Judges 2:8

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) The servant of the Lord.—Deuteronomy 34:5 (Moses); Psalms 18 (David); 2Timothy 2:24 (ministers in general), &c.

An hundred and ten years old.—The same age as Joseph (Genesis 1:26). Moses attained the age of 120 (Deuteronomy 34:7), Jacob, of 130 (Genesis 47:9), Isaac, of 180 (Genesis 35:28).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:6-23 We have a general idea of the course of things in Israel, during the time of the Judges. The nation made themselves as mean and miserable by forsaking God, as they would have been great and happy if they had continued faithful to him. Their punishment answered to the evil they had done. They served the gods of the nations round about them, even the meanest, and God made them serve the princes of the nations round about them, even the meanest. Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings. He might in justice have abandoned them, but he could not for pity do it. The Lord was with the judges when he raised them up, and so they became saviours. In the days of the greatest distress of the church, there shall be some whom God will find or make fit to help it. The Israelites were not thoroughly reformed; so mad were they upon their idols, and so obstinately bent to backslide. Thus those who have forsaken the good ways of God, which they have once known and professed, commonly grow most daring and desperate in sin, and have their hearts hardened. Their punishment was, that the Canaanites were spared, and so they were beaten with their own rod. Men cherish and indulge their corrupt appetites and passions; therefore God justly leaves them to themselves, under the power of their sins, which will be their ruin. God has told us how deceitful and desperately wicked our hearts are, but we are not willing to believe it, until by making bold with temptation we find it true by sad experience. We need to examine how matters stand with ourselves, and to pray without ceasing, that we may be rooted and grounded in love, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. Let us declare war against every sin, and follow after holiness all our days.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The servant of the Lord - This is a title especially given to Moses Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 1:1. In later books, the phrase "the servant of God" is used 1 Chronicles 6:49; Nehemiah 10:29; Daniel 9:11; Revelation 15:3. It is applied to Joshua only here and in Joshua 24:29. It is spoken of David (Psalm 18, title), and generally of the prophets; and, like the analogous phrase, "man of God," is transferred by Paul to the ministers of Christ under the New Testament 2 Timothy 2:24; James 1:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6-10. And when Joshua had let the people go—This passage is a repetition of Jos 24:29-31. It was inserted here to give the reader the reasons which called forth so strong and severe a rebuke from the angel of the Lord. During the lifetime of the first occupiers, who retained a vivid recollection of all the miracles and judgments which they had witnessed in Egypt and the desert, the national character stood high for faith and piety. But, in course of time, a new race arose who were strangers to all the hallowed and solemnizing experience of their fathers, and too readily yielded to the corrupting influences of the idolatry that surrounded them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died,

being an hundred and ten years old. See Gill on Joshua 24:29.

Geneva Study Bible

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. the servant of the Lord] Though not limited to Moses, this title is most frequently given to him, Deuteronomy 34:5, Joshua 1:1, and often in the Dtc. parts of Joshua. It is now transferred, with the leadership, to Moses’ successor. For Joshua’s age at his death cf. Genesis 50:26.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - An hundred and ten years old. Caleb was eighty-five years old, he tells us (Joshua 14:10), when he went to take possession of Hebron, forty-five years after the spies had searched Canaan from Kadesh-Barnea, and consequently some time in the seventh year of the entrance into Canaan. Joshua was probably within a year or two his contemporary. Judges 2:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The account of this development of the covenant nation, which commenced after the death of Joshua and his contemporaries, is attached to the book of Joshua by a simple repetition of the closing verses of that book (Joshua 24:28-31) in Judges 2:6-10, with a few unimportant differences, not only to form a link between Josha and Judges 2:11, and to resume the thread of the history which was broken off by the summary just given of the results of the wars between the Israelites and Canaanites (Bertheau), but rather to bring out sharply and clearly the contrast between the age that was past and the period of the Israelitish history that was just about to commence. The vav consec. attached to וישׁלּח expresses the order of thought and not of time. The apostasy of the new generation from the Lord (Judges 2:10.) was a necessary consequence of the attitude of Israel to the Canaanites who were left in the land, as described in Judges 1:1-2:5. This thought is indicated by the vav consec. in וישׁלּח; so that the meaning of Judges 2:6. as expressed in our ordinary phraseology would be as follows: Now when Joshua had dismissed the people, and the children of Israel had gone every one to his own inheritance to take possession of the land, the people served the Lord as long as Joshua and the elders who survived him were alive; but when Joshua was dead, and that generation (which was contemporaneous with him) had been gathered to its fathers, there rose up another generation after them which knew not the Lord, and also (knew not) the work which He had done to Israel. On the death and burial of Joshua, see at Joshua 24:29-30. "Gathered unto their fathers" corresponds to "gathered to his people" in the Pentateuch (Genesis 25:8, Genesis 25:17; Genesis 35:29; Genesis 49:29, Genesis 49:33, etc.: see at Genesis 25:8). They "knew not the Lord," sc., from seeing or experiencing His wonderful deeds, which the contemporaries of Joshua and Moses had seen and experienced.

In the general survey of the times of the judges, commencing at Judges 2:11, the falling away of the Israelites from the Lord is mentioned first of all, and at the same time it is distinctly shown how neither the chastisements inflicted upon them by God at the hands of hostile nations, nor the sending of judges to set them free from the hostile oppression, availed to turn them from their idolatry (Judges 2:11-19). This is followed by the determination of God to tempt and chastise the sinful nation by not driving away the remaining Canaanites (Judges 2:20-23); and lastly, the account concludes with an enumeration of the tribes that still remained, and the attitude of Israel towards them (Judges 3:1-6).