1 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 brought you out.
6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea.
7 And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:
10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.
11 And you went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;
17 For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
18 And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord.
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.
24 And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.
28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.
29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
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.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.
<html><b>I multiplied his descendants.</b> The word אַרְבֶּ in the text lacks the letter ה,1<i class=“footnote”>The word should have been written אַרְבֶּה.</i> [from which we infer:]2<i class=“footnote”> The root of ארב would be רִיב which means to quarrel.</i> “How many troubles and tests3<i class=“footnote”>Avrohom was tested a total of 10 times, the tenth being the binding of Yitchok on the altar.</i> did I bring upon him before I gave him a descendant.”</html>
<html><b>And He brought the sea upon “him.”</b>4<i class=“footnote”>Why is the singular עָלָיו, upon him used in the text? Rashi goes on to explain its significance.</i> He brought the sea upon each individual among them. If it happened that one of them ran away, in order not to enter the sea, a sea-wave would pursue him and catch him.</html>
<html><b>The people of Yericho went to war against you. As did the Emorites, the Perezites etc.</b>5<i class=“footnote”>Why were these nations involved in the battle of Yericho?</i> All these seven nations are mentioned here because Yericho is on the border, and was the bolt and lock of Eretz Yisroel. Therefore, all these seven nations were gathered there, represented by their elite soldiers.</html>
<html><b>A holy God.</b>6<i class=“footnote”>Why is this Name of God always in the plural form אל־הים instead of א־ל.</i> In most places, every expression of rulership is found in the plural form, such as: “the ruler of the Land,”7<i class=“footnote”> Bereishis 42:30. “The <i>man</i> the <i>master</i> of the land, אַדנֵי הָאָרֶץ spoke to us.” Here too, it should have been written אַדוֹן הָאֶָרֶץ in the singular.</i> “the ruler of Yoseif,”8<i class=“footnote”>Bereishes 39:20.</i> “if his master is with him,”9<i class=“footnote”> Shemos 22:14. Here too it should have said אִם בַּעַל עִמוֹ in the singular referring to the owner.</i> that God went to redeem10<i class=“footnote”>II Shmuel 7:23.</i>. The reason for this is because this name is the name of power.</html>
<html><b>You are witnesses against yourselves.</b> Yehoshua foresaw that in the future, they would undermine [the covenant] in the days of Yechezkeil and say, “We want to be like the [other] nations,” and therefore he was so hard on them now. Therefore it was said to them in the days of Yechezkeil, “The thought you entertain will never come to pass etc., As I live says Adonoy, God, I will rule over you with a strong hand etc.”11<i class=“footnote”> See Yechezkeil 20:32,33.</i> You have already accepted upon yourselves [the covenant] in the days of Yehoshua. And you can not say “We only accepted it upon ourselves in the days of Moshe because we wanted [God’s help] to enter the land,” since in the days of Yehoshua you had already entered the land, and [yet] you accepted the covenant.</html>
<html><b>And he established it as a statute and an ordinance at Shechem.</b> He set in order for them there the statutes of the Torah and they accepted them upon themselves.</html>
<html><b>And Yehoshua wrote, etc.</b>12<i class=“footnote”>What were the words that Yehoshua wrote and where did he write them? It might be inferred that he wrote the words of his admonishment to the people and inserted them in the Sefer Torah of Moshe, but we know this is not true.</i> According to Targum Yonasan— And Yehoshua wrote these words, and concealed them in the Sefer Torah of God.13<i class=“footnote”>According to Targum Yonasan, He merely placed them where the Sefer Torah was kept, which was in the Ark.</i> In Maseches Makos,14<i class=“footnote”> 11a.</i> two <i>Amoraim</i> argue [about what Yehoshua wrote]. One says that it refers to the eight verses from ‘And Moshe died’ until ‘in view of all of Yisroel,’ for the Sefer Torah was incomplete and he [Yehoshua] completed it.15<i class=“footnote”>See Devorim 34:5-12. These verses describe the passing of Moshe. Could Moshe have written them himself? How could he have written them while he was alive when they were not yet true? Moshe could not have written that he had died when it had not yet happened. This <i>Amora</i> says therefore that the final eight verses were written by Yehoshua.</i> The other one says that this refers to the chapter of the cities of refuge16<i class=“footnote”>See above, Chapter 20.</i> which he wrote in his book [Sefer Yehoshua] as they were written in the Sefer Torah.</html>
