Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joshua in Shechem, by a fiery speech, stirs the people to the fear of God; then, verse 28, he binds them to God by a new covenant, and finally, verse 29, he dies and is buried in Timnath Serah.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 24:1-33
1. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel in Shechem, and called the elders and the princes and the judges and the officers, and they stood in the presence of the Lord; 2. and he spoke to the people thus: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt beyond the river from the beginning, Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor; and they served foreign gods. 3. Therefore I took your father Abraham from the borders of Mesopotamia and brought him into the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed; 4. and I gave him Isaac, and to him in turn I gave Jacob and Esau. Of these, to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess: but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with many signs and wonders. 6. And I brought you and your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and cavalry, as far as the Red Sea. 7. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord: and He placed darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them. Your eyes saw all that I did in Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long time: 8. and I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt beyond the Jordan. And when they fought against you, I delivered them into your hands; and you possessed their land and slew them. 9. And Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel. And he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you; 10. and I would not listen to him; but on the contrary, through him I blessed you and delivered you from his hand. 11. And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of that city fought against you — the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite: and I delivered them into your hands. 12. And I sent hornets before you; and I drove them from their places, two kings of the Amorites, not by your sword nor by your bow. 13. And I gave you a Land in which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, that you might dwell in them; vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant. 14. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him with a perfect and most truthful heart: and put away the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15. But if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, the choice is given to you: choose today what pleases you, whom you should especially serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose Land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 16. And the people answered and said: Far be it from us to forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods. 17. The Lord our God Himself brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage: and performed great signs before our eyes, and kept us in all the way through which we walked, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. 18. And He drove out all the nations, the Amorite inhabitant of the Land which we entered. We will therefore serve the Lord, for He is our God. 19. And Joshua said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord; for He is a holy God and a mighty zealous God, and He will not forgive your wickedness and sins. 20. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will turn and afflict you and overthrow you, after having bestowed good things upon you. 21. And the people said to Joshua: By no means shall it be as you say; but we will serve the Lord. 22. And Joshua said to the people: You are witnesses, he said, that you yourselves have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him. And they answered: Witnesses. 23. Now therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods from your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord God of Israel. 24. And the people said to Joshua: We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to His commandments. 25. Joshua therefore made a covenant on that day, and set before the people precepts and judgments in Shechem. 26. He also wrote all these words in the book of the law of the Lord: and he took a very large stone and placed it under the oak that was in the Sanctuary of the Lord; 27. and he said to all the people: Behold, this stone shall be for you a testimony, because it has heard all the words of the Lord which He has spoken to you; lest perhaps afterward you wish to deny and lie to the Lord your God. 28. And he dismissed the people, each one to his own possession. 29. And after these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, at the age of one hundred and ten years: 30. and they buried him in the borders of his possession in Timnath Serah, which is situated in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 31. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and of the elders who lived a long time after Joshua, and who knew all the works of the Lord which He had done in Israel. 32. And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought from Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the part of the field which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem, for a hundred young sheep, and it became the possession of the children of Joseph. 33. Eleazar also the son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.
Verse 1: The Assembly at Shechem
1. IN SHECHEM. — So the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Roman editions. You will object: The Septuagint has "in Shiloh"; for there was the Sanctuary, namely the tabernacle representing God, before which Joshua entered into this covenant. Serarius answers that these things happened in Shiloh, but that Shiloh was in the territory of Shechem. But Shechem was ten miles distant from Shiloh, as St. Jerome attests in his Hebrew Places. I say therefore that in the Septuagint one should read "in Shechem," as the Septuagint reads in the Complutensian and Royal Bibles.
