23 1 And it came to pass after many days, when the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old and well stricken in years; that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and well stricken in years: and ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God, he it is that hath fought for you. Behold, I have allotted unto you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun. And the LORD your God, he shall thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God spake unto you. Therefore be ye very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; that ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves unto them: but cleave unto the LORD your God, as ye have done unto this day. For the LORD hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath stood before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he spake unto you. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you:

13 know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap unto you, and a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

14. And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, not one thing hath failed thereof.

15. And it shall come to pass, that as all the good things are come upon you of which the LORD your God spake unto you, so shall the LORD bring upon you all the evil things, until he have

16 destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. When ye transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.

24. I 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

2 themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham,

3 and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and

4 gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir,

5 to possess it; and Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in the midst thereof: and after-

6 ward I brought you out. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen unto the Red

7. Sea. And when they cried out unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt:

8 and ye dwelt in the wilderness many days. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt beyond Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, and

12 ye possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you. And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with thy

9 sword, nor with thy bow. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought

10 against Israel; and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: 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 Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the

13. Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand. And I gave you a land whereon thou hadst not labored, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell therein; of vine-

14 yards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the

15. River, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 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 beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me

16 and my house, we will serve the LORD. And the people answered and said, God forbid that

17 we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; for the LORD our God, he it is that brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and that did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the

18 peoples through the midst of whom we passed: and the LORD drave out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore we also will serve the

19. LORD; for he is our God. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord; for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins.

20. If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and con-

21 sume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we

22 will serve the LORD. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves

23 that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now, therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart

24 unto the LORD, the God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will

25 we serve, and unto his voice will we hearken. 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 he took a great stone, 27 and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest ye 28 deny your God. So Joshua sent the people away, every man unto his inheritance.

Ju. 2 6 Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.

Josh. 24 29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant 30 of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of 31 the mountain of Gaash. And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen and known all the great work of the LORD, that 32 he had wrought for Israel. And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of money: and they became the in- 33 heritance of the children of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

Ju. 2 10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel.

Chapters 23 and 24 transmit two discourses of Joshua to the assembled people of Israel, both of which meetings and addresses must have been near the close of his life. It is probable that there were two different meetings rather than two addresses at the same meeting, since that of chapter 23 is made specific by its note of time. “A long time after” (verse 1); while that of chapter 24 is made definite by a note of its place, “to Shechem” (verse 1). In both cases the call embraced “all Israel,” with their “elders, heads, judges, and officers.” The general purpose of each meeting was the same; yet the things said by Joshua in each were quite different. In the second meeting, the national covenant was solemnly renewed at Shechem. H. C.

A twofold work had been intrusted to Joshua: to conquer the land, and to divide it by inheritance among the people. Both had been done in the spirit of strength, of courage, and of believing obedience enjoined at the outset. Unlike his great predecessor Moses, he had been allowed to finish his task and even to rest after its completion. And now he had reached one hundred and ten years, the age at which his ancestor Joseph had died. Like a father who thinks of and seeks to provide for the future of his children after his death; like Moses when he gathered up all his life, his mission, and his teaching in his last discourses; so did Joshua care for the people of his charge. On two successive occasions he gathered all Israel, to address to them last words. They are in spirit and even in tenor singularly like those of Moses, as indeed he had no new truth to communicate. A. E.

Chapter 23 may be summed up in the words,

“Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.” He well remembered all the experience of the desert, and all the warnings of Moses. He reminds them of all that God had done to the Canaanites for their sakes; and promises that the land divided to them should be wholly theirs and the heathen be driven out before them. On their part they had thus far been faithful; let them still thus cleave to Jehovah their God! Let them not mix with the people that remained; nor name their gods, nor swear by them, nor worship them! If once they began this course, and if they intermarried with them, God would cease to drive out those nations, which would become to them as snares and scourges and thorns, till they themselves should perish from the land. P. S.

5. The wars under Joshua put Israel into possession of Canaan and broke the power of its inhabitants, but the latter were not exterminated, nor yet all their cities taken by Israel. Indeed, such a result could scarcely have been desirable, either in reference to the country or to Israel, while, from Ex. 23: 28-30 and De. 7: 22, we know that from the beginning it had not been the Divine purpose. But there was also a higher object in this. It would teach that a conquest, begun in the power of God and in believing dependence on Him, must be completed and consolidated in the same spirit. Only thus could Israel prosper as a nation. Canaan had been given to Israel by God, and given to their faith. But much was left to be done which only the same faith could achieve. A. E.

