Joshua 24:1-33

Joshua's Second and Final Farewell

This discourse (Joshua 24:1), with Israel's response (Joshua 24:16), and consequent renewal of the Covenant (Joshua 24:25), occupies the bulk of the chapter. The book is then brought to a conclusion in three short paragraphs, recording (a) the death and burial of Joshua (Joshua 24:29), (b) the burial of Joseph's bones (Joshua 24:32), and (c) the death of Eleazar (Joshua 24:33).

1-15. This last address of Joshua, which is admitted by critics to be of great antiquity, recalls, both in spirit and in substance, Samuel's discourse in 1 Samuel 12. But whereas the latter begins with the work of Moses and Aaron, Joshua starts further back and traces the hand of Providence from the call of Abraham out of idolatrous Mesopotamia, thus enforcing a strict renunciation of any lingering idolatry among his contemporaries (cp. Joshua 24:14; Joshua 24:23). Through patriarchal times he draws his hearers on to the sojourn in Egypt (Joshua 24:4); then he refers to the miraculous exodus (Joshua 24:5); next he recounts the wanderings in the wilderness, and the victories E. of Jordan (Joshua 24:7); and concludes with the passage of Jordan, and the subsequent conquests (Joshua 24:11.). Finally Joshua offers them the great choice—loyalty or disloyalty to the Lord who has done so much for them (Joshua 24:14). His own choice is made.