Joshua 23:6

Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.—As Joshua was the servant of the law himself, so must his successors be. No higher position was attainable than this. It has been the same with the successors of the greater Joshua. With them, and with those who follow them, nothing can ever supersede the authority of the written word.

Benson Commentary

Joshua 23:6. Be ye therefore very courageous — For it would require great courage and resolution to execute all the commands of Moses, and particularly that of expelling and destroying the residue of the Canaanites. The right hand or the left — That is, in one kind or other, by adding to the law, or diminishing from it. Which was the condition upon which God promised to continue them in the possession of the land. By this it is evident that the book of the law of Moses was extant in those days, and that the people read it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-10 Joshua was old and dying, let them observe what he said now. He put them in mind of the great things God had done for them in his days. He exhorted them to be very courageous. Keep with care, do with diligence, and regard with sincerity what is written. Also, very cautiously to endeavour that the heathen idolatry may be forgotten, so that it may never be revived. It is sad that among Christians the names of the heathen gods are so commonly used, and made so familiar as they are. Joshua exhorts them to be very constant. There might be many things amiss among them, but they had not forsaken the Lord their God; the way to make people better, is to make the best of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All Israel, and for their elders - Omit "and," which is not in the Hebrew. The meaning is that Joshua summoned to him all Israel as represented by its elders, etc. Deuteronomy 1:15. This gathering probably took place at the tabernacle at Shiloh.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jos 23:5-11. By Promises.

5-11. the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, as the Lord your God hath promised you, &c.—The actual possessions which God had given were a pledge of the complete fulfilment of His promise in giving them the parts of the country still unconquered. But the accomplishment of the divine promise depended on their inviolable fidelity to God's law—on their keeping resolutely aloof from all familiar intercourse and intimate connections with the Canaanites, or in any way partaking of their idolatrous sins. In the event of their continuing in steadfast adherence to the cause of God, as happily distinguished the nation at that time, His blessing would secure them a course of brilliant and easy victories (Le 26:7; De 28:7; 32:30).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Be ye therefore very courageous; for it will require great courage and resolution to execute all the commands of Moses, and particularly that of expelling and destroying the residue of the Canaanites.

To the right hand or to the left, i.e. in one kind or other, by adding to the law, or diminishing from it, as Moses speaks.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses,.... To observe which required spiritual strength, fortitude of mind, a holy courage, a firm and fixed resolution, and particularly to destroy the Canaanites required in that book, and to abstain from all communion and fellowship with them:

that ye turn not aside therefrom, to the right hand or the left; See Gill on Joshua 1:7.

Geneva Study Bible

Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. Be ye therefore very courageous] Joshua exhorts them to bravery and constancy in the same terms as he had been exhorted himself. See above, Joshua 1:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - Be ye therefore very courageous. The original is stronger, Be ye exceedingly courageous (see note on Joshua 1:6). That is written in the book of the law of Moses. A yet more distinct intimation that the words of Moses had been collected into a book at this early period, and that it was known as the Book of the Law of Moses. It seems incredible that such a book should have been invented at a time when the precepts it contained were lightly regarded, and should have been represented as the proper standard of conduct when every one knew that it could never have been anything of the kind. Joshua 23:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Only let them be strong, i.e., be brave, to keep the law of Moses without fail (cf. Joshua 1:7), to enter into no fellowship with these remaining nations (בּוא, to enter into close intimacy with a person; see Joshua 23:12), and not to pay reverence to their gods in any way, but to adhere stedfastly to the Lord their God as they had hitherto done. To make mention of the names of the idols (Exodus 23:13), to swear by them, to serve them (by sacrifices), and to bow down to them (to invoke them in prayer), are the four outward forms of divine worship (see Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20). The concluding words, "as ye have done unto this day," which express a reason for persevering in the attachment they had hitherto shown to Jehovah, "do not affirm that the Israelites had hitherto done all these things fully and perfectly; for who does not know how few mortals there are who devote themselves to God with all the piety and love which He justly demands? But because the nation as a whole had kept the laws delivered to them by Moses, during the time that the government had been in the hands of Joshua, the sins of individual men were left out of sight on this occasion" (Masius).