Bible Commentaries

Joshua 11:23

This text is said to be directly at issue with other statements in the Book of Joshua. Thus the fifteenth chapter ends with these words: "As for the Jebusites, the children of Jerusalem could not drive them out," and in Joshua's dying exhortation he foretells that "a remnant of these nations shall remain among them." From this the conclusion is drawn that the Book of Joshua was not cast at a single jet; that it is a thing of shreds and fragments; that it is made up of two pieces, one Jehovistic, the other Elohistic, patched together by a stupid, not to say dishonest, chronicler. To this we answer: (1) It is only right to notice the qualification in the text. "Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said unto Moses." But the promise to Moses was that it should be taken "by little and little." (2) Viewed geographically and statistically, there were exceptions to be made to the statement contained in the text, and these are fully and fairly related in the sequel. But there was another point of view from which the map of Joshua's conquests might be studied. The Canaanites might still lurk in the mountain fastnesses, in the depth of the primeval forest. But there were haunting voices that hung about the national heart. There were strange, mysterious lights that seemed to stream down from a deep sunset heaven, which touched the old stem of their history, and opened long lanes into the dark vistas of the future. Strengthened by the promises of God, cheered by the declarations of prophecy, animated by the miracles which had led the Israelites across the Jordan and caused the walls of Jericho to fall before the trumpet blast, Joshua, or whoever was the author of this book, wrote down—it was a venture of faith—"So Joshua took the whole land."

Bishop Alexander, Sermon Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, July 2nd, 1873.

References: 11—Parker, vol. v., pp. 211, 279. 12, 13—Ibid., p. 220. Joshua 13:1.—T. Guthrie, The Way to Life, p. 297; Parker, vol. v., p. 279. Joshua 13:22.—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. v., p. 413. Joshua 13:33.—Parker, vol. V., p. 280. 14—Ibid., p. 228. Joshua 15:15.—W. Lindsay Alexander, Sunday Magazine, 1865, p. 594; Parker, vol. v., p. 281. 15-19.—Ibid., pp. 237, 244. Joshua 17:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1882. Joshua 19:47.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 59. Joshua 19:49.—Parker, vol. v., p. 282. Joshua 20:2.—Ibid. Joshua 20:3.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 35. Joshua 20:5.—Parker, vol. v., p. 283. Joshua 20:7.—Ibid., p. 284. 20-24.—Ibid., p. 254. Joshua 21:2.—Ibid., p. 285. Joshua 21:43, Joshua 21:45.—Ibid. Joshua 21:45.—Ibid., p. 286. Joshua 22:16.—Ibid., p. 287. Joshua 22:20. -G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 412.