Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 1:7
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it [to] the right hand or [to] the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Prosper – See the margin. The literal rendering should be retained here since the notion of prosperity is separately introduced by a different word in Jos 1:8.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. Only be thou strong, and very courageous] , . – Sept. Be strong therefore, and play the man to the uttermost. Though God had promised him that no man should be able to stand before him, yet it was on condition that he should use all his military skill, and avail himself to the uttermost of all the means, natural and providential, which God should place within his reach. God will not have them who refuse to help themselves.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Remember that though thou art the captain and commander of my people, yet thou art my subject, and obliged to observe all my commands.
To the right hand or to the left, i.e. in any kind, or upon any pretence.
That thou mayest prosper, or, that thou mayest do wisely; whereby he instructs him in the true art of government; and that his greatest wisdom will lie in the observation of all Gods commands. and not in that pretended reason of state which other princes govern all their affairs by. And this plainly shows that Gods assistance promised to him and to the Israelites was conditional, and might justly be withdrawn upon their breach of the conditions.
Whithersoever thou goest, i.e. whatsoever thou doest. Mens actions are oft compared to ways, or journeys, or steps, by which they come to the end they aim at.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Only be thou strong, and very courageous,…. For though Joshua was a man of valour and courage, as appears by his war with Amalek, yet there was need of this exhortation, and of repeating it, since he was to engage with a people more and mightier than those with him, and who dwelt in strong and fortified places, and had been preparing for some time, having had notice, and were in expectation of the Israelites’ attempt upon them:
that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee; not only as a private man obliged to observe the whole law, and act according to it in all things; though no mere man is capable of it, only Joshua’s antitype, who is the end of it for righteousness to all that believe, having fulfilled it in all respects; but as the supreme magistrate under God, who was to see that the law was obeyed by the people in all things, and particularly as the general of the army, who was to observe to do what had been ordered, with respect to the Canaanites, see De 7:1;
turn not from it [to] the right hand or [to] the left: from the law, by adding to it, or taking from it; so Ben Gersom explains it,
“turning to the right hand is, when any adds to its words; and turning to the left hand, when he diminishes from them;”
or “from him” k, that is, from Moses; from his good way, as Kimchi; though he adds, or else from the book of the law; for though he does not mention the book, he does the law; so Ben Melech:
that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest; succeed in every battle he engaged in; it would be well if generals of armies would observe this; the way to obtain victory over enemies being to be observant of the laws of God themselves, and to take care that they be observed by the soldiers under their command: or “that thou mayest act wisely” l; the word of God furnishing out instruction to men in every station of life, see Lu 3:10.
k “ab so”, Montanus, Vatablus, Junius Tremellius. l , Sept. “ut intelligas”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus “ut prudenter agas”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. All the law The Torah, the body of moral, ceremonial, and political precepts given from Jehovah by the hand of Moses. The very conception of a moral agent involves the idea of a law. They who have not the written law are a law unto themselves. Their own conscience perceives the immutable distinction between right and wrong. In addition to this, God has added positive commands and prohibitions. These from the days of our first parents till the completion of the Torah, were of a fragmentary character; as, for example, the penalties against murder, adultery, and fornication, (Gen 9:6; Gen 38:24,) the Levirate law, (Gen 38:8,) the distinctions of the clean and unclean beasts, (Gen 8:20,) and the sacredness of the Sabbath, (Exo 16:23-29.) The first revelation of the law in any thing like a perfect form is found in the Book of Deuteronomy at a period when the people, educated to freedom and national responsibility, were prepared to receive it, and carry it with them to the land of promise. In this present passage we are assured that it was written in the form of a book, and appealed to as of supreme authority. When we consider the reverence with which all subsequent generations of Hebrews have regarded this “book of the law” their jealous care lest it should be corrupted, counting the words and letters, and recording their number, indicating the middle word and the middle letter by peculiar signs the argument amounts to a certainty that we have in our Hebrew Bibles the very Torah which Joshua is here commanded to take as his authoritative guide. Add to these considerations the respect which Jesus Christ always pays to the law, which he came not to destroy but to fulfil, and we can reasonably demand no stronger proof of the authoritative character of the Torah as a rule of life for us in all things which are not manifestly ceremonial.
