Chapter 24:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Deuteronomy Judges
Joshua 24
Joshua assembling the people, recounts what great things
God had done for them, ver. 1-13. Exhorts them to serve God,
which they engage to do, ver. 14-28. His age, death, and burial,
ver. 29-31. The burying of Joseph's bones, ver. 32. The death and
burial of Eleazar, ver. 33.
Verse 1. All Israel - Namely, their representatives. Shechem - To the
city of Shechem, a place convenient for the purpose, not only
because it was a Levitical city, and a city of refuge, and a place
near Joshua's city, but especially for the two main ends for which
he summoned them thither.
1. For the solemn burial of the bones of Joseph, and the rest of the
patriarchs, for which this place was designed.
2. For the solemn renewing of their covenant with God; which in
this place was first made between God and Abraham, Gen. xii, 6,
7, and afterwards renewed by the Israelites at their first entrance
into the land of Canaan, between the two mountains of Ebal and
Gerizzim, chap. viii, 30, &c. which were very near Shechem: and
therefore this place was most proper, both to remind them of their
former obligations to God, and to engage them to a farther
ratification of them. Before God - As in God's presence, to hear
what Joshua was to speak to them in God's name, and to receive
God's commands from his mouth. He had taken a solemn farewell
before: but as God renewed his strength, he desired to improve it
for their good. We must never think our work for God done, 'till
our life is done.
Verse 2. The people - To the elders, by whom it was to be imparted to
all the rest, and to as many of the people as came thither. He
spake to them in God's name, and as from him, in the language of
a prophet, Thus saith the Lord. Jehovah, the great God, and the
God of Israel, whom you are peculiarly engaged to hear. The
flood - Or, the river, namely, Euphrates, so called by way of
eminency. They served - That is, Both Abraham and Nahor were
no less idolaters than the rest of mankind. This is said to prevent
their vain boasting in their worthy ancestors, and to assure them
that whatsoever good was in, or had been done by their
progenitors, was wholly from God's free grace, and not for their
own merit or righteousness.
Verse 3. I took - I snatched him out of that idolatrous place, and took
him into acquaintance and covenant with myself, which was the
highest honour and happiness he was capable of. And led - That is
I brought him after his father's death into Canaan, Gen. xii, 1, and
I conducted and preserved him in all his travels through the
several parts of Canaan. And multiplied - That is, gave him a
numerous posterity, not only by Hagar and Keturah, but even by
Sarah and by Isaac. Gave Isaac - By my special power and grace
to be heir of my covenant, and all my promises, and the seed in or
by which all the nations were to be blessed.
Verse 4. Mount Seir - That he might leave Canaan entire to his brother
Jacob and his posterity, Gen. xxxvi, 7, 8. Into Egypt - Where they
long lived in grievous bondage; which God having delivered us
from, I shall now pass it over. 7. Your eyes - He speaketh this to
the elders, ver. 1, who were so, not only by power and dignity, but
many of them by age; and there being now not sixty years past
since those Egyptian plagues, it is very probable that a
considerable number of those present, had seen those things in
Egypt, and being not twenty years old, were exempted from that
dreadful sentence passed upon all who were older, Num. xiv, 29.
Verse 9. Balak warred - Balak warred, tho' not by open force, yet by
crafty counsel and warlike stratagems, by wicked devices.
Verse 10. Unto Balaam - Who hereby appears to have desired of God
leave to curse Israel; and therefore it is not strange, that God who
permitted him simply to go, was highly angry with him for going
with so wicked an intent, Num. xxii, 20, 22, 32. Delivered you -
That is, from Balak's malicious design against you.
Verse 11. Deliver them - Namely, successively; for in these few words
he seems to comprise all their wars, which being so fresh in their
memory, he thought it needless particularly to mention.
Verse 12. Sent the hornet - When they were actually engaged in battle
with the Canaanites. These dreadful swarms which first appeared
in their war with Sihon and Og, tormented them with their stings
and terrified them with their noise, so that they became an easy
prey to Israel. God had promised to do this for them, Exod. xxiii,
27, 28, and here Joshua observes the fulfilling the promise.
Verse 14. The gods - Whereby it appears, that although Joshua had
doubtless prevented and purged out all public idolatry, yet there
were some of them who practiced it in their private houses and
retirements. Your fathers - Terah, and Nahor, and Abraham, as
ver. 2, and other of your ancestors. In Egypt - See Ezek xxiii, 3, 8,
19, 21, 27. Under these particulars, no doubt he comprehends all
other false gods, which were served by the nations amongst whom
they were, but only mentions these, as the idols which they were
in more danger of worshipping than those in Canaan; partly
because those of Canaan had been now lately and palpably
disgraced by their inability to preserve their worshippers from
total ruin; and partly, because the other idols came recommended
to them by the venerable name of antiquity, and the custom of
their forefathers.
