Joshua 24

Joshua 24:3

3. — from the other side of the flood.] From the other side of the river Euphrates. Bp. Patrick.

Joshua 24:12

12. And I sent the hornet before you.] The sting of the larger wasp or hornet is in hot Eastern climates extremely venomous and even deadly, as may be collected from the effects of it here alluded to. Parkhurst. The meaning may either be, that, before the Israelites came into those parts, God sent hornets which so infested them, that many of the inhabitants were forced to leave the country and fly into other parts; or that, when the Israelites were come into the country, these hornets, by assailing and infesting the inhabitants, facilitated the victory over them. God had before promised to “send the hornets” at Exod. xxiii. 28; Deut. vii. 20; and here Joshua recites how faithful He had been to His promise. In the book of Wisdom, chap. xii. 8, the wasps or hornets are called “the forerunners of God’s host.” Bp. Patrick.

We have no account of the actual expulsion of the inhabitants by means of hornets, among the events related in the book of Joshua. On which account, it is more probable that this Divine visitation upon them took place before the Israelites came into the land. Maxine.

The manner, in which Joshua here mentions the sending of the hornet, shews that he is alluding to a real event, well known to all whom he was addressing. It may appear incredible at first sight that any insects should have the effect of driving a people from their country; it should be recollected however, that, in hot climates, such animals are far more fatal and venomous

than in colder climates; and historians have preserved to us a number of instances of similar events. Among others, it is recorded that the people of Chalcis were driven from their country by flies; that certain inhabitants of Ethiopia were forced from their country by scorpions which infested them, as were the Mysians also by a sort of large fly, and those of Phaselis by swarms of wasps. Calmet.

Joshua 24:14

14. Now therefore fear the Lord.] Joshua, in this solemn assembly, the last he was to see, expresses the strongest solicitude for what he knew would constitute the public happiness, the preservation of true religion, and consequently of virtue, in opposition to the superstitious follies and shocking vices of the nations around them. To promote this end, he recounts to them, by the especial direction of heaven, the miraculous and gracious dispensations of Providence, which their fathers and they had experienced, and of which he had so long been a witness, concluding the history with their present happy condition; and his inference from the whole is, “Now therefore fear the Lord.” Abp. Secker.

— your fathers served] Idolatry was the religion of their fathers, and had spread itself over the greatest and most ancient nations in the world; and those two, most famous for learning and arts. So that Joshua represents the heathen religion with all its strength and advantage, and does not dissemble its confident pretension to antiquity and universality, whereby they would also insinuate the novelty and singularity of the worship of the God of Israel. It is worthy of observation, that

Joshua reneweth a covenant between Israel and God. Before CHRIST about 1427.

Joshua 24:15

15. — if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord.] He could not think they would turn Atheists, and have no God at all; and he was unwilling to suppose they would prefer any other God to Him who had obliged them by so many benefits. He expresses this in a rhetorical form of speech, which is as much as to say, If ye like not God’s service, tell me whom ye will serve. Bp. Patrick. As if he had said, I leave it to your own conscience, whether a people in your circumstances should suffer it to remain a question, what God you should serve, and to what religion you should adhere. Pyle.

Being sensible that mankind are strangely apt to think themselves not in a good state when they are in the best, he proceeds to entreat them, that, if any are dissatisfied with the fruits of observing their present religion and laws, they would (consider well, under what other, on the whole, they would rather wish to be; for under some they must be. They might, if they pleased, after all he had said, try a change, and take the consequences: but he had seen too much of the benefit of adhering to God, to have the least desire of experiencing what would be the effect of forsaking Him; and his prayer and endeavour, he affirms, shall be, that all under his influence may tread for ever in the same steps. Abp. Secker.

He does not insinuate that they were at liberty whether they should serve the true God or not; but he intimates, that religion ought to be their free choice; and likewise, that true religion has those real advantages on its side, that it may be safely referred to any considerate man’s choice. “If it seem evil unto you;” as if he had said, If all the demonstrations which God has given of His miraculous presence among you, and the mighty obligations He has laid upon you, by bringing you out of Egyptian bondage with so stretched out an arm, and by driving out the nations before you: if, after all this, you can think it fit to quit the service of God and to worship the idols, those vanquished and baffled deities of the nations whom you have subdued—if you can think it reasonable so to do, but surely you cannot, then take your choice. Abp. Tillotson.

— as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.] A resolution truly worthy of so great a prince and so good a man: in which we have a double pattern for us: first, of the brave resolution of a good man, namely, that, if there were occasion, and things were brought to

that extremity, he would stand alone in the profession and practice of true religion. Secondly, of the pious care of a good father and master of a family, to train up those under his charge in the true religion and worship of God. From the first, we should learn to hold fast the profession of our faith, and to take up the same pious resolution which Joshua did, under any trials to which God may be pleased to expose us; from the second, to exert the greatest possible diligence to make our “houses serve the Lord,” to have our children carefully educated, and our families regularly and religiously ordered. Abp. Tillotson.

This was a noble resolution, formed by a very eminent person, on a very solemn occasion. The last words of any man are usually listened to with attention, as likely to be words of truth and importance. But the last words of a veteran officer like Joshua, under whom the Israelites had fought and conquered, of a wise and Heaven-directed ruler, by whom they had been settled, according to their tribes, in pleasant and peaceful habitations, must above all others deserve to be heard and remembered for ever. After reminding the people of the various mercies they had experienced, Joshua drew his instructions and admonitions to a point, and thus left his testimony recorded on the behalf of himself and his family: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Bp. Horne.

