Rupert (bk. 1 on Joshua, ch. 2) says [that], before Moses’s death, the Lord spoke to Joshua twice. First indeed [in] Num. 27; then in this very place, Deut. 31, v. 14 and following. But improperly can the Lord be said to have spoken to Joshua himself in that former place. For He spoke rather about him than to him — or, as at length Rupert himself says, “over him, rather than to him.” Here, therefore, first of all, did the Lord properly begin to make [address] words to Joshua himself. And especially [at] v. 23. For although, in the Hebrew and the corrected Greek 70 [LXX], the verb “commanded” seems to be referred to Moses (who—
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—a little before was said to have written that Canticle), yet the corrected Latin distinctly says: “And the Lord commanded Joshua the son of Nun.” And that this is correct is clear from the very Hebrew of Him who commands and speaks to Joshua — in whose speech it is thus: “Thou shalt bring in the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them.” But the 70, that it might seem to be Moses’s speech, turned this first person “I swore” into the third, “He swore” — although in fact the sense is the same. But why did the Lord here begin to speak to Joshua? The cause was that He might amplify his [Joshua’s] dignity and authority before the whole people, and might show him to be the true successor of Moses — to whom alone the Lord was wont to speak — and now, in a manner, [his] equal.