Chapter Twenty-Three

1–2. Joshua’s exhortation to the people (3–11) through reminding them of the Lord’s mercies to them and (12–13) a prediction of severe troubles upon apostasy from the Lord. 14–16. A repetition of the exhortation in brief and forceful expressions.

Joshua 23:1. After a long time had passed since the Lord [God] gave rest to Israel from all their enemies on all sides, Joshua became old and entered his advanced years. Joshua 23:2. And Joshua called all [the sons of] Israel, their elders, their leaders, their judges and their officers, and said to them: I have become old and entered my advanced years. “After a long time” – this means after the wars with the Canaanite kings (Josh 11:22); the length of this period cannot be determined with precision. The gathering to which Joshua addressed his exhortation was a national assembly, gathering together the people’s representatives, who bore the common title “elders,” to whom particularly belonged the “leaders” (in the Hebrew text “rashim” – heads; in the LXX – ἄρχοντας), “judges and officers” (Josh 1:10).

Joshua 23:3. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done before you against all these peoples, for the Lord your God himself fought for you. “The Lord... fought for you” (cf. Josh 10:14, Deut 1:30).

Joshua 23:4. Behold, I have divided for you by lot these remaining peoples as an inheritance to your tribes, all the peoples whom I destroyed, from the Jordan to the great sea, to the west. “Behold, I have divided for you by lot these remaining peoples as an inheritance,” that is, I have divided their lands as things to be cleansed from the Canaanites (Josh 13:6).

Joshua 23:5. The Lord your God will himself drive them out before you [until they perish; and will send wild beasts upon them, until he destroys them and their kings from before your face], and will destroy them before you, so that you may possess their land in inheritance, as the Lord your God said to you. The words placed in brackets “[until they perish... from before your face]” are read only in the manuscripts of the LXX translation 229 and according to them in the Slavonic Bible; in the present Hebrew text they have not been preserved, as can be conjectured, due to an error of an ancient scribe who, after writing the last Hebrew expression before the omission (“milpenekem”) “from you” (literally: ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν – “from before your face”), through lack of attention began to write what should have followed, which was the same Hebrew expression (“milpenekem”) afterward, which the LXX translated as ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν – “from before your face.” These words omitted in the present Hebrew text were therefore in the original Hebrew text. They have some resemblance to Exod 23:28 and Deut 7:20, where, however, wild beasts are not mentioned as they are in these words preserved in the LXX translation. The words “be not in communion with these peoples” (Josh 23:7) are intended to teach that the Israelites should not be mixed together with these peoples, should not form one nation with them, adopting their beliefs and entering into kinship with them (Josh 23:12).

Joshua 23:8. but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. The faithfulness of the Israelite people to the Lord during Joshua’s time is mentioned so that he would see from his own experience with irrefutable force how inseparably bound up victory over powerful enemies was with this faithfulness.

Joshua 23:10. One of you puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God himself fights for you, as he said to you. “As he said to you” – the Lord, giving promises to Moses (Deut 1:30) and to Joshua son of Nun (Josh 1:5).

Joshua 23:13. then know that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these peoples before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge to your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. “They shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge to your sides, and thorns in your eyes.” Here are brought together the four images used separately in other places in the books of the Old Testament (Isa 8:15, Exod 23:33, Num 33:55; “scourge” (“shotet”) – only here) of an extremely distressed condition into which the Canaanites will bring the Israelite people, if it falls away from the Lord and mingles with them.

Joshua 23:14. Behold, I am going the way of all the earth. And you know with all your heart and with all your soul that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has fallen short; all have been fulfilled for you, not one word has remained unfulfilled. “And you know” – in the LXX: καὶ γνώσεσθε – “and you shall know”; in Jerome: et cognoscetis – “and know.” From this it is evident that the Hebrew verb “to know” used here in the past tense with the conjunction “and” (“vidaettem”) the ancient translators regarded, as placed – with the so-called “vav” of sequence – in the future tense or imperative mood, the speaker, using this verb, indicating not the knowledge which the Israelite people possessed, but that which he wished to impart to them. Of the two ancient translations cited, the most fitting to the content of this passage is Jerome’s translation, by which the further words “with all your heart and with all your soul” acquire their proper meaning: “and know” with all your heart, that is, be wholly penetrated by the thought that “not one word of those good words has fallen short,” that is, of God’s promises concerning the granting of the Canaanite land to the people, such as Gen 12:7, Exod 3:17, Lev 26:1-13, Num 33:53, Deut 28:1-14, Josh 1:3.

Joshua 23:15. But as all the good word which the Lord your God spoke to you has been fulfilled, so the Lord will fulfill over you all the evil word, until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. “All the evil word,” that is, the predictions of troubles which will befall those who fall away from the Lord (Lev 26:14-43; Deut 28:15-68).

Joshua 23:16. If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall quickly perish from this good land which he has given you [the Lord]. The last words of the verse “the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you... which he has given you [the Lord]” are read in the Hebrew text and many later Greek manuscripts, and according to them in the Slavonic Bible, but they are absent in the Vatican and Alexandrian manuscripts; they were introduced into the LXX translation by Origen and in his Hexapla 230 were marked with the sign (asterisk) indicating this addition to the LXX translation. In content they are similar to the last words of Josh 23:15, and in manner of expression – to the opening and closing words of Deut 11:17. In some manuscripts of the pre-Ostrog Slavonic translation they were not read 231. * * * In the Alexandrian manuscript, with which the Slavonic Bible agrees, Josh.23:5 is read: Κύριος δὲ ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῶν, οὗτος ἐξολεθρεύσει αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν, ἕως ἂν ἁπόλωνται, καὶ ἀποστελεῖ αὐτοῖς τὰ θηρία τὰ ἄγρια, ἕως ἂν ἐξολεθρεύσῃ αὐτοὺς καὶ τοὺς βασιλεῖς αὐτῶν ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν – “And the Lord your God will destroy them from before your face... and their kings from before your face.” Field. Origenis Hexaplorum. V. K. Lebedev, p. 175.