Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua) · proper noun, a man's name
commanded
וַיְצַ֣וvay.Tzav
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
officers
שֹׁטְרֵ֥יsho.te.Rei
H7860
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
people
הָעָ֖םha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
saying
לֵאמֹֽרle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 1:10-15
Joshua, being settled in the government, immediately applies himself to business; not to take state or to take his pleasure, but to further the work of God among, the people over whom God had set him. As he that desires the office of a minister (Ti1 3:1), so he that desires the office of a magistrate, desires a work, a good work; neither is preferred to be idle.
I. He issues out orders to the people to provide for a march; and they had been so long encamped in their present post that it would be a work of some difficulty to decamp. The officers of the people that commanded under Joshua in their respective tribes and families attended him for orders, which they were to transmit to the people.…
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people--These were the Shoterim (see on Exo 5:6; Deu 20:5).
Adam Clarke on Joshua 1:10
Commanded the officers - שטרים shoterim. These were different from the שפטים shophetim, who were judges among the people, and whose business it was to determine in all civil cases. The shoterim have been supposed to be subordinate officers, whose business it was to see the decisions of the shophetim carried into effect. Calmet conjectures that the shoterim here may have been the heralds of the army like those so often met with in Homer, who were called the messengers both of the gods and men; who bore sceptres, and whose persons were ever held sacred. See on Deu 1:13-16 (note).
John Gill on Joshua 1:10
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people,.... The same word is used in Deuteronomy 16:18; where it seems to design such officers that attended on the judges, and executed their orders; but one would think it should here rather signify officers in the army, as captains, and the like; unless it should design a sort of heralds, who were to make proclamation throughout the camp, each of the orders issued by Joshua, immediately upon his having the above directions and instructions from the Lord:
saying; as follows.
The Church Fathers
For this reason Joshua said to the people, "Prepare your provisions for the journey." Today, if you willingly listen, Christ our Lord says to you, "If you will follow me, prepare food for the journey." This food is good works which accompany us like faithful food for the journey to future bliss. Therefore, consider, brothers, that if each one does not prepare food for himself, he cannot follow Joshua when he enters the land of promise.
At the death of Moses, Joshua received the rule; and when the law ended, our true Lord Jesus obtained the rule of the whole world. Therefore, Joshua who typified the Lord said to the people when he came to the Jordan: "Prepare your provisions until the third day." The third day, dearly beloved, we recognize as the mystery of the Trinity. What food should we prepare so that we may come to the third day? It seems to me that this food should be understood as faith; for Christians it is by faith that they believe in the Trinity and arrive at the sacrament of baptism. Therefore, what Joshua then told his people, the true Joshua or Jesus now tells the Christian people through his ministers. Indeed, what else does this mean: "Prepare your provisions until the third day," except to receive the mystery of the Trinity? After this the Jordan was crossed just as if the mystery of baptism were completed, and the people of Israel entered the promised land. It is true, brothers; unless a person crosses through the sacrament of baptism, he will not see the land of true promise, that is, eternal beatitude.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Joshua 1:10–end
Joshua 1:10-18
10. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
10. Tunc praecepit Josue praefectis populi dicendo,
11. Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God give you to possess it.
11. Transite per medium castrorum et praecipite populo, dicendo, Parate vobis annonam: quia post tres dies transibitis Jordanem hunc, ut intretis et possideatis terram, quam Jehova Deus vester dat vobis possidendam.
12. And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, spoke Joshua, saying,
12. Ad Reubenitas vero et Gadit…
Jos 1:10-11
Preparations for Crossing the Jordan. - Jos 1:10-11. For the purpose of carrying out the commands of the Lord, Joshua first of all directed the officers of the people (shoterim: see at Ex 5-6), whose duty it was, as the keepers of the family registers, to attend not only to the levying of the men who were bound to serve in the army, but also to the circulation of the commands of the general, to issue orders to the people in the camp to provide themselves with food, so that they might cross the Jordan within three days, and take the land that was promised them by God. By zedah, provision for a journey (Gen 42:25, etc.), we are not to understand manna, for that had already ceased (…
And Yehoshua commanded. He did this on the day that completed the days of mourning for Moshe.19Moshe died on the seventh day of Adar and he was mourned for thirty days. See Devorim 34:8.
