pursuit of them, Joshua could not remove with the people from Shittim and proceed to the Jordan till the day after their return; and even then he could not cross the river at once, but waited three days after reaching the bank of the river before he crossed to the other side (vid., Jos 3:1.).[1]
Verses 12-18
Joshua's appeal to the two tribes and a half, to remember the condition on which Moses gave them the land on the east of the Jordan for an inheritance, and to fulfil it, met with a ready response; to that these tribes not only promised to obey his commandments in every respect, but threatened every one with death who should refuse obedience. In recalling this condition to the recollection of the tribes referred to, Joshua follows the expressions in Deu 3:18-20, where Moses himself recapitulates his former command, rather than the original passage in Num 32. The expression “this land” shows that the speaker was still on the other side of the Jordan. חמשׁים, with the loins girded, i.e., prepared for war, synonymous with חלצים in Deu 3:18 and Num 32:32 (see at Exo 13:18). חיל כּל־גּבּורי, all the mighty men of valour, i.e., the grave warriors (as in Jos 6:2; Jos 8:3; Jos 10:7, and very frequently in the later books), is not common to this book and Deuteronomy, as Knobel maintains, but is altogether strange to the Pentateuch. The word “all” (v. 14, like Num 32:21, Num 32:27) must not be pressed. According to Jos 4:13, there were only about 40,000 men belonging to the two tribes and a half who crossed the Jordan to take part in the war; whereas, according to Num 26:7, Num 26:18, Num 26:34, there were 110,000 men in these tribes who were capable of bearing arms, so that 70,000 must have remained behind for the protection of the women and children and of the flocks and herds, and to defend the land of which they had taken possession. On Jos 1:15 see Deu 3:18; and on the more minute definition of “on this side (lit. beyond) Jordan” by “toward the sun-rising,”
- ↑ In this way the different statements in the three chapters harmonize perfectly well. But the majority of commentators have arranged the order of succession differently and in a very arbitrary way, starting with the unwarrantable assumption that the time referred to in this verse, “within three days,” is identical with that in Jos 3:2, “it came to pass after three days.” Upon the strength of this groundless assumption, Knobel maintains that there is great confusion in the order of succession of the events described in Josh 1-3, that Jos 1:11 is irreconcilable with Jos 3:1-6, and that accounts written by three different authors have been mixed up together in these chapters. (For the different attempts to reconcile the accounts, see Keil's Commentary on Joshua, pp. 72-75, note, Eng. trans. Clark, 1857.)
