Chapter 23:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Deuteronomy Judges
Joshua 23
Joshua reminds the people, assembled for that purpose, of
what God had done, and what he would do for them, ver. 1-5.
Exhorts them resolutely to persevere in their duty to God, ver. 6-8, which he enforces by former benefits, and by promises, ver. 9-11, and by threatnings, ver. 12-16.
Verse 1. A long time - About fourteen years after it.
Verse 2. Joshua called - Either to his own city, or rather to Shiloh, the
usual place of such assemblies, where his words being uttered
before the Lord, were likely to have the more effect upon them.
All Israel - Not all the people in their own persons, but in their
representatives, by their elders, heads, Judges and officers.
Probably he took the opportunity, of one of the three great feasts.
You will not have me long to preach to you; therefore observe
what I say, and lay it up for the time to come.
Verse 3. Because of you - For your good, that you might gain by their
losses.
Verse 4. That remain - Not yet conquered. An inheritance - You shall
certainly subdue them, and inherit their hand, as you have done
the rest, if you be not wanting to yourselves. All the nations - That
is, with the land of those nations; the people put for their land, as
we have seen before; and as sometimes on the contrary, the land is
put for the people. The great sea - Where the Philistines, your
most formidable adversaries yet survive; but them also and their
land I have given to you, and you shall undoubtedly destroy them,
if you will proceed vigourously in your work.
Verse 6. Very courageous - For it will require great courage and
resolution to execute all the commands of Moses, and particularly,
that of expelling and destroying the residue of the Canaanites. The
right hand or the left - That is, in one kind or other, by adding to
the law, or diminishing from it.
Verse 7. Come not - That is, avoid all familiar converse and contracts,
but especially marriages with them. Name their gods - To wit,
unnecessarily and familiarly, lest the mention of them breed
discourse about them, and so by degrees bring to the approbation
and worship of them. Nor cause - Nor require nor compel the
Gentiles to swear by them, as they used to do; especially in
leagues and contracts. It is pity, that among Christians, the name
of the Heathen God's are so commonly used, especially in poems.
Let those names which have been set up in rivalship with God, be
forever loathed and lost. Nor bow - Neither give them any inward
reverence, or outward adoration. Here is an observable gradation,
whereby he shews what notable progress sin usually makes, and
what need there is to look to the beginnings of it, forasmuch as a
civil and common conversation with their persons was likely to
bring them, and indeed did actually bring them, by insensible
steps, to the worship of their gods. So it is no wonder, if some
things not simply and in themselves evil, be forbidden by God, as
here the naming of their gods is, because they are occasions and
introductions to evil.
Verse 8. Cleave to the Lord - By constant obedience, entire affection,
faithful service and worship of him alone. To this day - To wit,
since you came in to Canaan; since which time the body of the
people (for of them he speaks, not of every particular person) had
behaved themselves much better than they did in the wilderness,
and had not been guilty of any gross and general apostacy from
God, or rebellion against him.
Verse 9. No man - To wit, whom you have invaded; otherwise some of
those people did yet remain unconquered.
Verse 10. He fighteth - Impute not this therefore to your own valour, as
you will be apt to do, but to God's gracious and powerful
assistance.
Verse 11. Take heed - Now it requires more watchfulness and diligence
than it did in the wilderness, because your temptations are now
stronger; from the examples and insinuations of your bad
neighbours, the remainders of this wicked people; and from your
own peace and prosperity: and the pride, security, forgetfulness of
God, and luxury, which usually attend that condition.
Verse 12. Go back - From God, and from his worship and service.
Verse 13. Traps to you - By your converse with them, you will be drawn
by degrees into their errors, and impieties, and brutish lusts.
Thorns in your eyes - When they have seduced, and thereby
weakened you, then they will molest and vex you, no less than a
severe scourge doth a man's sides which are lashed by it, or than a
small thorn doth the eye when it is got within it. Till ye perish -
They shall so persecute you, and fight against, you with such
success, that you shall be forced to quit your own land, and
wander you know not whither; which must needs be very terrible
to them to think of, when they compared this present ease, and
plenty and safety, with the pains, and weariness, and hazards, and
wants of their former wanderings.
Verse 14. Of all the earth - That is, of all flesh, or of all men; the way
which all men go; I am about to die, as all men must. To die is, to
go a journey, a journey to our long home. And Joshua himself,
tho' he could so ill be spared, cannot be exempted from this
common lot. He takes notice of it, that they might look on these as
his dying words, and regard them accordingly. Ye know - That is,
you know assuredly; your own experience puts it out of all
question.
Verse 15. Evil things - The accomplishment of God's promise is a
pledge that he will also fulfil his threatnings; both of them
depending upon the same ground, the faithfulness of God.
Verse 16. It will aggravate their perdition, that the land from which they
shall perish is a good land, and a land which God himself had
given them: and which therefore he would have secured to them,
if they had not thrown themselves out of it. "Thus the goodness of
the heavenly Canaan, says Mr. Henry, and the free and sure grant
God has made of it, will aggravate the misery of those that shall
forever be shut out and perish from it. Nothing will make them
see how wretched they are, so much as to see, how happy they
might have been." Might have been! What on the supposition of
absolute decrees? How happy might a person not elected have
been? And if he was elected, how could he be wretched for ever?
What art of man can reconcile these things? Again, shall any of
the elect perish for ever? or has God made to any others, a free
and sure grant of the heavenly Canaan? If not, how can the misery
of those that perish be aggravated, by a free and sure grant which
they never had any share in?
Chapter 23:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Deuteronomy Judges
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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