Death of Joshua
Having led Israel into the land, Joshua charged the people to choose whom they would serve, and died at a hundred and ten.
Near the end of his life, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, recounted everything God had done from Abraham to the conquest, and called the people to choose whom they would serve, declaring, 'but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.' The people renewed the covenant, and Joshua wrote the words in the book of the law of God and set up a great stone under an oak as a witness. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten and was buried in his inheritance at Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim. Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him. In the same closing verses the bones of Joseph, carried up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem, and Eleazar the son of Aaron died, ending the generation that had entered the land.
Did You Know?
Joshua died at 110, the same age as Joseph, whose bones were buried at Shechem in the same chapter.
Scripture gives Joshua the title Moses had carried: 'the servant of the LORD.'
The next generation 'knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel,' opening the era of the judges.
Key Passage
Death of Joshua
Joshua 24:29-31
29nd it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
Meanwhile in the World
Egypt is at the height of its New Kingdom power under pharaohs like Thutmose III and Ramesses II. The Hittite Empire controls Anatolia. The Late Bronze Age collapse is approaching. Troy exists as a real city. This is the time of the Amarna letters and international diplomacy.
