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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J O S H U A
CHAP. XXIV.
This chapter concludes the life and reign of Joshua, in which we have,
I. The great care and pains he took to confirm the people of Israel in
the true faith and worship of God, that they might, after his death,
persevere therein. In order to this he called another general assembly
of the heads of the congregation of Israel
(ver. 1)
and dealt with them.
1. By way of narrative, recounting the great things God had done for
them and their fathers,
2. By way of charge to them, in consideration thereof, to serve God,
3. By way of treaty with them, wherein he aims to bring them,
(1.) To make religion their deliberate choice; and they did so, with
reasons for their choice,
(2.) To make it their determinate choice, and to resolve to adhere to
it,
4. By way of covenant upon that treaty,
II. The conclusion of this history, with,
1. The death and burial of Joshua
and Eleazar
(ver. 33),
and the mention of the burial of Joseph’s bones upon that occasion,
2. A general account of the state of Israel at that time,
| Joshua’s Farewell Address to Israel. | B. C. 1427. |
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1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and
called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for
their judges, and for their officers; and they presented
themselves before God.
2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God
of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in
old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of
Nachor: and they served other gods.
3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the
flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and
multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau
mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down
into Egypt.
5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according
to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the
sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots
and horsemen unto the Red sea.
7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between
you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered
them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye
dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt
on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave
them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I
destroyed them from before you.
9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred
against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to
curse you:
10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed
you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.
11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men
of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the
Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from
before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with
thy sword, nor with thy bow.
13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and
cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards
and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and
in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the
other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
Joshua thought he had taken his last farewell of Israel in the solemn
charge he gave them in the foregoing chapter, when he said, I go the
way of all the earth; but God graciously continuing his life longer
than expected, and renewing his strength, he was desirous to improve it
for the good of Israel. He did not say, “I have taken my leave of them
once, and let that serve;” but, having yet a longer space given him, he
summons them together again, that he might try what more he could do to
engage them for God. Note, We must never think our work for God done
till our life is done; and, if he lengthen out our days beyond what we
thought, we must conclude it is because he has some further service for
us to do.
The assembly is the same with that in the foregoing chapter, the
elders, heads, judges, and officers of Israel,
v. 1.
But it is here made somewhat more solemn than it was there.
I. The place appointed for their meeting is Shechem, not only
because that lay nearer to Joshua than Shiloh, and therefore more
convenient now that he was infirm and unfit for travelling, but because
it was the place where Abraham, the first trustee of God’s covenant
with this people, settled at his coming to Canaan, and where God
appeared to him
and near which stood mounts Gerizim and Ebal, where the people had
renewed their covenant with God at their first coming into Canaan,
Of the promises God had made to their fathers, and of the promises they
themselves had made to God, this place might serve to put them in
mind.
II. They presented themselves not only before Joshua, but before God,
in this assembly, that is, they came together in a solemn religious
manner, as into the special presence of God, and with an eye to his
speaking to them by Joshua; and it is probable the service began with
prayer. It is the conjecture of interpreters that upon this great
occasion Joshua ordered the ark of God to be brought by the priests to
Shechem, which, they say, was about ten miles from Shiloh, and to be
set down in the place of their meeting, which is therefore called
(v. 26)
the sanctuary of the Lord, the presence of the ark making it so
at that time; and this was done to grace the solemnity, and to strike
an awe upon the people that attended. We have not now any such sensible
tokens of the divine presence, but are to believe that where two or
three are gathered together in Christ’s name he is as really in the
midst of them as God was where the ark was, and they are indeed
presenting themselves before him.
III. Joshua spoke to them in God’s name, and as from him, in the
language of a prophet
(v. 2):
“Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah, the great God, and the God of
Israel, your God in covenant, whom therefore you are bound to hear and
give heed to.” Note, The word of God is to be received by us as his,
whoever is the messenger that brings it, whose greatness cannot add to
it, nor his meanness diminish from it. His sermon consists of doctrine
and application.
1. The doctrinal part is a history of the great things God had done for
his people, and for their fathers before them. God by Joshua recounts
the marvels of old: “I did so and so.” They must know and consider, not
only that such and such things were done, but that God did them. It is
a series of wonders that is here recorded, and perhaps many more were
mentioned by Joshua, which for brevity’s sake are here omitted. See
what God had wrought.
