1. And when a long time was passed, after that the Lord had given peace to Israel, all the nations round about being subdued, and Josue being now old, and far advanced in years, 2. Josue called for all Israel, and for the elders, and for the princes, and for the judges, and for the masters, and said to them: I am old, and far advanced in years: 3. And you see all that the Lord your God hath done to all the nations round about, how he himself hath fought for you: 4. And now since he hath divided to you by lot all the land, from the east of the Jordan unto the great sea, and many nations yet remain: 5. The Lord your God will destroy them, and take them away from before your face, and you shall possess the land as he hath promised you. 6. Only take courage, and be careful to observe all things that are written in the book of the law of Moses: and turn not aside from them neither to the right hand nor to the left: 7. Lest after that you are come in among the Gentiles, who will remain among you, you should swear by the name of their gods, and serve them, and adore them: 8. But cleave ye unto the Lord your God: as you have done until this day. 9. And then the Lord God will take away before your eyes nations that are great and very strong, and no man shall be able to resist you. 10. One of you shall chase a thousand men of the enemies: because the Lord your God himself will fight for you, as he hath promised. 11. This only take care of with all diligence, that you love the Lord your God. 12. But if you will embrace the errors of these nations that dwell among you, and make marriages with them, and join friendships: 13. Know ye for a certainty that the Lord your God will not destroy them before your face, but they shall be a pit and a snare in your way, and a stumblingblock at your side, and stakes in your eyes, till he take you away and destroy you from off this excellent land, which he hath given you. 14. Behold this day I am going into the way of all the earth, and you shall know with all your mind that of all the words which the Lord promised to perform for you, not one hath failed. 15. Therefore as he hath fulfilled in deed what he promised, and all things prosperous have come: so will he bring upon you all the evils he hath threatened, till he take you away and destroy you from off this excellent land, which he hath given you, 16. when you shall have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he hath made with you, and shall have served strange gods, and adored them: then shall the indignation of the Lord rise up quickly and speedily against you, and you shall be taken away from this excellent land, which he hath delivered to you.
COMMENTARY
The last part of this book, the last words and deeds of Joshua the Leader occupy. His words are such as are wont to be [the words] of dying superiors to [their] subjects, [and] of parents to [their] children. For since they, [being] now about to depart from this world and about to approach the tribunal of the supreme Judge, then say those [things] which [they] understand [to be] most right, best, and most useful to those whom [they] love — hence [it] is also provided [arranged] by nature, that by those to whom [they] are said, admonitions [monita] of that kind are kept [in] memory most of all: and, if indeed those [persons] be prudent, obedient, and least degenerate, [they] are carried into execution most efficaciously. Therefore Joshua, [being] about to die, and truly dying, holds a twofold speech to his Israelites — of which one [is] written out in this chapter, the other in the following. And this [one] indeed seems to Masius to have been held at Silo; but to the Rabbis Ralbag [Gersonides] and Raschi [Rashi], at Thamnathsare [Timnath-serah], which was his [Joshua’s] own city and inheritance (above, ch. 19:50); and that will appear more probable [rather] in the following chapter, q. 1. Since, therefore, rest from the enemies had now been granted by God, and Joshua himself, worn out with age, perceived death to be near him — whether by nature, or [with] God also teaching [him] — he called all Israel to himself: not indeed every individual out of it, but as many as [he] could; those certainly who bore the person [represented the whole body] of the whole people, and on whom all the others depended — as were the Princes and Senators of the tribes themselves, concerning whose names, set down here (v. 2), I spoke above (ch. 3): which are four in the Hebrew — Zekenim, Raschim, Schophetim, Schoterim; in the Greek, γερουσία [gerousia, “council of elders, senate”], ἄρχοντες [archontes, “rulers”], δικασταί [dikastai, “judges”], γραμματεῖς [grammateis, “scribes”]; in our text [the Vulgate], “the elders [maiores natu], Princes, leaders [duces], [and] Masters [Magistri].”
