Where Joshua then was, verse 13 shows — the Hebrew, Chaldee, & Greek text. For they all say [he] was in Jericho. But in what way could [he] be there, since [Jericho] was the enemies’ first city, closed on every side by walls & gates, as is related in the following chapter, v. 1? Was it, as above (ch. 2) the spies [did], [that] he had secretly entered it? But Scripture would not have kept silent about such — & so marvelous & unusual — an exploration by the Commander himself, [Scripture] which so diligently set forth the earlier [exploration] made through the men sent by him. Then, where, so alone, in a hostile [city], & one already full of so many men & eyes, could [he] have seen an appearing Angel? How, when [he] had seen [it], [could he] doubt & inquire whether [it] were an enemy or not? Perhaps someone has imagined [that] he was carried thither by some Angel, as Habakkuk was carried to Babylon [Dan 14:35]. But neither would so great a miracle be passed over in silence; nor, as has already been said, could [he] there conveniently behold & address either a solitary Angel, or not suspect himself detected — & therefore [that] he was being attacked with a sword by some one of the enemies. [There] are, therefore, two other responses. One [is] that of Ralbag [Gersonides] & of Arias Montanus, [namely] that Joshua was in Jericho not in body, but in mind & thought — in that way, namely, which [Horace] shows, who says:
Meditating I-know-not-what of trifles, [I was] wholly in them. [Horace, Sat. 1.9.2]
and: … — I am wholly in this. [Horace, Epist. 1.1.11]
As even today we say [that] someone is always wholly in [his] homeland, in [his] books, in the dishes — which [the Comic poet, Terence] plainly professes, who says, Long since [my] mind is among the dishes [Terence, Eun. 816]. But in that way, as I think, since [Joshua] was still beyond the Jordan while sending the spies to Jericho, [he] would already have been “in Jericho”: & having now crossed the Jordan, Joshua
(col. 682 — right column; printed “689”)
[would have been] in the whole promised land, not only in Jericho. But the same texts describe [it] as though [it were] something new, & as it were now first done by Joshua: When [he] was, it says, in Jericho, [he] lifted [his] eyes & saw a man. They also describe him as [being] as it were alone, in a solitary place, where one might appear to one, all others being removed, so that by the one that [Angel] might be seen, [and] with the one [Joshua] here might speak. The other response, therefore, & the truer, is that Joshua was then in Jericho, that is, in the field of Jericho [in agro Hierichuntino], in a place near to Jericho, &, so to speak, alongside the veterans, — [that is,] near the city Jericho. For, first, [it] sometimes happens that some city, & its territory, are called by the same name, as Granada, & the like. Secondly, to the whole territory, & to the suburban fields of a city, the very name [of the city] is attributed — although, [in] the Digest [ff.] On the signification of words, law 2 & 239, Paul & Ulpian seem to define these more narrowly. Thirdly, Cicero, book 7 of the epistles to Atticus, epistle 3, indicates [that], with the names of cities, when In is prefixed, [it] signifies not the city or town, but the Place [locality]. Fourthly, the Hebrew particle בְּ [be] is often taken for at & near, as below ch. 10, v. 10, in Gibeon for near Gibeon; & Judith ch. 16, v. 28, as I explained there, q. 6. Fifthly, Blessed Augustine on this place, q. 7, says: Jesus [Joshua] was in Jericho, not indeed in the city itself, whose walls had not yet fallen (which was soon to be, that [they] might be able to enter into it), but in the field pertaining to it. For the interpretation which is in the Hebrew has [it] thus — namely, our [Latin], which [Augustine] often thus, by this periphrasis, distinguishes from that which was then the Vulgate [text] out of the 70 [LXX]; but for in the Hebrew, [one] would more fittingly read out of the Hebrew. To D. Augustine all subscribe, even the Novators. For Calvin renders [it] at Jericho; Tremellius & Junius, near Jericho. Nor yet is it necessary — [as] Radak wishes — that the camp had already been moved from Gilgal to Jericho, as will be said below.