6. Joshua here repeats the essential part of the charge he himself had received from Jehovah at his commission (ch. 1 : 7). Be very courageous to do, God had said to him then. And now, after thirty years of unwavering obedience, he transmits the charge in almost identical terms, “Be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the law of Moses, turn not therefrom to the right hand or to the left!” B.

As ye have done this day. It could be only in a limited sense that this praise could be given to the children of Israel. But probably during that score of years which intervened between the entrance into Canaan and the death of Joshua the Hebrews were more true in their allegiance to their heavenly King than at any other period. While Joshua lived they did cleave as fully as they ever cleaved to the Lord their God. Paget.—At the death of Moses a sudden gleam of heaven came over the elder Church; all was privilege on the one side, all was obedience on the other. Joshua led the people into rest and prosperity. His history is made up of two parts: triumph and peace. Newman.

12-16. Joshua once more presses upon the people their true character as the chosen people of the Lord God. He is able now to appeal to facts; to point to what God has done, to call the people themselves to witness that all the promises of God have come to pass, and that not one good thing hath failed of all those which the Lord their God had promised them. Joshua found in his old age nothing to retract of what he had said in former times concerning God and the people, and the relation of the one to the other. He next implores the people to guard against backsliding. He says: Go on as you have begun, and God will bless you; your shame, and misery, and damnation will be if you turn back from following the Lord. Goodwin.

13. The promise which God had made to the Israelites was conditional: and as they manifestly forfeited their part of the obligation by engaging first in affinity and afterward in idolatry with the nations which they were bound to destroy, so God would no longer grant them success and enlargement of their boundary; but as they had been the ministers of his vengeance in punishing the disorders of the Canaanites, so the Canaanites were to be made the instruments of his chastising the disobedience of his own people. Stackhouse.

14. “Ye know that not one thing hath failed, of all the good things which the Lord spake concerning you.” God had promised them victory, rest, plenty, his tabernacle among them, etc., and not one thing had failed of all he had promised. “Now,” said he, “has God been thus true to you? Be not you false to him.” It is the apostle’s argument for perseverance (Heb. 10 : 23). He is faithful that has promised. H.

15,16. But as they had experienced the good, and were now in the enjoyment of it, so the evil would as certainly come, if they were disobedient. This is three times mentioned here. Your enemies will vex you until ye perish from off this good land (verse 13). God will plague you until he have destroyed you from off this good land (verse 15). Heaven and earth will concur to root you out. So that (verse 16) ye shall perish from off the good land. Joshua thus sets before them the fatal consequences of their apostasy, that knowing the terror of the Lord, they might be persuaded with purpose of heart to cleave to him. H.—We may bring forth every promise from the Bible, and then search the annals of the world, and one single instance will be sought in vain of God’s violating or forgetting a promise. The accomplishment may have been delayed or brought to pass in a way that was not expected, but the whole world may be challenged to impeach his veracity, or contradict the assertion that “all which he hath promised is come to pass; not one thing hath failed thereof.” But let it not be forgotten that the veracity of God is as much pledged for the execution of his threatenings, as for the performance of his promises. The one is a proof of the other. Bush.

24 : 1-28. Ju. 2 : 6.

The second address of Joshua was even more solemn. For the assembly took place at Shechem, where on first entering the land Israel had made solemn covenant by responding from Mounts Ebal and Gerizim to the blessings and the curses enunciated in the law. And the present gathering also was to end in renewal of that covenant. Moreover, it was in Shechem that Abraham had, on entering Canaan, received the first Divine promise, and here he had built an altar unto Jehovah. Here also had Jacob settled after his return from Mesopotamia, and purged his household from lingering idolatry, by burying their Teraphim under an oak. It was truly a “sanctuary of Jehovah” (verse 26), and they who came to it “gathered before God” (verse 1). A. E.—The place was sacred by these past manifestations of God and devotions of the fathers, so that we need not wonder that Joshua selected it rather than Shiloh, where the ark was, for the scene of this national oath of obedience. Patriotism and devotion would both burn brighter in such an atmosphere. A. M.

The final farewell of Joshua, the manifest dignity and serenity of saintly ripeness, the vigor of his exhortations, and the assurance of his faith, are worthy of devout study. This his last service is his best service. He had been faithful as a spy, as the helper of Moses, as a warrior and leader, and as a divider of the land among the tribes. But here he seeks to lead them into covenant with God, that they may through faith and obedience be enabled to keep all they had conquered. Glover.

