Joshua 24:6

20 If you shall forsake Jehovah, and serve a strange god, he will turn, and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good. 21 And the people answered him, By no means; but we will serve Jehovah. 22 And Joshua said unto the people, You are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen Jehovah, to serve him; and they said, (We are) witnesses. 23 Now therefore take away the strange gods which are in the midst of you, and incline your heart to Jehovah the God of Israel. 24 And the people answered, Jehovah our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. 25 Joshua therefore made a covenant with the people on that day; and held forth to them precept and judgment in Sichem. 26 Joshua wrote those words in the book of the law of God; he also brought a great stone, and placed it there beneath the oak which was in the sanctuary of Jehovah. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, that stone will be for a testimony to you, for it has heard all the words of Jehovah which he has spoken to us, and it will be for a testimony against you, lest perchance you lie against your God. 28 And Joshua sent back the people, every one to his own inheritance. 29 And these things having been done, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of a hundred and ten years. 30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Thimnat-serah, which is on mount Ephraim, to the north of mount Gaas.

The words meaning literally, "The gods which are in the midst of you,' would rather seem to indicate that even at this time some of the Israelites were addicted to the secret practice of idolatry. — Ed. Joshua 24:25-33 25. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 25. Percussit itaque Josue foedus cum populo in die illa: et prosposuit ei praeceptum et judicium in Sechem. [206] 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. 26. Scripsit Josue verba ista in libro Legis Dei: tulit quoque lapidem magnum, statuitque eum ibi subter quercum, quae erat in sanctuario Jehovae. 27. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest you deny your God. 27. Dixitque Josue ad universum populum, En lapis iste erit nobis in testimonium: ipse enim audivit omnia verba Jehovae quae loquutus est nobiscum, eritque contra vos in testimonium, ne forte mentiamini contra Deum vestrum. 28. So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. 28. Remisitque Josue populum, quemlibet in haereditatem suam. 29. And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

24:1-14 We must never think our work for God done, till our life is done. If he lengthen out our days beyond what we expected, like those of Joshua, it is because he has some further service for us to do. He who aims at the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, will glory in bearing the last testimony to his Saviour's goodness, and in telling to all around, the obligations with which the unmerited goodness of God has bound him. The assembly came together in a solemn religious manner. Joshua spake to them in God's name, and as from him. His sermon consists of doctrine and application. The doctrinal part is a history of the great things God had done for his people, and for their fathers before them. The application of this history of God's mercies to them, is an exhortation to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and that it might be continued.

And I brought your fathers out of Egypt,.... Which more fully expresses the sense of the last clause of Joshua 24:5 , and you came unto the sea; which respects some senior persons then present; for, besides Caleb and Joshua, there were many at this time alive who came to and passed through the Red sea, at their coming out of Egypt; for those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness were such as were mere than twenty years of age at their coming out from Egypt, and who were the murmurers in the wilderness; and it may be reasonably supposed, that many of those who were under twenty years of age at that time were now living: and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers, with chariots and horsemen, into the Red sea; of the number of their chariots and horsemen, see Exodus 14:7; with these they pursued the Israelites, not only unto, but into the Red sea, following them into it; the reason of which strange action is given in Joshua 24:7.

6 . And I brought your fathers ] Comp. Exodus 12:37-42 ; Exodus 12:51 . and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers ] Astonished that they had not made good their flight into Asia, and deeming them entangled in the land and shut in by the wilderness, the Egyptian monarch directed all his forces, his horses and his chariots, to give chase to the fugitives ( Exodus 14:9 ).

The other side of the flood - Better "On the other side of the river," i. e. the Euphrates. See the marginal reference. They served other gods - Possibly the "images," or teraphim, which we find their ancestor Laban calling "his gods" (see the marginal reference); and of which it would seem that there were, as Joshua spoke, some secret devotees among the people Joshua 24:14, Joshua 24:25. It is not stated that Abraham himself was an idolater, though his fathers were. Jewish tradition asserts that Abraham while in Ur of the Chaldees was persecuted for his abhorrence of idolatry, and hence, was called away by God from his native land. The reference in the text to the original state of those who were the forefathers of the nation, is made to show that they were no better than others: God chose them not for their excellences but of His own mere motion.

Verse 6. - Unto the Red Sea. There is no unto in the original. Perhaps the meaning here is into the midst of , the abruptness with which it is introduced meaning more than that the Israelites arrived at it. But though without the He locale , it may be no more than the accusative of motion towards a place. Joshua 24:6

Of this also he merely mentions the leading points, viz., first of all, the sending of Moses and Aaron ( Exodus 3:10 ., Joshua 4:14 .), and then the plagues inflicted upon Egypt. "I smote Egypt," i.e., both land and people. נגף is used in Exodus 8:2 and Exodus 12:23 , Exodus 12:27 , in connection with the plague of frogs and the slaying of the first-born in Egypt. The words which follow, "according to that which I did among them, and afterward I brought you out," point back to Exodus 3:20 , and show that the Lord had fulfilled the promise given to Moses at his call. He then refers ( Joshua 24:6 , Joshua 24:7 ) to the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites, as they came out of Egypt, from Pharaoh who pursued them with his army, giving especial prominence to the crying of the Israelites to the Lord in their distress ( Exodus 14:10 ), and the relief of that distress by the angel of the Lord ( Exodus 14:19-20 ). And lastly, he notices their dwelling in the wilderness "many days," i.e., forty years ( Numbers 14:33 ).

14 . in time to come ] Heb. to-morrow : so Genesis 30:33 , Deuteronomy 6:20 , Joshua 4:6 ; Joshua 4:21 ; Joshua 22:24 ; Joshua 22:27-28 †. By strength of hand , &c.] See on v. 3. 14–15 . The children to be instructed (as in v. 8) on the meaning of the observance: it is a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt, and of Jehovah’s slaughter of the firstborn of the Egyptians at the time.