John Gill Commentary Joshua 24

And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem
The nine tribes and a half; not all the individuals of them, but the chief among them, their representatives, as afterwards explained, whom he gathered together a second time, being willing, as long as he was among them, to improve his time for their spiritual as well as civil good; to impress their minds with a sense of religion, and to strengthen, enlarge, and enforce the exhortations he had given them to serve the Lord; and Abarbinel thinks he gathered them together again because before they returned him no answer, and therefore he determined now to put such questions to them as would oblige them to give one, as they did, and which issued in making a covenant with them.

The place where they assembled was Shechem, which some take to be Shiloh, because of what is said (Joshua 24:25); that being as they say in the fields of Shechem; which is not likely, since Shiloh, as Jerom says ^F21 , was ten miles from Neapolis or Shechem.

This place was chosen because nearest to Joshua, who was now old and infirm, and unfit to travel; and the rather because it was the place where the Lord first appeared to Abraham, when he brought him into the land of Canaan, and where he made a promise of giving the land to his seed, and where Abraham built an altar to him, (Genesis 12:6Genesis 12:7); where also Jacob pitched his tent when he came from Padanaram, bought a parcel of a field, and erected an altar to the Lord, (Genesis 33:18–20); and where Joshua also repeated the law to, and renewed the covenant with the children of Israel, quickly after their coming into the land of Canaan, for Ebal and Gerizim were near to Shechem, (Joshua 8:30–35);

and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for
their judges, and for their officers: (See Gill on Joshua 23:2);

and they presented themselves before God ;
Kimchi and Abarbinel are of opinion that the ark was fetched from the tabernacle at Shiloh, and brought hither on this occasion, which was the symbol of the divine Presence; and therefore the place becoming sacred thereby is called the sanctuary of the Lord, and certain it is that here was the book of the law of Moses, (Joshua 24:26) ; which was put on the side of the ark, (Deuteronomy 31:26) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: De loc. Heb. fol. 94. I.

And Joshua said unto all the people
Then present, or to all Israel by their representatives:

thus says the Lord God of Israel ;
he spoke to them in the name of the Lord, as the prophet did, being himself a prophet, and at this time under a divine impulse, and spirit of prophecy. According to an Arabic writer ^F23 : the Angel of God appeared in the form of a man, and with a loud voice delivered the following, though they are expressed by him in a different manner; perhaps he means, the Captain of the Lord's host, (Joshua 15:13Joshua 15:14) ; and which is not unlikely:

your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time ;
on the other side the, river Euphrates; so the Targum, ``beyond Perat;'' i.e. Euphrates; in Mesopotamia and Chaldea; meaning not the remotest of their ancestors, Noah and Shem, but the more near, and who are expressly named:

[even] Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor ;
the Israelites sprung from Terah, in the line of Abraham, on the father's side, and from him in the line of Nachor on the mother's side, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel, being of Nachor's family:

and they served other gods ;
besides the true God, strange gods, which were no gods: "idols"; the idols of the people, as the Targum; so did Terah, Abraham, and Nachor; (See Gill on Genesis 11:26); (See Gill on Genesis 11:28); (See Gill on Genesis 12:1).

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 35.

And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the
flood
The river Euphrates, as before: or "your father, to wit, Abraham", as Noldius ^F24 ; he took him not only in a providential way, and brought him from the other side of the Euphrates, out of an idolatrous country and family, but he apprehended him by his grace, and called and converted him by it, and brought him to a spiritual knowledge of himself, and of the Messiah that should spring from his seed, and of the Covenant of grace, and of the blessings of it, and of his interest therein; which was a peculiar and distinguishing favour:

and led him throughout all the land of Canaan ;
from the northern to the southern part of it; he led him as far as Shechem, where Israel was now assembled, and then to Bethel, and still onward to the south, (Genesis 12:6–9) ; that he might have a view of the land his posterity was to inherit, and, by treading on it and walking through it, take as it were a kind of possession of it:

and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac ;
he multiplied his seed by Hagar, by whom he had Ishmael, who begat twelve princes; and by Keturah, from whose sons several nations sprung; see (Genesis 17:20) (25:1-4) ; and by Sarah, who bore him Isaac in old age, in whom his seed was called; and from whom, in the line of Jacob, sprung the twelve tribes of Israel, and which seed may be chiefly meant; and the sense is, that he multiplied his posterity after he had given him Isaac, and by him a numerous seed; so Vatablus:

Ishmael is not mentioned, because, as Kimchi observes, he was born of an handmaid; but Abarbinel thinks only such are mentioned, who were born in a miraculous manner, when their parents were barren, as in this and also in the next instance.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 119.

And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau
When Rebekah was barren, so that the children appeared the more to be the gift of God; though Esau perhaps is mentioned, for the sake of what follows:

and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it ;
that Jacob and his posterity alone might inherit Canaan, and Esau and his seed make no pretension to it:

but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt ;
where they continued many years, and great part of the time in bondage and misery, which is here taken no notice of; and this was in order to their being brought into the land of Canaan, and that the power and goodness of God might be the more conspicuous in it.

I sent Moses also and Aaron
To demand Israel's dismission of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to be the deliverers of them:

and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did amongst them ;
inflicting ten plagues upon them for refusing to let Israel go:

and afterwards I brought you out ;
that is, out of Egypt, with an high hand, and outstretched arm.