Cajetan hands down [that] Joshua was compelled by a public precept of Moses to admit the principate, lest anyone perchance think him to usurp or to canvass for it. But because in the Hebrew there is the word of commanding, [it] avails [means] to give certain mandates and precepts, and to instruct someone. And therefore our Interpreter rendered it (v. 20) “to give precepts.” But, with the word changed [yet meaning] the same thing (v. 23), he expounded, “he reviewed through all [things]” — that is, he gave him precepts, as the Lord had commanded — where the 70 [render] συνέστησεν αὐτόν, that is, “Moses commended Joshua himself”; or, as St. Augustine indicates it can also be rendered, “he constituted him.” But although it is not difficult to understand of what kind those precepts were, yet one may take a taste of some of them from Philo, in the place indicated above: “To JESUS [Joshua],” he says, “Moses, turning, exhorts [him] that he manage the matter strenuously, and that he consult well for the Commonwealth, and constantly persevere in [things] well counseled.” “It is not evident,” says Oleaster, “what he commanded him; but it is to be believed that he commanded him this: that he always follow the command of the Lord, and keep the people in [their] duty” — and other things of that kind, such as men about to die are wont to command their sons and successors, as is plain in the first [book] of Kings, in the first [chapter], concerning David when he was dying. But nevertheless—
(col. 199)
—[But nevertheless] Moses speaks [these] very [things] (Deuteronomy 3, v. 21): “I also commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thy eyes have seen what the Lord your God did to these two Kings: so will He do to all the kingdoms to which thou art about to pass over. Fear them not, for the Lord your God will fight for you.” And (v. 28) the Lord Himself says to Moses: “Command Joshua, and strengthen and comfort him: for he himself shall go before this people, and shall divide the land which thou art about to see.” And (Deut. 31, v. 7): “Joshua the son of Nun, thy minister, he himself shall enter for thee: exhort him and strengthen him, and he himself shall divide the land by lot to Israel.”
The same Philo subjoins three causes why the Lord would not that this inauguration of the prince should lack precepts of this kind. The first, because, when the veteran [Moses] gives salutary precepts and monitions of this sort to the future and new Prince, by that very [act] he excellently attests his own love toward the Commonwealth. The second, it can happen that he who is designated the future prince, out of the modesty of his own mind, may shrink from that burden and honor, and judge himself unequal to it; but when so friendly and so useful a precept is applied to him, he is made readier, and gives himself wholly into the power of God and of the Commonwealth. The third, that an example might be given to posterity, in what manner it would befit them — [namely] that, together with the fasces and the scepters, they might also leave to [their] successors rules of living well and holily, and of ruling. And this perhaps [was] signified in that old both fact and proverb, when in the [torch-]race they handed the lamp [lampada] to another succeeding [runner]. For what [is] that lamp, unless [those things] which illuminate a man’s mind, and illustrate [his] life and principate — doctrines, monitions, and the best exhortations? But let us again hear Philo speaking in his own words. “Although,” he says, “there was no need of this exhortation, yet Moses could not contain himself, but must admonish [his] friend of [his] duty, and then too bring forth [his] affection of charity toward the people, over which he had so long presided. Nor was the admonition altogether superfluous, lest perchance [Joshua] be burdened to undertake so great a load; and that an example and rule might be set forth to the rest, of communicating good counsels with their successors, and of instructing them with the best precepts. For the exhortation of a good man can confirm a wavering mind, and stir it up, lest it be terrified by the difficulties of things and times.” But of precepts of this kind I have also treated, and brought forward certain examples, at the beginning of the commentary on Tobias, ch. 4.