Joshua 24:31

_AND ISRAEL SERVED THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF JOSHUA, AND ALL THE DAYS OF THE ELDERS THAT OVERLIVED JOSHUA, AND WHICH HAD KNOWN ALL THE WORKS OF THE LORD, THAT HE HAD DONE FOR ISRAEL._ Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. The high and commanding character of this eminent leader had given so decided a tone to the sentiments and manners of his contemporaries, and the memory of his fervent piety and many virtues continued so vividly impressed on the memories of the people, that the sacred historian has recorded it to his immortal honour, "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua....

29-33 Joseph died in Egypt, but gave commandment concerning his bones, that they should not rest in their grave till Israel had rest in the land of promise. Notice also the death and burial of Joshua, and of Eleazar the chief priest. The most useful men, having served their generation, according to the will of God, one after another, fall asleep and see corruption. But Jesus, having spent and ended his life on earth more effectually than either Joshua or Joseph, rose from the dead, and saw no corruption. And the redeemed of the Lord shall inherit the kingdom he prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They will say in admiration of the grace of Jesus, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen....

Verse Joshua 24:31. _AND ISRAEL SERVED THE LORD, C._] Though there was private idolatry among them, for they had strange gods, yet there was no public idolatry all the days of Joshua and of the elders that overlived Joshua most of whom must have been advanced in years at the death of this great man. Hence Calmet supposes that the whole of this time might amount to about fifteen years. It has already been noted that this verse is placed by the Septuagint after Joshua 24:28....

EXPOSITION JOSHUA'S DEATH AND BURIAL.— JOSHUA 24:29 THE SERVANT OF THE LORD. The theory of some commentators, that this expression is evidence of a later interpolation because "the title only dates, from the period when Moses, Joshua, and others were raised to the rank of national saints," need only be noticed to be rejected. It is a fair specimen of the inventive criticism which has found favour among modern critics, in which a large amount of imagination is made to supply the want of the smallest modicum of fact. What is wanting here is the slightest evidence of such a "period" having ever existed, except at the time when these saints of the old covenant closed their labours by death. All the facts before us go to prove that Moses, as well as Joshua, was held in

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SERVED THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF JOSHUA,.... Without going into idolatrous practices: AND ALL THE DAYS OF THE ELDERS THAT OVERLIVED JOSHUA; that lived a few years longer than he; some of them that came young out of Egypt, and were now elderly men; and some of them doubtless were of the court of the seventy elders; these could not overlive Joshua a great many years, for, in the times of Chushanrishathaim, Israel fell into idolatry, Judges 2:6; AND WHICH HAD KNOWN ALL THE WORKS OF THE LORD, THAT HE HAD DONE FOR ISRAEL; in Egypt, at the Red sea, in the wilderness, as well as since their coming into the land of Canaan....

OVERLIVED prolonged their days after....

3. THE EPILOGUE CHAPTER 24:29-33 _ 1. Joshua's death and burial (24:29-31)_ 2. The bones of Joseph buried (24:32) 3. Eleazar's death (24:33) Moses, the instrument through whom the law was given, was buried by the Lord, no doubt a hint that some day the Lord would put away the law, with its curse, as we learn in the New Testament. Joshua was buried by the people in his own inheritance; he died ten years younger than Moses, that is 110 years old. Joseph had reached the same age, having died some 200 years before. Genesis 50:25, Exodus 13:19 and Hebrews 11:22 must be consulted to understand the burial of his bones recorded here. They had carried those bones all through the wilderness and

ALL THE DAYS. The expression is not necessarily. long period. in Joshua 11:18 it-seven years; in Joshua 23:1. within ten years; here it. three years. See App-50. WORKS. work....

Death of Joshua and Eleazar 29. _And it came to pass_ With the close of Joshua's parting address comes the close also of his own life. The historian proceeds to bring the book to a conclusion, and tells us of (i) the death of Joshua; (ii) the conduct of the people after his death; (iii) the burial of the remains of Joseph, which had been brought out of Egypt; (iv) the death of Eleazar the high-priest. _Joshua … the servant of the Lord, died_ His work was now over. His work of war, and his work of peace. His age when he died was precisely that which Joseph reached (Genesis 50:26), a hundred and ten years....

_VER._ 31. _AND ISRAEL SERVED THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF JOSHUA_— So long as this pious general was at the head of the people of Israel, idolatry durst not show itself, and the Israelites in public adored only the true God. Moses did not enjoy the like happiness. Every one knows what a disturbance that depraved taste which the Hebrews had imbibed for idolatry in Egypt, produced in the affair of the golden calf: God, however, remedied it, by condemning the offenders to wander forty years in that wilderness, where, according to St. Chrysostom, all those perished who had been witnesses of that horrible apostacy; that thus there might remain no one among them capable of teaching them again so atrocious a kind of impiety. See Vitae Monastic. Vitup. lib. 1....