Joshua 21:44

And the Lord gave them rest. LXX . κατέπαυσεν . The student of Scripture will not fail to recall the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews ( Joshua 4:8 ) in which reference is made to this passage, and especially to the LXX . version of it. The word signifies rather rest from wandering than rest from toil, though in some passages (e.g. Exodus 23:12 ; Deuteronomy 5:14 ) it has the latter signification (cf. Deuteronomy 12:10 ). Round about. Or, from round about, i.e; from the assaults of the surrounding nations. According to all that he sware ( Exodus 33:14 ). There stood not a man of all their enemies before them . This was true, as far as the present history is concerned. We read that the Ephraimites did not, or "could not," drive out their enemies, and that the other tribes also failed to obtain complete possession of the land. But

How could it be otherwise? Had the same faith been theirs which caused the Jordan to dry up, and the towers of Jericho to fall down at their march, which discomfited one vast confederacy at Beth-horon, and annihilated another vast confederacy, even better supplied with munitions of war at Lake Merom, they could not have failed to root out the scanty remnant of their humiliated and disheartened foes. As has already been remarked (see Joshua 11:23 , note), it was from no neglect on Joshua's part that this was not done at once, for it had been God's own command that it should not be done, lest the country should become a desert ( Deuteronomy 7:22 ). Calvin concludes a similar argument with the words, "nothing but their own cowardice prevented them from enjoying the blessings of God in all their fulness."