48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord,.... [See comments on Joshua 6:4]; went on continually; or, "going they went" (b): kept on going, making no stop at all, until they had compassed the city: and blew with the trumpets; as they went along: and the armed men went before them, but the rereward came...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the second day they compassed the city once,.... Went round it one time only; as on the first: and returned into the camp: which was at Gilgal, Joshua 5:10; so they did six days: four more after these two successively, and proceeded in the same order and manner as on those two days.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass on the seventh day,.... Which Jarchi says was the Sabbath day, and which is a common notion of the Jews (c); but whether it was or not, it is certain that one of these seven days must be a sabbath, in which the several things ordered were done, and the procession made. Kimchi observes, that their Rabbins say this was the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass at the seventh time,.... Of their going round the city on the seventh day: and at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets; as they did every time they compassed the city: Joshua said unto the people, shout; both those that were armed, and those that were not; they were to make one grand and general shout at...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the city shall be accursed,.... Or, be a "cherem", devoted to the Lord, as it follows: [even] it and all that [are] therein, to the Lord; the city and the inhabitants of it should be devoted to destruction, and the riches and spoil of it dedicated to sacred uses, and not become the property of the Israelites; for as this was the first city in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And you in any wise keep [yourselves] from the accursed thing,.... From laying hold on, secreting, and enjoying as their own, what was devoted to another use: lest ye make [yourselves] accursed; or a "cherem", also devoted to destruction: when ye take of the accursed thing; any part of it, be it what it will, gold or any other metal, or raiment,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But all the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, [are] consecrated to the Lord,.... Or rather, "for all the silver", c. as the particle here used sometimes signifies, and is so rendered (d): each of these metals, and whatsoever were made of them, were set apart for the Lord, and dedicated to sacred uses, and might not be converted to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So the people shouted when [the priests] blew with the trumpets,.... As Joshua had charged them, Joshua 6:16; and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout; that is, gave a loud shout, on hearing the long blast of the trumpets blown by the priests the seventh time, as they were no...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city,.... All the inhabitants of it, by the direction of Joshua, and according to the order of the Lord, Deuteronomy 7:1; being guilty of capital crimes, which deserved death, as idolatry, incest, c. both men and women, young and old neither sex nor age were spared: and ox, and sheep, and ass, with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country,.... Whom he had sent on that errand, Joshua 2:1; and what follows he had said unto them before the people entered into the city, and perhaps before the walls of it fell; and indeed from Joshua 6:16, it appears to have been said at the time he gave the people orders to shout: go...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab,.... Not only went into the city, but into Rahab's house, which they knew again by the scarlet thread hung out at the window of it. But here a difficulty occurs, how they could be said to go into her house, when it was built on the town wall, Joshua 2:15; and that was now fallen down...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they burnt the city with fire, and all that [was] therein,.... As Babylon the great, of which this city was an emblem, as has been observed, [See comments on Joshua 6:20]; will be burnt with fire also, Revelation 18:8; only the silver and the gold, and the vessels of brass and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord; [See...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive,.... From perishing by the sword, as the rest of the inhabitants did. Kimchi says, some interpret it of his giving her food, and an inheritance by which she might live; and Josephus (f) intimates the same: he says, he gave her fields, and had her in great honour and esteem; and it is the notion of some...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua adjured [them] at that time,.... When the city was burnt and spoiled; not that he adjured the people individually, or one by one, which was not very practicable, but in a general way: saying, cursed [be] the man before the Lord; let him be cursed by him with the curses written in the book of the law; and let him be driven from him, from...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So the Lord was with Joshua,.... Counselling and directing him what to do, prospering and succeeding him in all that he engaged; the Targum is, "the Word of the Lord was for the help of Joshua;'' the essential Word, Christ the Son of God, called the Captain of the Lord's host, Joshua 5:14; and who, continued with him speaking to him and giving him...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Joshua 7 For the trespass of Achan the children of Israel were smitten and put to flight by the men of Ai, Joshua 7:1; which gave him and the elders of the people great concern, both for Israel and for the name of the Lord, which was expressed by Joshua in prayer to God, Joshua 7:6; when the Lord informed him of the reason of it,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing,.... Or concerning it, with respect to it, by taking part of what was devoted to another use, and forbidden theirs: this was done, not by the whole body of the people, only by one of them; but it not being discovered who it was, it was imputed to the whole, on whom it lay to...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
More than once we have found the affairs of Israel, even when they were in the happiest posture and gave the most hopeful prospects, perplexed and embarrassed by sin, and a stop thereby put to the most promising proceedings. The golden calf, the murmuring at Kadesh, and the iniquity of Peor, had broken their measures and given them great...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,.... Which was the next city of importance, though not so large as Jericho, and was, as the Jews say (l), three miles distant from it; Abarbinel says (m) four miles, and so Bunting (n); Jerom (o) says, that in his times very few ruins of it appeared, only the place was shown where it stood: which [is] beside...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they returned unto Joshua, and said unto him, let not all the people go up,.... After they had reconnoitred the place, they came back to their general, and gave it as their opinion, that there was no need for the whole army to go up against the city: but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; such a number they judged were...