Verse 15. Seem evil - Unjust, unreasonable or inconvenient. Choose ye -
Not that he leaves them to their liberty, whether they would serve
God or idols; for Joshua had no such power himself, nor could
give it to any other; and both he and they were obliged by the law
of Moses, to give their worship to God only, and to forbear all
idolatry in themselves, and severely to punish it in others; but it is
a powerful insinuation, whereby he both implies, that the worship
of God is so highly reasonable, necessary and beneficial; and the
service of idols so absurd, and vain, and pernicious, that if it were
left free for all men to take their choice, every man in his right
wits must needs chuse the service of God, before that of idols; and
provokes them to bind themselves faster to God by their own
choice. He will - But know this, if you should all be so base and
brutish, as to prefer senseless and impotent idols, before the true
and living God, it is my firm purpose, that I will, and my children,
and servants (as far as I can influence them) shall be constant and
faithful to the Lord. And that, whatever others do. They that
resolve to serve God, must not start at being singular in it. They
that are bound for heaven must be willing to swim against the
stream, and must do, not as most do, but as the best do.
Verse 19. Ye cannot - He speaks not of an absolute impossibility, (for
then both his resolution to serve God himself, and his exhortation
to them had been vain) but of a moral impossibility, or a very
great difficulty, which he alledgeth not to discourage them from
God's service, but to make them more considerate in obliging
themselves; and more resolved in answering their obligations. The
meaning is, God's service is not, as you seem to fancy, a slight
and easy thing, but it is a work of great difficulty, and requires
great care, and courage and resolution; and when I consider the
infinite purity of God, that he will not be mocked or abused; and
withal your proneness to superstition and idolatry, even during the
life of Moses, and in some of you, while I live, and while the
obligations which God had laid upon you in this land, are fresh in
remembrance; I cannot but fear that after my decease you will
think the service of God burdensome, and therefore will cast it off
and revolt from him, if you do not carefully avoid all occasions of
idolatry. A jealous God - In the Hebrew, He is the holy Gods,
holy Father, holy Son, holy Spirit. He will not endure a partner in
his worship; you can not serve him and idols together. Will not
forgive - If you who own yourselves his people and servants, shall
wilfully transgress his laws, he will not let this go unpunished in
you, as he doth in other nations; therefore consider what you do,
when you take the Lord for your God; weigh your advantages and
inconveniences together; for as if you be sincere and faithful in
God's service, you will have admirable benefits by it; so if you be
false to your professions, and forsake him whom you have so
solemnly avouched to be your God, he will deal more severely
with you than with any people in the world.
Verse 20. Will turn - That is, he will alter his course and the manner of
his dealing with you, and will be as severe as ever he was kind
and gracious. He will repent of his former kindnesses, and his
goodness abused will be turned into fury.
Verse 21. The Lord - Namely, him only, and not strange gods.
Verse 22. Against yourselves - This solemn profession will be a swift
witness against you, if hereafter you apostatize from God.
Verse 23. Strange gods - Those idols which you either brought out of
Egypt, or have taken in Canaan, which some of you keep contrary
to God's command, whether for the preciousness of the matter, or
rather for some secret inclination to superstition and idolatry.
Verse 25. A statute - He set or established that covenant with them, that
is, the people, for a statute or an ordinance, to bind themselves
and their posterity unto God for ever.
Verse 26. These words - That is, this covenant or agreement of the
people with the Lord. In the book - That is, in the volume which
was kept in the ark, Deut. xxxi, 9, 26, whence it was taken and put
into this book of Joshua: this he did for the perpetual
remembrance of this great and solemn action, to lay the greater
obligation upon the people to be true to their engagement; and as
a witness for God, against the people, if afterward he punished
them for their defection from God, to whom they had so solemnly
and freely obliged themselves. Set it up - As a witness and
monument of this great transaction, according to the custom of
those ancient times. Possibly this agreement was written upon this
stone, as was then usual. By the sanctuary - That is, near the place
where the ark and tabernacle then were; for tho' they were
forbidden to plant a grove of trees near unto the altar, as the
Gentiles did, yet they might for a time set up an altar, or the ark,
near a great tree which had been planted there before.
Verse 27. It hath heard - It shall be as sure a witness against you, as if it had heard. This is a common figure, whereby the sense of hearing
is often ascribed to the heavens and the earth, and other senseless
creatures.
Verse 32. The bones of Joseph - Joseph died two hundred years before
in Egypt, but gave commandment concerning his bones, that they
should not rest in a grave, 'till Israel rested in the land of promise.
Now therefore they were deposited in that piece of ground, which
his father gave him near Shechem. One reason why Joshua called
all Israel to Shechem, might be to attend Joseph's bones to the
grave. So that he now delivered as it were both Joseph's funeral
sermon, and his own farewell sermon. And if it was in the last
year of his life, the occasion might well remind him, of his own
death now at hand. For he was just of the same age with his
illustrious ancestor, who died being one hundred and ten years
old, Gen. i, 26.
Verse 33. Given him - By special favour, and for his better conveniency
in attending upon the ark, which then was, and for a long time was
to be in Shiloh, near this place: whereas the cities which were
given to the priests, were in Judah. Benjamin, and Simeon, which
were remote from Shiloh, tho' near the place where the ark was to
have its settled abode, namely, at Jerusalem. It is probable Eleazar
died about the same time with Joshua, as Aaron did in the same
year with Moses. While Joshua lived, religion was kept up, under
his care and influence, but after he and his contemporaries were
gone, it swiftly went to decay. How well is it for the gospel
church, that Christ, our Joshua, is still with it by his Spirit, and
will be always, even to the end of the world?
Chapter 24:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Deuteronomy Judges
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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