This chapter is generally considered to be the beginning of the second part of the book of Joshua. The first part has given a history of the conquest of the land. The second part deals with the division of the land among the conquerors.

 Literally the first clause reads, “Joshua had aged and was advanced in days.” This statement was made some time before his death at 110 years of age (ch. 24:29). At times the Hebrew word translated “old” seems to be used with respect to the state of vitality rather than with respect to the number of years men lived. Gen. 27:1 states, “Isaac was old,” that is, he had aged; yet he lived 43 years after that. Likewise, it is said concerning David, “the king was very old” (1 Kings 1:15), but he could not have been more than about 70 when he died. The hardships and anxieties of the king’s life had aged him. In many countries 50 or 60 years is considered a great age. So it was, perhaps, with Joshua. His strenuous life as a warrior and leader of Israel, and the intenseness of the last years of conquest, had probably aged him, perhaps somewhat suddenly. His energies may have failed rather rapidly after his long course of active and anxious military service, so that he was glad to hear God utter the word that called for a halt in the campaign, to apportion the land. He may himself have been wondering how he would live to carry through the campaigns yet necessary to place the children of Israel in full possession of the land. As God’s true servant, Joshua had been willing to “spend and be spent.”

 We have no definite information as to Joshua’s age at this time, but Josephus (Antiquities v. 1. 29) asserts that he was associated with Moses for 40 years, and that after his master’s death he governed Israel for 25 years. Since he died at the age of 110, this would have made him 85 years old at the death of Moses and about 45 years of age at the time of the Exodus. Comparing this with the stated age of Caleb (see on ch. 11:18 and Introduction, p. 172), Joshua would have been about 92 years of age at this time, that is, if we can rely on the figures of Josephus.

The military conquest in general was completed. Now it remained for the Israelites to possess the land. So far they had settled comparatively little of it. For the present there seemed to be no point in proceeding with the military campaigns, because often as soon as the armies of Israel had gone the vanquished people would move back and repossess the land. The plan was for the tribes, after they were established in their inheritance, to extend their own territories. Many battles remained yet to be fought in order to complete the possession, but God’s blessing in the past was an assurance for the future.

So it is in the spiritual warfare. The work of overcoming the defects of character is progressive. The dispossessing of enemies from the heart is a continuous struggle. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary and cultivated tendencies toward evil.

 It is important to mark clearly the distinction between the work done by Joshua and the work left for Israel. Joshua overthrew the ruling powers and defeated their armies to such an extent that Israel was given a firm foothold in the country. But he did not exterminate the population from every portion of the country. Some nations were left entirely intact (Judges 2:20-23; 3:1-4). In the conquest and in the expansion the rules laid down in the law of Moses were to be the guiding principle. The 7th and 12th chapters of Deuteronomy set forth three main rules that the children of Israel were to follow:

 (1) utter extermination of the nations Jehovah should deliver into their hands;

 (2) no covenant or treaty to be made with them, and all intermarriage prohibited;

 (3) the destruction of all traces of idolatry in the conquered territory.

The responsibility of the first of these was upon the leaders; the second and third, upon all the people. It is obvious that the persistent and general destruction of objects of Canaanitish worship, with the refusal to make treaties or intermarry, would tend to perpetuate a state of irritation in the minds of the Canaanites. Had these rules been faithfully observed, there would probably have been constant outbreaks of hostility, terminating in the further and more rapid extermination of the enemies of Israel, or else in their absolute submission to Israelite law. Thus the entire conquest might have been completed in a comparatively short time.

The manner of the ancient conquest may be taken to illustrate a spiritual truth. In the Christian warfare, not only may many battles against sin remain to be fought, even after years of warfare, but there may also be much territory of truth yet to be occupied. We have not yet secured all the sacred knowledge which God would teach us from His Word, and which would be profitable for us. Many Christians are in danger of relying on the conquests of some “Joshua,” rather than making fresh explorations for themselves in the unexplored mines of truth.