(1.) He brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees,
He and his ancestors had served other gods there, for it was the
country in which, though celebrated for learning, idolatry, as some
think, had its rise; there the world by wisdom knew not God.
Abraham, who afterwards was the friend of God and the great favourite
of heaven, was bred up in idolatry, and lived long in it, till God by
his grace snatched him as a brand out of that burning. Let them
remember that rock out of which they were hewn, and not relapse into
that sin from which their fathers by a miracle of free grace were
delivered. “I took him,” says God, “else he had never come out of that
sinful state.” Hence Abraham’s justification is made by the apostle an
instance of God’s justifying the ungodly,
Rom. iv. 5.
(2.) He brought him to Canaan, and built up his family, led him through
the land to Shechem, where they now were, multiplied his seed by
Ishmael, who begat twelve princes, but at last gave him Isaac the
promised son, and in him multiplied his seed. When Isaac had two sons,
Jacob and Esau, God provided an inheritance for Esau elsewhere in Mount
Seir, that the land of Canaan might be reserved entire for the seed of
Jacob, and the posterity of Esau might not pretend to a share in it.
(3.) He delivered the seed of Jacob out of Egypt with a high hand
(v. 5, 6),
and rescued them out of the hands of Pharaoh and his host at the Red
Sea,
The same waters were the Israelites’ guard and the Egyptians’ grave,
and this in answer to prayer; for, though we find in the story that
they in that distress murmured against God
notice is here taken of their crying to God; he graciously
accepted those that prayed to him, and overlooked the folly of those
that quarrelled with him.
(4.) He protected them in the wilderness, where they are here said, not
to wander, but to dwell for a long season,
v. 7.
So wisely were all their motions directed, and so safely were they
kept, that even there they had as certain a dwelling-place as if they
had been in a walled city.
(5.) He gave them the land of the Amorites, on the other side Jordan
(v. 8),
and there defeated the plot of Balak and Balaam against them, so that
Balaam could not curse them as he desired, and therefore Balak durst
not fight them as he designed, and as, because he designed it, he is
here said to have done it. The turning of Balaam’s tongue to bless
Israel, when he intended to curse them, is often mentioned as an
instance of the divine power put forth in Israel’s favour as remarkable
as any, because in it God proved (and does still, more than we are
aware of) his dominion over the powers of darkness, and over the
spirits of men.
(6.) He brought them safely and triumphantly into Canaan, delivered the
Canaanites into their hand
(v. 11),
sent hornets before them, when they were actually engaged in
battle with the enemy, which with their stings tormented them and with
their noise terrified them, so that they became a very easy prey to
Israel. These dreadful swarms first appeared in their war with Sihon
and Og, the two kings of the Amorites, and afterwards in their other
battles,
God had promised to do this for them,
And here Joshua takes notice of the fulfilling of that promise. See
Exod. xxiii. 27, 28; Deut. vii. 20.
These hornets, it should seem, annoyed the enemy more than the
artillery of Israel, and therefore he adds, not with thy sword nor
bow. It was purely the Lord’s doing. Lastly, They were now
in the peaceable possession of a good land, and lived comfortably upon
the fruit of other people’s labours,
2. The application of this history of God’s mercies to them is by way
of exhortation to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and
that it might be continued to them,
Now therefore, in consideration of all this,
(1.) “Fear the Lord, the Lord and his goodness,
Reverence a God of such infinite power, fear to offend him and to
forfeit his goodness, keep up an awe of his majesty, a deference to his
authority, a dread of his displeasure, and a continual regard to his
all-seeing eye upon you.”
(2.) “Let your practice be consonant to this principle, and serve him
both by the outward acts of religious worship and every instance of
obedience in your whole conversation, and this in sincerity and
truth, with a single eye and an upright heart, and inward
impressions answerable to outward expressions.” This is the truth in
the inward part, which God requires,
For what good will it do us to dissemble with a God that searches the
heart?
(3.) Put away the strange gods, both Chaldean and Egyptian
idols, for those they were most in danger of revolting to. It should
seem by this charge, which is repeated
(v. 23),
that there were some among them that privately kept in their closets
the images or pictures of these dunghill-deities, which came to their
hands from their ancestors, as heir-looms of their families, though, it
may be, they did not worship them; these Joshua earnestly urges them to
throw away: “Deface them, destroy them, lest you be tempted to serve
them.” Jacob pressed his household to do this, and at this very place;
for, when they gave him up the little images they had, he buried them
under the oak which was by Shechem,
Gen. xxxv. 2, 4.