In the first meeting Joshua reminded the people of all the Lord had wrought for them in Canaan, subduing their enemies and giving them the land so long before promised to their fathers. Upon the basis of these great facts he exhorted the people to courage and faith in whatever conflicts of arms might be yet before them; but especially implored them to stand invincibly against idolatry and cleave to the Lord their God alone, assuring them that as God had faithfully fulfilled all his promises of good to the nation while obedient, so would he as faithfully fulfil his threatenings of evil if they apostatized to idols. In this the second meeting and address Joshua takes a larger range of historic review, sketching the history of Abraham even from his native home on the other side of the great Euphrates (“the flood,” as our translators render the Hebrew word “the river”); then continuing his sketch through Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Moses, the Exodus, Balak, the wars of Canaan, and finally the possession of lands put under cultivation by other laborers and cities built by other hands. All this history is presented for the purpose of enforcing his final appeal; “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 Euphrates.” H. C.

In language most tender and impressive Joshua recalled to them the mercies of God (2-13), specially in those five great events: the calling of Abraham, the deliverance from Egypt, the defeat of the Amorites and of the purpose of Balaam, the miraculous crossing of Jordan and taking of Jericho, and finally, the Divine victory given them over all the nations of Canaan. On these grounds he now earnestly entreated them to make decisive choice of Jehovah as their God. And they replied by solemnly protesting their determination to cleave unto the Lord, in language which not only re-echoed that of the preface to the Ten Commandments, but also showed that they fully responded to Joshua’s appeals. A. E.

Nothing can be conceived more impressive or sublime than the circumstances of this last public interview of the aged leader with the people whom he had put in possession of the goodly land of Canaan, and who had so often followed him in his victorious path. In the midst of the elders, the chiefs, and magistrates of Israel; surrounded by a respectful people, formerly bondsmen of Pharaoh but now in possession of a rich and beautiful country, their illustrious and venerable commander—the oldest man in all their nation—spoke to them as to his sons. And of what did he speak? He was a soldier, and his career had been essentially military; yet he spoke to them not of conquest, but of the holiness and obedience which become the people chosen of God. It is such a discourse as a patriarch might have given on his death-bed, or a prophet might have uttered from the valley of vision. Kit.

14,15. The Israelites were in most danger from idolatry, and therefore, as a pledge of their sincerity, and as a help to their future perseverance, if they were earnest in their present purpose to serve the Lord, Joshua requires them to put away their idols. Hamilton.—This is not a demand to purge themselves from actual idolatry, into which they had not yet fallen, but to renounce forever the examples which might seduce them to it. He ends with an appeal, unequalled in simple force except by that of Elijah to Israel; if they found fault with the service of Jehovah, let them at once choose whom they would serve, whether the idols of their fathers, or the gods of the Amorites; but his own choice was made, to serve Jehovah. P. S.

Notice here the same striking decision of character and thorough independence of thought and will which we have seen in all his military life. To the people he said, “If ye see fit to serve other gods, make your choice, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” My house will go where I lead. My decision is made, and can never be reversed; we serve the Lord! H. C.—This resolution to serve was a very noble one. He would not serve alone. His house and his family were also included. He could not command the tribes, since his authority was at an end. But he still held authority over his household, and the force of his example and the influence of his character would be generally felt. It too often occurs that heads of families who profess to be religious manifest but little concern for the members of their family, or having given up all thoughts of religion themselves, still cherish some concern for their children and express an anxious hope that they may become truly pious. But every true servant of God will be especially anxious for himself first, and then for his own flesh and blood. He will not wait for them, but lead the way and set them a bright example. R. Hall.

Choose you. There are but two gods in this world, Jehovah and—under whatever one of his thousand idolatrous disguises he may be hidden—self. Choose which of these you will serve. Choose; do not merely assent and approve, choose. Do not serve now one and now the other, as one or the other seems easiest or pleasantest to serve; do not try to serve both; choose between them; choose! Cable.—Joshua’s putting of 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. 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. H.

