Death and Burial
It came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
Commentaries
Joshua means Yahweh is salvation. Joshua son of Nun. The commander of the Israelites during the conquest of Canaan. He belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. He settled in Tinnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim and was buried there. As Bezaleel and Oholiab undoubtedly had received training as slaves in the arts and crafts of Egypt, and as Josephus imagines that Moses led an Egyptian army against the Ethiopians, it is likely that Joshua had served in Pharaoh’s army before the Exodus. Foreigners were common in the army of Egypt. Moses considered him sufficiently battle tested to appoint him leader of the Israelite defense against the attack of the Amalekites at Rephidim. Since Joshua was apparently known to Moses, he may already have been in charge of organizing the undisciplined crowd of slaves who had escaped from Egypt into orderly marching columns.
Joshua served as personal minister to Moses when the latter was on Mount Sinai receiving the law. Joshua was in attendance whenever the Lord would speak to Moses in the tent of meeting outside the camp. From Moses he learned the value of the anointing of God’s Spirit when he would have forbidden certain elders to prophesy. His selection as one of the twelve spies gave Joshua the opportunity to learn the nature of the Canaanites and the topography of the land at first hand. This information became invaluable when his time came to plan the campaigns to conquer Canaan.
Furthermore, he grew in strength of character as he and Caleb stood against the majority with their minority report of the reconnaissance. They called upon the community of Israel to rise up in faith and expect Yahweh to give them the excellent land to the northern Caleb and Joshua were spared when the ten who had incited the Israelites to grumble against Yahweh by disparaging the land were struck dead.
Of the generation numbered at the beginning of the wilderness journey only Joshua and Caleb followed the Lord faithfully and remained alive to be registered at the end of the 40 year period. When Moses was told that he must die instead of being allowed to lead the Israelites into Canaan, the lawgiver asked God to give the community of Yahweh a new shepherd. Telling Moses to select Joshua, a man indwelt by the Spirit, the Lord replied: You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.
Moses formally ordained Joshua in the presence of Eleazar the priest and the whole community and imparted to him the spirit of wisdom by the laying on of hands. Later, Moses commanded Joshua before the entire nation to be strong and to lead Israel across the Jordan in order to possess the land promised to the patriarchs.
Then the two presented themselves at the door of the Tabernacle. There Joshua received the divine commission or charge from God. After Moses’ death the Lord graciously repeated this commission to Joshua privately and enlarged upon it, to prepare him for the overwhelming task lying ahead. Leadership qualities. Several outstanding characteristics enabled Joshua to perform the responsibilities committed to him. First, he was humble enough to recognize that he was not the gifted and educated man that Moses was.
Joshua accepted himself and thus leaned all the more heavily upon the Lord in his comparative ordinariness. He was not too big for God to use; hence God could exalt him. Second, he was a man of strong faith and faithful to his calling. When the divine Commander-in-chief appeared in a theophany to him as he scouted the Jericho defenses, Joshua was quick to bow in worship and to receive orders how to capture the enemy bastion.
Even though the daily encirclement with trumpets blowing might seem militarily stupid, and be subjected to the ridicule of the defenders, Joshua obeyed implicitly. He cried to God in repentance for his nation after the Ai debâcle. At the foot of Mount Ebal he put worship and covenant before further war and conquest. At Gibeon he prayed for supernatural assistance, and God answered with a terrifying hailstorm. Third, he saturated his mind and heart with the word of God, meditating therein day and night. Thus the people had confidence to execute his decisions and he could appeal to them at his life’s end to continue adhering to the law of Moses.
Fourth, he displayed sound military strategy. He established his base of operations at Gilgal with its easy access to the Trans Jordan tribes as a source of supplies and in its position guarding two trade routes up into the central highlands. By capturing Ai and silencing Bethel he took the heart of Canaan first, and cut the land in two. He was able to campaign separately against the southern and the northern kings.
His military policy was a combination of surprise and speed, of catching his enemies in the open and destroying their troops, since his own desert army was untrained in siege operations. Israel’s six day war of June 1967 illustrates the result of high morale and incentive, brilliant leadership, and swift attack against numerically superior but terror stricken enemies.
Fifth, Joshua was an able administrator in peace as well as in war. His keen geographic judgment enabled him to draw up boundaries for the tribal allotments that were sensible and not provocative of inter-tribal wars.
