Joshua assembles the tribes at Shechem, 1. A brief history of God's benefits, from Terah, 2-13. He renews the covenant between them and God, 14-25. A stone the witness of the covenant, 26-28. Joshua's age, death, and burial, 29-31. Joseph's bones are buried, 32. Eleazar dies, 33.
1 And Joshua convened all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says 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 Nahor, and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, multiplied his offspring, and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac. And I gave mount Seir to Esau to possess it, but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5 I also sent Moses 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 to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 And when they cried to 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 you dwelt in the wilderness for a long season. 8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand so that you 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 listen to Balaam; therefore, he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand. 11 And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you—the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—and I delivered them into your hand. 12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword, nor with your bow. 13 And I have given you a land for which you did not labor and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them. You eat of the vineyards and olive-groves which you did not plant.'
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 the LORD. 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served who were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
16 And the people answered, and said, "Be it far from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods. 17 For the LORD our God, it is he who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the LORD drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites who dwelt in the land. Therefore, we will also serve the LORD, for he is our God."
19 And Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you, after he has done you good." 21 And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the LORD." 22 And Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses." 23 "Now therefore," he said, "put away the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart to the LORD God of Israel." 24 And the people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey." 25 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 took a great stone and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God." 28 So Joshua let the people depart, each to his inheritance.
29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the LORD died, being one hundred and ten years old. 30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and who had known all the works of the LORD that he had done for Israel.
32 And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel brought out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver. And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him on a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given to him on mount Ephraim.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Joshua, Chapter 24[➚]
[v.2] - "Terah" - Reference, Genesis 11:26.
[v.3a] - "I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood" - Reference, Genesis 12:1.
[v.3b] - "multiplied his seed" - Reference, Genesis 15:5.
[v.3c] - "gave him Isaac" - Reference, Genesis 21:3.
[v.4a] - "I gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac" - Reference, Genesis 25:25-26.
[v.4b] - "I gave mount Seir to Esau" - Reference, Genesis 36:8.
[v.4c] - "Jacob and his children went down into Egypt" - Reference, Genesis 46:6.
[v.5a] - "I plagued Egypt" - Reference, Exodus, chapters 7-12 and 14.
[v.5b] - "I brought you out" - Reference, Exodus 12:51.
[v.6] - Reference, Exodus, ch. 14.
[v.7] - "dwelt in the wilderness for a long season" - That long season was forty years. Reference, Numbers 14:33.
[v.8] - Reference, Numbers 21:21-26.
[v.9] - Reference, Numbers 22:2-5.
[v.10] - Reference, Deuteronomy 23:5.
[v.11a] - "came to Jericho" - Reference, Josh. 2:1.
[v.11b] - "the men of Jericho fought against you...I delivered them into your hand" - Reference, Joshua, ch. 6.
[v.12] - "I sent the hornet" - Reference, Deuteronomy 7:20.
[v.13] - Reference, Deuteronomy 6:10-11.
[v.19] - Reference, Exodus 20:5, 34:14.
[v.20] - Reference, Deuteronomy 4:25-26.
[v.30] - Reference, Joshua 19:50.
[v.32a] - "the bones of Joseph" - Reference, Genesis 50:25; Exodus 13:19.
[v.32b] - "Shechem" - Reference, Genesis 33:18-20.
[v.33] - "and they buried him on a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son" - There are a couple variation in the translation of this part of the verse. The Septuagint, and many other translations, translate the mentioned hill into a proper name, as in, "and [he] was buried in Gibeah of Phinees his son." The JPS Tanach (1917) translates the phrase this way: "and they buried him in the Hill of Phinehas his son."