To the right or to the left Perfect obedience is represented by a straight line, and a course of sin by a crooked way. Hence the terms right eousness, recti tude, up right ness, and, in matters of opinion, orthodox; while the word wrong is etymologically akin to wrung, twisted.
That thou mayest prosper Rather act wisely. Sin is the highest folly, virtue is the only true wisdom.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“ Only be strong, and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.”
Here the strength and courage is related to the keeping of God’s Instruction, ‘the Law’. He was not only to be strong and courageous in battle but also in life. He was strictly to observe God’s moral law. Obedience was more important than physical strength and physical courage, although it would enable him in both. But failure in obedience would mean that it did not matter whether he was strong in any other way or not.
“Observe to do.” See Deu 5:1; Deu 5:32; and regularly in Deuteronomy (fourteen times). It is something that requires hard work and deliberate and constant attention and determination. It will not just happen. It requires careful study of the word of God and a heart fully responsive to God.
“Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.” See Deu 5:32; Deu 17:11; Deu 17:20. Success would depend on strict conformity to the will of God. Indeed that would guarantee success. But treating God’s law lightly and deviating from it one way or another would result in disaster, for God would no longer act for him.
“Turn not from it.” The ‘it’ is masculine and has in mind the law thought of as ‘the book of the law’ (law is feminine). However LXX omits ‘law’, and the ‘it’ therefore there refers to what Moses had commanded. It may be that that was the original Hebrew reading, but it is more probable that it is simply LXX correcting a seeming difficulty which it does regularly.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 7. Only be thou strong and very courageous, &c. God requires of Joshua fortitude and courage; which, indeed, ought necessarily to adorn the character of every person raised to the government of a nation; that so, being always faithful in the cause of religion, he may enforce its duties on his subjects, both by his injunctions and his example. Jehovah requires his observance of no other rule for his conduct, than that law which had been deposited with him. He forbids him in any thing to deviate from that law; and, on this condition, assures to him the most happy success.
That thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest The sense given to this passage by the LXX, is very fine: That thou mayest perform wisely whatsoever thou hast to do. It is the greatest policy to be truly religious. Princes who govern by pretended reasons of state, in contempt of the commands of God, are strangers both to true wisdom and their real interest.
Joshua was to entertain far other sentiments. It was essential to the success of his ministry and arms, that his whole disposition, from the very beginning, should display his fear of God. We should observe, however, that the expression in the original, which primarily signifies to have intelligence, signifies also, frequently, to prosper; inasmuch as prudence is the path to success.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 243
CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE
Jos 1:7-9. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
IN an address to Joshua, when about to invade a country wherein were seven nations greater and mightier than he, we might well expect a charge to him to be strong and very courageous: but we should naturally suppose, that the exhortation to fortitude would have respect chiefly, if not exclusively, to the enemies whom he was about to encounter: whereas his enemies are left, as it were, altogether out of sight; and no notice is taken but of the Law of God, as that towards which his courage should be exercised. But, as all his success depended entirely upon God, it was indispensably necessary that he should secure the divine favour; which could not be done but by an obedience to Gods commands: and an unreserved obedience to them would, in fact, require in him a stronger principle of courage, than the most formidable enemies would give occasion for. In confirmation of this, I will shew,
I.
Wherein the fortitude of a Christian soldier should chiefly display itself
He is to contend with all the enemies of his salvation, in obedience to the laws of God
[The world, the flesh, and the devil, are the enemies with whom he is to fight Now, a soldier in the army of an earthly prince is to act in all things according to certain rules, which are laid down for him in a code of laws drawn up for that specific purpose: these are called the Articles of War; and with them he is to be conversant, in order that he may conform himself to them in all things. The Christian soldier, also, has his code drawn up for him by God himself, and revealed to him in the Oracles of Truth. This code he is to study with all diligence, and to meditate on it day and night, that there may be in him an accordance with it in every particular. Never is he to turn aside from it, to the right hand or to the left. However difficult or self-denying its injunctions, he must obey it: and by it, as a test, must he try all the instruction or advice given to him in relation to his conduct. It must be so sacred in his eyes, that he will die rather than depart from it in any thing. If blamed in any thing, as too scrupulous and too strict, he must refer to that as his standard: it must be ever in his mouth, as well as in his heart; and he must inculcate on others the same observance as he pays to it himself.]