He did make mistakes, by allowing the crafty Gibeonites to keep their territory, by not capturing Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and by failing to dispossess the small but growing enclaves of early Philistines. These factions divided the country across the middle, so that after Solomon’s death the nation split apart forming two kingdoms. Some would criticize Joshua for failing to pick and train a successor; on the other hand, after the partitioning of the land God meant that each tribe should consolidate its own territory as Caleb did at Hebron.
The chapter concludes the life and reign of Joshua. 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. In order to this he called another general assembly of the heads of the congregation of Israel and dealt with them. By way of narrative, recounting the great things God had done for them and their fathers.
By way of charge to them, in consideration thereof, to serve God. By way of treaty with them, wherein he aims to bring them. To make religion their deliberate choice; and they did so, with reasons for their choice. To make it their determinate choice, and to resolve to adhere to it. By way of covenant upon that treaty. The conclusion of this history. The death and burial of Joshua and Eleazar and the mention of the burial of Joseph’s bones upon that occasion. A general account of the state of Israel at that time.
The death and burial of Joshua. We are not told how long he lived after the coming of Israel into Canaan. It was about 17 years but the Jewish chronologers generally say it was about 27 or 28 years. He is here called the servant of the Lord, the same title that was given to Moses when mention was made of his death; for, though Joshua was in many respects inferior to Moses, yet in this he was equal to him, that, according as his work was he approved himself a diligent and faithful servant of God.
And he that traded with his two talents had the same approbation that he had who traded with his five. Well done, good and faithful servant. The honor of sepulture was a mark of reverence, which of itself bore testimony to the affectionate regard of the people. But neither this reverence nor affection was deeply rooted. The title by which Joshua is distinguished after his death, when he is called the servant of the Lord, took away all excuse from those miserable and abandoned men who shortly after spurned the Lord, who had worked wonders among them.
Accordingly, attention is indirectly drawn to their inconstancy, when it is said that they served the Lord while Joshua survived, and until the more aged had died out. For there is a tacit antithesis, implying lapse and alienation, when they were suddenly seized with a forgetfulness of the Divine favors.
It is not strange, therefore, if, in the present day also, when God furnishes any of his servants with distinguished and excellent gifts, their authority protects and preserves the order and state of the Church; but when they are dead, sad havoc instantly commences, and hidden impiety breaks forth with unbridled license. Joshua’s burying place is here said to be on the north side of the hill Gaash, or the quaking hill; the Jews say it was so called because it trembled at the burial of Joshua, to upbraid the people of Israel with their stupidity in that they did not lament the death of that great and good man as they ought to have done.
Thus at the death of Christ, our Joshua, the earth quaked. The learned bishop Patrick observes that there is no mention of any days of mourning being observed for Joshua, as there were for Moses and Aaron, in which, he says, Hierom and others of the fathers think there is a mystery, namely, that under the law, when life and immortality were not brought to so clear a light as they are now, they had reason to mourn and weep for the death of their friends; but now that Jesus, our Joshua, has opened the kingdom of heaven, we may rather rejoice.
A general idea given us of the state of Israel at this time. While Joshua lived, religion was kept up among them under his care and influence but soon after he and his contemporaries died it went to decay, so much often times does one head hold up: how well is it for the gospel church that Christ, our Joshua, is still with it, by his Spirit, and will be always, even unto the end of the world.
The time when the bones of Joseph were buried is not mentioned; but it is easy to infer that the Israelites had performed this duty after they obtained a peaceful habitation in the city of Shechem. For although he had not designated a particular place for a sepulchre, they thought it a mark of respect to deposit his bones in the field which Jacob had purchased.
It may be, however, that this is expressed as a censure on the sluggishness of the people, to which it was owing, that Joseph could not be buried with Abraham, that locality being still in the power of the enemy.
Stephen mentions the bones of the 12 patriarchs, and it is not impossible that the other tribes, from feelings of emulation, gathered together the ashes of their progenitors. It is there said that the field was purchased by Abraham; but obviously an error in the name has crept in.
With regard to sepulture, we must hold in general, that the very frequent mention of it in Scripture is owing to its being a symbol of the future Resurrection.
The death and burial of Eleazar the chief priest, who, it is probable, died about the same time that Joshua did, as Aaron in the same year with Moses. The Jews say that Eleazar, a little before he died, called the elders together, and gave them a charge as Joshua had done. He was buried in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which came to him, not by descent, for then it would have pertained to his father first, nor had the priests any cities in Mount Ephraim, but either it fell to him by marriage, as the Jews conjecture, or it was freely bestowed upon him, to build a country seat on, by some pious Israelite that was well affected to the priesthood, for it is here said to have been given him; and there he buried his dear father.
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