Joshua 23:13

Jos 23:13 Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out [any of] these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Ver. 13. But they shall be snares and traps unto you.] As the fowler catcheth birds, and the hunter wild beasts in their snares and traps; so shall these Canaanites catch you by their familiarity and commerce, and draw you to participate in their sins and plagues.

And scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes.] They shall by their injuries vex and disquiet you, they shall with sharpest weapons prick and gore your tenderest parts, without mercy or measure.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23:13 will no longer drive them out: If Israel associated with the Canaanite remnant, God would oblige the Israelites by not driving out that remnant. God ultimately gives people what they seek.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Meaning, they shall be a continual grief unto you, and so the cause of your destruction.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 13. They shall be snares] לפח lephach, a net or gin, set by the artful fowler to catch heedless birds.

And traps] מוקש mokesh, any snare, toil, or trap, placed on the ground to catch the unwary traveller or wild beast by the foot.

Scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes] Nothing can be conceived more vexatious and distressing than a continual goad in the side, or thorn in the eye. They will drive you into obedience to their false gods, and put out the eyes of your understandings by their idolatries. And God will preserve them merely to distress and punish you.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. snares] The word thus rendered denotes (i) a net, trap-net, especially of a fowler; (ii) a snare such as seizes and holds beasts or men by the feet. Comp. Job_18:9, “the gin shall take him by the heel;” Jer_18:22, “they have … hid snares for my feet.” The form of this trap-net appears from the passages Amo_3:5, and Psa_69:22. It was in two parts, which, when set, were spread out upon the ground and slightly fastened with a stick, so that as soon as a bird or beast touched the stick, the parts flew up and enclosed the bird in the net, or caught the foot of the animal.

thorns in your eyes] The warnings of Joshua are severer even than those of Moses (Num_33:55), “nowe thanne wite çe that the Lord çoure God do hem not awey before çoure face, but to çow thei shulen be into a diche, and greene, and hurtynge of çoure side and a staak in çoure eyen, to the tyme that he doo çou a wey,” Wyclif.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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" (r); 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, Psa 106:35,

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 Num 33:55. Jarchi interprets this word by camps surrounding them, as shields do the bodies of men, and which is approved of by Gussetius (s):

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.

(r) "sciendo scietis", Montanus; "sciendo scitote", Pagninus, Vatablus. (s) Comment. Ebr. p. 717.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Side. Hebrew, "snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your side." Children and slaves were formerly beaten on this part, Ecclesiasticus xxx. 12., and xlii. 5. Horace (epod. iv.) says, Ibericis peruste funibus latus. The first word St. Jerome seems to have read with th at the end, as peth, means a hole, (Calmet) by which means it was customary to take wild beasts, and to annoy the enemy. (Haydock) --- Septuagint render side, "they shall be nails in your heels."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

They shall be snares and traps unto you: by your indulgence to them, and converse with them, you will be enticed and drawn by degrees into their errors, and impieties, and brutish lusts.

Scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes: when they have inveigled, and seduced, and thereby weakened you, then they will molest and vex you, no less than a severe scourge doth a man’s sides which are lashed by it, or than a small thorn doth the eye when it is got within it.

Until ye perish from off this good land: they shall so persecute you, and fight against you with such success, that you shall be forced to quit your own land, and wander you know not whither; which must needs be very terrible to them to think of, when they compared this present case, and plenty, and safety, with the pains, and weariness, and hazards, and wants of their former wanderings.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Snares, traps, scourges, thorns — This mixing of metaphors vividly portrays the trouble, sudden disaster, wasting captivity, and destruction which idolatry would bring upon their nation.

Until ye perish from off this good land — The Jews are strangers to that land to-day, so wonderfully has God scattered them, and so marvelously has he preserved their nationality in order that they may be a monument of his truthfulness.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Snares and traps. Perhaps, rather, nets and snares. The LXX, where our translation has snare, has pagiv , and for traps has incorrectly skandala . The snare or pach was evidently (Amo_3:5) laid upon the earth; but there is no evidence for Gesenius" idea that the mokesh which follows, there as here, means the stick of the trap, which when displaced involved the bird in the net. As the primary signification of this latter word, which is akin to tvq a bow, seems to mean something curved, it is probably a noose or springe. And the word and its cognates are used of involving, or catching, people by its use. Furst"s Lexicon confirms this view, which has been independently arrived at. Scourges. The Hebrew word is in the singular. It is translated hlouv , nails, in the LXX, and offendiculum in the Vulgate. In your sides. Rather, on your sides. The words here are very similar to those in Num_33:55. Moses, however, does but use two of the similes of which here we have four. He has, moreover, a different word ( for thorns, and the word here translated thorns is there substituted for scourges; "thorns in your sides." Joshua crowds together his similes "to describe the shame, and trouble, and oppression which they would bring upon themselves by joining in the idolatry of the Canaanites" (Keil). The Lord your God. Here, as elsewhere in this and many other passages, we have in the original, Jehovah your God. It is important to remember that the sacred writer is calling the God of Israel by His own proper name, that by which He was distinguished from the gods of the nations round about.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Traps to you - By your converse with them, you will be drawn by degrees into their errors, and impieties, and brutish lusts. Thorns in your eyes - When they have seduced, and thereby weakened you, then they will molest and vex you, no less than a severe scourge doth a man's sides which are lashed by it, or than a small thorn doth the eye when it is got within it. Till ye perish - They shall so persecute you, and fight against, you with such success, that you shall be forced to quit your own land, and wander you know not whither; which must needs be very terrible to them to think of, when they compared this present ease, and plenty and safety, with the pains, and weariness, and hazards, and wants of their former wanderings.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And a goad in your sides. They will prowl around you to loot and ransack.

And thorns. This is an expression of camps. Similarly: “And they will come upon you with camps,” like a shield (צִנָה) that surrounds a person on three sides, as it is said, “As a shield, you encompass him with favor,” תַּעְטְרֶנוּ meaning תְּסוֹבְבֶנוּ, surrounding, similar to “And Shaul and his men surrounded David and his men.” עוֹטְרִים meaning סוֹבְבִים, surrounding.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.