And this will require all the courage that any man can possess
[It will require no little courage so to subdue and mortify all his corrupt inclinations, as to have them brought into subjection to the laws of God. And to maintain such an habit in the midst of an ungodly world, will expose him to the heaviest trials. A man who enlists in an army has but to contend with enemies: but the Christian soldier will have to maintain sore conflicts even with his friends: yea, his greatest foes will be those of his own household. Nor is it only for a season, during a few campaigns, that he must fight; but every day, every hour, throughout his whole life. He is never off the field of battle: he is never at liberty to relax his vigilance for a single hour. His armour must be girt upon him day and night. The weapons, too, with which he is assaulted, are formidable in the extreme. Shall it be thought that death alone has its terrors? I scruple not to say, that there are thousands who would find it easier to face a battery of cannon, than to withstand the sneers, and pity, and contempt, and ridicule, of their nearest and dearest friends. Not but that the Christian soldier must be prepared to resist even unto blood. If he will not lay down his life for Christ, he cannot be his disciple. And does not this require courage? Worldly soldiers have many things to animate and imbolden them, which the Christian soldier wants. They are surrounded by multitudes, who are engaged in the same contest, and who invigorate one another by their voices and example; but he engages alone, or nearly so, at the point of attack, and at the time that he is most pressed. They are applauded in proportion to their exertions, and commend themselves to the esteem of all who behold them: but the more strenuously the Christian soldier exerts himself, the more is he hated and despised by all who ought to encourage and commend him: and, instead of looking for any reward in this life, he knows that to his dying hour he has no other treatment to expect. Verily, it is not for nought that the Christian soldier is bidden to be strong and very courageous: for there is more need of a principle of fortitude in him, than in any other person under heaven.]
Let us however notice, on the other hand,
II.
The encouragement which God himself affords to all who desire to serve him in truth
As he reminded Joshua of the grounds he had for encouragement, so he would have us to consider,
1.
In whose service we are engaged
[Have not I commanded thee? Yes, it is the God of heaven whose battles we fight, and in whose service we are engaged. Were it only an earthly monarch to whom we had devoted ourselves, we ought to serve him with all fidelity: what, then, should we not do for the King of kings, who has not only chosen us to be his soldiers, but has himself taken the field for our sakes, to subdue our enemies, and to deliver us from their assaults? I Contemplate Jehovah as our Covenant-Godcontemplate him as assuming our very nature on purpose to fight our battlesrounder him as submitting to death itself, that on the very cross he might spoil the principalities and powers of hell, and lead captivity itself captive.This is the Captain of our salvation under whom we fight; and shall not that encourage us? Suppose the whole universe combined against us, and issuing their orders that we shall not obey so strictly the laws of God; what reply should we make, but that of the Apostles, Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye; for we cannot but fulfil his will and execute His commands.]
2.
The pledge he gives us of his presence and support
[Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest, said the Lord to Joshua: and says he not the same to us, Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world [Note: Mat 28:20.]? Now, imagine a soldier with his commander and his prince always at his side: would he not be stirred up by that to acts of valour, which, in the absence of such a stimulus, he would be unable to put forth? Know, then, that your God is ever with you; and with you, not only as a Witness of your actions, but as a Helper, to strengthen you, to uphold you, to combat with you. What encouragement can you desire beyond this? Hear his own words, addressed to every soldier in his army: Fear not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness [Note: Isa 41:10.]. What matters it, then, how many there may be against you? If they were as numerous as the sands upon the sea-shore, you may boldly say, There are more with you than with them. In fact, If God be for you, who can be against you? They may assault you, and boast of their triumphs; but they can do nothing, but in accordance with his will, and in subserviency to his designs.]
3.
The assurance he gives us of ultimate success
[Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and thou shalt have good success. You are persecuted: you are imprisoned; you are put to death: but are you vanquished? Was the Saviour overcome when he was put to death? Did he not by death overcome him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage? He was the stone which the builders rejected: but, is he not the Headstone in the corner? Know, then, that you are not to estimate victory by the present and temporary effects, but by the ultimate and everlasting results. Be it so: you are sorely oppressed, and your enemies are exulting over you: but Gods word is not broken: for tribulation is the way to glory; and the cross precedes the crown. Only be content to suffer with Christ; and be assured you shall speedily be glorified together [Note: Rom 8:17.].]