God deals with men as rational creatures. He proposes adequate motives for choosing his service. He sets before them life and death, blessing and cursing; and exhibits the responsibility arising out of such knowledge, the happy results of a compliance with the precept, and the terrible consequences of a refusal. R. Hall.—There is surely no such crowd of motives and reasons attendant on any other question as on that of the reception of Christianity. It is a question between life and death, in which our highest interests are concerned, which appeals to our hopes and fears, our consciences, our aspirations after a better life, our gratitude and love. It founds its appeals on the most remarkable facts in the universe, on the love of God to sinners, on the incarnation and death of Christ. We have the offer of pardon, peace, help to raise us up to God, deliverance from fear, support in death, and a blessed immortality. The way in which the Gospel comes to us is the most inviting possible—through a person who lived a life like ours on earth, and came into tender sympathy with us; through a concrete exhibition of everything true and good, not through doctrine and abstract statement. It has been the religion of our fathers, and of the holy in all time. It is venerable in our eyes. It is God’s voice to us. Where else can so many motives, such power of persuasion be found? Woolsey.

A man may be urged to decide whether he will be God’s true child and servant or not; whether he will serve God or himself, Christ or this world, the Holy Spirit or Satan. He may be urged to make it on the right grounds, to make it fairly and intelligently, to make it for his eternal life, and to declare it honestly when he makes it. But make it he must. There are only two possible attitudes in which any man can stand toward God in Christ: one is that of union, the other of opposition; one is that of willing, conscious, faithful, affectionate obedience, the other is that of distrust, separation, alienation. Not to be in the first is to be in the last. Neutrality is utterly out of the question. “He that is not with me is against me.” F. D. H.—The claims of Christ are so supreme and unquestionable that to be neutral is to be hostile. Indifference to Him is opposition. His majesty is so great He will brook no rival. R. Hall.

19. To bring the matter to a clear issue, Joshua next represented to them that they could not serve Jehovah, that is, “in their own strength, without the aid of grace; without real and serious conversion from all idols; and without true repentance and faith.” A. E.—Joshua was stating the plain fact which his own higher conception of the law had taught him, that the law was too “holy, just, and good,” for it to be possible that Israel should keep it. With forebodings of coming failure, true and faithful to the last, he set before them the majesty and fulness of the law’s requirements, and the unsuspected dangers that lay in their weak and wayward hearts. Lias.—For he is an holy God, a jealous God. God is holy and consequently demands abstinence from sin. He is jealous and therefore exacts whole-hearted allegiance and unvarying fidelity. Aldridge.—“He is an holy God,” or one who has no equal; “a jealous God,” who endures no rival; “He will not forgive your transgressions,” in giving to another the worship due solely to him. Wells.

20. Joshua, it would seem, both save and foresave that idol-worship was and was to be the giant sin of Israel. How then could he die in peace without bearing his most emphatic testimony against this sin? No wonder he accumulated the utmost force of appeal, of historic testimony, of earnest presentation, of solemn covenant, and of impressive memorial, to stem this anticipated and already apparent tendency to idols. How closely did he follow in the footsteps of Moses! How grandly did he fill the sphere God had assigned him! Now so near heaven, about to close a life so eventful, it is sad that his anticipations of the future of his people should be so shaded—but blessed to think that amid these painful apprehensions, he yet did his duty so fearlessly, so wisely, so well. II. C.

