And Joshua made them that day,.... Constituted and appointed them, ordered and settled them, in the post and office after mentioned; or "gave" them ; hence some think they had the name Nethinim, persons given to the Levites for the service of the sanctuary: namely, to behewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord; some think they were employed both for the service of the congregation, when they wanted wood and water, and for the altar, and what belonged to it, that needed both.
Abarbinel supposes that they served the congregation while they were engaged in war, and subduing the land, but after the division of the land they only served the sanctuary; See Gill on "Jos 9:21";even unto this day in the place which he should choose; to have the tabernacle pitched, and the altar set up therein, as it was in various places, before the temple built by Solomon at Jerusalem, which was the place the Lord chose; and this shows that the writer of this book lived before the building of the temple, or otherwise it, is highly probable he would have expressly mentioned it; whereas he uses only the phrase that Moses frequently expressed it by in his time; see De 12:5.
Mntyw "deditque eos", Montanus. Vatablus, Drusius.