In Numbers 11:17, “I will take,” saith God, “of the Spirit, which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee”; that is, upon the seventy elders: whereupon two of the seventy are said to prophesy in the camp; of whom some complained, and Joshua desired Moses to forbid them; which Moses would not do. Whereby it appears, that Joshua knew not that they had received authority so to do, and prophesied according to the mind of Moses, that is to say, by a “spirit,” or “authority” subordinate to his own.

In the like sense we read ( Deut. 34:9), that “Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him”: that is, because he was “ordained” by Moses to prosecute the work he had himself begun, namely, the bringing of God’s people into the promised land, but prevented by death, could not finish.