First, by Joshua’s notable and vehement speech, the Israelites who had not yet gone to [their] inheritance [were] roused; then, by these, surveyors of the region [were] chosen and sent out by him; finally, attention [was] given to the casting-of-lots. But that speech embraces a reproof worthy of the people’s fault and of the commander’s gravity (v. 3), with the adjunct of the manner of accomplishing that to which he exhorted (v. 4 & following). The reproof is: “How long are you slack with indolence, and go not in to possess the land which the Lord the God of your fathers hath given you?” Not through Joshua, not through God, not through any other cause, did it stand [come about] that all the tribes should [fail to] go to the promised inheritance, but through the indolence alone of those [tribes] which had as yet received nothing. This [indolence], therefore, Joshua tries to remove from them. First: by the reproach of that vice, when he says they languish with indolence. And that is expressed by one Hebrew participle, “mithrappim.” Which, because [it] is in “hithpael,” signifies a vicious and voluntarily-undertaken indolence — because they had given themselves wholly to slothful idleness and sluggishness. For the verb “raphah” otherwise signifies “to remit,” “to relax”; and in the passive, “to be slackened,” lazy and idle — or, as here the 70, “ἐκλύεσθαι [eklyesthai]” [“to be enfeebled, to faint”]. Whence also Pharaoh (Exod. 5:8), angry at the Israelites still serving [him], said “Nirpim hem,” that is, “they are idle [vacant],” as our [Vulgate] renders; “σχολάζουσι [scholazousi],” or “they are at leisure,” say the 70. And v. 17, “nirpim atthen nirpim”: “You are slack, or lazy” — “lazy,” [says] our [Vulgate] — “you are at leisure in idleness”; the 70, “σχολάζετε, σχολασταὶ ἐστέ [scholazete, scholastai este]” [“you are idle, you are idlers”]. But “mithrapim,” by the force of that conjugation, are those who make themselves lazy, who give themselves over to indolence, and willingly and gladly waste away in it. Than which, what [is] baser? Whom would such a disgrace not shame? Who would not wish at once to remove and shake off from himself so great a dishonor? But least of all did it befit [them] to be lazy — the descendants of that most diligent and most vigilant shepherd [Jacob], who, concerning himself (Gen. 31, v. 40), professes most un-mendaciously: “Day and night I was burned by heat and by frost, and sleep fled from my eyes; and thus for 20 years I served” — [he] who so sedulously, intensely, and strenuously wrestled with a certain divine form (Gen. 32) that he received thence the name “Israel” (v. 27). Now, secondly: the divine help was at hand, so that, if they had been willing to strive and labor a little, they could very conveniently have advanced and entered into the offered possession. For neither would God — who had promised, and who had so happily led them hitherto, [and] had enriched [them] with the greatest victories and spoils — have failed [them] in the final act. Thirdly: the long duration of the time ought to have thrown a blush [of shame] upon them, and roused them from so great a lethargy; and therefore the good Commander says “how long?” That [Cicero], against Catiline: “How long, pray, will you abuse our patience?”; and our Solomon (Prov. 1:22): “How long, O little ones, do you love childishness?”; and ch. 6:9: “How long, O sluggard, wilt thou sleep? when wilt thou rise out of thy sleep?” Num. 14:11 [has “how long”] twice, and yet with another word [in] v. 27. But [he] would act very prudently who, from this very speech, should perceive himself to be addressed and roused by the true Joshua, CHRIST the Lord — just as, truly, each one of us is addressed and roused very often, when, bound by the fetters of the aforesaid [vice], and lulled as if by a Lethean cup of torpor and indolence, we prefer the Gilgal-camp of this world to the felicity of the heavenly inheritance. And this, “knowing the time,” says the Apostle (Rom. 13:11), “because [it] is now the hour for us to rise from sleep.” Furthermore, the best manner of shaking off this sloth, and of making the division, is that — as new
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[…continued from col. 1184.] and more, surveyors be sent into the remaining land, who may survey everything with [their] eyes, refer [it] into tables and books, and finally announce [it] to Joshua. But how many they were, I said (at ch. 13, q. 10) [is] ambiguous. For by some [they] are numbered 30, but by others 21; and the context seems rather to approve the reckoning of these [latter]. For since Joshua, in this place, addresses not all the 12 tribes, but only the seven which were as yet without a portion of their own, [it] pertains assuredly to those alone — that [phrase] of v. 4: “Choose from each tribe three men.” But [as to] what is subjoined after those same words, “according to the number of each multitude” — in Hebrew, “to the mouth of their inheritance,” or “according to their inheritance” — that is, [it means] that those measurers should so describe the land that the division may be made as excellently as possible by the dividers, according to that which will be owed to each, so that the individual tribes may receive an equal inheritance in proportion to their multitude, as [was] expounded at ch. 13, q. 5. And this the 70 manifestly declare by their version: “καθὰ δεήσει διελεῖν αὐτήν [katha deēsei dielein autēn]” [“as it shall be needful to divide it”]. But the commander also admonishes (v. 5) [that] this new description should touch nothing [of] those tribes to which [an] inheritance [was] already attributed, but [that] these, as they are placed, should remain in their [own] seats: Judah on the southern side of the whole land, [the tribes] of Manasseh and of Ephraim on the northern. Which “northern” side is of that kind [so called] not in respect of the whole promised land, but in respect of the tribe of Judah, or of the land which this [tribe] had obtained by lot. But these three words, “the middle [land] between these,” are redundant, as is clear from the Hebrew. To which I would add the Greek too, were it not [that] it omits here not only these words, but also some others; but I suspect [that] in the Latin [it] was written: “Describe among yourselves the other land into seven parts.” For otherwise the remaining land — which was to be described and divided into seven parts — was not the middle [land] among the three tribes Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh; but, when Joshua had said [that] these [tribes] were to be left in their [own] places, he subjoined [that] the measurers should describe among themselves the “other,” or remaining, “land” into seven parts. But Arias thinks these words of the fifth and sixth verse are said to those who were Senators, and the chiefs and dividers of the tribes. But a simpler exposition would be, if we should say [that] these [words] are said to the seven tribes which he had begun to address, [and] which ought to describe and divide the remaining land — not indeed by themselves, but through their [own] measurers and dividers. But, because [he] had mentioned only seven parts, he therefore admonishes [that] this is done because, for the Levites (v. 7), [their] part was from elsewhere — which [was] expounded at ch. 13, q. 9 — and [because] to the two and a half tribes their parts had already been assigned beyond the Jordan. But how the journey could be safe among the Canaanites for the surveyors setting out, [was] said in the same ch. 13, q. 12 — although, in this second mission, something else too could have concurred: [namely] that Joshua, or the Senate and the Jewish people, gave letters to the cities and Magistrates of the Canaanites, by which [they] asked that these [surveyors] be safe and secure; and [that] those [Canaanites], either out of fear, did not dare to refuse, or, for the sake of earning [their] favor and benevolence, were unwilling [to]. But in that peregrination, and work of measuring, Josephus affirms (bk. 5, ch. 3) [that] almost seven months were spent, saying [that] in the seventh month they returned to Joshua [at] Shiloh. The other [matters] which pertain here to the lots sent and drawn [were] all brought forward at ch. 13. But among these latter [tribes], the Benjaminite [lot] came out [first]; concerning which, by [my] customary manner, it follows that I touch briefly on a few [points].