Joshua — Chapter 23

Lapide: Joshua old and of advanced age — paints a solemn scene of the great general summoning the elders, princes, judges, and officers for his farewell discourse. He calls them not to battle but to fidelity to God's law.

Lapide: \"Be ye very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning not aside from it to the right hand or to the left.\" Three times the command of courage and fidelity is given (as three times it was given at the beginning of his leadership, Jos. 1). Constancy in the Law of God is the supreme virtue of the ruler of the people.

Lapide: \"Take great heed therefore to your souls, to love the Lord your God.\" Lapide: the chief commandment — dilectio Dei — is the heart of Joshua's farewell speech; all the rest follows from this. If they love God, the remaining nations will be expelled; if they apostatize, those same nations will become snares and thorns.

Lapide: \"I am going the way of all the earth\" — metonymy; meaning the way of all mortal men in the land, i.e., death. The Septuagint: \"I am running the whole course\" — for our life is a continuous race toward death, especially in old age.

Lapide: \"And as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you, so shall He bring upon you all the evil things... until He destroy you from this good land.\" Prophetic warning — the blessings are pledges that the curses will equally be fulfilled; the Babylonian captivity and later the Roman destruction of Jerusalem are the fulfilment of this threat.