Joshua 24:2

And Joshua said unto all the people,.... Then present, or to all Israel by their representatives: thus saith the Lord God of Israel; he spoke to them in the name of the Lord, as the prophet did,

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.

Unto all the people, i.e. that people which were present, to wit, to the elders, &c., by whom it was to be imparted to all the rest, and to as many of the people as came thither. The flood, or, the river, to wit, Euphrates, as all agree; so called by way of eminency. They served other gods, i.e. both Abraham and Nahor were no less idolaters than the rest of mankind. This is said to prevent their vain boasting in their worthy ancestors, and to assure them that whatsoever good was in or had been done by their progenitors, was wholly born God’ s free grace, and not for their own merit or righteousness, as the Jews were very apt to conceit.

Joshua 24:2 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.Ver. 2. And Joshua said unto all the people.] Besides what he had said to them in the former chapter; so solicitous was he of the public welfare after his decease also. Cicero saith that this was his chiefest care: we are sure it was good Joshua’ s. Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood,] i.e., Of the river Euphrates, that ancient river. And this was the ancient manner of speaking to the people, by giving them a historical narrative of what God had done for them and their forefathers, that mercy might enforce to duty; since divine blessings are binders, and men’ s offences are increased by their obligations. See the like method made use of by those admirable preachers, David, Stephen, and Paul. And they served other gods.] Even Abraham as well as the rest, till God gave him a call out of his own country, till he had "called him to his foot," that is, to follow him and his direction, to obey him without solicitation. Some of the Rabbis say that Terah got his living by making and selling of images.

XXIV. (b) JOSHUA’S LAST CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE.(1, 2) Joshua gathered all the tribes . . .—At the former address the rulers alone appear to have been present; on this occasion all Israel was gathered. And what is spoken is addressed to the people in the hearing of the rulers. In the speech that now follows Joshua briefly recapitulates the national history; he had not thought this necessary for the rulers. To them he had said, “Ye know;” but “the people” embraced many persons of but little thought and education, whom it was necessary to inform and remind and instruct, even as to the leading events of their national history. The simple lesson which Joshua’s words are intended to enforce is the duty of serving Jehovah, and serving Him alone. It is the first great lesson of the old covenant. “I am Jehovah, thy God; thou shalt have no other gods beside Me.” The ark of this covenant had brought them over Jordan into the promised land. (2) Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood.—The flood, i.e., the river—probably Euphrates, though it may be Jordan, or both. Flood in our English Bible has been used for river in several places: e.g., Job 22:16, “whose foundation was overflown with a flood,” i.e., a river; Psalms 66:6, “He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood (the river, i.e., Jordan) on foot;” Matthew 7:25; Matthew 7:27, “The rain descended, and the floods (i.e., the rivers) came.” They served other gods.—They, i.e., Terah, Abraham, and Nachor.

Verse 2. On the other side of the flood] The river Euphrates. They served other gods.] Probably Abraham as well as Terah his father was an idolater, till he received the call of God to leave that land. See on Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:1. And for the rest of the history referred to here, see the notes on the parallel passages in the margin.

2. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel] The title is significant. It recurs in Joshua 24:23. Joshua recalls to the minds of the people the mercies of God as displayed in five great events:— (i) The Call of Abraham; (ii) The Deliverance from Egypt; (iii) The Defeat of the Amorites on the east of the Jordan, and the frustration of the machinations of Balaam; (iv) The Passage of the Jordan and Capture of Jericho; (v) The Victories over all the nations of Canaan. on the other side of the flood] Or better, on the other side of the river, i.e. the Euphrates, in Ur of the Chaldees, and then in Haran (Genesis 11:28; Genesis 11:31). “Biçond the flood,” Wyclif.Terah] The ancestor, through Abram, Nahor, and Haran, of the great families of the Ishmaelites, Israelites, Midianites, Moabites, and Ammonites (Genesis 11:24-32). With his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot, he went in a north-westerly direction from Ur “into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there” (Genesis 11:31), and at Haran he died at the age of 205 years (Genesis 11:32). and they served other gods] The objects of nature, especially the heavenly bodies, were in those far-back times invested with a “glory” and a “freshness” which has long since “passed away” from the earth. They seemed to be instinct with a divinity which exercised an almost irresistible fascination over their first beholders. The sight of the “sun when it shined, and of the moon walking in brightness,” was a temptation as potent to them as to us it is inconceivable. “Their heart was secretly enticed, and their mouth kissed their hand” (Job 31:26-27). There was also another form of idolatry, though less universal in its influence. “There were giants on the earth in those days;” giants, if not actually, yet by their colossal strength and awful majesty; the Pharaohs and Nimrods, whose form we still trace on the ornaments of Egypt and Assyria in their gigantic proportions, the mighty hunters, the royal priests, the deified men. From the control of these powers, before which all meaner men bowed down, from the long ancestral prepossessions of ‘country and kindred and father’s house,’ the first worshippers of One who was above all alike, had painfully to disentangle themselves.” Stanley’s Jewish Church, Joshua 1:15-16. Of the worship of “images,” or “Teraphim,” we have traces in Genesis 31:19; Genesis 31:30; Genesis 31:34. Tradition asserts that Terah was a maker of idols, and that Abraham was persecuted in Ur of the Chaldees for refusing to take part in idolatries.

The other side of the flood - Better “On the other side of the river,” i. e. the Euphrates. See the marginal reference.

2. On the other side of the flood — Rather, the river; that is, the Euphrates. It was Ur in Chaldea, beyond the Euphrates, whence Abraham was called from an idolatrous family.