And Eleazar the son of Aaron died,.... Very probably in a short time after Joshua; and, according to the Samaritan Chronicle , he died as Joshua did, gathered the chief men of the children of Israel a little before his death, and enjoined them strict obedience to the commands of God, and took his leave of them, and then stripped himself of his holy garments, and clothed Phinehas his son with them; what his age was is not said:and they buried him in a hill [that pertaineth to] Phinehas his son; or in the hill of Phinehas; which was so called from him, and might have the name given it by his father, who might possess it before him, and what adjoined to it.
The Jews in the above treatise say , that at Avarta was a school of Phinehas in a temple of the Gentiles; that Eleazar was buried upon the hill, and Joshua below the village among the olives, and on this hill is said to be a school or village of Phinehas:which was given him in Mount Ephraim; either to Eleazar, that he might be near to Shiloh, where the tabernacle then was, as the cities given to the priests and Levites were chiefly in those tribes that lay nearest to Jerusalem; though the Jews say, as Jarchi and Kimchi relate, that Phinehas might come into the possession of that place through his wife, or it might fall to him as being a devoted field; but it is most likely it was given to his father by the children of Ephraim, for the reason before observed.
The Talmudists say, that Joshua wrote his own book, which is very probable; yet the last five verses, Jos 24:29, must be written by another hand, even as the last eight verses in Deuteronomy, De 34:5, were written by him, as they also say; and therefore this is no more an objection to his being the writer of this book, than the addition of eight verses by him to Deuteronomy is to Moses being the writer of that; and the same Talmudists also observe, that Jos 24:29, "Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died", &c.
were written by Eleazar, and Jos 24:33, "and Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died", &c. by Phinehas, which is not improbable. Apud Hottinger. p. 524. Cippi Hebraici, ut supra. (p. 32.) See Weemse's Christ.
Synagog, l. 1. c. 6. sect. 5. p. 157. T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 14. 2. & 15. 1.