Joshua 24:33

Eleazar the son of Aaron It seems probable that Eleazar had died during the lifetime of Joshua. He was the third son of Aaron, by Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab. After the death of Nadab and Abihu without children (Leviticus 10:1-2; Numbers 3:4), Eleazar was appointed chief over the principal Levites. He comes before us

(a) Ministering with his brother Ithamar during their father's lifetime.

(b) Invested on Mount Hor, as the successor of Aaron, with the sacred garments (Numbers 20:28).

(c) Superintending the census of the people (Numbers 26:3-4).

(d) Taking part in the distribution of the Land after the conquest (Joshua 14:1).

and they buried him in a hill "Et sepelierunt eum in Gabaath-Phinees filii ejus," Vulgate, which Wyclif curiously mistranslates "and Phynees and his sones birieden him in Gabaa."

in a hill The word here employed for "hill" is "Gibeah," which gives its name to several towns and places in Palestine, which would doubtless be generally on or near a hill. This place was Gibeah-Phinehas, the city of his son, which had been given to the latter on Mount Ephraim. Robinson identifies it with the Gabaof Eusebius and Jerome, and the modern Chirbet Jibia, 5 miles north of Guphna, towards Nablûsor Shechem. "His tomb is still shewn in a little close overshadowed by venerable terebinths, at Awertah, a few miles S. E. of Nablûs." Stanley's Lectures, i. 281, n.