In general we can say [that] he ministered in those [things] which Moses willed, or which the nature of the ministry brings with it. But since in a great house [there] are various grades and orders of ministers (1 Kings [3 Reg.] 10, v. 5; Cicero, Paradoxa 5), and, as [is said] in Aristotle (book cited, ch. 4), [there is] the proverb “let a servant stand in for a servant,” one must consider what such a man, in the presence of such [a master], in such a place and time, could do. Of the use of an honorable and splendid [minister] we saw [in] ch. 1. Joshua was well-born, flourished in years and strength, had already discharged an outstanding military [career], [and was] lately leader and victor of a most difficult war. What Moses would wish to entrust to him, [and] what ministry to impose, we can conjecture from similar [cases] and from certain effects. Abraham had several servants (Genesis 24:35), but one was Eliezer, “the elder servant of that house, who was over all that he had” (ibid., v. 2). “Joseph ministered to his lord” (Potiphar), “by whom, being set over all, he governed the house entrusted to him, and all things that had been delivered to him” (Genesis 39, v. 4). What kind of minister [was] David to Saul? “He went out to all things, whithersoever Saul sent him” (1 Kings [Samuel] 18:5), “faithful, going at his command, glorious in the king’s house” (ch. 22:14). “The Levites ministered to the priests, watching and observing whatever pertains to the worship of the multitude before the tabernacle of the testimony, and keeping the vessels of the tabernacle, serving in its ministry” (Numbers 3:7). Elisha followed Elijah, and ministered to him (1 Kings [3 Reg.] 19:21); for he “poured water upon the hands of Elijah” (2 Kings [4 Reg.] 3:11). By this pouring-on of water is signified that whole kind of ministry which is by no means to be despised and sordid, but honorable and liberal. For even today [it is] not just any of the servants, but the more favored and honored, who give the water to those about to sit at table and to wash their hands. And therefore the Latin Homer [Virgil] too (Georgics 4):
…the springs give clear [water] for the hands in order — the sister [nymphs], namely.
And (Aeneid 1):
The servants give water for the hands——
And likewise, in his Persa, another [poet, Plautus]: “Do thou, Sagaristio, recline at the head; let us keep my pleasant birthday.” “——Give water for the hands, set on the table——” For what Rabbi Solomon [Rashi] says (on 1 Kings [3 Reg.] 18) — that Elisha poured water only on Elijah [who was] about to sacrifice, and that thus, by a great miracle, from his fingers arose an immense force of water — is “Rabbinic,” that is, trifling and futile, as Abulensis shows there, and again [on] book 2 [4 Reg.], ch. 3. But Elisha, besides Gehazi, had also another minister — a prophet, who was sent to anoint Jehu (2 Kings [4 Reg.] 9, v. 4). Such, then, a minister to Moses does Joshua seem to have been: [one] set over his whole household, [who] governed the entire house; was present with him at [his] sacred prayers and meditations; was his intimate; never departed from his side; [and did] all…
(col. 103)
…[observed] all his nods; carried his commands to others; reported to him of other [matters] which he had heard, seen, [or] thought; [and] was, in short, his intimate, most constant, and familiar [companion]. For this too can be understood from those effects of which [I shall speak] afterward: [namely] that he entered the mountain with him; that, descending thence, he spoke of the people’s clamors; that he was sent to spy out the land; that he told of Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp; and did many more [things] of that kind. And therefore [in] Joshua 1, v. 1, he is rightly called by the Seventy hypourgos Mōusē [Moses’s assistant] — elsewhere parestēkōs [one standing by], or therapōn [attendant] — but not doulos or slave. For he did not serve a servitude.