He said, first — what belongs to an obedient and well-mannered servant — “My lord” (which by one word only the Seventy express, [kyrie mou]); but, by a thing scarcely usual today for servants toward masters, he adds his proper name. Then he says, “forbid them.” According to Abulensis (q. 73), some say Joshua asked that Moses forbid all the 70 elders who were then prophesying by God’s gift. But, as the same [author] rightly objects (q. 73), the series of the context does not bear this. For since just before [something] was reported by that boy about the two, at once is subjoined “forbid them” — those two, namely.
(col. 140)
That rather is to be inquired: how did he wish them to be forbidden? Only by commanding that they cease? or by coercion and some penalty? Our text and the Greek say generally “by a prohibition”; but the very mode and kind of the prohibition the Chaldee Targum seems to bring out, in which the interpreter would have it read: “Send them into prison.” And it is confirmed, because from the Hebrew כלא [kala], which Joshua here used, is derived (1 Kings [Kings] 6) כלא [kele], i.e. prison, enclosure; and (Habakkuk 3) [the like], i.e. a place in which cattle are shut, or a stable, and a sheepfold. Whence Abulensis says, “in the Hebrew the letter sounds: imprison them.” Nevertheless, neither from the Hebrew כלא nor from the Chaldee word אסר is that “sending to prison” necessarily gathered — since the Hebrew may mean simply “to forbid,” so that from it [the verb kōlyō] which the Seventy here use seems to be derived; and the Chaldee, which is also Hebrew, may signify only “to fetter” and “to bind.” For thence too is (Ezek. 20) מסורת [masoreth], “bond,” [and] אסורים [asurim] (Judith 15), “fetters.” And one is fettered and bound not by iron only, [or] rope, or place, and bar, but also by command and word — as is clear from Cicero himself, and from those [things] I touched in [my] booklet On the Laws, and as that trite [proverb] sufficiently indicates:
Words bind men; ropes, the other animals.
And hence (Dan. 6) אסרא [esara] and אסר [esar] is “an edict” and constitution; אסר [esar], “a prohibition”; and in the very commentaries of the Rabbis this word is very often worn [used] for “to forbid” — so that from the Chaldee, no more than from the Hebrew, may one hammer out “prison”: but each may be taken for simply “to forbid,” with [i.e. as in] the Latin and Greek only. Yet Joshua, who wished them to be gravely forbidden — or in earnest, that they be barred from going on prophesying — demanded a command, or a sharp rebuke, or, unless they desisted, some penalty — bonds perhaps, or prison, or something else.