Commentaria in Josue
Chapter Twenty-four. Synopsis of the Chapter
Josue at Sichem, in a fervent address, urges the people to the fear of God; presently, verse 25, binds the same people to God by a new covenant, and at last, verse 29, dies, and is buried in Thamnath-sare.
1. And Josue gathered together all the tribes of Israel in Sichem, and called for the elders, and the princes, and the judges, and the masters, and they stood in the sight of the Lord: 2. and he spoke thus to the people: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt of old on the other side of the river, Thare the father of Abraham, and Nachor: and they served strange gods. 3. And I took your father Abraham from the borders of Mesopotamia: and brought him into the land of Chanaan, and multiplied his seed, 4. and gave him Isaac: and to him again I gave Jacob and Esau. And to Esau I gave mount Seir to possess: but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with many signs and wonders. 6. And I brought you and your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea: and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen, as far as the Red Sea. 7. And the children of Israel cried to the Lord: and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them. Your eyes saw all that I did in Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. 8. And I brought you into the land of the Amorrhite, who dwelt beyond the Jordan. And when they fought against you, I delivered them into your hands, and you possessed their land, and slew them. 9. Then Balac the son of Sephor king of Moab arose, and fought against Israel. And he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor, to curse you: 10. and I would not hear him, but on the contrary I blessed you by him, and delivered you out of his hand. 11. And you passed over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. And the men of that city fought against you, the Amorrhite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Gergezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite: and I delivered them into your hands. 12. And I sent before you hornets: and I drove them out from their places, the two kings of the Amorrhites, not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. 13. And I gave you a land in which you had not laboured, and cities to dwell in which you built not, vineyards and oliveyards which you planted not. 14. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him with a perfect and most sincere heart: and put away the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
15. But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 16. And the people answered, and said: God forbid we should leave the Lord, and serve strange gods. 17. The Lord our God he brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: and did very great signs in our sight, and kept us in all the way by which we walked, and among all the people through whom we passed. 18. And he cast out all the nations, the Amorrhite, the inhabitant of the land into which we entered. We will therefore serve the Lord, for he is our God. 19. And Josue said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord: for he is a holy God, and a strong and jealous God, and will not forgive your wickedness and sins. 20. If you leave the Lord and serve strange gods, he will turn, and will afflict you, and will destroy you, after the good that he hath done you. 21. And the people said to Josue: It shall not be as thou sayest, but we will serve the Lord. 22. And Josue said to the people: You are witnesses that you yourselves have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they answered: We are witnesses.
23. Now therefore, said he, put away strange gods from among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel. 24. And the people said to Josue: We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to his commandments. 25. So Josue made a covenant that day, and set the people a statute and ordinance in Sichem. 26. And he wrote all these things in the volume of the law of the Lord: and he took a great stone, and set it under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the Lord: 27. and he said to all the people: Behold this stone shall be a testimony unto you, that it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you will deny it, and lie to the Lord your God. 28. And he sent the people away, every one to his own possession. 29. And after these things Josue the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old: 30. and they buried him in the border of his possession in Thamnath-sare, which is situate in mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaas. 31. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue, and of the ancients that lived a long time after Josue, and that knew all the works of the Lord which he had done in Israel. 32. The bones also of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought out of Egypt, they buried in Sichem, in that part of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons of Hemor the father of Sichem, for a hundred young ewes, and it was in the possession of the sons of Joseph. 33. Eleazar also the son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gabaath of Phinees his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.
1. IN SICHEM.—So the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Roman. You will say: The Septuagint have in Silo; for there was the Sanctuary, namely the tabernacle representing God, before which Josue made this covenant. Serarius answers that this happened in Silo, but that Silo was in the field of Sichem. But Sichem was ten miles distant from Silo, as St. Jerome testifies in the Hebrew Places. I say, therefore, that in the Septuagint one must read in Sichem, as the Septuagint read in the Complutensian and Royal Bibles. The cause why Josue renewed the covenant in this assembly at Sichem rather than at Silo was that God had commanded through Moses that this covenant be ratified at Sichem, at Mounts Garizim and Hebal, and that the first covenant entered into at Sinai, Exodus 19, be repeated, and Josue had carried this out, chapter 8:30. In the same place, therefore, he now renews this covenant, that he may recall to the people’s memory the former covenant made there, as well as that made at Sinai, and bind them altogether to it. For at Sichem Abraham, entering Chanaan, first offered sacrifice to God, Genesis 12:6 and 7. At Sichem also Joseph and the other Patriarchs, his brethren, were buried, as is plain here in verse 32, and Acts 7:16. Josue wished, therefore, in the same place, a little before his death, by a repetition of the law and covenant with God, to bid his Israelites a last farewell: in which he imitated his master Moses, who had done the same throughout Deuteronomy, especially chapter 32; and that at Sichem, so that where Abraham was appointed by God heir of Chanaan, Genesis 12, there his descendants, having entered upon his inheritance, should solemnly swear to the law of God, and have there an eternal monument of their religion and oath, of which more on verse 26.
IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD,—that is, before the ark, which was as it were the footstool of God sitting above the wings of the Cherubim on the propitiatory. For Josue caused the ark to be transferred from Silo to Sichem, that before it he might ratify this covenant.
2. BEYOND THE RIVER (the Euphrates in Mesopotamia) YOUR FATHERS DWELT OF OLD, THARE THE FATHER OF ABRAHAM AND NACHOR (the brother of Abraham), AND THEY SERVED STRANGE GODS,—Namely Thare and Nachor; for these worshipped idols, but not Abraham, who always remained a true worshipper of the one God, as I have shown from St. Augustine, Abulensis, Pereira and others.
4. TO ESAU I GAVE MOUNT SEIR,—namely Idumea.
the Arabian gulf, which divides Arabia from Egypt.