Perhaps the oak mentioned here
(v. 26)
was the same oak, or another in the same place, which might be well
called the oak of reformation, as there were idolatrous
oaks.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you
this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of
the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house,
we will serve the LORD.
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should
forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our
fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and
which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all
the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we
passed:
18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even
the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also
serve the LORD; for he is our God.
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD:
for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not
forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will
turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done
you good.
21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the
LORD.
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against
yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And
they said, We are witnesses.
23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which
are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of
Israel.
24 And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we
serve, and his voice will we obey.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set
them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God,
and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that
was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone
shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of
the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness
unto you, lest ye deny your God.
28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his
inheritance.
Never was any treaty carried on with better management, nor brought to
a better issue, than this of Joshua with the people, to engage them to
serve God. The manner of his dealing with them shows him to have been
in earnest, and that his heart was much upon it, to leave them under
all possible obligations to cleave to him, particularly the obligation
of a choice and of a covenant.
I. Would it be any obligation upon them if they made the service of God
their choice?–he here puts them to their choice, not as if it were
antecedently indifferent whether they served God or nor, or as if they
were at liberty to refuse his service, but because it would have a
great influence upon their perseverance in religion if they embraced it
with the reason of men and with the resolution of men. These two things
he here brings them to.
1. He brings them to embrace their religion rationally and
intelligently, for it is a reasonable service. The will of man is apt
to glory in its native liberty, and, in a jealousy for the honour of
this, adheres with most pleasure to that which is its own choice and is
not imposed upon it; therefore it is God’s will that this service
should be, not our chance, or a force upon us, but our choice.
Accordingly,
(1.) Joshua fairly puts the matter to their choice,
Here,
[1.] He proposes the candidates that stand for the election. The Lord,
Jehovah, on one side, and on the other side either the gods of their
ancestors, which would pretend to recommend themselves to those that
were fond of antiquity, and that which was received by tradition from
their fathers, or the gods of their neighbours, the Amorites, in
whose land they dwelt, which would insinuate themselves into the
affections of those that were complaisant and fond of good fellowship.
[2.] He supposes there were those to whom, upon some account or other,
it would seem evil to serve the Lord. There are prejudices and
objections which some people raise against religion, which, with those
that are inclined to the world and the flesh, have great force. It
seems evil to them, hard and unreasonable, to be obliged to deny
themselves, mortify the flesh, take up their cross, &c. But, being in a
state of probation, it is fit there should be some difficulties in the
way, else there were no trial.
[3.] He refers it to themselves: “Choose you whom you will
serve, choose this day, now that the matter is laid thus plainly
before you, speedily bring it to a head, and do not stand hesitating.”
Elijah, long after this, referred the decision of the controversy
between Jehovah and Baal to the consciences of those with whom he was
treating,
Joshua’s putting the matter here to this issue plainly intimates two
things:–First, That it is the will of God we should every one
of us make religion our serious and deliberate choice. Let us state the
matter impartially to ourselves, weigh things in an even balance, and
then determine for that which we find to be really true and good. Let
us resolve upon a life of serious godliness, not merely because we know
no other way, but because really, upon search, we find no better.
Secondly, That religion has so much self-evident reason and
righteousness on its side that it may safely be referred to every man
that allows himself a free thought either to choose or refuse it; for
the merits of the cause are so plain that no considerate man can do
otherwise but choose it. The case is so clear that it determines
itself. Perhaps Joshua designed, by putting them to their choice, thus
to try if there were any among them who, upon so fair an occasion
given, would show a coolness and indifference towards the service of
God, whether they would desire time to consider and consult their
friends before they gave in an answer, and if any such should appear he
might set a mark upon them, and warn the rest to avoid them.
[4.] He directs their choice in this matter by an open declaration of
his own resolutions: “But as for me and my house, whatever you
do, we will serve the Lord, and I hope you will all be of the
same mind.” Here he resolves, First, For himself: As for me,
I will serve the Lord. Note, The service of God is nothing below
the greatest of men; it is so far from being a diminution and
disparagement to princes and those of the first rank to be religious
that it is their greatest honour, and adds the brightest crown of glory
to them. Observe how positive he is: “I will serve God.” It is no
abridgment of our liberty to bind ourselves with a bond to God.