Address
1.
Let none expect victory without conflicts
[What shall we say of the religion of your enemies? Has it any resemblance to the religion of the Bible? Are they hated for righteousness sake? No: the world cannot hate them, because they are of the world. You, on the contrary, are hated purely because you will conform yourselves to the laws of God. Be thankful, then, that ye have this evidence that ye are the Lords.]
2.
Let none doubt of victory, who fight in dependence on the Lords strength, and in conformity to his commands
[Be strong, and very courageous to do his will But take special care what kind of fortitude it is that you maintain. There is an unhallowed boldness, which savours of pride and vain-glory. You cannot be too much on your guard against this. Yours must be a passive fortitude, such as Christ manifested when he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and opened not his mouth. You are to love your enemies, to bless them that curse you, and to pray for them that despitefully use you. You are not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good. In you are to be seen the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Only fight with these weapons, and, even though ye be slain like sheep, ye shall be more than conquerors [Note: Rom 8:36-37.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Jos 1:7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it [to] the right hand or [to] the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Ver. 7. Only be thou strong. ] See Trapp on “ Jos 1:6 “
That thou mayest observe to do.
According to all the law.
That thou mayest prosper.
a Ut cum observantia facias. – Trem.
b Prospere et provide aliquid agere, significat.
c Lib. ii.
d Gell., lib. vii. cap. 1.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joshua
THE NEW LEADER’ S COMMISSION
THE CHARGE TO THE SOLDIER OF THE LORD
Jos 1:7 – Jos 1:8
This is the central portion of the charge given to the successor of Moses. Joshua was a very small man in comparison with his predecessor. He was no prophet nor constructive genius; he was not capable of the heights of communion and revelation which the lofty spirit of Moses was able to mount. He was only a plain, fiery soldier, with energy, swift decision, promptitude, self-command, and all the military virtues in the highest degree. The one thing that he needed was to be ‘strong and courageous’; and over and over again in this chapter you will find that injunction pealed into his ears. He is the type of the militant servant of the Lord, and the charge to him embodies the duties of all such.
I. We have here the duty of courageous strength.
Jesus Christ is the type of both. The Conqueror of Canaan and the Redeemer of the world bear the same name. The Jesus whom we trust was a Joshua. And let us learn the lesson that neither the conqueror of the typical and material land of promise nor the Redeemer who has won the everlasting heaven for our portion could do their work without the heroic side of human excellence being manifestly developed. Do you remember ‘He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem’? Do you remember that the Apostle whom a hasty misconception has thought of as the gentlest of the Twelve, because he had most to say about love, is the Apostle that more emphatically than any other rings into our ears over and over again the thought of the Christ, militant and victorious, the Hero as well as the patient Sufferer, the ‘Captain of our salvation’? And so let us recognise how both the gentler and the stronger graces, the pacific and the warlike side of human excellence, have their highest development in Jesus Christ, and learn that the firmest strength must be accompanied with the tenderest love and swathed in meekest gentleness. As another Apostle has it in his pregnant, brief injunctions, ringing and laconic like a general’s word of command, ‘Quit you like men I be strong! let all your deeds be done in love!’ Braid the two things together, for the mightiest strength is the love that conquers hate, and the only love that is worthy of a man is the love that is strong to contend and to overcome.
‘Be strong.’ Then strength is a duty; then weakness is a sin. Then the amount of strength that we possess and wield is regulated by ourselves. We have our hands on the sluice. We may open it to let the whole full tide run in, or we may close it till a mere dribble reaches us. For the strength which is strength, and not merely weakness in a fever, is a strength derived, and ours because derived. The Apostle gives the complete version of the exhortation when he says: ‘Finally, my brethren,’ that Omega of command which is the Alpha of performance, ‘be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.’ Let Christ’s strength in. Open the heart wide that it may come. Keep yourself in continual touch with God, the fountain of all power. Trust is strength, because trust touches the Rock of Ages.
