Joshua 20:7 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua 20:7

5 ^aThen if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, but did not hate him beforehand.

6 And he shall dwell in that city ^auntil he stands before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the slayer may return and come to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.’ ”

7 So they appointed ^aKedesh in Galilee, in the mountains of Naphtali, ^bShechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and ^cKirjath Arba (which is Hebron) in ^dthe mountains of Judah.

8 And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned ^aBezer in the wilderness on the plain, from the tribe of Reuben, ^bRamoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and ^cGolan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh.

9 ^aThese were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who¹ dwelt among them, that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood ^buntil he stood before the congregation.

Book Notes:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua

JOSHUA. The title of this book is derived from the pious and valiant leader whose achievements it relates and who is commonly supposed to have been its author. The objections to this idea are founded chiefly on the clause, "unto this day," which occurs several times (Joshua 4:9; Joshua 6:25; Joshua 8:28). But this, at least in the case of Rahab, is no valid reason for rejecting the idea of his authorship; for assuming what is most probable, that this book was composed toward the close of Joshua's long career, or compiled from written documents left by him, Rahab might have been still alive. A more simple and satisfactory way of accounting for the frequent insertion of the clause, "unto this day," is the opinion that it was a comment introduced by Ezra, when revising the sacred canon; and this difficulty being removed, the direct proofs of the book having been produced by a witness of the transactions related in it, the strong and vivid descriptions of the passing scenes, and the use of the words "we" and "us," (Joshua 5:1-6), viewed in connection with the fact, that, after his farewell address to the people, Joshua "wrote these words in the book of the law of God" [Joshua 24:26] —all afford strong presumptive proof that the entire book was the work of that eminent individual. Its inspiration and canonical authority are fully established by the repeated testimonies of other Scripture writers (compare Joshua 6:26 with I Kings 16:34; compare Joshua 10:13 with Habakkuk 3:11; Joshua 3:14 with Acts 7:45; Joshua 6:17-23 with Hebrews 11:30; Joshua 2:1-24 with James 2:25; Psalms 44:2; Psalms 68:12-14; Psalms 78:54-55). As a narrative of God's faithfulness in giving the Israelites possession of the promised land, this history is most valuable, and bears the same character as a sequel to the Pentateuch, that the Acts of the Apostles do to the Gospels.

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