יהושע כ״ד:ט״ז-כ״ו

אלהים קדושים. ברוב מקומות נקרא כל לשון רבנות לשון רבים, כמו (בראשית מב ל): אדני הארץ ; (שם לט כ): אדני יוסף ; (שמות כב יד): אם בעליו עמו ; (שמואל ב ז כג): אשר הלכו אלהים לפדות, לפי שהשם הזה שם שררה הוא:

A holy God.⁶Why is this Name of God always in the plural form אל־הים instead of א־ל. In most places, every expression of rulership is found in the plural form, such as: “the ruler of the Land,”⁷ Bereishis 42:30. “The man the master of the land, אַדנֵי הָאָרֶץ spoke to us.” Here too, it should have been written אַדוֹן הָאֶָרֶץ in the singular. “the ruler of Yoseif,”⁸Bereishes 39:20. “if his master is with him,”⁹ Shemos 22:14. Here too it should have said אִם בַּעַל עִמוֹ in the singular referring to the owner. that God went to redeem¹⁰II Shmuel 7:23.. The reason for this is because this name is the name of power.

עדים אתם בכם. ראה יהושע שעתידין לערער בימי יחזקאל ולומר (יחזקאל כ לב) נהיה כגוים, לפיכך הכביד עליהם עכשיו, ולכך הושב להם בימי יחזקאל, (שם פסוקים לב לג): והעולה על רוחכם היה לא תהיה וגו', חי אני אם לא ביד חזקה וגו', כבר קבלתם עליכם בימי יהושע, ולא תאמרו מה שקבלנו עלינו בימי משה, כדי ליכנס לארץ עשינו, הרי בימי יהושע כבר נכנסתם וקבלתם:

You are witnesses against yourselves. Yehoshua foresaw that in the future, they would undermine [the covenant] in the days of Yechezkeil and say, “We want to be like the [other] nations,” and therefore he was so hard on them now. Therefore it was said to them in the days of Yechezkeil, “The thought you entertain will never come to pass etc., As I live says Adonoy, God, I will rule over you with a strong hand etc.”¹¹ See Yechezkeil 20:32,33. You have already accepted upon yourselves [the covenant] in the days of Yehoshua. And you can not say “We only accepted it upon ourselves in the days of Moshe because we wanted [God’s help] to enter the land,” since in the days of Yehoshua you had already entered the land, and [yet] you accepted the covenant.

וישם לו חק ומשפט בשכם. סידר להם שם החוקים שבתורה, וקבלו עליהם:

And he established it as a statute and an ordinance at Shechem. He set in order for them there the statutes of the Torah and they accepted them upon themselves.

ויכתב יהושע וגו'. תרגם יונתן: וכתב יהושע ית פתגמיא האלין ואצנעינון בספר אורייתא דה', ובמסכת מכות (יא א) נחלקו אמוראים, חד אמר אלו שמונה פסוקים (דברים לד ה-יב) מן 'וימת משה' עד 'לעיני כל ישראל', שהרי ספר תורה חסר, והשלימו, וחד אמר פרשה זו של ערי מקלט כתב בספרו כמו שהיו כתובים בספר התורה:

And Yehoshua wrote, etc.¹²What were the words that Yehoshua wrote and where did he write them? It might be inferred that he wrote the words of his admonishment to the people and inserted them in the Sefer Torah of Moshe, but we know this is not true. According to Targum Yonasan— And Yehoshua wrote these words, and concealed them in the Sefer Torah of God.¹³According to Targum Yonasan, He merely placed them where the Sefer Torah was kept, which was in the Ark. In Maseches Makos,¹⁴ 11a. two Amoraim argue [about what Yehoshua wrote]. One says that it refers to the eight verses from ‘And Moshe died’ until ‘in view of all of Yisroel,’ for the Sefer Torah was incomplete and he [Yehoshua] completed it.¹⁵See Devorim 34:5-12. These verses describe the passing of Moshe. Could Moshe have written them himself? How could he have written them while he was alive when they were not yet true? Moshe could not have written that he had died when it had not yet happened. This Amora says therefore that the final eight verses were written by Yehoshua. The other one says that this refers to the chapter of the cities of refuge¹⁶See above, Chapter 20. which he wrote in his book [Sefer Yehoshua] as they were written in the Sefer Torah.

תחת האלה. תחות אלתא, היא מזוזת הפתח, כמו שנאמר (מלכים א ו לא): האיל מזוזת חמישית ; ומדה אחת לאילם. ויש אומרים זו האלה אשר עם שכם, שכתוב ביעקב (בראשית לה ד): ויטמון אותם יעקב תחת האלה:

Under the doorpost. This is translated according to Targum Yonasan, תְּחוֹת אַלְתָא. הָאַלָה refers to the door post of the entrance, as it is said,¹⁷I. Melachim 6:31. “the doorposts were a fifth, and¹⁸Yechezkeil 40:10. the doorposts had one measure.” Other say that [הָאַלָה means ‘the oak tree’] and it refers to the oak near Shechem which is written regarding Yaakov,¹⁹See Bereishis 35:4. As Yaakov was preparing to return to his father, Yitzchok, in the Holy Land, he instructed that all idols and earrings were to be given to him and he buried them under the oak tree near Shechem. “And Yaakov hid them beneath the oak.”

אשר במקדש ה'. כלפי שהביאו שם את הארון, כמה שנאמר למעלה (פסוק א): ויתיצבו לפני האלהים:

Which is in the Sanctuary of Adonoy.²⁰But the Sanctuary had not yet been built. Since the Ark was brought there [it is referred to as the Sanctuary] as it stated above,²¹Verse 1. ‘And they stood before God.