35 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Joshua 24 This chapter gives us an account of another summons of the tribes of Israel by Joshua, who obeyed it, and presented themselves before the Lord at Shechem, Joshua 24:1; when Joshua in the name of the Lord rehearsed to them the many great and good things the Lord had done for them, from the time of their ancestor Abraham to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem,.... The nine tribes and a half; not all the individuals of them, but the chief among them, their representatives, as afterwards explained, whom he gathered together a second time, being willing, as long as he was among them, to improve his time for their spiritual as well as civil good; to...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter concludes the life and reign of Joshua, in which we have, I. The great care and pains he took to confirm the people of Israel in the true faith and worship of God, that they might, after his death, persevere therein. In order to this he called another general assembly of the heads of the congregation of Israel (ver. 1) and dealt with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua said unto all the people,.... Then present, or to all Israel by their representatives: thus saith the Lord God of Israel; he spoke to them in the name of the Lord, as the prophet did, being himself a prophet, and at this time under a divine impulse, and spirit of prophecy. According to an Arabic writer (w): the Angel of God appeared in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,.... The river Euphrates, as before: or "your father, to wit, Abraham", as Noldius (x); he took him not only in a providential way, and brought him from the other side of the Euphrates, out of an idolatrous country and family, but he apprehended him by his grace, and called and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I sent Moses also and Aaron,.... To demand Israel's dismission of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to be the deliverers of them: and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did amongst them; inflicting ten plagues upon them for refusing to let Israel go: and afterwards I brought you out; that is, out of Egypt, with an high hand, and outstretched arm.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I brought your fathers out of Egypt,.... Which more fully expresses the sense of the last clause of Jos 24:5: and you came unto the sea; which respects some senior persons then present; for, besides Caleb and Joshua, there were many at this time alive who came to and passed through the Red sea, at their coming out of Egypt; for those whose...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when they cried unto the Lord,.... That is, the Israelites, being in the utmost distress, the sea before them, Pharaoh's large host behind them, and the rocks on each side of them; see Exodus 14:10; he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; the pillar of cloud, the dark side of which was turned to the Egyptians, and which was the reason...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan,.... The kingdoms of Sihon and Og, and they fought with you; the two kings of them, and their armies: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and which was now possessed by the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose,.... Being alarmed with what Israel had done to the two kings of the Amorites, and by their near approach to the borders of his kingdom: and warred against Israel; he fully designed it, and purpose is put for action, as Kimchi observes; he prepared for it, proclaimed war, and commenced it,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But I would not hearken unto Balaam,.... Who was very solicitous to get leave of the Lord to curse Israel, which he knew he could not do without; he had a goodwill to it but could not accomplish it: therefore he blessed you still; went on blessing Israel to the last, when Balak hoped every time he would have cursed them; and Balaam himself was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye went over Jordan,.... In a miraculous manner, the waters parting to make way for the host of Israel: and came unto Jericho; the first city of any size and strength in the land, which was about seven or eight miles from Jordan; [See comments on Numbers 22:1]; and the men of Jericho fought against you; by endeavouring to intercept their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I sent the hornet before you,.... Of which [See comments on Exodus 23:28]; which drave them out from before you, [even] the two kings of the Amorites; who were Sihon and Og, and not only them, and the Amorites under them, but the other nations, Hivites, Hittites, c. [but] not with thy sword, nor with thy bow but by insects of the Lord's...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I have given you a land for which you did not labour,.... Or, in which (z), by manuring and cultivating it, by dunging, and ploughing, and sowing: and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; neither built the houses in them, nor the walls and fortifications about them; in which now they dwelt safely, and at ease, and which had been...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now therefore fear the Lord,.... Since he has done such great and good things, fear the Lord and his goodness, fear him for his goodness sake; nothing so influences fear, or a reverential affection for God, as a sense of his goodness; this engages men sensible of it to fear the Lord, that is, to worship him both internally and externally in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord,.... Irksome and troublesome, a burden, a weariness, and not a pleasure and delight: choose you this day whom you will serve; say if you have found a better master, and whose service will be more pleasant and profitable: whether the gods your fathers served, that [were] on the other side of the flood;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the people answered and said,.... To Joshua, upon his proposal to them, the option he gave them to serve the Lord or idols, and which was only done to try them: God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; they speak with the utmost abhorrence of idolatry, as a thing far from their hearts and thoughts, as the most...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord our God, he [it is] that brought us up and our fathers, out of the land of Egypt,.... When Pharaoh, the king of it, refused to let them go, yet he wrought such wonders in it and inflicted such plagues on it, as obliged Pharaoh and his people to dismiss them: from the house of bondage: where they were held in the greatest thraldom and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord drave out from before us all the people,.... The seven nations of the land of Canaan: even the Amorites which dwelt in the land; the strongest and most populous of the nations, Amos 2:9, or especially the Amorites, so Vatablus; or "with the Amorites", as others; those that lived on the other side Jordan, over whom Sihon and Og...