Joshua 24:1

XXIV. (b) JOSHUA’S LAST CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. (1, 2) Joshua gathered all the tribes . . .—At the former address the rulers alone appear to have been present; on this occasion all Israel was gathered. And what is spoken is addressed to the people in the hearing of the rulers. In the speech that now follows Joshua briefly recapitulates the national history; he had not thought this necessary for the rulers. To them he had said, “Ye know;” but “the people” embraced many persons of but little thought and education, whom it was necessary to inform and remind and instruct, even as to the leading events of their national history. The simple lesson which Joshua’s words are intended to enforce is the duty of serving Jehovah, and serving Him alone. It is the first great lesson of the old covenant. “I am Jehovah, thy God; thou shalt have no other gods beside Me.” The ark of this covenant had brought them over Jordan into the promised land. (2) Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood.—The flood, i.e., the river—probably Euphrates, though it may be Jordan, or both. Flood in our English Bible has been used for river in several places: e.g., Job 22:16, “whose foundation was overflown with a flood,” i.e., a river; Psalm 66:6, “He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood (the river, i.e., Jordan) on foot;” Matthew 7:25; Matthew 7:27, “The rain descended, and the floods (i.e., the rivers) came.” They served other gods.—They, i.e., Terah, Abraham, and Nachor.

Joshua 24:1 . Joshua gathered — It is likely that Joshua, living longer than he expected when he delivered the foregoing discourse to the Israelites, called the people together once more, that he might give them still further advice before he died; as Moses addressed them in several pathetic speeches before his departure from them. Or perhaps it was Joshua’s custom to assemble them frequently, in order that he might remind them of their duty, and enforce it upon them. All the tribes of Israel — Namely, their representatives, or, as it follows, their elders, their heads, their judges, and officers. To Shechem — To the city of Shechem, a place convenient for the purpose, not only because it was a Levitical city, and a city of refuge, and a place near Joshua’s city, but especially for the two main ends for which he summoned them thither. 1st, For the solemn burial of the bones of Joseph, and probably of some others of the patriarchs, for which this place was designed. 2d, For the solemn renewing of their covenant with God; which in this place was first made between God and Abraham, ( Genesis 12:6-7 ,) and afterward renewed by the Israelites at their first entrance into the land of Canaan, between the two mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, (chap. Joshua 8:30 , &c.,) which were very near Shechem: and therefore this place was most proper, both to remind them of their former obligations to God, and to engage them to a further ratification of them.

Before God — As in God’s presence, to hear what Joshua was to speak to them in God’s name, and to receive God’s commands from his mouth. He had taken a solemn farewell before: but as God renewed his strength, he desired to improve it for their good. We must never think our work for God done till our life be done.

Ch. Joshua 24:1-15 . The Second Parting Address 1 . And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel ] that they might listen to his last charge, and be bound by his parting words to an everlasting covenant of faithfulness to the God who had done such great things for them. The former charge had been made to the rulers only and the chiefs, this was addressed to the whole nation. Not that the whole nation was present, but that all the tribes sent representatives to the great and solemn gathering. to Shechem ] The LXX. here has Shiloh, but all other versions and the MSS. read Shechem .

No spot could have been more appropriate:— ( a ) Here Abraham, “the solitary, childless patriarch, who had listened to the voice that spake at Ur of the Chaldees,” received the first recorded promise of the goodly land ( Genesis 12:6-7 ), and here he built his first altar to the Lord; ( b ) Here Jacob had settled after his long sojourn in Mesopotamia, and purified his household from the remains of idolatry by burying their Teraphim under an oak ( Genesis 33:18-20 ; Genesis 35:2 ; Genesis 35:4 ); ( c ) Here the bones of Joseph were laid ( Joshua 24:32 ; Acts 7:16 ); ( d ) Here, from the heights of Ebal and Gerizim, die blessings and curses of the Law had been solemnly enunciated, and the nation had already bound itself by a covenant to Jehovah ( Joshua 8:30-35 ). and they presented themselves before God ] We saw in Joshua 8:31 that the Hebrew Leader raised an altar on Mount Ebal “of whole stones,” where sacrifices were offered before the building of the Tabernacle. Shechem was thus truly a “sanctuary of the Lord” ( Joshua 24:26 ), and those now assembled there were gathered “before God;” comp. Job 1:6 ; Job 2:1 , or, as it is in the Hebrew, with the article, “the God,” the only true and living Elohim . “How grand a gathering it was!

And Joshua gathered all the {a} 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 {b} God. (a) That is, the nine tribes and the half. (b) Before the ark which was brought to Shechem, when they went to bury Joseph's bones.

CHAPTER 24 Jos 24:1. Joshua Assembling the Tribes. 1. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem—Another and final opportunity of dissuading the people against idolatry is here described as taken by the aged leader, whose solicitude on this account arose from his knowledge of the extreme readiness of the people to conform to the manners of the surrounding nations. This address was made to the representatives of the people convened at Shechem, and which had already been the scene of a solemn renewal of the covenant (Jos 8:30, 35). The transaction now to be entered upon being in principle and object the same, it was desirable to give it all the solemn impressiveness which might be derived from the memory of the former ceremonial, as well as from other sacred associations of the place (Ge 12:6, 7; 33:18-20; 35:2-4). they presented themselves before God—It is generally assumed that the ark of the covenant had been transferred on this occasion to Shechem; as on extraordinary emergencies it was for a time removed (Jud 20:1-18; 1Sa 4:3; 2Sa 15:24). But the statement, not necessarily implying this, may be viewed as expressing only the religious character of the ceremony [Hengstenberg].Joshua assemble all the tribes at Shechem, Joshua 24:1. A brief history of God’s benefits from Terah: he exhorts them faithfully to serve the true God, Joshua 24:2-13.

Reneweth a covenant between them and God; promising for himself and his house; the people four several times promising for themselves, Joshua 24:11-25. He writes this in the book of the law, and sets up a stone for a witness, Joshua 24:26-28. His age, death, and burial, Joshua 24:29-31. The burying of Joseph’s bones, Joshua 24:32. The death and burial of Eleazar, Joshua 24:33. Gathered all the tribes of Israel, to wit, by their representatives, as Joshua 23:2. To Shechem; either, 1. To Shiloh, where the ark and tabernacle was; because they are here said to present themselves before God; and because the stone set up here is said to be set up in or by the sanctuary of the Lord; of both which I shall speak in their proper places. And they say Shiloh is here called Shechem, because it was in the territory of Shechem; but that may be doubted, seeing Shiloh was ten miles distant from Shechem, as St. Jerom affirms. And had he meant Shiloh, why should he not express it in its own and proper name, by which it is called in all other places, rather than by another name no where else given to it? Or rather, 2. To the city of Shechem, a place convenient for the present purpose, not only because it was a Levitical city, and a city of refuge, and a place near to Joshua’s city, but especially for the two main ends for which he summoned them thither. 1.

Shechem, situated between those mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, which had already been the scene of a solemn rehearsal of the covenant soon after the first entry of the people into the promised land Joshua 8:30-35 , was a fitting scene for the solemn renewal on the part of the people of that covenant with God which had been on His part so signally and so fully kept. The spot itself suggested the allusions to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc., in Joshua's address; and its associations could not but give special force and moving effect to his appeals. This address was not made to the rulers only but to the whole nation, not of course to the tribes assembled in mass, but to their representatives.