Joshua 23:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 23:14
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.
to fall · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Luke 21:33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
1 Kings 2:2 I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
Leviticus 26:3-13 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
Joshua 21:43-45 And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither…
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken…
Deuteronomy 28:1-14 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments wh…
1 Samuel 3:19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 23:12
BY THREATENINGS IN CASE OF DISOBEDIENCE. (Jos 23:12)
Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations--As marriage connections with the idolatrous Canaanites would present many and strong temptations to transgress it, these were strictly prohibited (Exo 34:12-16; Deu 7:3). With his eye, as it were, upon those prohibitions, Joshua threatens them with the certain withdrawal of the divine aid in the further expulsion of the Canaanites (a threat founded Exo 23:33; Num 33:55; Deu 7:16).
Next: Joshua Chapter 24
Adam Clarke on Joshua 23:14
The way of all the earth - I am about to die; I am going into the grave.
Not one thing hath failed, etc. - God had so remarkably and literally fulfilled his promises, that not one of his enemies could state that even the smallest of them had not had its most literal accomplishment: this all Israel could testify.
John Gill on Joshua 23:14
And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth,.... That is, about to die; not that precise day, but in a short time, of which the daily increasing infirmities of old age gave him notice. Death is a journey from this world to another, a man's going to his long home, a path trodden by all men, and but once (t); a way in which all men without exception must and do walk, and even the best as well as the greatest of men, such as Joshua; no man is exempted from death, be he ever so great or good, ever so wise and knowing, ever so holy or so useful; see 1 Kings 2:2,
and ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls; in their consciences; it was a glaring truth, which none could den…
Joshua 23:12-16
12. Else if you 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:
12. Quia si avertendo aversi fueritis, et adhaeseritis residuis gentibus istis, residuis, inquam, istis quae sunt vobiscum: et affinitatem contraxeritis cum eis, et misceatis vos cum eis, et ipsae vobiscum:
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 you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has give…
The Church Fathers
In relation to what Joshua says about his near death: But I walk the path like all those who are on earth, in the translation made of the Hebrew it is said: I enter the road. The word "I travel" (recurro) used by the Seventy is to be understood in the same sense as it was said to man: until you return to the land from which you were taken (Gn 3,19), a phrase to be understood referring to the body. But if we want to refer to the soul, according to Ecclesiastes: And the spirit returns to God who gave it, (Si 12,7) I do not believe that it can be said of all men, but only of those who have lived in such a way that they deserve to return to God, as its owner, who has created them. This can not be correctly interpreted either by those of whom it is said: spirit that goes and does not return (Sal 77,39). If this holy man Joshua Nave had not added: like all those on earth, there would be no problem. For we would not think about him anything else but what we read that is worthy of him. But, adding: like all those on earth, it is not surprising that the Latin translator put recourse (travel), did not mean more than "run through" (percurro) or "I'm running" ( excurro) if this means the Greek word aprotréjo. Because everyone "runs through" or "runs" along the path of life, when they have come to an end. But as this word (recourse) appears in the passage in which the parents of Rebekah say to the servant of Abraham: Behold Rebecca; Take it, go running, and be the wife of your master's son, that's why here I have interpreted this word in that way.
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
Death Of Saints, The · Met with resignation — Met with resignation
Promises Of God, The · Not one shall fail — Not one shall fail
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).
In the second part of his address, Joshua sums up briefly and concisely the leading thoughts of the first part, giving greater prominence, however, to the curse which would follow apostasy from the Lord.
Jos 23:14-16
Now that Joshua was going the way of all the earth (all the inhabitants of the earth), i.e., going to die (Kg1 2:2), the Israelites knew with all the heart and all the soul, i.e., were fully convinced, that of all the good words (gracious promises) of God not one had failed, but all had come to pass (vid., Jos 21:45). But it was just as certain that the Lord would bring upon them every evil word that He spake through Moses (Lev 26:14-33; Deut 28:15-68, and Deu 29:14-28), if they…
will no longer drive them out: If Israel associated with the Canaanite remnant, God would oblige the Israelites by not driving out that remnant. God ultimately gives people what they seek.
Rashi on Joshua 23:13
And a goad in your sides.1Rashi takes the word לְשׁטֵט as an expression of prowing rather than as an expression of a rod or goad as do other commentaries. They will prowl around you to loot and ransack.
And thorns. This is an expression of camps. Similarly: “And they will come upon you with camps,”2Yechezkeil 23:24. like a shield (צִנָה) that surrounds a person on three sides, as it is said, “As a shield, you encompass him with favor,”3Tehillim 5:13. תַּעְטְרֶנוּ meaning תְּסוֹבְבֶנוּ, surrounding, similar to “And Shaul and his men surrounded David and his men.”4I Shmuel 23:26. עוֹטְרִים meaning סוֹבְבִים, surrounding.
