Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 2.djvu/105

Rh 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.

Now, to give it the formalities of a covenant, 1. He calls witnesses, no other than themselves, v. 22, Ye are witnesses that ye have chosen the Lord; he promises himself that they would never forget the solemnities of this day, but if hereafter they should break this covenant, he assures them that the professions and promises they had now made, would certainly rise up in judgment against them, and condemn them; and they agreed to it, "We are witnesses; let us be judged out of our own mouths, if ever we be false to our God." 2. He put it in writing, and inserted it, as we find it here, in the sacred canon; he wrote it in the book of the law, v. 26. in that original which was laid up in the side of the ark, and from thence, probably, it was transcribed into the several copies which the princes had for the use of each tribe. There it was written, that their obligation to religion by the divine precept, and that by their own promise, might remain on record together. 3. He erected a memorandum of it, for the benefit of those who perhaps were not conversant with writing, v. 26, 27. He set up a great stone under an oak, as a monument of this covenant, and perhaps wrote an inscription upon it, (by which stones are made to speak,) signifying the intention of it. When he says, It had heard what was past, he, tacitly upbraids the people with the hardness of their hearts, as if this stone had heard to as good purpose as some of them; and if they should forget what was now done, thisstone would so far preserve the remembrance of it, as to reproach them for their stupidity and carelessness, and be a witness against them.

The matter being thus settled, Joshua dismissed this assembly of the grandees of Israel, v. 28. and took his last leave of them, well satisfied in having done his part, by which he had delivered his soul; if they perished, their blood would be upon their own heads.

29. And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the, died, being a hundred and ten years old. 30. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash. 31. And Israel served the all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the, that he had done for Israel. 32. And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a 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 in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.

This book, which began with triumphs, here ends with funerals,, by. which all the glory of man is stained.

1. Here is Joseph buried, v. 32. He died about two hundred years before in Egypt, but gave commandment concerning his bones, that they should not rest in their grave until Israel had rest in the land of promise; now therefore, the children of Israel, who had brought this coffin full of bones with them out of Egypt, carried it along with them in all their marches through the wilderness, (the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, it is probable, taking particular care of it,) and kept it in their camp till Canaan was perfectly reduced, now at last they deposited it in that piece of ground which his father gave him near Shechem, Gen. 48. 22. Probably, it was upon this occasion that Joshua called out for all Israel to meet him at Shechem, (v. 1.) to attend Joseph's coffin to the grave there; so that the sermon in this chapter served both for Joseph's funeral sermon, and his own farewell sermon; and if it was, as is supposed, in the last year of his life, the occasion might very well remind him of his own death being at hand, for he was now just at the same age that his illustrious ancestor Joseph was arrived at when he died, one hundred and ten years old; compare v. 29. with Gen. 50. 26.

Here2. Here - as in 1806 London edition [sic] is the death and burial of Joshua, v. 29. 30. We are not told how long he lived after the coming of Israel into Canaan. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was about seventeen years; but the Jewish chronologers generally say it was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years. He is here called the servant of the Lord, the same title that was given to Moses, (ch. 1. 1.) when mention was made of his death; for though Joshua was in many respects inferior to Moses, yet in this he was equal to him, that, according as his work was, he approved himself a diligent and faithful servant of God. And he hehe [sic] that traded with his two talents, had the same approbation that he had who traded with five; Well done, good and faithful servant. Joshua's burying place is here said to be on the north side of the hill of Gaash, or the quaking hill; the Jews say it was so called, because it trembled at the burial of Joshua, to upbraid the people of Israel with their stupidity, in that they did not lament the death of that great and good man so as they ought to have done. Thus, at the death of Christ, our Joshua, the earth quaked. The learned Bishop Patrick observes, that there is no mention of any days of mourning for Joshua, as there were for Moses and Aaron, in which, he says, St. Hierom and other of the fathers think there is a mystery, namely, that under the law, when life and immortality were not brought to so clear a light as they are now, they had reason to mourn and weep for the death of their friends; but now that Jesus, our Joshua, has opened the kingdom of heaven, we may rather rejoice.

3. Here is the death and burial of Eleazar the chief priest, who, it is probable, died about the same time that Joshua did, as Aaron in the same year with Moses, v. 33. The Jews say that Eleazar, a little before he died, called the elders together, and gave them a charge as Joshua had done. He was buried in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which came to him, not by descent, for then it would have pertained to his father first, nor had the priests any cities in mount Ephraim; but either it fell to him by marriage, as the Jews conjecture, or it was freely bestowed upon him, to build a country-seat on, by some pious Israelite, that was well-affected to the priesthood, for it is here said to be given him; and there he buried his dear father.

Lastly, We have a general idea given us of the state of Israel at this time, v. 31. While Joshua lived, religion was kept up among them under his care and influence; but soon after he and his