to God, and for keeping the charge given by God."[1] It was the injunction of the dying David to Solomon: " Keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes." The first part of the charge, "If thou wilt walk in My ways," refers particularly to Joshua's personal attitude towards the Lord to fidelity in his personal relations to God; and the second, "If thou wilt keep My charge," to the faithful performance of his official duties as high priest.
And the reward of his thus (in his personal and official capacity) studying to present himself approved unto God, will be (a) " Then thou also shalt judge My house." " My house " may be used metaphorically of the people, as in Num. xii. 7: " My servant Moses, . . . who is faithful in all My house," and the judging of the house would in that case refer to the high priest's function as the representative of God in all matters of controversy, to give the sentence of judgment (Deut. xvii. 8-10); or Hengstenberg, Keil, and Pusey may be right in limiting it to the high priest's administration of the literal House or Temple to the decisions, namely, which devolved upon him in all matters of the sanctuary. Probability is added to this more limited meaning of the expression by the next parallel clause, which certainly is to be understood in a literal sense as referring to the Temple, namely, (fr) " And shalt also keep My courts" as a faithful watchman or porter, not only " to keep away everything of an idolatrous nature from the House of God," but to see to it that nothing that is unclean or which defileth shall enter into it (2 Chron. xxiii. 19). (c) But the climax of promise in this verse is reached in the last clause, " And I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by." The Hebrew word D WMDj matilekhim, translated " places to walk," and which the Revised Version renders " a place of access," has been variously translated and interpreted by different commentators. Thus Gesenius, Hengstenberg, Hoffmann, etc., have rendered the sentence, " I will give thee leaders among those that stand by." But
- ↑ Pusey.