The reason why Joshua renewed the covenant by this speech in Shechem rather than in Shiloh was that God through Moses had commanded that this covenant be ratified in Shechem near Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and that the first covenant made at Sinai, Exodus 19, be repeated, which Joshua had carried out at chapter 8:30. Therefore he now renews this covenant in the same place, so as to recall to the people's memory the earlier covenant made in that same place as well as at Sinai, and to bind them to it completely. For in Shechem Abraham, when first entering Canaan, offered sacrifice to God, Genesis 12:6 and 7. In Shechem also Joseph and the other Patriarchs his brothers were buried, as is clear from verse 32 here and Acts 7:16. Joshua therefore wished, in the same place, shortly before his death, to bid his Israelites a final farewell by repeating the law and covenant with God: in which he imitated his master Moses, who had done the same throughout all of Deuteronomy, especially chapter 32, and did so at Shechem, so that where Abraham had been instituted by God as heir of Canaan, Genesis 12, there his descendants, having entered upon his inheritance, would solemnly swear to the law of God, and there they would have an eternal monument of their religion and their oath, about which more at verse 26.
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, — that is, before the ark which was as the footstool of God sitting above the wings of the Cherubim on the mercy seat. For Joshua had the ark transferred from Shiloh to Shechem, so that before it this covenant might be ratified, as will be clear from verse 26.
Verse 2: Your Fathers Served Foreign Gods
2. YOUR FATHERS DWELT BEYOND THE RIVER (the Euphrates in Mesopotamia) FROM THE BEGINNING, TERAH THE FATHER OF ABRAHAM AND NAHOR (Abraham's brother), AND THEY SERVED FOREIGN GODS, — namely Terah and Nahor; for these worshipped idols, but not Abraham, who always remained a true worshipper of the one God, as I showed from Augustine, Abulensis, Pererius and others at Genesis 11:31.
Verse 4: Esau and Mount Seir
4. TO ESAU I GAVE MOUNT SEIR, — namely Edom.
Verse 6: You Came to the Sea
6. AND YOU CAME TO THE SEA — the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Arabia, which divides Arabia from Egypt.
Verse 9: Balak Fought Against Israel
9. AND BALAK THE SON OF ZIPPOR, KING OF MOAB, ROSE UP AND FOUGHT AGAINST ISRAEL. — "Fought," not in effect and with arms, since seeing himself inferior and unequal to the Hebrews, he abstained from war, but in intent, effort, and by counsels and magical arts, attempting the destruction of the Hebrews through Balaam the diviner. For Balaam, at Balak's request, wished to curse the Hebrews, and if this curse had achieved its effect, Balak would have attacked and destroyed them; but seeing that God turned Balaam's curses into blessings, terrified he did not dare to attack the Hebrews. See Numbers chapter 22, verse 11.
St. Augustine puts it somewhat differently. "The fight, he says, was an armed defense."
See here how Hebrew words often signify an act not completed but only begun, indeed only the desire and attempt, not the accomplishment. So in verse 11, the people of Jericho are said to have fought, that is, to have prepared themselves for battle against the Hebrews. So Amos 3:3 says: "If they have hidden themselves from My eyes," that is, if they have attempted to hide; for in reality no one can hide from God's most keen-sighted eyes.
Psalm 33:4. "Magnify the Lord with me." Luke 1:47: "My soul magnifies the Lord," that is, desires and longs to magnify; for in reality we cannot magnify or exalt God.
Verse 12: The Hornets Before You
12. AND I SENT HORNETS BEFORE YOU, AND I DROVE THEM FROM THEIR PLACES, THE TWO (the Septuagint and Roman edition have dōdeka, that is, twelve, but the Complutensian and Royal editions have duo, that is, two, namely Sihon and Og) KINGS OF THE AMORITES, NOT BY YOUR SWORD NOR BY YOUR BOW, — that is, not by the strength and power of your sword and bow, but by the hornets sent before by Me. For the hornets so weakened the Amorites that the Hebrews who followed easily slew them with their swords and pierced them with their arrows. See the comments on Exodus 23:28 and Wisdom 12:8.
Verse 15: Choose Today Whom You Will Serve
15. THE CHOICE IS GIVEN TO YOU: CHOOSE TODAY WHAT PLEASES YOU, WHOM YOU SHOULD ESPECIALLY SERVE, — as if to say: It is in your power to choose the true God or the false gods of the nations; but if you choose these, behold the fierce vengeance and retribution of God will receive you; but if you choose God, He Himself will heap upon you all good things. Therefore Joshua does not grant the Hebrews here a real option of choosing God or gods — he who in the preceding chapter drove them to the worship of the one true God; but he uses a rhetorical device, and brings forward so many advantages of worshipping the true God, and so many disadvantages of worshipping idols, that no one unless he be mad, would choose to worship false gods while neglecting the true God.