Secondly, For his house, that is, his family, his
children and servants, such as were immediately under his eye and care,
his inspection and influence. Joshua was a ruler, a judge in Israel,
yet he did not make his necessary application to public affairs an
excuse for the neglect of family religion. Those that have the charge
of many families, as magistrates and ministers, must take special care
of their own
I and my house will serve God.
1. “Not my house, without me.” He would not engage them to that work
which he would not set his own hand to. As some who would have their
children and servants good, but will not be so themselves; that is,
they would have them go to heaven, but intend to go to hell themselves.
2. “Not I, without my house.” He supposes he might be forsaken by his
people, but in his house, where his authority was greater and more
immediate, there he would over-rule. Note, When we cannot bring as
many as we would to the service of God we must bring as many as we can,
and extend our endeavours to the utmost sphere of our activity; if we
cannot reform the land, let us put away iniquity far from our own
tabernacle.
3. “First I, and then my house.” Note, Those that lead and rule in
other things should be first in the service of God, and go before in
the best things. Thirdly, He resolves to do this whatever others
did. Though all the families of Israel should revolt from God, and
serve idols, yet Joshua and his family will stedfastly adhere to the
God of Israel. Note, Those that resolve to serve God must not mind
being singular in it, nor be drawn by the crowd to forsake his service.
Those that are bound for heaven must be willing to swim against the
stream, and must not do as the most do, but as the best do.
(2.) The matter being thus put to their choice, they immediately
determine it by a free, rational, and intelligent declaration, for the
God of Israel, against all competitors whatsoever,
Here,
[1.] They concur with Joshua in his resolution, being influenced by the
example of so great a man, who had been so great a blessing to them
(v. 18):
We also will serve the Lord. See how much good great men might
do, if they were but zealous in religion, by their influence on their
inferiors.
[2.] They startle at the thought of apostatizing from God
(v. 16):
God forbid; the word intimates the greatest dread and
detestation imaginable. “Far be it, far be it from us, that we or ours
should ever forsake the Lord to serve other gods. We must be
perfectly lost to all sense of justice, gratitude, and honour, ere we
can harbour the least thought of such a thing.” Thus must our hearts
rise against all temptations to desert the service of God. Get thee
behind me, Satan.
[3.] They give very substantial reasons for their choice, to show that
they did not make it purely in compliance to Joshua, but from a full
conviction of the reasonableness and equity of it. They make this
choice for, and in consideration, First, Of the many great and
very kind things God had done for them, bringing them out of Egypt
through the wilderness into Canaan,
Thus they repeat to themselves Joshua’s sermon, and then express their
sincere compliance with the intentions of it. Secondly, Of the
relation they stood in to God, and his covenant with them: “We will
serve the Lord
(v. 18),
for he is our God, who has graciously engaged himself by promise
to us, and to whom we have by solemn vow engaged ourselves.”
2. He brings them to embrace their religion resolutely, and to express
a full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. Now that he has them in
a good mind he follows his blow, and drives the nail to the head, that
it might, if possible, be a nail in a sure place. Fast bind, fast
find.