Joshua’s warning turns mainly on two points, —the extent of the obligations which they were so lightly incurring, and the heavy penalties of their infraction. As to the former, the vow to “serve the Lord” had been made as he fears with small consideration of what it meant. In heathenism the “service” of a god is a mere matter of outward acts of so-called worship. There is absolutely no connection between religion and morality in idolatrous systems. The notion that the service of a god implies any duties in common life beyond ceremonial ones is wholly foreign to paganism in all its forms. The establishment of the opposite idea is wholly the consequence of revelation. So we need not wonder if the pagan conception of service was here in the minds of the vowing assembly. If we look at their vow, as recorded in verses 16–18, we see nothing in it which necessarily implies a loftier idea. Jehovah is their national God, who has fought and conquered for them, therefore they will “serve him.” If we substitute Baal, or Chemosh, or Nebo, or Ra, for Jehovah, this is exactly what we read on Moabite stones and Assyrian tablets and Egyptian tombs. The reasons for the service and the service itself are both suspiciously external. We are not judging them more harshly than Joshua did; for he clearly was not satisfied with them, and the tone of his answer sufficiently shows what he thought wrong in them. Observe the points in the character of God on which he dwells, as indicating the points which were left out of view by the people, and as fitted to rectify their notions of service. First, he is holy. Joshua here urges the infinite distance between man and God, and especially the infinite moral distance, in order to enforce a profounder conception of what goes to God’s service. A holy God cannot have impure worshippers. His service can be no mere ceremonial, but must be the bowing of the whole man before his majesty, the aspiration of the whole man after his loftiness, the transformation of the whole man into the reflection of his purity, the approach of the unholy to the holy through a sacrifice which puts away sin. Further, he is “a jealous God.” “Jealous” is an ugly word, with repulsive associations, and its application to God has sometimes been explained in ugly fashion. But, rightly looked at, what does it mean but that God desires our whole hearts for his own, and loves us so much and is so desirous to pour his love into us, that he will have no rivals in our love? The metaphor of marriage, which puts his love to men in the tenderest form, underlies this word, so harsh on the surface but so gracious at the core. There is abundant need still for Joshua’s warning. We rejoice that it takes so little to be a Christian that the feeblest and simplest act of faith knits the soul to the all-forgiving Christ. But let us not forget that, on the other hand, it is hard to be a Christian indeed; for it means forsaking all that we have and loving God with all our powers. The measure of his love is the measure of his “jealousy,” and he loves us no less than he did Israel. Unless our conceptions of his service are based upon our recognition of his holiness and demand for our all, we, too, “cannot serve the Lord.” A. M.

There is a light and easy way of taking the vows of Christian service on the part of some, without considering very well what is required, or what may be the consequences to the name of Christ if they walk unworthy of it. Many profess Christianity with far more irreverence than some others keep aloof from it. The highest thing, indeed, is to advance to it deliberately and in humble reliance no the grace of God; but there are thoughtful and self-distrustful natures which have long and deep shrinking, because their eye has seen the purity of God and the poverty of self. Within certain limits the feeling is true, and most becoming. It is God repeating in a humble heart the words of Joshua: “Ye cannot serve the Lord, for He is an holy God.” Ker.

Discouragements, rightly put, encourage. The best way to deepen and confirm good resolutions which have been too swiftly and inconsiderately formed, is to state very plainly all the difficulty of keeping them. There is no better way of turning a somewhat careless “we will” into a persistent “nay, but we will,” than to interpose a “ye cannot.” Joshua here is doing exactly what Jesus Christ did often. His very longing that men should follow him made him send them back to bethink themselves when they promised to do it. When once “great multitudes’ came to him he turned on them, with no invitation in his words, and told them the hard conditions of discipleship as being entire self-renunciation. They shall know the full difficulties and trials which they must meet; and if, knowing these, they still are willing to take his yoke upon them, then how exuberant and warm the welcome which he gives! There is a real danger that this side of the evangelist’s work should be overlooked in the earnestness with which the other side is done. We cannot be too emphatic in our reiteration of Christ’s call to all the weary and heavy-laden to come unto him, nor too confident in our assurance that whosoever comes will not be cast out; but we may be, and I fear often are, defective in our repetition of Christ’s demand for entire surrender, and of his warning to intending disciples of what they are taking upon them. We shall repel no true seeker by duly emphasizing the difficulties of the Christian course. Perhaps if there were more plain speaking about them at the beginning, there would be fewer backsliders and dead professors with a name to live. A. M.

Obstacles thrown in the way of men who offer themselves to the service of God sift the true from the false seeker. No one will be able to complain of any real wrong from these obstacles. The false seeker is not injured, because he never sincerely sought at all. The true seeker is not injured, for never was such a one disappointed. Obstacles, too, lead the true seeker to examine himself more thoroughly. And it is good for a man that he should be compelled to examine himself both about his view of God’s character in the pardon of sin, and what this requires of him in the way of self-surrender to God. God will beguile none of us into His service by false pretences. He tells us the nature of the work, what His own character gives Him a right to expect of us; then, if we still go forward, He can say, “Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen the Lord, to serve Him.” Further, obstacles educate us to a higher growth and greater capacity for happiness. If we are to rise to anything great in the spiritual life, it must be by endurance of hardship and pressing on against repulse. The delay which Christians have in gaining a sense of acceptance with God arises often from making the sense of acceptance the main object of pursuit. But there is something higher: to serve God whether we have the sense of acceptance or no—to have this as the one great purpose of life and end of our being,—“Nay, but we will serve the Lord.” Ker.