Verse 16: You Will Not Be Able to Serve the Lord
16. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SERVE THE LORD. — He heightens the difficulty of serving God in order to more strongly incite the Hebrews to serve Him, as if to say: God wills to be worshipped alone, and to be served exactly and constantly with your whole heart; but you are inclined to idols and vices, and are of a fickle and inconstant spirit; therefore you will not be able to serve Him unless you put on new, great, and constant spirits to reject idols and vices, and to love God with your whole heart in holiness, and to worship Him continually: therefore put on such spirits. This is clear from the reason he adds:
FOR GOD IS HOLY. — In Hebrew, ki elohim kedoshim hu, that is, for He is holy Gods. The word "holy" is in the plural number. He uses a plural adjective, partly to hint at the plurality of Persons in God and the Holy Trinity, as many hold; partly because the name of God, elohim, is plural among the Hebrews; partly because the plural number in this passage is more suitable for comparison with the many gods of the nations; as if to say: The gods of the nations are impure and wicked, but ours are pure and holy (for our God, namely the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, loves holiness and hates crimes); and finally to signify the all-encompassing and most absolute holiness of God. For the holiness of God encompasses all the holiness of all the Angels and human beings, and transcends it immeasurably. See Ribera on Micah chapter 5, number 37.
Verse 23: Put Away the Foreign Gods
23. PUT AWAY THE FOREIGN GODS FROM YOUR MIDST. — St. Augustine, Question 24, thinks there were then no idols among the Hebrews, and gathers this from verse 31, where it says: "And Israel served the Lord"; therefore by foreign gods or idols St. Augustine understands thoughts alien from God and His majesty, namely empty fantasies which one fabricates for oneself about God, imagining God to be different from what He truly is. Thus tropologically the idol of the miser is gold, of the proud man honor, of the glutton delicacies, of the lustful Venus. But Joshua seems entirely to be speaking of idols properly so called, whether they were then present among the people, or those which their descendants would shortly erect; for Joshua directs these words of his also to posterity.
Finally, although in the time of Joshua there was no public idol, which is indicated by verse 31 in the words already cited, nevertheless it is clear that the Hebrews privately worshipped idols even in the desert, from Amos chapter 5, verse 26, and Acts chapter 7, verse 45. See the comments there. So Masius, Serarius and others.
Verse 25: The Covenant Ratified at Shechem
25. JOSHUA THEREFORE MADE A COVENANT ON THAT DAY. — This covenant was that the people would promise to worship the one God and to keep His laws given through Moses, as we heard at verse 21. And Joshua, in turn, on behalf of God would promise the people that the Lord would be their God, that is, protector, provider, promoter, and would preserve, sustain, and exalt them in the promised land.
Moreover, I reviewed the rite of ratifying a covenant at Genesis chapter 15, verses 17 and 18, and Exodus chapter 24, verse 6 and following. For a covenant was ratified by covenant victims which were then slain and sacrificed, and from this they were said to "strike" or "cut" a covenant; because they struck the victim, tacitly invoking a similar blow upon whoever violated the covenant. Whence that verse:
They stood, and ratified the covenants with a slain sow.
Therefore it seems entirely certain that in this covenant those victims were sacrificed; for this was a solemn covenant by which Joshua, about to die, bound the entire people to God.
AND HE SET BEFORE THE PEOPLE PRECEPTS AND JUDGMENTS. — that is, he arranged for the precepts of God — both moral and ceremonial, as well as judicial — to be read by the priests from Deuteronomy, so as to refresh and impress their memory upon the people.
Verse 26: The Stone Under the Oak
26. HE ALSO WROTE ALL THESE WORDS IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW OF THE LORD, — as if to say: For a perpetual memorial Joshua wrote the rite and substance of this covenant solemnly ratified on both sides in formal words in the book of Deuteronomy, namely at the end of the book; for Moses had commanded this book to be placed beside the ark, Deuteronomy 31:24 and 26, because this book contains all the precepts of God, which are the condition of the covenant between God and the people entered into through Moses and renewed here through Joshua.
