XXIII.
JOSHUA’S LAST CHARGE.
(a) To the rulers (Joshua 23).
(b) To the people (Joshua 24 to Joshua 24:25).
(a) To THE RULERS.
(1) Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. — The same expression employed in Joshua 13:1. It is possible that we ought to translate thus: “It came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest... and (after) Joshua had grown old, advanced in days, that Joshua called...” Or it may be that we have here, as it were, “the two evenings” of Joshua’s life: the early evening, when his sun began to decline — the afternoon; and the late evening, just before its glorious setting in the service of Jehovah on earth, to “serve Him day and night in His temple.”
(Our Lord fed the five thousand between the two evenings — Matthew 14:15; Matthew 14:23. So Joshua gave Israel their inheritance between the two evenings of his life.)