In the speech, moreover: First, [Joshua] shows the cause of this gathering, and at the same time — for [the things] which [he] is about to say — begets attention, faith [trust], and authority (v. 3), when [he] says: “I am old, and of advanced age.” Then at once, both seriously and constantly, [he] exhorts [them] to one thing only — namely, to the love, fear, and worship of God — from v. 3 to the end of the chapter. But [he] does this same [thing] in various [ways]. First: [he] recalls God’s greatest and very many benefits toward them — both past and present, and (if indeed [they] be willing) soon to come (vv. 3, 4, & 5). But the Hebrew text has a somewhat obscure transposition of words in v. 4, and the Latin [has] a fault [mendum], in which [it] is read “he divided” [divisit], instead of “I divided [/ have allotted]” [divisi]. For Joshua speaks of himself in the first person: in Hebrew Hippalthi, in Greek in the Seventy ἐπέρριφα [eperripha, “I cast [the lot] / allotted”]. And a twofold sense can be made. One — [that] Joshua may say [that] he cast down and conquered those Canaanite nations; and so the Seventy seem to hint, when, after that ἐπέρριφα, [they] subjoin ἐξωλόθρευσα [exōlothreusa, “I utterly destroyed”] — unless this has perhaps been inserted from some other text. The other — [that he] may say [that] he caused the lot to fall, or, as our Interpreter [the Vulgate] rightly says, [that] he divided the land by lot — partly [the land] which [stretches] from the Western side of the Jordan all the way to the Western [shore] of the great or Mediterranean [sea]
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[…partly the land which stretches from the Western side of the Jordan all the way to the Western shore of the great or] Mediterranean [sea] — [land] already occupied and possessed; partly [the land] which [is] still to be occupied and possessed, in which many nations still remain, which, however — [with] God also [acting] hereafter, unless these [nations] by some sin of their own set an obstacle and hindrance to him — will shortly be destroyed and dispersed. But [Joshua] indicates [that] these promises are to be received with the condition which I have appended, [a condition] which is thereafter annexed [in] the exhortations [of] v. 6 and following, especially vv. 9, 10.
Secondly: Therefore Joshua exhorts the Israelites to a notable greatness and constancy of soul (v. 6); to the accurate observation of the divine law (vv. 6, 7); [and] to the shunning of all familiarity and intercourse with the Canaanites (v. 7). For in that [phrase] “Lest after that you are come in,” a negative precept is included — “Enter not to those nations which remain among you.” And this “to enter” can be taken, from the force of the Hebrew verb, either specially, of the familiarity and bond [necessitudo] which is contracted by marriage — as may be gathered from v. 12 — or rather generally, of all familiarity and intercourse. For that [familiarity] is by far the most dangerous, from which [there is] often a most foul contagion of the gravest vices and crimes; among which [vices] here three are enumerated in the Latin: “to swear in the name of strange Gods, to serve them, [and] to adore them.” But in the Hebrew [there] are four, and [they] can be taken in the manner of prohibitions. First: “Thou shalt not make mention of the name of the Gods of those nations.” Second: “Thou shalt not swear by them.” Third: “Thou shalt not serve them.” Fourth: “Thou shalt not adore them.” But by “to swear in the name of their Gods,” the Latin interpreter [Vulgate] has comprehended the two former. For either, generally, by that first precept, the memory and mention of their Gods is forbidden, or [specifically] the honorable memory and mention. Not [the former], because Scripture itself too, in detesting them, makes mention of them, and not infrequently sets down their name. Honorable memory, moreover, is made through swearing — [an oath] which either we ourselves impose on others, or we conceive [for] ourselves. And both these are understood in the Latin “to swear.” And by those who add all these four [prohibitions], [the phrase] is translated by some thus: “Thou shalt not adjure” — or, “Thou shalt not make those nations swear by their Gods” (as Exod. 23:13, Deut. 12:3), because in the hiphil [there] is the Hebrew verb of swearing [the causative, “make to swear”]. But the first [verb] too, of “making mention,” is in the hiphil also: and therefore [it] can also be taken thus: that [they] should not make those nations usurp [take up] the memory and the names of their Gods.