(1.) In order to this he sets before them the difficulties of religion,
and that in it which might be thought discouraging
(v. 19, 20):
You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God, or, as it is in
the Hebrew, he is the holy Gods, intimating the mystery of the
Trinity, three in one; holy, holy, holy, holy Father, holy Son,
holy Spirit. He will not forgive. And, if you forsake him, he
will do you hurt. Certainly Joshua does not intend hereby to deter
them from the service of God as impracticable and dangerous. But,
[1.] He perhaps intends to represent here the suggestions of seducers,
who tempted Israel from their God, and from the service of him; with
such insinuations as these, that he was a hard master, his work
impossible to be done, and he not to be pleased, and, if displeased,
implacable and revengeful,–that he would confine their respects to
himself only, and would not suffer them to show the least kindness for
any other,–and that herein he was very unlike the gods of the nations,
which were easy, and neither holy nor jealous. It is probable that this
was then commonly objected against the Jewish religion, as it has all
along been the artifice of Satan every since he tempted our first
parents thus to misrepresent God and his laws, as harsh and severe; and
Joshua by his tone and manner of speaking might make them perceive he
intended it as an objection, and would put it to them how they would
keep their ground against the force of it. Or,
[2.] He thus expresses his godly jealousy over them, and his fear
concerning them, that, notwithstanding the profession they now made of
zeal for God and his service, they would afterwards draw back, and if
they did they would find him just and jealous to avenge it. Or,
[3.] He resolves to let them know the worst of it, and what strict
terms they must expect to stand upon with God, that they might sit down
and count the cost. “You cannot serve the Lord, except you put
away all other gods for he is holy and jealous, and will by no means
admit a rival, and therefore you must be very watchful and careful, for
it is at your peril if you desert his service; better you had never
known it.” Thus, though our Master has assured us that his yoke is
easy, yet lest, upon the presumption of this, we should grow remiss
and careless, he has also told us that the gate is strait, and the way
narrow, that leads to life, that we may therefore strive to enter, and
not seek only. “You cannot serve God and Mammon; therefore, if
you resolve to serve God, you must renounce all competitors with him.
You cannot serve God in your own strength, nor will he forgive your
transgressions for any righteousness of your own; but all the seed
of Israel must be justified and must glory in the Lord alone as their
righteousness and strength,”
They must therefore come off from all confidence in their own
sufficiency, else their purposes would be to no purpose. Or,
[4.] Joshua thus urges on them the seeming discouragements which lay in
their way, that he might sharpen their resolutions, and draw from them
a promise yet more express and solemn that they would continue faithful
to God and their religion. He draws it form them that they might catch
at it the more earnestly and hold it the faster.
(2.) Notwithstanding this statement of the difficulties of religion,
they declare a firm and fixed resolution to continue and persevere
therein
(v. 21):
“Nay, but we will serve the Lord. We will think never the worse
of him for his being a holy and jealous God, nor for his confining his
servants to worship himself only. Justly will he consume those that
forsake him, but we never will forsake him; not only we have a good
mind to serve him, and we hope we shall, but we are at a point, we
cannot bear to hear any entreaties to leave him or to turn from
following after him
(Ruth i. 16);
in the strength of divine grace we are resolved that we will serve the
Lord.” This resolution they repeat with an explication
(v. 24):
“The Lord our God will we serve, not only be called his servants
and wear his livery, but our religion shall rule us in every thing,
and his voice will we obey.” And in vain do we call him
Master and Lord, if we do not the things which he saith,
Luke vi. 46.
This last promise they make in answer to the charge Joshua gave them
(v. 23),
that, in order to their perseverance, they should,
[1.] Put away the images and relics of the strange gods, and not keep
any of the tokens of those other lovers in their custody, if they
resolved their Maker should be their husband; they promise, in
this, to obey his voice.
[2.] That they should incline their hearts to the God of Israel,
use their authority over their own hearts to engage them for God, not
only to set their affections upon him, but to settle them so. These
terms they agree to, and thus, as Joshua explains the bargain, they
strike it: The Lord our God will we serve.
II. The service of God being thus made their deliberate choice, Joshua
binds them to it by a solemn covenant,
Moses had twice publicly ratified this covenant between God and Israel,
at Mount Sinai
and in the plains of Moab,
Joshua had likewise done it once
&c.) and now the second time. It is here called a
statute and an ordinance, because of the strength and
perpetuity of its obligation, and because even this covenant bound them
to no more than what they were antecedently bound to by the divine
command. Now, to give it the formalities of a covenant,
1. He calls witnesses, no other than themselves
(v. 22):
You are witnesses that you have chosen the Lord. He promises
himself that they would never forget the solemnities of this day; but,
if hereafter they should break this covenant, he assures them that the
professions and promises they had now made would certainly rise up in
judgment against them and condemn them; and they agreed to it: “We
are witnesses; let us be judged out of our own mouths if ever we be
false to our God.”
2. He put it in writing, and inserted it, as we find it here, in the
sacred canon: He wrote it in the book of the law
(v. 26),
in that original which was laid up in the side of the ark, and thence,
probably, it was transcribed into the several copies which the princes
had for the use of each tribe. There it was written, that their
obligation to religion by the divine precept, and that by their own
promise, might remain on record together.
