24:25 made a covenant. This was not really a new covenant, but a renewal of the covenant already made at Sinai (Exodus 19:5-8; Deuteronomy 5:1-3).
24:26 wrote these words. In effect, Joshua is here placing his own writings (our present book of Joshua) on a par with those of Moses. Moses and Joshua were the human writers, along with editorial inserts made for clarification by later scribes, but the end product in every case had been “given by inspiration of God” (II Timothy 3:16).
24:26 a great stone. A large standing stone, dating from about the period of the conquest, has been found at Shechem. It possibly could be Joshua’s stone.
24:26 by the sanctuary. This phrase suggests that the tabernacle had been temporarily moved from Shiloh to Shechem (a distance of about eight miles) for just this special occasion. This was also intimated in Joshua 24:1, where all the leaders of Israel had “presented themselves before God.”
24:29 after these things. The last five verses of Joshua were obviously written by an unknown scribe living after “all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua” (Joshua 24:31). This in no way brings into question the divine inspiration of the writings themselves.
24:32 bones of Joseph. Joseph’s dying request was thus finally fulfilled (Genesis 50:25; Exodus 13:19).
24:32 ground which Jacob bought. Compare Genesis 33:19; Acts 7:15-16. Abraham presumably had originally bought this property from Hamor, but in the long absence of Isaac and Jacob, the Shechemites had taken possession of it again. Jacob then repurchased it.