Pious Jews indeed were wont, of old, scarcely — or not except with detestation — to name those Gods, just as [are] even now the present-day [Jews], who, when [they] wish to name heretics, even in writing, prefix peace and pardon [amnesty] by that Symbolic little mark [notula] of brevity of theirs, חס [i.e. חס ושלום], that is, “Chas ve Schalom,” that is, “Spare [us], and let there be peace.” Which [practice] is to be observed by those who have always in [their] mouth “By Hercules” [Mehercule], “By Castor” [Mecastor], “the day of the Sun” [Sunday], “of the Moon” [Monday], and the like — concerning which [see] the Mineralia, bk. 1, ch. 6. [Joshua] moreover exhorts [them] to adhere constantly and intimately to God (v. 9), and the blessings by which all may be enticed [he] adjoins in the same [place] (vv. 9 & 10). To which [duty] our [confrère] Ribadeneira also invites Christian Princes (bk. 1 Against Machiavelli, ch. 7). Again, in truth, [Joshua] incites [them] to love God most studiously (v. 11), where “This only take most diligent care” is worth [means]: “Attend greatly with your minds: Keep this very sedulously with your minds, that [you] love the Lord your God.” Lastly, [he] dehorts [them] from all friendship and intercourse with the Canaanites (v. 12), where in Hebrew [it] is: “If, by turning away, you turn yourselves away” (which happens by adhering to the errors of the nations) “and shall have adhered to the remnant of those nations which have been left among you or with you” — which happens by all intercourse, but especially by that which happens through marriages [connubia] and affinities, and therefore is here named expressly — “then,” in truth, [he] threatens all evils; and in place of the blessings which hitherto the Lord has by the thing itself bestowed, [he] denounces all curses to be poured out by the same [Lord] (vv. 15 & 16). But among these [there are] two [that are] especially terrible.
The former (v. 13): namely, [that it] will come to pass [that] these very nations, which in some part still remain — with whom the Israelites will wish to join affinities, friendships, and intercourse, [the nations] which by his aid and help the Lord was about to exterminate utterly and quickly — shall be to the Israelites themselves “for a pit and a snare, for a stumbling-block at [their] side, [and] for stakes of [their] eyes.” For “pit” [fovea] in the Hebrew is “pach” [פח], that is, “a snare”; and in the same way in the Seventy, παγίς [pagis, “snare”]. But by the addition of one letter, our [Vulgate] seems to have read “pachath” [פחת], that is, “a pit.” “A snare” [laqueus] is, in this place, that especially by which the feet are entangled, implicated, and impeded; and therefore by the Seventy [it] is rendered σκάνδαλα [skandala, “stumbling-blocks, traps”], and by some into “a little snare” [tendicula], [and] by Masius into “a net.” [That] which our [Vulgate] called “a stumbling-block” [offendiculum], the Seventy render ἥλους [hēlous], “nails” [clavi] — which, when [they] are rather long and are applied for pricking and mangling the body, are wont to be called “goads” [stimuli]; and by these especially the sides [are] wont to be bored through and pricked. For to this [point] look those Plautine [verses], “a crop of goads” [stimulorum seges] (Aulularia, act 1):
If today, by Hercules, I shall take a cudgel, or a goad, in [my] hand, I will make that tortoise-pace of yours a big [one]. (the same [play].) Against goads, [hot] plates, crosses, and fetters, racks, chains, prisons, foot-blocks, shackles, [and] collars — a treasure-box of goads! (Asinaria, act 1.) O butcher’s sieve, which I believe [I] shall become! So shall the goads bore you through, gibbet-borne, along the ways. (Mostellaria, act 1.) Would that now a goad were in my hand for me, with which I might grind down those sides of yours, which have grown hard with blows. (Asinaria, act 2.)