AND HE TOOK A VERY LARGE STONE, — to erect it as a sign and lasting monument of the covenant that had been made, which would continually remind the Hebrews and strike their eyes, so that they might holily keep this covenant and observe its precepts.
AND HE PLACED IT UNDER THE OAK THAT WAS IN THE SANCTUARY OF THE LORD, — which was in the court of the tabernacle, which Joshua had arranged to be transferred from Shiloh to Shechem by the Priests and Levites, so that before it, as before God dwelling in it, this covenant might be ratified. The Hebrews, whom Masius follows, think this holm-oak or oak is the same one under which Jacob buried the idols, Genesis 35:4, and indeed the same one near which God first appeared to Abraham and promised him that land, Genesis 12:6, so that where Abraham had been instituted by God as heir of the land, there the Hebrews, now possessing the land, would renew their covenant with God, and therefore this place is here called the sacred place or sanctuary of the Lord; because in it Abraham first consecrated an altar to God, and in it Jacob and others afterward called upon God.
You will object: That oak could not have lived so long and survived; for from Abraham to Joshua 545 years elapsed, but oaks commonly live only three hundred years; for in their first one hundred years they grow to their proper height and thickness; in their second hundred years they establish and maintain themselves in that state and their strength; in their third hundred years they gradually decline and die. I answer: This is generally true, but nevertheless some oaks are older and live longer; for they have very hard wood, whence they are called robora (strong trees). Add that this oak was an oak grove, as the Chaldean translates, which always endures, since one oak dying sows itself again through acorns falling to the ground, so that from them another oak grows, and from that another and another, so that they perpetually endure.
The Septuagint translates "oak" as "terebinth," because the Hebrew word allah, or elon, signifies any acorn-bearing tree. Whence St. Augustine understands by it the Cross of Christ, through which the New Testament and covenant was ratified. Hear him here, last Question: "Now the fact that the stone was placed under a terebinth signifies what the rod at the rock signified so that water might flow, because here too the stone was not placed without wood. And it was placed beneath because He would not have been exalted on the Cross unless He had been subjected in humility: or because at that time when Joshua was doing this, the mystery still had to be veiled. For the wood of the terebinth exudes a medicinal resin, and this tree was used by the Septuagint translators in this passage, although according to other translators one reads 'oak.'"
You will object: God commanded at Deuteronomy 16:21, saying: "You shall not plant a grove and every tree beside the altar"; how then was this oak in the tabernacle beside the altar? I answer: God forbids planting a tree, but not erecting the tabernacle and the ark beside a tree already planted before. Add that what is forbidden is a tree, that is, trees that form a grove or forest in the manner of the Gentiles. Whence the Hebrew and Septuagint have: You shall not make of every tree, that is, of every kind of trees.
Verse 27: The Stone as Witness
27. AND THIS STONE SHALL BE FOR YOU A TESTIMONY, BECAUSE IT HAS HEARD ALL THE WORDS OF THE LORD WHICH HE HAS SPOKEN TO YOU. — "Has heard." So it should be read with the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Roman texts. Therefore some half-learned men wrongly wrote "you have heard." It is a prosopopoeia; for hearing is attributed to an insensible stone, as if to a witness because of the inscription, for the force of the speech: but in reality nothing else is signified than that the stone, before which these things were done, is a witness and memorial of the covenant that was made. The sense therefore is, as if to say: If the stone had feeling, it would have heard this covenant and could testify to it; now since it has no feeling, it will be a lifeless witness, as if to say: If you do not hear the words of God, this stone will be a mute witness that you heard these agreements and violated them. Whence the Chaldean translates: Behold, this stone shall be for us like the two tablets of the stone of the covenant; for we did not make it for testimony alone; for the words that are written upon it, from the sight of all the words of the Lord which He spoke with us, and it shall be for you a memorial. Hence it is clear that words or signs of this covenant were inscribed or engraved on the stone.
In a similar way, for emotional effect, to confound, sting, and spur on the hard and insensible Jews, Moses at Deuteronomy 32:1 invokes heaven and earth, that they themselves, though insensible, might feel and hear the words of God, which the people endowed with sense and reason do not wish to hear. "Hear, O heavens, he says, what I speak, let the earth hear the words of my mouth." And Isaiah, chapter 1:2: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, but they have despised Me." And Jeremiah, chapter 2:12: "Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and let your gates be utterly desolate, says the Lord: for My people have done two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water," etc.