22. Witnesses against yourselves.**

It is still true of men that they are witnesses against themselves, as to their duty toward God now; and they will be all the witnesses needed in the day of judgment. Every sinner’s conscience is a witness against his course. The principles on which business men must act as the condition of worldly success will witness against those who refuse to apply like principles to religion—principles which, if lived out, would lead them to be Christians. The fault-findings of men against good people show that these fault-finders know what is right, and are to blame if they do not live up to it. The principles on which good government in this world is based will justify God’s moral dealings with men. The obedience which parents require of their children, the gratitude acknowledged to be due for favors received, the honor demanded for those to whom honor is due, will all witness to the justice of God’s demand for our obedient and loving service. Our professions of religion are an abiding witness against us if we forsake God. Peloubet.

25. 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 (ch. 8: 31), 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. H.

26. This phrase, “The book of the law of God,” included the Pentateuch and whatever subsequent matter, like the account of this proceeding, it was important to put on permanent record for the use of future generations. Joshua made another memorial of this transaction—a great stone set up under an oak near the sanctuary of the Lord. H. C.—Moses and Joshua employed every expedient to secure a remembrance of God in the people’s minds. They therefore marked the stations and stages in their progress with monumental circumstances and objects, connected in some express and memorable manner with the providential interferences of God, or his declarations, or with the people’s conduct. Thus they marked places and times with monuments; built altars; raised heaps of stones (as at the passage of Jordan); set up single great stones, gave significant names to places; carefully preserved particular things as “the rod that budded” and a portion of the manna; and appointed periodical observances at particular seasons. And they told the people expressly what each of these things was for; so that they should be able to tell their posterity when they asked, “What mean ye by these stones?” And, doubtless, this “great stone” which was set up by Joshua did, in a measure, answer this end. Tens of thousands of eyes must have looked at it with the perception of its memorial meaning. Foster.—27. This stone shall be a witness. The words spoken in its presence were so joined to this transaction that every sight of the pillar would remind them of their obligations and promises. The eye and the ear of the people being both addressed, it was calculated to leave an indelible impression; and, with spirits elevated by their brilliant victories in the land of promise, memory would often revert to the striking scene on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim and in the vale of Sychar. Jamieson.

Thus on the spot made sacred by so many ancient memories the people ended their wandering and homeless life, and passed into the possession of the inheritance, through the portal of this fresh acceptance of the covenant, proclaiming thereby that they held the land on condition of serving God, and writing their own sentence in case of unfaithfulness. It was the last act of the assembled people, and the crown and close of Joshua’s career. A. M.—Josh. 24 : 29 ; Ju. 2 : 8. There was no more for Joshua to do. To the end of his heroic and spotless career he had “followed the Lord fully,” and he could now contentedly “go the way of all the earth.” He died as he lived, “the servant of the Lord.” He was a hundred and ten years old—ten years short of his great master Moses—when God called his weary servant home. E. V.

His name, Jehoshua, “Jehovah is help,” is the key to his life and work. Alike in bringing the people into Canaan, in his wars, and in the distribution of the land among the tribes—from the miraculous crossing of Jordan and taking of Jericho to his last address—he was the embodiment of his new name: “Jehovah is help!” So far also as the conquest and division of the land were concerned, his work was not complete, nor, indeed, intended to be complete. And this is characteristic of the whole Old Testament dispensation, that no period in its history sees its work completed, but only begun and pointing forward to another yet future, till at last all becomes complete in the “fulness of time” in Christ Jesus. Thus viewed, a fresh light is cast upon the name and history of Joshua. Assuredly Joshua did not give “rest” even to his own generation, far less to Israel as a nation.

It was rest begun, but not completed—a rest which even in its temporal aspect left so much unrest; and as such it pointed to Christ. What the one Joshua could only begin, not really achieve, even in its outward typical aspect, pointed to and called for the other Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom and by whom all is reality and all is perfect and all is rest forever. And so also it was only after many years that Oshea became Joshua, while the name Joshua was given to our Lord by the angel before His birth. The first became, the second was Joshua. And so the name and the work of Joshua pointed forward to the fulness in Christ, alike by what it was and by what it was not, and this in entire accordance with the whole character and object of the Old Testament. A. E.

Joshua combined in a remarkable degree strategy for the conduct of war, and sagacity for the administration of civil affairs. He had also the moral courage to avow his dependence upon God, and to inculcate virtue and religion by precept and example. Having secured for his people a country by his arms, he did not seek to make himself king; but, laying aside his command, he established a covenant or constitution by which they should be governed. J. P. T.—Joshua was the ruler of the people, yet he took no regal honors. He led them to victory, yet he received no exceptional reward. He quietly retired to private life when he had completed his great task. His is a grand example of unselfishness, simplicity, and humility. Adeney.

