Ver. 32. And the bones of Joseph—buried they in Shechem— See Genesis 50:25. Some are of opinion, that Joshua performed this duty soon after the passage over Jordan, immediately after he had built the altar on mount Ebal, near Shechem. Others think that it was not done till the peace which followed the conquest of the land of Canaan. They all conclude, that Joshua would not have longer deferred paying to the patriarch Joseph an honour so frequently enjoined. The reason, say they, that no mention of the ceremony occurs before, is, that it was thought proper to collect together, in this concluding passage, what respected the funerals of three great men. But there seems no difficulty in supposing Joshua to have discharged himself of this tribute to the remains of Joseph in the great assembly of the nation at Shechem. We might even suppose, that it was the design of interring the bones of that patriarch with greater solemnity, which determined Joshua to convene that assembly there, rather than at Shiloh.
In a parcel of ground which Jacob bought, &c.— See Genesis 23:16; Genesis 33:18-19; Genesis 48:22; Genesis 50:25. Joseph was not interred in Shechem, but, according to the ancient custom, in a field adjoining. Probably, the other children of Jacob received the like honour, each tribe taking care to bury its ancestor, either at Machpelah, or elsewhere, in the land of Canaan. Josephus asserts that it was so, upon the credit of an ancient tradition,, Hist. Jud. l. ii. c. 4.; and St. Stephen confirms the relation, Acts 7:16.