Verse 29: The Death of Joshua at 110 Years
29. AND AFTER THESE THINGS JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, DIED, AT THE AGE OF ONE HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS. — In what year of his rule Joshua died is uncertain; for chronologists disagree. Serarius here reviews twelve of their opinions, of which two are more probable and better attested, and have more supporters. The first assigns to Joshua's leadership seventeen or eighteen years, the second twenty-seven; and both can be reconciled, if one says that Joshua ruled precisely only eighteen years and died in that year, but that the book of Joshua extends to events after his death — namely, verse 31 here narrates that Israel served the Lord for many years, as long as Eleazar lived, and the elders who had seen the works and wonders of God fighting for Israel, and finally that Eleazar died, which perhaps happened around the twenty-seventh year from the beginning of Joshua's rule: although these years of the elders running on after Joshua's death are counted in the years of Othniel, who succeeded Joshua, as will be clear from Judges chapter 1 and following.
AT THE AGE OF ONE HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS. — Hence the chronology of Joshua's deeds is clear. For if we assume he led the people for eighteen years, this will be the sequence of years. Moses died in the 40th year from the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, which was the year of the world 2494. In that same year Joshua succeeded Moses, and led the people into the promised land, and then by fighting for seven years subjugated Canaan; he lived thereafter eleven more years, namely to the eighteenth year of his leadership. He died therefore in the 58th year from the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, year of the world 2552, 184 years after the death of Joseph (to whom he was equal in age: for Joseph also lived 110 years).
Hence it follows that Joshua was born in the year of the world 2402, which was 92 years after the death of Joseph; and therefore he was twenty-seven years younger than Moses. For at the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt Moses was eighty years old, while Joshua was fifty-three. But Joshua was fifteen years older than Caleb; for Caleb after the seven years of war by which Canaan was subdued was eighty-five years old, as he himself says at chapter 14, verse 10, while Joshua was then one hundred years old.
Note the three parts and as many stages of the years and life of Joshua. For he was born in Egypt and lived there fifty-three years, then in the desert forty years, where in the second year he defeated Amalek, Exodus 17:10, likewise Og, Sihon, and the other enemies of Israel. Finally, entering and subduing the promised land, he lived there seventeen or eighteen years. His first years he spent in servitude, his second in wandering, his third in leadership, of which the first seven were spent in wars, and the last ten in peace and organizing the Commonwealth, during which he died at the age of 110, which was 1448 years before the birth of Christ.
Verse 30: Burial at Timnath Serah and the Image of the Sun
30. AND THEY BURIED HIM IN THE BORDERS OF HIS POSSESSION IN TIMNATH SERAH. — In Hebrew, in Timnath Serach, but the final heth, being of harsh pronunciation, the Septuagint and our translator customarily omit: whence for Noach they translate Noah, for Korah Kore, for Terah Thare.
Now the Hebrews in Seder Olam report that Timnath Serach is by metathesis put for Timnath Heres, that is, temunah heres, that is, an image or statue of the sun, because the Israelites placed one upon the tomb of Joshua, to preserve the memory of that miracle by which he had halted the sun. The same is asserted by Rabbi Solomon, Masius, Arias, Cajetan, Magalianus, Serarius, Adrichomius and others.
Whence also at Judges 2:8, Timnath Serah in the Hebrew, Septuagint, and some Latin editions is called Timnath Hares, that is, image of the sun. Pliny, book 34, chapter 7, celebrates above all colossi the colossus of the sun. "Before all, he says, the Colossus of the Sun at Rhodes was an object of admiration, which Chares of Lindos, a disciple of the above-mentioned Lysippus, had made. It was seventy cubits high. This statue, after fifty-six years, was thrown down by an earthquake, but even lying down it is a wonder. Few people can embrace its thumb. Its fingers are larger than most statues. Vast caverns gape from the broken limbs. Within are seen great masses of stone, by whose weight the builder had stabilized it. It is reported to have been completed in twelve years, at a cost of 300 talents, which were collected from the equipment of King Demetrius, abandoned in the royal manner."
