Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess.
1. Now Joshua was old, etc The words, “old and stricken in years,” do not contain a tautology, but accurately express the period of life according to a division which was long familiar to the Jews, and may have been not unknown to them even at this early period.
God reminds Joshua of his age so he will quicken to finish his work and prepare for death approaching apace. Gray hairs steal upon a man unnoticed; he needs to be told of them. Old age brings evil days with little strength left, and it was enough that Joshua had reduced the body of the country.
AI summary
Commenting on Joshua 13:1-6
Now Joshua was old, and stricken in years,.... How old he was cannot be said precisely, but it is very probable he was now about an hundred years of age, for he lived to be an hundred ten; and the land of Canaan was seven years in dividing, as the Jews generally say, and it seems as if he did not live long after that...