Word Biblical Commentary 7B. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014.
Firth, David G. Joshua. Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021.
Hess, Richard S. Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 6. Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996.
Howard, Jr., David M. Joshua. The New American Commentary 5. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998.
Woudstra, Marten H. The Book of Joshua. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1981.
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