For this reason the commandment to be strong and of good courage is in the text based upon this: ‘As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.’ Our strength depends on ourselves, because our strength is the fruit of our faith. And if we live with Him, grasping His hand and, in the realising consciousness of our own weakness, looking beyond ourselves, then power will come to us above our desire and equal to our need. The old victories of faith will be reproduced in us when we say with the ancient king, ‘Lord! We know not what to do, but our eyes are up unto Thee.’ Then He will come to us, to make us ‘strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.’ ‘Wait on the Lord and He will strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.’
But courage is duty, too, as well as strength. Power and the consciousness of power do not always go together. In regard to the strength of nature, courage and might are quite separable. There may be a strong coward and a weak hero. But in the spiritual region, strength and courage do go together. The consciousness of the divine power with us, and that alone, will make us bold with a boldness that has no taint of levity and presumption mingled with it, and never will overestimate its own strength. The charge to Joshua, then, not only insists upon the duty of strength, but on the duty of conscious strength, and on the duty of measuring the strength that is at my back with the weakness that is against me, and of being bold because I know that more and ‘greater is He that is with me than are they that be with them.’
II. So much, then, for the first of the exhortations here. Now look next at the duty of implicit obedience to the word of command.
Courage and strength come first, and on them follows the command to do all according to the law, to keep it without deflection to right or left, and to meditate on it day and night. These two virtues make the perfect soldier-courage and obedience. Daring and discipline must go together, and to know how to follow orders is as essential as to know how to despise dangers.
But the connection between these two, as set forth in this charge, is not merely that they must co-exist, but that courage and strength are needed for, and are to find their noblest field of exercise in, absolute acceptance of, and unhesitating, swift, complete, unmurmuring obedience to, everything that is discerned to be God’s will and our duty.
For the Christian soldier, then, God’s law is his marching orders. The written word, and especially the Incarnate Word, are our law of conduct. The whole science of our warfare and plan of campaign are there. We have not to take our orders from men’s lips, but we must often disregard them, that we may listen to the ‘Captain of our salvation.’ The soldier stands where his officer has posted him, and does what he was bid, no matter what may happen. Only one voice can relieve him. Though a thousand should bid him flee, and his heart should echo their advices, he is recreant if he deserts his post at the command of any but him who set him there. Obedience to others is mutiny. Nor does the Christian need another law to supplement that which Christ has given him in His pattern and teaching. Men have appended huge comments to it, and have softened some of its plain precepts which bear hard on popular sins. But the Lawgiver’s law is one thing, and the lawyers’ explanations which explain it away or darken what was clear enough, however unwelcome, are quite another. Christ has given us Himself, and therein has given a sufficient directory for conduct and conflict which fits close to all our needs, and will prove definite and practical enough if we honestly try to apply it.
The application of Christ’s law to daily life takes some courage, and is the proper field for the exercise of Christian strength. ‘Be very courageous that thou mayest observe.’ If you are not a bold Christian you will very soon get frightened out of obedience to your Master’s commandments. Courage, springing from the realisation of God’s helping strength, is indispensable to make any man, in any age, live out thoroughly and consistently the principles of the law of Jesus Christ. No man in this generation will work out a punctual obedience to what he knows to be the will of God, without finding out that all the ‘Canaanites’ are not dead yet; but that there are enough of them left to make a very thorny life for the persistent follower of Jesus Christ.
And not only is there courage needed for the application of the principles of conduct which God has given us, but you will never have them handy for swift application unless, in many a quiet hour of silent, solitary, patient meditation you have become familiar with them. The recruit that has to learn on the battle-field how to use his rifle has a good chance of being dead before he has mastered the mysteries of firing. And Christian people that have their Christian principles to dig out of the Bible when the necessity comes, will likely find that the necessity is past before they have completed the excavation. The actual battle-field is no place to learn drill. If a soldier does not know how his sword hangs, and cannot get at it in a moment, he will probably draw it too late.
I am afraid that the practice of such meditation as is meant here has come to be, like the art of making ecclesiastical stained glass, almost extinct in modern times. You have all so many newspapers and magazines to read that the Bible has a chance of being shoved out of sight, except on Sundays and in chapels. The ‘meditating’ that is enjoined in my text is no mere intellectual study of Scripture, either from an antiquarian or a literary or a theological point of view, but it is the mastering of the principles of conduct as laid down there, and the appropriating of all the power for guidance and for sustaining which that word of the Lord gives. Meditation, the familiarising ourselves with the ethics of Scripture, and with the hopes and powers that are treasured in Jesus Christ, so that our minds are made up upon a great many thorny questions as to what we ought to do, and that when crises or dangers come, as they have a knack of coming, very suddenly, and are sprung upon us unexpectedly, we shall be able, without much difficulty, or much time spent in perplexed searching, to fall back upon the principles that decide our conduct-that is essential to all successful and victorious Christian life.