The character of Joshua is not only one of the finest in Scripture history, but one of the most remarkable that the world ever saw. We behold in him that rare combination of the highest qualities of the statesman and the warrior. We see that he is quite equal to every emergency under which he has to act; and that he puts forth just that degree of power—just that degree of the qualities suited to the occasion. No care, no advantage, no duty is neglected by him. In the passage of the Jordan, in the judgment of Achan, in the siege of Ai, he forgot nothing which might tend to deepen the impression the miracle produced—nothing which might render the justice of the doom apparent—nothing by which the victory might be assured. The generation which he led was better and wiser than that which came forth from Egypt, and yielded to him a more willing obedience than Moses had obtained from their fathers. Toward the enemy alone was his countenance terrible; for, regarding himself as the minister of the Divine anathemas against a guilty people, he executed his awful commission with no shrinking hand; but at the same time with calmness and without fury. His piety is, however, gentle, while his faith is impregnable, and his confidence in God unshaken. K?

We see him diligently and laboriously distributing the land among its new occupants, exhibiting the most scrupulous equity in his assignment of their portions to the several tribes. We watch him appeasing jealousies, calming rising fends, checking arrogance, moderating overweening pretensions, and, with the magnanimity of real greatness and the calmness of conscious strength, executing in all its details the difficult task devolved upon him. And when the work of his life is done, and in extreme old age he gathers together the tribes, those whose fathers he had so often led to victory, to receive his parting commission, how full of dignity is the reticence he observes with regard to himself and his own exploits. All he had done is omitted, and the whole of the brilliant past is gathered up in one sentence, in which the entire glory is attributed to God: “Jehovah, your God, is he that hath fought for you;” and the human agent does not appear at all. Let his people, for whom he had labored and fought, only be true to their covenant with their God, and Joshua would be content to be forgotten. E. V.—His lofty character, his chivalrous and trustful spirit, made a profound impression on the people whom he led and governed. His courage and his thorough devotion to the cause of God exerted the most beneficent influence on the whole congregation of Israel. In his farewell address to the people, when his work both of war and peace was done, he spoke not of conquest—the sound of the trumpet and the flash of the sword cannot be recognized in it—but of the holiness and the obedience which become the chosen of the Lord. Moorehead.—Grand man! chosen because choice. Counted worthy at the first to stand nearest Moses at the giving of the Law; proved worthy at the end to stand himself its mightiest vindicator. Standing also in history, a character which for its height is an inspiration rather than an example; spotless as he was strong. As conqueror of nations, mighty; as conqueror of self, sublime. J. L. Chamberlain.—A saintly and noble life truly, and one which teaches us the secret of success in the righteous war with evil. To obey, to be wholly consecrated to God, to believe in the fulfilment of the Divine promises, to fight fearlessly with eye fixed upon the Cap-

Captain of our salvation, whose strength is perfected in weakness—this is the unfailing secret of success. An.

Josh. 24 : 31 ; Ju. 2 : 7. This bright period of Jewish history is crowned by the record that “Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of Jehovah that He had done for Israel.” The lessons of the wilderness had not been lost upon them. Not in vain had they seen their fathers drop and die till they were all consumed for their rebellion. We search the sacred history in vain, from the Exodus to the Captivity, for another generation that was so wholly faithful to Jehovah. P. S.—As the faithful minister of Moses, as the servant of God, as the bold and believing spy, as the successor of Moses, as the captain of the hosts of Israel, as the conqueror of Canaan, as the type of the Lord Jesus, whose name he bore, Joshua holds a distinguished place among the great men of the sacred history. But in nothing is he more conspicuously great than in the influence which he exercised upon others by his authority and example. We learn here that his weight and influence with the Israelitish nation was such that for a period of not much less than half a century it sufficed to keep the fickle people steadfast in their allegiance to the God of their fathers. By his own influence while he lived, and after his death by the influence of those whom he had trained during his lifetime, the contagion of idolatry was checked, and the service of God maintained. A. C. H.

The Bones of Joseph Buried.

