Joshua 23:13

11-16 Would we cleave to the Lord, we must always stand upon our guard, for many a soul is lost through carelessness. Love the Lord your God, and you will not leave him. Has God been thus true to you? Be not you false to him. He is faithful that has promised, Hebrews 10:23. The experience of every Christian witnesses the same truth. Conflicts may have been severe and long, trials great and many; but at the last he will acknowledge that goodness and mercy followed him all the days of his life. Joshua states the fatal consequences of going back; know for a certainty it will be your ruin. The first step would be, friendship with idolaters; the next would be, marrying with them; the end of that would be, serving their gods. Thus the way of sin is down-hill, and those who have fellowship with sinners, cannot avoid having fellowship with sin. He describes the destruction he warns them of. The...

Verse Joshua 23:13. _THEY SHALL BE SNARES_] לפח _lephach_, a _net_ or _gin,_ set by the artful fowler to catch heedless birds. _AND TRAPS_] מוקש _mokesh_, any snare, toil, or trap, placed on the ground to catch the unwary traveller or wild beast by the foot. _SCOURGES IN YOUR SIDES, AND THORNS IN YOUR EYES_] Nothing can be conceived more vexatious and distressing than a continual _goad_ in the _side_, or _thorn_ in the _eye_. They will _drive_ you into obedience to their false gods, _and put out the eyes of your_ _understandings_ by their idolatries. And God will preserve them merely to distress and punish you....

EXPOSITION JOSHUA'S SOLEMN CHARGE.— JOSHUA 23:1 WAXED OLD AND STRICKEN IN AGE. Literally, _was old, advanced in days _(see Joshua 13:1). But this refers to a more advanced age still, when the patriarch felt his powers failing him, and desired, as far as his influence went, to preserve the Israelites in the path in which they had walked since their entrance into Canaan. Calvin has some good remarks on the "pious solicitude" shown by the aged warrior for those whom he had led in time of war and guided in time of peace. He seems to have sent for the chief men in Israel to his home at Timnath-Serah, where apparently he had led a retired and peaceful life, only coming forward to direct the affairs of t

KNOW FOR A CERTAINTY THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL NO MORE DRIVE OUT [ANY] OF THESE NATIONS FROM BEFORE YOU,.... Or, "knowing ye shall know" r; or "know ye"; this may be taken for granted, or the fullest proof, and clearest demonstration, and strongest assurance will be given of it, that in case of such bad conduct, and disobedience to the will of God, no more of the nations of the Canaanites will be driven out of the cities in which they are: BUT THEY SHALL BE SNARES AND TRAPS UNTO YOU; who by their bad examples would draw them both to idolatry and superstitious worship, and into all irreligion, profaneness, and immorality, as they did, Psalms 106:35; AND SCOURGES IN YOUR SIDES; who either, by ensnaring them, would get an advantage over them, and distress them in their persons, families, and estates; or would be the means of the Lord's c

2. JOSHUA'S TWO ADDRESSES The First Address CHAPTER 23 _ 1. The people gathered (Joshua 23:1)_ 2. God's faithfulness remembered (Joshua 23:3) 3. Exhortations to obedience (Joshua 23:6) 4. Warning (Joshua 23:12) 5. Conclusion of first address (Joshua 23:14) It was about eight years after the Lord had given rest unto Israel, that the aged Joshua called for all Israel and their elders to assemble in his presence. He was very old and the time of his departure at hand. The purpose of his first address is

ANY OF THESE. Some codices, with four early printed editions, read "all these". THEY SHALL BE. Compare Exodus 23:33; Numbers 33:55.Deuteronomy 7:16....

_snares_ The word thus rendered denotes (i) a net, trap-net, especially of a fowler; (ii) a snare such as seizes and holds beasts or men by the feet. Comp. Job 18:9, "the gin shall take him by the heel;" Jeremiah 18:22, "they have … hid _snares_for my feet." The form of this trap-net appears from the passages Amos 3:5, and Psalms 69:22. It was in two parts, which, when set, were spread out upon the ground and slightly fastened with a stick, so that as soon as a bird or beast touched the stick, the parts flew up and enclosed the bird in the net, or caught the foot of the animal. _thorns in your eyes_ The warnings of Joshua are severer even

_VER._ 12, 13. _ELSE IF YE DO IN ANY WISE GO BACK,_ &C.— "But if, on the contrary, ye are capable of starting aside from God, and of giving way _in any manner_ to idolatry; if ye _cleave unto these nations,_ and communicate with them in their errors; if ye _enter_ into any alliances, or mix yourselves with them by the tie of marriage; _know,_ most assuredly, that from thenceforward the Lord will cease to _drive out these nations,_ and to give you their inheritance; nay, _they shall be snares and traps_ in your way. They shall subsist for your punishment, to be to you an occasion of falling and of sin; and continually more and more to draw you into their abominations: they _shall be as scourges in your sides,_ as a whip, as a rod in the hand of Providence, grievously to wound and oppress you; and _as thorns in your eyes,_ to afflict you; while, losing the favour of God, you shall finally...

_Warnings of Punishments for Disobedience Joshua 23:12-16_ 12 Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: 13 Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. 14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. 15 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things

23:13 land (a-44) Lit. 'ground.'...