So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Josue therefore on that day made a covenant, and set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem.

And Joshua maketh a covenant with the people on that day, and layeth on it a statute and an ordinance, in Shechem.

So Joshua made an agreement with the people that day, and gave them a rule and a law in Shechem.

Therefore, on that day, Joshua struck a covenant, and he set before the people at Shechem the precepts and the judgments.

Percussit itaque Josue foedus cum populo in die illa: et prosposuit ei praeceptum et judicium in Sechem. [206]

So Joshua made a covenant, etc This passage demonstrates the end for which the meeting had been called, namely, to bind the people more completely and more solemnly to God, by the renewal of the covenant. Therefore, in this agreement, Joshua acted as if he had been appointed on the part of God to receive in his name the homage and obedience promised by the people. It is accordingly added, exegetically, in the second clause, that he set before them precept and judgment. For the meaning is corrupted and wrested by some expositors, who explain it is referring to some new speech of Joshua, whereas it ought properly to be understood of the Law of Moses, as if it had been said that Joshua made no other paction than that they should remain steadfast in observing the Law, and that no other heads of the covenant were brought forward; they were only confirmed in that doctrine which they had formerly embraced and professed. In the same way, Malachi, to keep them under the yoke of God, demands nothing more than that they should remember the Law of Moses. (Malachi 4:4)

Made a covenant with the people - i. e. he solemnly ratified and renewed the covenant of Sinai, as Moses had done before him Deuteronomy 29:1. As no new or different covenant was made, no sacrifices were necessary.

Joshua made a covenant - Literally, Joshua cut the covenant, alluding to the sacrifice offered on the occasion.
And set then a statute and an ordinance - He made a solemn and public act of the whole, which was signed and witnessed by himself and the people, in the presence of Jehovah; and having done so, he wrote the words of the covenant in the book of the law of God, probably in some part of the skin constituting the great roll, on which the laws of God were written, and of which there were some blank columns to spare. Having done this, he took a great stone and set it up under an oak - that this might be עד ed or witness that, at such a time and place, this covenant was made, the terms of which might be found written in the book of the law, which was laid up beside the ark. See Deuteronomy 31:26.

So Joshua (l) made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
(l) By joining God and the people together: also he repeated the promises and threatenings out of the Law.

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day,.... Proposing to them what was most eligible, and their duty to do, and they agreeing to it, this formally constituted a covenant, of which they selves were both parties and witnesses:
and set statute and an ordinance in Shechem; either made this covenant to have the nature of a statute and ordinance binding upon them, or repeated and renewed the laws of Moses, both moral and ceremonial, which had been delivered at Mount Sinai, and now, upon this repetition in Shechem, might be called a statute and ordinance there.

A statute - He set or established that covenant with them, that is, the people, for a statute or an ordinance, to bind themselves and their posterity unto God for ever.