But this colossus is nothing if compared with the halting of the sun and this Joshuean colossus.
The Septuagint in the first Roman edition adds: "There they placed with him in the monument in which they buried him the stone knives with which Joshua had circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal, when he led them out of Egypt, as the Lord had commanded; and they are there to this day." Commenting on this narrative, Cyril of Alexandria, book 4 on John, chapter 5, says: "Not without reason, he says, were the knives placed with him in the same place, but so that we might learn that the grace of spiritual circumcision (which is for us the introducer to heavenly goods) is attached to the death of the Savior."
Gregory of Tours, book 1 of Miracles or On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 28, adds two other wonders, indeed these miracles of Joshua: "First, he says, at the city of Livias there are hot waters in which Joshua was accustomed to bathe, where similarly lepers are cleansed. It is twelve miles from Jericho. Second, near Jericho there are trees that produce wool. For they bear fruits in the manner of gourds, having hard shells on the outside, but inside they are full of wool. And they report that from these, garments were customarily made for Joshua himself. And even today they produce such wool: some of which, brought to us by certain persons, we have seen and admired both the whiteness and the fineness of them."
ON THE NORTH SIDE OF MOUNT GAASH. — St. Jerome, Masius, Adrichomius and others assert that Mount Gaash is a part or extension of Mount Ephraim. Hence also the Hebrews in Seder Olam report that Joshua died on the 26th of Nisan, which roughly coincides with March 25, the day on which Jesus Christ, his antitype, died on the Cross for the salvation of the world: although in the Roman Martyrology Joshua is listed among the Saints on the first of September.
The Hebrews in Seder Olam and in Midrash Ruth report that a great earthquake occurred when Joshua was buried on Mount Ephraim, and from this the mountain was called Gaash, that is, of shaking and trembling: for gaash means to shake and tremble. Masius laughs at this as a fable, but Serarius defends it as history, and says that in this matter Joshua was a type of Jesus Christ, at whose death "the earth was shaken and the rocks were split," Matthew 27:51.
Moreover, there is no doubt that the Hebrews mourned the death of Joshua with solemn ceremony just as they did for Moses; yet no mention of mourning is made here, which the Fathers refer to a mystery, namely that it signifies that in the old law under Moses the dead were to be lamented, because they descended to the underworld to the limbo of the fathers; but in the new law there is cause for rejoicing at the death of the faithful, because Jesus by dying opened heaven for them, so that they might ascend to where He Himself first entered and led the way.
Finally, no mention is made of Joshua's children, because he was celibate and a virgin, as I said in the introduction from St. Ignatius, Chrysostom, and others. Hear St. Jerome, book 1 Against Jovinian: "Jesus (Joshua), he says, is buried in Timnath Serah, that is, in the most perfect rule, or in the number of the new covering, to signify the flocks of virgins covered by the Savior's aid: in Mount Ephraim, that is, in the fruitful mountain, on the north side of Mount Gaash, which means commotion. For Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King, which is always opposed to envy, says through each temptation: But my feet were almost moved:" And below: "Wherefore Moses dying is mourned by the people of Israel, but Joshua as one about to live is not mourned. For marriage ends in death, but virginity after death begins to be crowned."
Moreover, the Rabbis in their book Yuchasin narrate wonderful and amusing things about the war which Joshua waged against forty-five kings of Armenia, Persia, and Media, which Serarius recounts here at length and then refutes as fabulous, Question 13, page 474.
Verse 31: Israel Served the Lord All the Days of Joshua
31. AND ISRAEL SERVED THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF JOSHUA, — because Joshua restrained them by his word and example in the worship of God and piety. Hear Cicero, book 1, Epistle to Lentulus: "These things are divinely written in our Plato: As the leaders in a Republic are, so the rest of the citizens tend to be."
AND OF THE ELDERS WHO LIVED A LONG TIME AFTER JOSHUA. — These elders were Eleazar the High Priest, Caleb, and the others who at the time of the spies of the Holy Land had not yet reached the twentieth year of age and had not murmured; for all the rest died in the desert on account of their murmuring and never saw Canaan, Numbers 13 and 14.