3. He erected a memorandum of it, for the benefit of those who perhaps
were not conversant with writings,
He set up a great stone under an oak, as a monument of this
covenant, and perhaps wrote an inscription upon it (by which stones are
made to speak) signifying the intention of it. When he says, It hath
heard what was past, he tacitly upbraids the people with the
hardness of their hearts, as if this stone had heard to as good purpose
as some of them; and, if they should forget what was no done, this
stone would so far preserve the remembrance of it as to reproach them
for their stupidity and carelessness, and be a witness against
them.
The matter being thus settled, Joshua dismissed this assembly of the
grandees of Israel
(v. 28),
and took his last leave of them, well satisfied in having done his
part, by which he had delivered his soul; if they perished, their blood
would be upon their own heads.
| The Death of Joshua. | B. C. 1427. |
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29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son
of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being a hundred and ten
years old.
30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in
Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of
the hill of Gaash.
31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all
the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known
all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel
brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of
ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of
Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver: and it became the
inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a
hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in
mount Ephraim.
This book, which began with triumphs, here ends with funerals, by which
all the glory of man is stained. We have here
1. The burial of Joseph,
He died about 200 years before in Egypt, but gave commandment
concerning his bones, that they should not rest in their grave
until Israel had rest in the land of promise; now therefore the
children of Israel, who had brought this coffin full of bones with them
out of Egypt, carried it along with them in all their marches through
the wilderness (the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, it is probable,
taking particular care of it), and kept it in their camp till Canaan
was perfectly reduced, now at last they deposited it in that piece of
ground which his father gave him near Shechem,
Probably it was upon this occasion that Joshua called for all Israel to
meet him at Shechem
(v. 1),
to attend Joseph’s coffin to the grave there, so that the sermon in
this chapter served both for Joseph’s funeral sermon and his own
farewell sermon; and if it was, as is supposed, in the last year of his
life, the occasion might very well remind him of his own death being at
hand, for he was not just at the same age that his illustrious ancestor
Joseph had arrived at when he died, 110 years old; compare
with
2. The death and burial of Joshua,
We are not told how long he lived after the coming of Israel into
Canaan. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was about seventeen years; but the
Jewish chronologers generally say it was about twenty-seven or
twenty-eight years. He is here called the servant of the Lord,
the same title that was given to Moses
(ch. i. 1)
when mention was made of his death; for, though Joshua was in many
respects inferior to Moses, yet in this he was equal to him, that,
according as his work was, he approved himself a diligent and faithful
servant of God. And he that traded with his two talents had the same
approbation that he had who traded with his five. Well done, good
and faithful servant. Joshua’s burying-place is here said to be
on the north side of the hill Gaash, or the quaking hill;
the Jews say it was so called because it trembled at the burial of
Joshua, to upbraid the people of Israel with their stupidity in that
they did not lament the death of that great and good man as they ought
to have done. Thus at the death of Christ, our Joshua, the earth
quaked. The learned bishop Patrick observes that there is no mention of
any days of mourning being observed for Joshua, as there were for Moses
and Aaron, in which, he says, St. Hierom and others of the fathers
think there is a mystery, namely, that under the law, when life and
immortality were not brought to so clear a light as they are now, they
had reason to mourn and weep for the death of their friends; but now
that Jesus, our Joshua, has opened the kingdom of heaven, we may rather
rejoice.
3. The death and burial of Eleazar the chief priest, who, it is
probable, died about the same time that Joshua did, as Aaron in the
same year with Moses,
The Jews say that Eleazar, a little before he died, called the elders
together, and gave them a charge as Joshua had done. He was buried in
a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which came to him, not by
descent, for then it would have pertained to his father first, nor had
the priests any cities in Mount Ephraim, but either it fell to him by
marriage, as the Jews conjecture, or it was freely bestowed upon him,
to build a country seat on, by some pious Israelite that was
well-affected to the priesthood, for it is here said to have been
given him; and there he buried his dear father.
4. A general idea given us of the state of Israel at this time,
While Joshua lived, religion was kept up among them under his care and
influence; but soon after he and his contemporaries died it went to
decay, so much oftentimes does one head hold up: how well is it for the
gospel church that Christ, our Joshua, is still with it, by his Spirit,
and will be always, even unto the end of the world!
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