Joshua 24:27

27 "Look!" he said to all of the people. "This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all of the words the LORD has spoken to us. Suppose you aren't true to your God. Then the stone will be a witness against you."

Joshua 24:27 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 24:27

And Joshua said unto all the people
The chief of them now gathered together, and who represented the whole body:

behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us;
of the covenant now made, and the agreement entered into, as the heap of stones were between Jacob and Laban, ( Genesis 31:45-47 ) ;

for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us;
this is said by a figure called "prosopopaeia", frequent in Scripture, by which inanimate creatures are represented as hearing, seeing, and speaking, and may signify, that should the Israelites break this covenant, and disobey the commands of the Lord they had promised to keep, they would be as stupid and senseless as this stone, or more so, which would rise in judgment against them. Nachmanides ^F4 a Jewish commentator, interprets this stone of the Messiah, the same as in ( Genesis 49:24 ) ( Psalms 118:22 ) ( Zechariah 3:8 Zechariah 3:9 ) ;

it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God;
for a memorial and testimony to prevent them from going into atheism, a denying of the true God, or into apostasy from him, and into idolatry and false worship. The Targum of which is,

``behold, this stone shall be to us as the two tables of stone of the covenant, for we made it for a testimony; for the words which are written upon it are the sum of all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us, and it shall be unto you for a memorial, and for a testimony, lest ye lie before the Lord.''

---

FOOTNOTES:

F4 Apud Masium in loc.

Joshua 24:27 In-Context

25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people. There at Shechem he wrote down rules and laws for them.

26 He recorded those things in the Scroll of the Law of God. Then he got a large stone. He set it up in Shechem under the oak tree. It was near the place that had been set apart for the Lord.

27 "Look!" he said to all of the people. "This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all of the words the LORD has spoken to us. Suppose you aren't true to your God. Then the stone will be a witness against you."

28 Joshua sent the people away. He sent all of them to their own shares of land.

29 Then Joshua, the servant of the Lord, died. He was the son of Nun. He was 110 years old when he died.