Verse 32: The Bones of Joseph Buried at Shechem
32. AND THE BONES OF JOSEPH WHICH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAD BROUGHT FROM EGYPT THEY BURIED IN SHECHEM. — For this Joseph had commanded, so that he would be buried not in Egypt among the unfaithful and impious, but in Canaan among the faithful and pious, with his grandfathers and great-grandfathers the Patriarchs; especially because he knew that Christ would be born, suffer, and rise again in Canaan, and he hoped to rise again with Him and through Him, which it is likely also happened. There was also another reason, namely that Joseph might encourage the Hebrews to leave Egypt and to enter the land promised by God. See the comments on Genesis 23, at the end, and Genesis 50:23, and Exodus 13:19, where Moses, fulfilling the last wishes of Joseph, carried his bones with him when leaving Egypt.
In a similar way Noah reverently took the bones of Adam into the ark, and after the flood distributed them among his three sons, and to Shem, whom he preferred above the other two, he gave Adam's skull, and with it Judea, as Jacob of Edessa narrates, who was the teacher of St. Ephrem, and from him Masius, who translated his book into Latin. So great among the ancients was the care and honor of burial, because of the faith they had in the immortality of the soul, and because of the hope of resurrection from the merits of Christ, who was to live and die in Canaan.
IN THE PART OF THE FIELD WHICH HE HAD BOUGHT. — See the comments on Genesis chapter 33:19.
AND IT BECAME THE POSSESSION OF THE CHILDREN OF JOSEPH, — that is, it fell to the Ephraimites, who descended from Ephraim the son of Joseph. See the comments on Genesis 48:22.
Verse 33: The Death of Eleazar
33. ELEAZAR ALSO THE SON OF AARON DIED, AND THEY BURIED HIM IN GIBEAH OF PHINEHAS HIS SON, WHICH WAS GIVEN TO HIM IN THE HILL COUNTRY OF EPHRAIM. — Whether Gibeah was originally given to Eleazar, as Masius and Abulensis hold, or rather to his son Phinehas, as Vatablus holds and St. Jerome suggests in the Epitaph of St. Paula, is uncertain. What is certain is that Gibeah was surnamed after Phinehas, either because he dwelt in it for a very long time, or for some other reason. Moreover Eleazar the High Priest directed Joshua, and consulted God on his behalf in doubtful matters, as God had commanded through Moses, Numbers chapter 27, verse 21; whence Eleazar in Hebrew means the same as "help of God"; for this is what he provided to the prince Joshua and to the entire camp of the Hebrews. Phinehas, a man of great zeal, succeeded his father Eleazar in the pontificate, as is clear from Numbers 25:11.
IN THE HILL COUNTRY OF EPHRAIM. — Hence it is clear that Gibeah was in the tribe of Ephraim; it is therefore remarkable that St. Jerome, or rather Eusebius, in his Hebrew Places puts it in the tribe of Benjamin; for although most of the cities assigned to the Levites in chapter 21 were in the tribe of Judah or Benjamin, nevertheless Gibeah was given outside the regular order to Eleazar and Phinehas, both on account of their merits and so that Eleazar the High Priest might be near the prince Joshua dwelling in his tribe of Ephraim, and might aid and direct him with his counsel and every assistance.
Finally, the Septuagint in the Roman edition adds certain things, which Theodoret and the Syriac version also recognize (from which you may gather that the Syriac was translated from the Greek Septuagint, not from the Hebrew, as I noted elsewhere), as Masius attests. These are: "On that day the children of Israel, taking the ark of God, carried it among themselves (the Syriac: in Israel), and Phinehas served as priest in place of his father Eleazar until he died and was buried in Gibeah, which was his own. And the children of Israel went each one to his own place and to his own city. And the children of Israel worshipped Astarte and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of the nations that were around them. And the Lord delivered them into the hands of Eglon king of Moab, and he ruled over them for eighteen years."
But these seem to have been copied here from the book of Judges, where we shall hear them. Whence also the Syriac says these are marked with an obelisk, as additions. For in the Hebrew, Chaldean, Latin, Septuagint Complutensian, and Royal editions they are absent from this place.