Joshua 10:25 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 10:25
And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.
Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua) · proper noun, a man's name
said
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Fear
תִּֽירְא֖וּti.re.'U
H3372
to fear · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine plural
dismayed
תֵּחָ֑תּוּte.Cha.tu
H2865
properly · verb, niphal jussive, 2nd person masculine plural
strong
חִזְק֣וּchiz.Ku
H2388
to fasten upon · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
courage
וְאִמְצ֔וּve.'im.Tzu
H553
to be alert · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
do
יַעֲשֶׂ֤הya.'a.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
enemies
אֹ֣יְבֵיכֶ֔ם'o.ye.vei.Khem
H341
hating · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
fight
נִלְחָמִ֥יםnil.cha.Mim
H3898
to feed on · verb, niphal active participle, masculine plural absolute
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).
Cross-references
Joshua 1:9 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 whith…
2 Corinthians 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
1 Samuel 17:37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the ha…
Deuteronomy 7:19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD…
Deuteronomy 31:6-8 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail th…
Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Deuteronomy 3:21-22 And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the LO…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 10:15-27
It was a brave appearance, no doubt, which the five kings made when they took the field for the reducing of Gibeon, and a brave army they had following them; but they were all routed, put into disorder first, and then brought to destruction by the hail-stones. And now Joshua thought, his work being done, he might go with his army into quarters of refreshment. Accordingly it was resolved, perhaps in a council of war, that they should presently return to the camp at Gilgal (Jos 10:15), till they should receive orders from God to take possession of the country they had now conquered; but he soon finds he has more work cut out for him. The victory must be pursued, that the spoils might be divide…
put your feet upon the necks of these kings--not as a barbarous insult, but a symbolical action, expressive of a complete victory (Deu 33:29; Psa 110:5; Mal 4:3).
Adam Clarke on Joshua 10:24
Put your feet upon the necks of these kings - This act was done symbolically, as a token, not only of the present complete victory, but of their approaching triumph over all their adversaries, which is the interpretation given of it by Joshua in the succeeding verse.
John Gill on Joshua 10:25
And Joshua said, rest not, nor be dismayed,.... Not meaning at the kings, who perhaps lay bound upon the ground, or however were not in a condition to make any resistance, so that they had nothing to fear from them; but this respects future time, and what other enemies they should meet with; who would be brought into subjection to them as these were, and therefore from hence should take heart:
be strong, and of good courage; and go on valiantly in subduing the rest of their enemies, and not be afraid of them:
for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight; put them into their hands, and give them power to tread on their necks: this shows that what Joshua did, or order…
But Marcion and Valentinus and Basilides and the rest of the heretics with them, while they refuse to understand these things as is worthy of the Holy Spirit, "have turned aside from the faith and entangled themselves in many impieties," putting forward another God as creator and judge of the law and of the world, as though through these things which are written he were teaching a certain cruelty, in that men are commanded to "tread upon the necks" of enemies and to "hang upon a tree" the kings of that land which they violently invade. And would that my Lord Jesus, the Son of God, might grant me this and command me to "trample" with my feet "the spirit of fornication," and to "tread upon" the necks of the spirit of wrath and fury, to "tread upon" the demon of avarice, to "tread upon" boastfulness, to crush with my feet the spirit of pride, and, when I have done these things, to hang the sum of the work accomplished not upon myself, but upon his cross, following Paul who says that through him "the world has been crucified to me," and that which we have already recalled above, where he says: "yet not I, but the grace of God which is in me." But if I shall have merited to do so, I shall be blessed, and there shall be said to me too what Jesus says to the men of old: "act manfully and be strengthened, fear not nor be afraid before their face, for the Lord God has delivered all your enemies into your hands." If we understand these things spiritually and wage wars of this kind spiritually, and drive out all those "spiritual forces of wickedness from the heavenly places," then at last we shall be able to receive from Jesus even their places and kingdoms, which are "the kingdoms of heaven," by the lot of inheritance — our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ granting it, "to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!"
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Adoni-zedec — Lord of justice or righteousness, was king in Jerusalem at the time when the Israelites invaded Palestine (Josh. 10:1, 3). He formed a confederacy with the other Canaanitish kings against the…
Adonizedek — (lord of justice), the Amorite king of Jerusalem who organized a league with four other Amorite princes against Joshua. The confederate kings having laid siege to Gibeon, Joshua marched to the relief…
Gibeon — Hill-city, “one of the royal cities, greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty” (Josh. 10:2). Its inhabitants were Hivites (11:19). It lay within the territory of Benjamin, and became a…
Makkedah — Herdsman’s place, one of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. 12:16), near which was a cave where the five kings who had confederated against Israel sought refuge (10:10-29). They were put to…
Adoni-Zedek · A king of — A king of
Amorites · Kings of — Kings of
Amorites, The · Kings of, degraded and slain — Kings of, degraded and slain
Anger Of God, The · Exemplified against: Five Kings — Exemplified against: Five Kings
Captive · .Putting to — .Putting to
Cave · Place of refuge — Place of refuge
Debir · 1. King of Eglon — 1. King of Eglon
Faith · ENJOINE — ENJOINE
Hebron
John Calvin on Joshua 10:15-28
Joshua 10:15-28
15. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
15. Reversus autem est Josue et universus Israel cum eo ad castra in Gilgal.
16. But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.
16. Fugerant vero ipsi reges, et absconderant se in spelunca in Makeda.
17. And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah.
17. Et nuntiatum est Josue his verbis, Inventi sunt quinque reges absconditi in spelunca in Makeda.
18. And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them:
18. Tunc dixit Josue, Devolvite saxa magna ad os speluncae, et constituite juxta eam vir…
Joshua then commanded the five kings to be fetched out of the cave, and directed the leaders of the army to set their feet upon the necks of the kings; and when this had been done, he ordered the kings to be put to death, and to be hanged upon trees until the evening, when their bodies were to be thrown into the cave in which they had concealed themselves. Of course this did not take place till the day after the battle, as the army could not return from their pursuit of the foe to the camp at Makkedah till the night after the battle; possibly it did not take place till the second day, if the pursuit had lasted any longer. In Jos 10:24, "all the men of Israel" are all the warriors in the camp…
Joshua encouraged his men at Makkedah, using the same words God had used to encourage him before Israel crossed the Jordan and again before the battle of Ai (1:9; 8:1).
Rashi on Joshua 10:21
Not one person sharpened. This is an abbreviated verse.13Since the verse does not identify the subject, it is considered an abreviated verse. No sharp [tongued] person, sharpened his tongue against a single person of Bnei Yisroel.
חָרֶץ indicates the speech of the tongue. Similarly, “A dog will not sharpen its tongue.”14Shemos 11:7 [see Rashi there]. Similarly “Then you will utter a sharp word.”15II Shmuel 5:24. You will call, you will cry out a battle shout.
Piram · Overcome and killed by Joshua — Overcome and killed by Joshua
War · Of extermination — Of extermination
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
