Joshua 24:3 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua 24:3

The Covenant at Shechem

1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to ^aShechem and ^bcalled for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they ^cpresented themselves before God.

2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^a‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of¹ the River in old times; and ^bthey served other gods.

3 ^aThen I took your father Abraham from the other side of¹ the River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and ^bgave him Isaac.

4 To Isaac I gave ^aJacob and Esau. To ^bEsau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, ^cbut Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

5 ^aAlso I sent Moses and Aaron, and ^bI plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out.

6 ‘Then I ^abrought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

7 So they cried out to the Lord; and He put ^adarkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And ^byour eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness ^ca long time.

8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, ^aand they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you.

9 Then ^aBalak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and ^bsent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.

10 ^aBut I would not listen to Balaam; ^btherefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand.

11 Then ^ayou went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And ^bthe men of Jericho fought against you—also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand.

12 ^aI sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but ^bnot with your sword or with your bow.

13 I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and ^acities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’

14 ^a“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in ^bsincerity and in truth, and ^cput away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of¹ the River and ^din Egypt. Serve the Lord!

15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, ^achoose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether ^bthe gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of¹ the River, or ^cthe gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. ^dBut as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods;

17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.

Book Notes:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Joshua

JOSHUA. The title of this book is derived from the pious and valiant leader whose achievements it relates and who is commonly supposed to have been its author. The objections to this idea are founded chiefly on the clause, "unto this day," which occurs several times (Joshua 4:9; Joshua 6:25; Joshua 8:28). But this, at least in the case of Rahab, is no valid reason for rejecting the idea of his authorship; for assuming what is most probable, that this book was composed toward the close of Joshua's long career, or compiled from written documents left by him, Rahab might have been still alive. A more simple and satisfactory way of accounting for the frequent insertion of the clause, "unto this day," is the opinion that it was a comment introduced by Ezra, when revising the sacred canon; and this difficulty being removed, the direct proofs of the book having been produced by a witness of the transactions related in it, the strong and vivid descriptions of the passing scenes, and the use of the words "we" and "us," (Joshua 5:1-6), viewed in connection with the fact, that, after his farewell address to the people, Joshua "wrote these words in the book of the law of God" [Joshua 24:26] —all afford strong presumptive proof that the entire book was the work of that eminent individual. Its inspiration and canonical authority are fully established by the repeated testimonies of other Scripture writers (compare Joshua 6:26 with I Kings 16:34; compare Joshua 10:13 with Habakkuk 3:11; Joshua 3:14 with Acts 7:45; Joshua 6:17-23 with Hebrews 11:30; Joshua 2:1-24 with James 2:25; Psalms 44:2; Psalms 68:12-14; Psalms 78:54-55). As a narrative of God's faithfulness in giving the Israelites possession of the promised land, this history is most valuable, and bears the same character as a sequel to the Pentateuch, that the Acts of the Apostles do to the Gospels.

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The Covenant at Shechem

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

A Verse and a Thought,
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