And it is the secret of all blessed Christian life. For there is a lovely echo of these vigorous words of command to Joshua in a very much more peaceful form in the 1st Psalm: ‘Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, . . . but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night’-the very words that are employed in the text to describe the duty of the soldier-therefore ‘all that he doeth shall prosper.’
III. That leads to the last thought here-the sure victory of such bold obedience.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
observe = take
heed. Some codices, with two early printed editions, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read “observe and do”.
prosper = deal wisely.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
which Moses: Jos 1:1, Jos 11:15, Num 27:23, Deu 31:7
turn not: Deu 5:32, Deu 12:32, Deu 28:14, Pro 4:27, Pro 8:20
that: Deu 29:9, 1Ki 2:3, 1Ch 22:13
prosper: or, do wisely, Jos 1:8, *marg.
Reciprocal: Gen 39:3 – prosper Deu 4:2 – General Deu 11:8 – that ye may Deu 15:5 – General Deu 17:11 – According to Deu 31:6 – Be strong Jos 1:6 – Be strong Jos 1:9 – Be strong Jos 1:18 – only be Jos 23:6 – very 2Sa 2:19 – turned 2Sa 10:12 – Be of good 2Sa 14:19 – turn 1Ki 2:2 – be thou 2Ki 22:2 – turned 1Ch 19:13 – of good 1Ch 28:7 – constant 2Ch 15:7 – ye strong 2Ch 17:9 – the book 2Ch 31:21 – prospered 2Ch 32:30 – And Hezekiah 2Ch 34:2 – declined Psa 1:3 – whatsoever Psa 111:10 – a good understanding Psa 119:4 – General Psa 119:9 – by taking Pro 3:4 – good understanding Isa 30:21 – when ye turn to the right Isa 35:4 – Be strong Isa 52:13 – deal prudently Dan 10:19 – be strong Act 28:15 – he thanked 1Co 16:13 – be Eph 6:10 – be 2Ti 2:1 – be Heb 3:5 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jos 1:7. Commanded thee Remember, that though thou art the commander of my people, yet thou art my subject, and obliged to observe all my commands. To the right hand or to the left That is, in any kind, or upon any pretence; which plainly shows, that Gods assistance, promised to him and the Israelites, was conditional, and might justly be withdrawn upon their breach of the conditions. Whithersoever thou goest That is, whatsoever thou doest. Mens actions are often compared to ways, or steps, by which they come to the end they aim at. This charge, given by God himself to Joshua, highly deserves our notice. Though Joshua was to be, in his place, as great a man as Moses; though the Lord was to do signs and wonders by him, as he did by the hand of Moses; and though he was to settle the people in the promised land, which Moses was not allowed to do, yet he was to do according to all the law which Moses had commanded. And we find that, amid all his successes, and all the wonders that the Lord did by him, Joshua made the book of the law the guide of his conduct, strictly adhering to it in every point, and always recommending the strict observation of it to the people. In this he is an example worthy of the imitation, as of all professors of Christianity in general, so of all Christian magistrates and generals, in particular, who are under equal obligations to make Gods laws or revealed will the rule of their conduct, in all affairs, public and private. For no mans dignity or dominion, how great soever, sets him above the law of God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it [to] the right hand or [to] the left, that thou mayest {e} prosper whithersoever thou goest.
(e) He shows where true prosperity consists, even to obey the word of God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Joshua’s responsibility included unswerving obedience to the Mosaic Law. This would be the key to his success. Knowing the law was only the first step. Practicing it was what would make Joshua effective (cf. Deu 5:32-33).
"The important lesson which we hence learn is, that in nothing is there more scope for the display of the highest moral heroism than in daring, in all circumstances, to cleave steadfastly to the word of God as the rule of our conduct. It is in this chiefly that the fortitude of the Christian soldier is to evince itself." [Note: Bush, p. 20.]