gion their deliberate choice; and they did so, with reasons for their choice, v. 15..18. (2.) To make it their determinate choice, and to resolve to adhere to it, v. 19..24. 4. By way of covenant upon that treaty, v. 25..28. II. The conclusion of this history, with, 1. The death and burial of Joshua, v. 29, 30. and Eleazar, v. 33. and the mention of the burial of Joseph's bones upon that occasion, v. 32. 2. A general account of the state of Israel at that time, v. 31. 1.
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 you 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 he 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 something 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, Gen. 12. 6, 7. and near which stood mount Gerizim and Ebal, where the people had renewed their covenant with God at their first coming into Canaan, Josh. 8. 30. Of the promises God had made to their fathers, and of the promsies 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 him 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 but 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 spake 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
Vol. ii.—N