<html><b>Under the doorpost.</b> This is translated according to Targum Yonasan, תְּחוֹת אַלְתָא. הָאַלָה refers to the door post of the entrance, as it is said,17<i class=“footnote”>I. Melachim 6:31.</i> “the doorposts were a fifth, and18<i class=“footnote”>Yechezkeil 40:10.</i> the doorposts had one measure.” Other say that [הָאַלָה means ‘the oak tree’] and it refers to the oak near Shechem which is written regarding Yaakov,19<i class=“footnote”>See Bereishis 35:4. As Yaakov was preparing to return to his father, Yitzchok, in the Holy Land, he instructed that all idols and earrings were to be given to him and he buried them under the oak tree near Shechem.</i> “And Yaakov hid them beneath the oak.”</html>
<html><b>Which is in the Sanctuary of Adonoy.</b>20<i class=“footnote”>But the Sanctuary had not yet been built.</i> Since the Ark was brought there [it is referred to as the Sanctuary] as it stated above,21<i class=“footnote”>==== Verse 1.</i> ‘And they stood before God.</html>
<html><b>Behold this stone will be witness against us, etc.</b>22<i class=“footnote”>The question is, how could the stone hear? Another problem: the verse states that it heard “all the words of Adonoy that He spoke to us,” and yet there is no mention of Adonoy having spoken to them.</i> [Here Rashi quotes from Targum Yonasan]: This stone will be for us as the two stone tablets of the covenant,23<i class=“footnote”>Yehoshua compared it to the two tablets of the Ten Commandments which were witness to the covenant at Mount Sinai, and are therefore always referred to as the לוּחוֹת הָעֵדוּת, the Tablets of Testimony.</i> for we have made it for a witness,24<i class=“footnote”>It would stand as a silent witness to the covenant they had made on that day.</i> since the words written on it [the stone] are almost similar to all the words of God that He spoke to us. This verse can also be explained according to its plain meaning: for it [the stone] has heard the words that I have spoken to you, on behalf of the Omnipresent.</html>
<html><b>In Simnas-serach.</b> This was its actual name. Elsewhere it is called Simnas-cheres25<i class=“footnote”>See Shoftim 2:9.</i> because they erected a figure of the sun upon his grave,26<i class=“footnote”>See Shoftim 8:13 where חָרֶס refers to the sun. Also See Shoftim 14:18.</i> to indicate that he is the one that caused the sun to stand still, and all who pass by it say, “Woe for the loss of this one, who did such a great thing and died.” Others say its <i>actual</i> name was Simnas-cheres, and why was it called Simnas- serach? because its fruit would rot because of their abundant richness.</html>
<html><b>The Storming Mountain</b> It was so named to teach us that the hill stormed [shook] and threatened to kill them, because the people did not eulogize him properly.27<i class=“footnote”>The verse merely states that “they buried him” and no mention is made of them having eulogized him, or mourned for him.</i></html>
<html><b>Lived on after</b> [Lit. they had length of days.] Their days were lengthened but their years were not lengthened for they were punished.</html>
<html><b>They buried in Shechem.</b> From Shechem he was stolen [kidnapped]28<i class=“footnote”>See Bereishis 37:14.</i> and to Shechem they returned him.</html>
<html><b>In the hill of his son, Pinchos.</b>29<i class=“footnote”>These words seem to imply that the hill belonged to Pinchos even during his father’s lifetime. But if he did not inherit it from Elozor, from where could he have gotten it? There are others who say that Pinchos did inherit the land from Elozor, and since inheritance takes effect immediately, it already belonged to Pinchos before Elozor was buried.</i> From where did Pinchos have a portion in the land? He inherited it from his wife.</html>