Wesley Corpus

Into Egypt - Where they long lived in grievous bondage; which God having delivered us from, I shall now pass it over. Your eyes - He speaketh this to the elders, ver.1, who were so, not only by power and dignity, but many of them by age; and there being now not sixty years past since those Egyptian plagues, it is very probable that a considerable number of those present, had seen those things in Egypt, and being not twenty years old, were exempted from that dreadful sentence passed upon all who were older, Numb 14:29. Balak warred - Balak warred, tho' not by open force, yet by crafty counsel and warlike stratagems, by wicked devices. Unto Balaam - Who hereby appears to have desired of God leave to curse Israel; and therefore it is not strange, that God who permitted him simply to go, was highly angry with him for going with so wicked an intent, Numb 22:20,22,32. Delivered you - That is, from Balak's malicious design against you. Deliver them - Namely, successively; for in these few words he seems to comprise all their wars, which being so fresh in their memory, he thought it needless particularly to mention. Sent the hornet - When they were actually engaged in battle with the Canaanites. These dreadful swarms which first appeared in their war with Sihon and Og, tormented them with their stings and terrified them with their noise, so that they became an easy prey to Israel. God had promised to do this for them, Exod 23:27,28, and here Joshua observes the fulfilling the promise. The gods - Whereby it appears, that although Joshua had doubtless prevented and purged out all public idolatry, yet there were some of them who practised it in their private houses and retirements. Your fathers - Terah, and Nahor, and Abraham, as ver.2, and other of your ancestors. In Egypt - See Ezek 23:3,8,19,21,27.