Although the Hebrew word can also be taken for a smooth rod [staff], or a most troublesome scourge [flagrum], by which the sides would be beaten — [as in] Ecclesiasticus 30:12, and ch. 42:6. And to those scourges Roboam opposed “Scorpions,” which were sharper (3 Kings [1 Kings] 12:11). For ταῖς πλευραῖς [tais pleurais], in the Seventy, πλευραῖς [pleurais, “in the sides, ribs”] is to be read, Masius thinks — or at least τῶν πλευρῶν [tōn pleurōn, “of the sides, ribs”] is a word to be taken in a broad sense. “Stakes” [sudes], in truth, can also be rendered “Thorns” [Spinae]; [in] the Seventy, into βολίδας [bolidas, “darts, missiles”]. The Chaldean [Targum], on account of some significance of the Hebrew words, said, in place of “scourges,” “troops taking up arms”; and in place of “thorns,” “an army which, like shields, would gird [surround] the Israelites — not for protecting, but for harming and dispersing.” The same [reading, is at] Num. 33 [and] Deut. 7, where Arias refers [this] to the crafty counsels of the Canaanites, [their] insidious frauds, hidden arts, and deadly arms.
The other curse is in the last words (v. 16): “Quickly and speedily shall the wrath of the Lord rise up against you, and you shall be taken away from this excellent land, which he hath delivered to you.” Where [there] are several arguments of terror. First: “the wrath of the Lord.” Second: “quickly and speedily.” Although in Hebrew [there] is a single word, yet its intense swiftness is here rightly signified by the doubled adverb — of which [two], Masius refers the one to the unforeseen inflicting of the penalty and the suddenness [brevity] of the wrath, the other to the most swift speed of execution. In the Seventy, that very [thing] is lacking. Third: “you shall be taken away.” In Hebrew, “you shall perish.” Fourth: “from this [land],” which [you] now possess. [It is] miserable to be despoiled of goods which are even present, and to which [one] has come by much labor, long time, [and] great longing. Fifth: “excellent” [optima]. In Hebrew, “good.” But as
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[But that] the excellence of the land, which [has been] hitherto set forth, may be better perceived, our [author] uses the superlative. Sixth: “which God hath delivered to you”: so that to be despoiled of so great a benefit of God [is] miserable, [and] to lose it by one’s own fault and sin [is] most ungrateful and most wicked. In these [words], therefore, lie hidden nearly those [things] which many admire in the Virgilian verses (Eclogue 1):
Shall an impious soldier possess these fallows, [so] well-tilled? a barbarian these crops? See to what [pass] discord has brought [our] wretched citizens! for whom have we sown [our] fields!
God [is] to be prayed [to], that we be not liable to evils of this kind. [As for] him who speaks familiarly with the enemies [of God], converses blandly [with them], [and] feasts pleasantly and merrily [with them] — [that] his gullet be bound fast by a noose [is] most just. [As for] him who recedes from the way of God, [and] betakes himself to the assembly of the impious, [and] runs forth to disgraceful deeds — [that] his feet be entangled, bound, and ensnared by eternal fetters [is] fitting. [As for] him who does not depart from the side of wicked companions and of the masters of wickedness, [but] wholly cleaves to lasciviousness and improbity — why [should it] not [be] most just [that] both his sides be bored through and lacerated by goads? [As for] him who abuses [his] eyes for petulance, lust, [and] vanity, who beholds earthly [things] more gladly than divine, who looks upon and admires the outer appearance and form of the impious more than the inner grace and beauty of the pious — is [it] not most fitting [that] both his lights [eyes] be pricked with thorns and made bloody? God gave us the true faith, the holy Church, [and] that heavenly land, best and most blessed: but unless we take heed, unless we be grateful and pious toward him, and avoid most diligently all the crimes which can kindle his wrath, [then] quickly indeed and swiftly [shall] we be taken away from it, and [shall] be driven headlong into everlasting exile. But [let it] be far [from us], [let it] be far! Let me hear Jesus: let me follow Jesus promising good [things]: let me fear [him] threatening evil [things]: and let me watch and correct myself.