Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
They then returned to Canaan and informed the congregation. And the thing pleased
them, so that they praised the Lord, sc., for having kept their brethren on the other
side from rebellion, and they thought no more of going to war against them, or laying
waste the land of the tribes on the east of the Jordan.
Joshua 22:34
And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall
be a witness between us that the LORD is God.
The Reubenites and Gadites (half Manasseh is omitted in vv. 33, 34, for the sake of
brevity) called the altar "witness is it between us that Jehovah is God" ( kiy
(OT:3588) introduces the words). This is at once a name and an explanation, namely
in this sense: they gave the altar the name of "witness between us," because it was to
be a witness that they also acknowledged and worshipped Jehovah as the true God.
Joshua's Farewell and Death. Ch. 23-24.
After the division of the land among the tribes, Joshua had withdrawn to Timnathserah
, on the mountains of Ephraim (Josh 19:50), to spend the last days of his life
there in the quiet enjoyment of his own inheritance. But when the time of his
departure from the earth was drawing near, remembering the call which he had
received from the Lord (Josh 1:6-8), he felt constrained to gather the people together
once more in the persons of their representatives, to warn them most earnestly of the
dangers of apostasy from the Lord, and point out the evils that would follow (ch. 23);
and then after that, in a solemn assembly of the nation at Shechem, to review the
abundant mercies which the Lord had conferred upon Israel from the calling of
Abraham to that day, that he might call upon them to remain stedfast and faithful in
the worship of their God, and then solemnly renew the covenant with the Lord.
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