Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

And they buried him - in Timnath-serah - This was his own inheritance, as we have seen Joshua 19:50. The Septuagint add here, "And they put with him there, in the tomb in which they buried him, the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal, according as the Lord commanded when he brought them out of Egypt; and there they are till this day." St. Augustine quotes the same passage in his thirtieth question on the book of Joshua, which, in all probability, he took from some copy of the Septuagint. It is very strange that there is no account of any public mourning for the death of this eminent general; probably, as he was buried in his own inheritance, he had forbidden all funeral pomp, and it is likely was privately interred.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance,.... In a field belonging to his estate; for they buried not in towns and cities in those times. The Greek version adds,"and they put into the tomb, in which he was buried, the stone knives with which he circumcised the children of Israel at Gilgal, when he brought them out of Egypt;'and an Arabic writer^F5Patricides, p. 31. apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 523. affirms the same, but without any foundation:

in Timnathserah, which is in Mount Ephraim; which was his city, and where he dwelt; and of which See Gill on Joshua 19:50; and his grave was near the city; here, they say^F6Cippi Heb. p. 32. , his father Nun, and Caleb also, were buried:

on the north side of the hill of Gaash; of the brooks or valleys of Gnash mention is made in 2 Samuel 23:30; which very probably were at the bottom of this hill.

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

The burial place of Joshua is rendered memorable by the name Gaash, which signifies quaking. The Jews had a tradition that there was a trembling of the hill at his burial, and this to upbraid Israel for not mourning for him as they did for Moses. But whether they did lament his departure or not, certain it is, that no mention is made of their lamentation, as they did for Moses. If we consider this as allegorical, I should say, we are all by nature more wedded to the law than the gospel. Moses is fairer to the eye of the world than Jesus.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Joshua 24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which [is] in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.

Ver. 30. In Timnathserah.] {See Trapp on "Joshua 19:50"}

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 30. And they buried him—in Timnath-serah— This city, which he had built himself, and which had been assigned him by the nation, is elsewhere called Timnath-heres, or, the rest of the sun, Judges 2:9. This name, if we are to believe the Jews, was given it on account of an image of the sun engraved on Joshua's tomb, in memory of that famous day in which he stopped the sun in his course, in order to finish the defeat of the Canaanitish kings. See Hottinger, in Cippi. Heb. p. 32. and in Smegma Orientale, c. viii. p. 523. Thus, in after-times, according to Cicero, the sepulchre of Archimedes was adorned with a sphere and a cylinder. Eusebius says, that the tomb of Joshua was to be seen in his time near Thamna; and Brochard informs us, that there was, in the mountain of Leopards, (Song of Solomon 4:8.) a cavern twenty-six feet long, into which the Saracens were used to go, in memory of this holy man. Gaash is thought to have been a part of mount Ephraim, and to have faced Timnath-serah on the south.

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

‘And they buried him in the border of his inheritance, in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.’

Joshua was buried in a burial place outside the city which was his inheritance, Timnath-serah (Joshua 19:50). It is possibly Khirbet Tibneh, twenty seven kilometres (seventeen miles) south west of Shechem, which lies on the south side of a deep ravine, which must then be the mountain of Gaash. It was in the hill country of Ephraim. The Wadis of Gaash are mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:30 which would possibly be connected in some way with the mountain.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Thamnathsare. Judges ii. 9. The last word is written hares (eros) the first and last letters being transposed in one of these places. It may probably be in this verse, as we read of Mount Hares, Judges i. 35. Kennicott rather thinks that Sare is the proper reading, as it is found in the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate versions of the Book of Judges. He observes, that if we were to read in an English historian that the renowned Marlborough was buried at Blenheim, near Woodstock, and a few pages after that his remains were interred "at Blenmein, &c., we should naturally conclude that two letters had exchanged their places. And may we not allow the same in this part of the sacred history, as it is universally printed" in Hebrew? (Dis. i.) Some, however, maintain that Thamnath hares was so called, on account of "the image of the sun" being placed in the tomb of Josue, along with the knives of stone used by him in circumcision, which last the Septuagint and St. Augustine (q. 30,) admit. But these must be reckoned among the Jewish or Oriental fables, (Calmet) though it is not improbable but the circumcising knives might be thus preserved, as a monument of the covenant made with the Israelites. (Haydock) --- Gaas. This was another name for Mount Sare, or Hares, a part of Mount Ephraim; where St. Jerome tells us St. Paula visited the tomb of Josue. It was shewn near Thamna in the days of Eusebius. (Calmet) --- No mention is made of mourning, as for Moses, &c., to insinuate that under the law the saints descended into limbo, but are admitted into paradise under the gospel. (St. Jerome, mans. 34.) (Worthington)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

mount = the hill country.

Gaash. The Septuagint adds here: "And they placed with him in the tomb in which they buried him the knives of stone with which he circumcised the sons of Israel is Gilgal, when he brought them out of Egypt, as the Lord appointed them; and there they are until this day. "

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.

In Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim - i:e., portion remaining, or reserved for Joshua after the land was distributed. It is called, Judges 2:9, Timnath-heres, the portion of the sun. 'A Rabbinical tradition supposes it to be called Heres, from an image of the sun to commemorate the battle of Beth-horon. But it is probably only the transposition of the letters of Serah (Stanley's 'Lectures on the Jewish Church,' p. 279). It is situated at the village of Tibneh, a little west of the main north road at Jifneh, a few miles above Jerusalem, where the tomb of Joshua may yet be found. "The hill of Gaash" (i:e., a shaking has not been ascertained. The Septuagint makes the following addition to this verse, 'There they put with him into the sepulchre in which they buried him the knives of flint with which he circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal, when he brought them up out of Egypt, as the Lord commanded them, and they are there unto this day.'

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Timnath-serah

19:50; Judges 2:9

Gaash

2 Samuel 23:30