Joshua 24:26

And Joshua wrote As Moses at Sinai wrote all the words that Jehovah had spoken in a book, probably a papyrus-roll (Exodus 24:4), so Joshua now inscribed "minutes" of the transactions connected with this renewal of the covenant at Shechem.

in the book of the law of God This protocol he placed inside the roll of the Law of Moses.

and took a great stone Like

(a) The stone which Jacob set up at Bethel (Genesis 28:18);

(b) The pillar of stones which the same patriarch set up on his return from Padan-aram (Genesis 31:44-46);

(c) The twelve pillars which Moses set up at Sinai (Exodus 24:4);

(d) The twelve stones set up to mark the passage of the Jordan (Joshua 4:3).

under an oak Or rather, under the oak which was in the sanctuary of Jehovah. See above, ch. Joshua 24:1. "This spot, called in Genesis 12:6 and Genesis 35:4, - Allon-Moreh," -the oak of Moreh" or of Shechem, is called by the Samaritans Ahron-Moreh, -the Ark of Moreh," from a supposition that in a vault underneath is buried the Ark. The Mussulmans call it -Rigad el Amad," -the place of the Pillar," or -Sheykh -el-Amad," -the Saint of the Pillar." " Stanley's Lectures, i. 280, n. Possibly beside the old consecrated oak of Abraham and Jacob their altar was still remaining, and it is to be remembered that Joshua himself had built an altar on Mount Ebal, and therefore close to Shechem (Joshua 8:30). Thus many reasons conspired to give a sacred character to "the border of the sanctuary," the mountain "which the right hand of the Lord had purchased" (Psalms 78:54) at Shechem.