Joshua 24:1

“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…”

“JOSHUA ASSEMBLING THE TRIBES. (Jos 24:1) Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem--Another and final opportunity of dissuading the people against idolatry is here described as taken by the aged leader, whose solicitude on this account arose from his knowledge of the extreme readiness of the people to conform to the manners of the surrounding nations. This address was made to the representatives of the people convened at Shechem, and which had already been the scene of a solemn renewal of the covenant (Jos 8:30, Jos 8:35). The transaction now to be entered upon being in principle and object the same, it was desirable to give it all the solemn impressiveness which might be derived…”

“Shechem, situated between those mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, which had already been the scene of a solemn rehearsal of the covenant soon after the first entry of the people into the promised land Joshua 8:30-35, was a fitting scene for the solemn renewal on the part of the people of that covenant with God which had been on His part so signally and so fully kept. The spot itself suggested the allusions to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc., in Joshua’s address; and its associations could not but give special force and moving effect to his appeals. This address was not made to the rulers only but to the whole nation, not of course to the tribes assembled in mass, but to their representatives.…”

“All Israel - Namely, their representatives. Shechem - To the city of Shechem, a place convenient for the purpose, not only because it was a Levitical city, and a city of refuge, and a place near Joshua's city, but especially for the two main ends for which he summoned them thither. For the solemn burial of the bones of Joseph, and the rest of the patriarchs, for which this place was designed. For the solemn renewing of their covenant with God; which in this place was first made between God and Abraham, Gen 12:6-7, and afterwards renewed by the Israelites at their first entrance into the land of Canaan, between the two mountains of Ebal and Gerizzim, Jos 8:30, &c. which were very near…”

“24:1-27 In both form and content, this statement of covenant resembled an ancient Near Eastern suzerain-vassal treaty. It begins with a preamble (24:2) and continues with a historical prologue relating the suzerain’s (God’s) gracious acts on behalf of the people (24:3-13), followed by a list of stipulations (24:14-15) and curses and blessings (24:19-20). It then notes where the text was to be deposited for periodic reading and renewal (implied, 24:26) and lists witnesses to the covenant (24:22, 27). See also study note on Exod 20:1–23:33. 24:1-13 Joshua recounted God’s grace toward Israel. 24:1 Shechem was the location of the first affirmation of the covenant shortly after Israel had entered…”

“Joshua: This must have been a different assembly from that mentioned in the preceding chapter, though probably held not long after the former. Shechem: As it is immediately added, that "they presented themselves before God," which is supposed to mean at the tabernacle; some are of opinion that Joshua caused it to be conveyed from Shiloh to Shechem on this occasion, to give the greater solemnity to his last meeting with the people. The Vatican and Alexandrian copies of the Septuagint, however, read Σηλω, both here and in Jos 24:25; which many suppose to have been the original reading. Dr. Shuckford supposes that the covenant was made at Shechem, and that the people went to Shiloh to confirm…”

“Renewal of the Covenant at the National Assembly in Shechem. - Jos 24:1. Joshua brought his public ministry to a close, as Moses had done before him, with a solemn renewal of the covenant with the Lord. For this solemn act he did not choose Shiloh, the site of the national sanctuary, as some MSS of the lxx read, but Shechem, a place which was sanctified as no other was for such a purpose as this by the most sacred reminiscences from the times of the patriarchs. He therefore summoned all the tribes of Israel, in their representatives (their elders, etc., as in Jos 23:2), to Shechem, not merely because it was at Shechem, i.e., on Gerizim and Ebal, that the solemn establishment of the law in…”