Joshua 24:19

19. — Ye cannot serve the Lord.] The inference intended from the expression, “Ye cannot serve the Lord,” is, Therefore give the more diligence, and use the more care and endeavour, to serve God as ye ought. Dr. Lightfoot. This expression is far from implying an utter impossibility of their serving God; but is employed to intimate, that, such was their extreme proneness to idolatry, they would never be able to persevere stedfast in their resolution, unless they constantly reflected upon, and laid to heart, the many great considerations, which obliged them to implicit obedience. Bp. Patrick. For “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. Dr. Wells.

It appears that the point debated on this occasion between Joshua and his people, was not, whether the Israelites should return to God, as having rejected and forsaken Him; but whether they should serve Him only, or, as Joshua expresses it, “serve Him in sincerity and in truth:” for, on their exclaiming against the impiety of rejecting Him, “God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, we will serve Him;” (meaning, along with other gods;) their leader replies, “Ye cannot serve the Lord, for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God;” that is, As a holy God, He will not be served with the

VOL. I.

Joshua 24:31

31. — Nay; but we will serve the Lord.] It is not to be doubted that very many amongst mankind are as well inclined to the service of God as were the Israelites, and ready to make the same declaration which they did. They are so sensible of the folly and mischievous consequences of a sinful life, and the infinite obligation which God has laid upon them to live virtuously and religiously, that they fully purpose, with the grace of God, to quit all evil courses, and devote themselves to God’s service; to forsake the idol gods which men of the world worship, and, as Joshua expresses it, ver. 14, “to serve the Lord in sincerity and in truth.” But it is fit that all should be well forewarned, as Joshua insinuates to the Israelites, how much easier a matter it is to make resolutions about serving God, than to perform them after they are made; and consequently they, who mean to have their resolutions come to any effect, should take especial care to use their utmost prudence and consideration in the forming of them, and their utmost diligence in adhering to them afterwards. Abp. Sharp.

32. — the elders that overlived Joshua,] Men of distinguished piety, who “had known all the works of the Lord,” that is, had not only seen, but observed and kept in mind, the wonderful works of God, and put others in mind of them, and taught them to serve and obey the Lord. Bp. Patrick.

Joshua 24:32

32. — the bones of Joseph, — buried they in Shechem,] It is probable that the Israelites buried the bones of Joseph during the lifetime of Joshua; but, as the event was not recorded by Joshua himself, the account was added after his death. Dr. Wells. The circumstance of the Israelites bringing the bones of Joseph from Egypt is mentioned at Exod. xiii. 19. The arms of the Israelites prevailed every where, during the vigorous administrations of Moses and Joshua, who enforced obedience to the Law, and were jealous to prevent the introduction of idolatry: but, as will up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of ⁹ the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred || pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

Joshua 24:33

33. Now therefore put away — the strange gods] These are the very same words, which Jacob used to his household, when he suspected them of idolatry, Gen. xxxv. 2; although none was openly practised among them. Bp. Patrick. Joshua knew, by Divine inspiration, what was the inward disposition of the people, and their secret affection to idols; and that some amongst them worshipped false gods in private. Dr. Wells.

Joshua 24:35

35. So Joshua made a covenant &c.] So Joshua renewed the covenant by which the Israelites had before bound themselves, both in the time of Moses, and in his time: and “he set before them a statute,” that is, he read, or ordered to be read unto them the several precepts of the law, which were the conditions of the covenant then renewed. Dr. Wells.

Joshua 24:36

36. — in the book of the law of God,] The book which was laid up by Moses, in the side of the ark, Deut. xxxi. 24—26. Bp. Patrick.

— and took a great stone,] This was an ancient way of preserving the memory of past transactions, as appears from what Jacob did, Gen. xxviii. 18, and from

what they themselves had done, Josh. iv. 3, 20. Bp. Patrick.

— under an oak, — by the sanctuary] It was forbidden to plant a grove of trees near the sanctuary, Deut. xvi. 21; but this did not render it unlawful to set up the sanctuary, for a short time especially, under a tree planted before. Bp. Patrick.

— under an oak,] This was probably the place (called, Gen. xii. 6, “the place of Sichem”) where Abraham first sat down, and where, on the Lord’s first appearing to him, he erected his first altar in the land of Canaan: for the words at Gen. xii. 6, “unto the plain of Moreh,” are sometimes rendered, “unto the oak of Moreh.” See note on Gen. xii. 6. And what place could be more proper for Abraham’s posterity to renew a covenant with their God, than that, where their God first made His covenant with Abraham their father? Jos. Meds.

Joshua 24:37

37. — for it hath heard all the words] By a figure of speech, the stone is said to have heard what had passed, because it would remain to all posterity to testify the engagements there contracted. Bp. Patrick.

Nothing is more frequent in Scripture than expressions, which cannot be understood in a literal, and therefore must be in a metaphorical or figurative sense: of which this language of Joshua is an example. Lord Clarendon.

Joshua 24:39

39. And it came to pass] These five last verses were evidently not written by Joshua. It is probable they were written by Phinehas, or rather by Samuel, who, being a Prophet, was moved and directed by God to continue the history of this people from the death of Joshua to his own time. Dr. Gray.

— that Joshua — died,] The Son of Sirach gives a long commendation of Joshua at Ecclus. xlvi. 1, &c. Josephus, giving his character concisely, says, that he was a man of political prudence, and endured also with singular felicity of popular eloquence in expressing his thoughts; brave and indefatigable in war, and no less just and dexterous in peace; in short, that he was a person qualified for all great purposes. Stackhouse.

It should be well remarked, what pious conclusion Joshua made of a useful life, and how carefully he provided, that, after his decease, his people should be steadfast in his religion, and unmoveable in their adherence to the Divine Law. Such religious and zealous

and burial. Eleazar dieth. Before CHRIST about 1426. n Chap. 19. 60. Judg. 2. 9. longed their dogs after Joshua. o Gen. 50. 25. Exod. 13. 19.