Joshua 24:4

_AND I GAVE UNTO ISAAC JACOB AND ESAU: AND I GAVE UNTO ESAU MOUNT SEIR, TO POSSESS IT; BUT JACOB AND HIS CHILDREN WENT DOWN INTO EGYPT._ Gave unto Esau mount Seir (see the note at Genesis 36:8) - in order that he might be no obstacle to Jacob and his posterity being the exclusive heirs of Canaan....

4._But Jacob and his children went down, _etc After mentioning the rejection of Esau, he proceeds to state how Jacob went down into Egypt, and though he confines himself to a single expression, it is one which indicates the large and exuberant and clear manifestation of the paternal favor of God. It cannot be doubted, that although the sacred historian does not speak in lofty terms of each miracle performed, Joshua gave the people such a summary exposition of their deliverance as might suffice. First, he points to the miracles performed in Egypt; next, he celebrates the passage of the Red Sea, where God gave them the aid of his inestimable power; and thirdly, he reminds them of the period during which they wandered in the desert....

1-14 We must never think our work for God done, till our life is done. If he lengthen out our days beyond what we expected, like those of Joshua, it is because he has some further service for us to do. He who aims at the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, will glory in bearing the last testimony to his Saviour's goodness, and in telling to all around, the obligations with which the unmerited goodness of God has bound him. The assembly came together in a solemn religious manner. Joshua spake to them in God's name, and as from him. His sermon consists of doctrine and application. The doctrinal part is a history of the great things God had done for his people, and for their fathers before them. The application of this history of God's mercies to them, is an exhortation to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and that it might be continued....

EXPOSITION THE LAST RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT.— JOSHUA 24:1 TO SHECHEM. The LXX. and the Arabic version read _Shiloh _here, and as the words "they presented themselves (literally, _took up their station_)_ _before God" follow, this would seem the natural reading. But there is not the slightest MSS. authority for the reading, and it is contrary to all sound principles of criticism to resort to arbitrary emendations of the text. Besides, the LXX. itself reads Συχέμ_,_ in Joshua 24:26, and adds, "before the tabernacle of the God of Israel," words implied, but not expressed in t

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....

THE SECOND ADDRESS CHAPTER 24:1-28 _ 1. The gathering at Shechem (Joshua 24:1)_ 2. Historic retrospect and exhortations (Joshua 24:2) 3. The answer given by Israel (Joshua 24:16) 4. Joshua's answer (Joshua 24:19) 5. The promise made (Joshua 24:21) 6. Joshua's appeal and the repeated promise (Joshua 24:22) 7. The covenant made and Joshua's final word ...

JACOB AND ESAU. Compare Genesis 25:25; Genesis 25:26. ESAU. Compare Genesis 36:8; Deuteronomy 2:5 BUT JACOB. Compare Genesis 46:6. CHILDREN. sons....

_And I gave unto Isaac Jacob_ After he too and Rebekah had been childless upwards of nineteen years. _Jacob_ = _he that holds by the heel_, or _supplanter_(Genesis 25:26). _Esau_ = _hairy, rough_; whose robust frame and rough aspect were the type of a wild and daring nature. _mount Seir_ = "_rough_" or "_rugged_," extended along the east side of the valley of Arabah, from the Dead Sea to the Elamitic Gulf. The name may either have been derived from Seir the Horite, who appears to have been the chief of the aboriginal inhabitants (Genesis 36:20), or, what is perhaps more probable, from the rough aspect of the whole country. These Horites, the excavators of those singular rock-dwellings found in such numbers in the ravines and cliffs around Petra, were

_A Reminder of God's Blessings Joshua 24:1-25_ And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I b

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