32. The bones of Joseph buried they in Shechem.** Joseph’s death took place in Egypt about two hundred years before that of Joshua, and we learn (Gen. 50 : 25 ; Ex. 13 : 19), that prior to his decease he had given a strict charge that his bones should be conveyed away out of Egypt by his people when they themselves went up from thence. Accordingly they had carried these precious relics with them in all their wanderings through the wilderness, and never attempted to bury them till they were peaceably settled in the promised land. The act of sepulture, though here related after the account of the death of Joshua, undoubtedly took place before it. Bush.—The interment of Joseph’s remains most probably took place as soon as Shechem was in the possession of Israel. Nothing could more fully show the reverence in which the name of Joseph was held in Israel than this scrupulous fulfilment of his commands, and the careful record of it in the history. This record is another link in the evidence which establishes the authenticity and early date of the Book of Joshua. Lias.

It was in great haste that the people of Israel left Egypt; but they were careful to take with them the embalmed body of their honored Joseph. They reach the Red Sea, and pass safely through its waters; they encounter many perils and live a pilgrim life in the peninsula of Sinai for forty years; they cross the Jordan as they had crossed the Red Sea; but in all these scenes and years they carry with them “the bones of Joseph.” They have to fight their way through the land, and only after many battles and much time, do they become masters of Canaan. They have lost much and forgotten much. But Joseph’s bones are in safe keeping, and there in Shechem, with Ebal and Gerizim looking down on the scene—there in the region with which the eyes of the living Joseph were familiar, whence he was taken away as a slave-boy hundreds of years before—there they laid these treasured bones in their resting-place. “By faith,” we are told, “Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones.” He believed that God would take Israel out of Egypt and give them Canaan for a possession. They were God’s people, and that to Joseph’s faith was everything. He would not be an Egyptian even while he ruled over Egyptians. He would be an Israelite, and would not let Egypt or Israel forget that he was, in life and in death. And with this purpose, “by faith he gave commandment concerning his bones.” Kennedy.

33. And Eleazar died.** Probably about the same time with Joshua. In a hill that pertained to Phinehas. As the cities assigned to the priests lay in the lots of Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon, neither father nor son could properly inherit a portion located in Mount Ephraim. But the probability is that the people voluntarily gave to the high priest a place of residence situated at a convenient distance from Joshua and the tabernacle, and that this was called the “hill of Phinehas,” because he dwelt longer there than his father Eleazar had done. Bush.

Three graves. Such is the story of life. The end of it is always in some sepulchre. “They buried Joshua.” “They buried the bones of Joseph.” “They buried Eleazar.” So the land is taken in possession. Every grave becoming a stronger link, binding the people to each other and to the land God gave them. Look at these graves. And observe that while every life finds a grave, life does not end, but only takes a new departure from the grave. Death to the saints of God is only the promised “coming again” of Christ to “receive them unto himself.” Nor does death end our usefulness. On the contrary, its touch canonizes. Death makes the neglected counsel and example the revered oracle; and the despised creed the life-giving truth. There is something touching in these earliest graves of Israel—Machpelah, Shechem, Timnath, Mount Ephraim. Such graves were thrones, on each of which a great spirit ruled, teaching faith and truth and courage, spirituality and communion with God. The graves consecrated the land. Grover.

The great man dies, and yet the work goes on. The minister ceases, but the ministry proceeds. The individual sermon closes, but the everlasting Gospel never ceases its sweet and redeeming proclamations. And if we give the mind free range over all the noble and marvellous history of the world, we shall see that how great soever have been the men who have led us, the world could do without them. God knew how to supply their places, and amid all change and fear and dismay the purpose of Heaven went steadily forward in all the grandeur of its strength and all the tenderness of its beneficence. J. P.

At this early period in the history of mankind, fifteen hundred years before the Christian era, centuries before Greece and Rome had obtained a foothold in history, five hundred years before Homer sang, and one thousand years and more before Plato dreamed of his ideal Republic, when all Western Europe was an untrodden wilderness, the children of Israel, just emerged from centuries of bondage, not only recognized the guiding principles of civil and religious liberty, that “all men are created equal,” that God and the laws are the only kings, but also established a free commonwealth under a written constitution, a government of and for the people. O. Strauss.

THE JUDGES AND THEIR TIMES. PARTIAL CONQUESTS BY THE NINE AND HALF TRIBES. REPROOF OF THE ANGEL JEHOVAH FOR THEIR DISOBEDIENT FAILURE. THEIR REPENTANCE AT BOCHIM. EPITOME OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY DURING THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES.