Joshua 23:13

13 know certainly that Jehovah your God is not continuing to dispossess these nations from before you, and they have been to you for a gin, and for a snare, and for a scourge, in your sides, and for thorns in your eyes, till ye perish from off this good ground which Jehovah your God hath given to you.

Joshua 23:13 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 23:13

Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more
drive out [any] of these nations from before you
Or, "knowing ye shall know" ^F18; or "know ye"; this may be taken for granted, or the fullest proof, and clearest demonstration, and strongest assurance will be given of it, that in case of such bad conduct, and disobedience to the will of God, no more of the nations of the Canaanites will be driven out of the cities in which they are:

but they shall be snares and traps unto you;
who by their bad examples would draw them both to idolatry and superstitious worship, and into all irreligion, profaneness, and immorality, as they did, ( Psalms 106:35-39 ) ;

and scourges in your sides;
who either, by ensnaring them, would get an advantage over them, and distress them in their persons, families, and estates; or would be the means of the Lord's correcting and chastising them with the rod and stripes of men, for the iniquities these would draw them into; the allusion is to scourges and lashes laid on the sides of men, or to goads with which beasts are pushed on their sides and driven:

and thorns in your eyes;
very troublesome and distressing; for even a mote in the eye is very afflicting: and much more a thorn; (See Gill on Numbers 33:55). Jarchi interprets this word by camps surrounding them, as shields do the bodies of men, and which is approved of by Gussetius ^F19:

until ye perish from off this good land, which the Lord your God hath
given you;
by sword, famine, pestilence, or captivity, which has been their case.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (wedt ewdy) "sciendo scietis", Montanus; "sciendo scitote", Pagninus, Vatablus.
F19 Comment. Ebr. p. 717.

Joshua 23:13 In-Context

11 and ye have been very watchful for yourselves to love Jehovah your God.

12 `But -- if ye at all turn back and have cleaved to the remnant of these nations, these who are left with you, and intermarried with them, and gone in to them, and they to you,

13 know certainly that Jehovah your God is not continuing to dispossess these nations from before you, and they have been to you for a gin, and for a snare, and for a scourge, in your sides, and for thorns in your eyes, till ye perish from off this good ground which Jehovah your God hath given to you.

14 `And lo, I am going, to-day, in the way of all the earth, and ye have known -- with all your heart, and with all your soul -- that there hath not fallen one thing of all the good things which Jehovah your God hath spoken concerning you; the whole have come to you; there hath not failed of it one thing

15 `And it hath been, as there hath come upon you all the good thing which Jehovah your God hath spoken unto you, so doth Jehovah bring upon you the whole of the evil thing, till His destroying you from off this good ground which Jehovah your God hath given to you;