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ויאסף622 יהושׁע3091 את853 כל3605 שׁבטי7626 ישׂראל3478 שׁכמה7927 ויקרא7121 לזקני2205 ישׂראל3478 ולראשׁיו7218 ולשׁפטיו8199 ולשׁטריו7860 ויתיצבו3320 לפני6440 האלהים׃430

Verse 1. Joshua gathered all the tribes] This must have been a different assembly from that mentioned in the preceding chapter, though probably held not long after the former.

To Shechem] As it is immediately added that they presented themselves before God, this must mean the tabernacle; but at this time the tabernacle was not at Shechem but at Shiloh. The Septuagint appear to have been struck with this difficulty, and therefore read shlw. Shiloh, both here and in ver. 25, though the Aldine and Complutensian editions have suxem, Shechem, in both places. Many suppose that this is the original reading, and that Shechem has crept into the text instead of Shiloh. Perhaps there is more of imaginary than real difficulty in the text. As Joshua was now old and incapable of travelling, he certainly had a right to assemble the representatives of the tribes wherever he found most convenient, and to bring the ark of the covenant to the place of assembling: and this was probably done on this occasion. Shechem is a place famous in the patriarchal history. Here Abraham settled on his first coming into the land of Canaan, Gen. xii. 6, 7; and here the patriarchs were buried, Acts vii. 16.

And as Shechem lay between Ebal and Gerizim, where Joshua had before made a covenant with the people, chap. viii. 30, &c., the very circumstance of the place would be undoubtedly friendly to the solemnity of the present occasion. Shuckford supposes that the covenant was made at Shechem, and that the people went to Shiloh to confirm it before the Lord. Mr. Mede thinks the Ephraimites had a proseucha, or temporary oratory or house of prayer, at Shechem, whither the people resorted for Divine worship when they could not get to the tabernacle; and that this is what is called before the Lord; but this conjecture seems not at all likely, God having forbidden this kind of worship.

Ver. 1. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem , etc.] 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 impress their minds with a sense of religion, and to strengthen, enlarge, and enforce the exhortations he had given them to serve the Lord; and Abarbinel thinks he gathered them together again because before they returned him no answer, and therefore he determined now to put such questions to them as would oblige them to give one, as they did, and which issued in making a covenant with them; the place where they assembled was Shechem, which some take to be Shiloh, because of what is said ( Joshua 24:25); that being as they say in the fields of Shechem; which is not likely, since Shiloh, as Jerom says f525 , was ten miles from Neapolis or Shechem. This place was chosen because nearest to Joshua, who was now old and infirm, and unfit to travel; and the rather because it was the place where the Lord first appeared to Abraham, when he brought him into the land of Canaan, and where he made a promise of giving the land to his seed, and where Abraham built an altar to him, ( Genesis 12:6,7); where also Jacob pitched his tent when he came from Padanaram, bought a parcel of a field, and erected an altar to the Lord, ( Genesis 33:18-20); and where Joshua also repeated the law to, and renewed the covenant with the children of Israel, quickly after their coming into the land of Canaan, for Ebal and Gerizim were near to Shechem, ( Joshua 8:30-35); and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers : (see Gill on “ Joshua 23:2”); and they presented themselves before God ; Kimchi and Abarbinel are of opinion that the ark was fetched from the tabernacle at Shiloh, and brought hither on this occasion, which was the symbol of the divine Presence; and therefore the place becoming sacred thereby is called the sanctuary of the Lord, and certain it is that here was the book of the law of Moses, ( Joshua 24:26); which was put on the side of the ark, ( Deuteronomy 31:26).

ויאסף622 יהושׁע3091 את853 כל3605 שׁבטי7626 ישׂראל3478 שׁכמה7927 ויקרא7121 לזקני2205 ישׂראל3478 ולראשׁיו7218 ולשׁפטיו8199 ולשׁטריו7860 ויתיצבו3320 לפני6440 האלהים׃430