Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
which it had received from the Lord in the conquests thus far obtained, that the
faithful covenant God would continue His help in the conflicts which still remained,
and secure for it a complete victory and the full possession of the promised land.
Looking, therefore, at the existing state of things from this point of view, Joshua had
taken possession of the whole land, and could now proceed to finish the work
entrusted to him by the Lord, by dividing the land among the tribes of Israel. Joshua
had really done all that the Lord had said to Moses. For the Lord had not only
promised to Moses the complete extermination of the Canaanites, but had also told
him that He would not drive out the Canaanites at once, or "in one year," but only
little by little, until Israel multiplied and took the land (Ex 23:28-30; cf. Deut 7:22).
Looking at this promised, therefore, the author of the book could say with perfect
justice, that "Joshua took the whole land according to all that (precisely in the
manner in which) the Lord had said to Moses." But this did not preclude the fact, that
a great deal still remained to be done before all the Canaanites could be utterly
exterminated from every part of the land.
Consequently, the enumeration of towns and districts that were not yet conquered,
and of Canaanites who still remained, which we find in Josh 13:1-6; 17:14ff., 18:3;
23:5,12, forms no discrepancy with the statements in the verses before us, so as to
warrant us in adopting any critical hypotheses or conclusions as to the composition of
the book by different authors. The Israelites could easily have taken such portions of
the land as were still unconquered, and could have exterminated all the Canaanites
who remained, without any severe or wearisome conflicts; if they had but persevered
in fidelity to their God and in the fulfilment of His commandments. If, therefore, the
complete conquest of the whole land was not secured in the next few years, but, on
the contrary, the Canaanites repeatedly gained the upper hand over the Israelites; we
must seek for the explanation, not in the fact that Joshua had not completely taken
and conquered the land, but simply in the fact that the Lord had withdrawn His help
from His people because of their apostasy from Him, and had given them up to the
power of their enemies to chastise them for their sins. - The distribution of the land
for an inheritance to the Israelites took place "according to their divisions by their
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