GOD PROTECTS HIS PEOPLE:
Keil
and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
Appearance and Message of the Angel of the Lord. - Joshua 5:13-15. When
Joshua was by Jericho, בּיריחו, lit., in Jericho (בּ expressing immediate
proximity, the entrance as it were into some other object, vid., Ewald, 217), -
that is to say, inside it in thought, meditating upon the conquest of it-he saw,
on lifting up his eyes, a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his
hand; and on going up to him, and asking, "Dost thou belong to us or to our
enemies?" he received this reply: "Nay (לא is not to be altered into לו, which
is the reading adopted in the Sept., Syr., and a few MSS), but I am the prince
of the army of Jehovah; now I am come." The person who had appeared neither
belonged to the Israelites nor to their enemies, but was the prince of the army
of Jehovah, i.e., of the angels. "The Lord's host" does not mean "the people of
Israel, who were just at the commencement of their warlike enterprise," as v.
Hofmann supposes; for although the host of Israel who came out of Egypt are
called "the hosts of the Lord" in Exodus 12:41, the
Israelites are never called the host or army of Jehovah (in the singular). "The
host of Jehovah" is synonymous with "the host of heaven" (1 Kings 22:19), and signifies the
angels, as in Psalm 148:2 and Psalm 103:21. With the words "now I
am come," the prince of the angels is about to enter upon an explanation of the
object of his coming; but he is interrupted in his address by Joshua, who falls
down before him, and says, "What saith my lord to his servant?" so that now he
first of all commands Joshua to take off his shoes, as the place on which he
stands is holy. It by no means follows that because Joshua fell down upon the
ground and ישׁתּחוּ (Eng. Ver. "did worship"), he must have recognised him at
once as the angel of the Lord who was equal with God; for the word השׁתּחוה,
which is connected with the falling down, does not always mean divine worship,
but very frequently means nothing more than the deep Oriental reverence paid by
a dependant to his superior or king (e.g., 2 Samuel 9:6; 2 Samuel 14:33), and Joshua did
not address the person who appeared to him by the name of God, אדני, but simply
as אדני, "My lord." In any case, however, Joshua regarded him at once as a
superior being, i.e., an angel. And he must have recognised him as something
more than a created angel of superior rank, that is to say, as the angel of
Jehovah who is essentially equal with God, the visible revealer of the invisible
God, as soon as he gave him the command to take off his shoes, etc. - a command
which would remind him of the appearance of God to Moses in the burning bush,
and which implied that the person who now appeared was the very person who had
revealed himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (On the
meaning of the command to take off the shoes, see the exposition of Exodus 3:5.) The object of the divine
appearance was indicated by the drawn sword in the hand (cf. Numbers 22:31), by which he
manifested himself as a heavenly warrior, or, as he describes himself to Joshua,
as prince of the army of Jehovah. The drawn sword contained in itself this
practical explanation: "I am now come with my heavenly army, to make war upon
the Canaanites, and to assist thee and thy people" (Seb. Schmidt). It was not in
a vision that this appearance took place, but it was an actual occurrence
belonging to the external world; for Joshua saw the man with the drawn sword at
a certain distance from himself, and went up to him to address him, - a fact
which would be perfectly incompatible with an inward vision.
Geneva Study Bible
http://bible.cc/joshua/5-13.htm
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