At least, that's the way it looks to me. You could put a different spin on it and conclude that both chapters were to the entire nation, and if I dug into different translations that may bear it out. But the NIV implies that chapter 23 is to the all the leaders of the entire nation, and chapter is to all the tribes...
[Joshua] summoned all Israel -- their elders, leaders, judges and officials -- and said to them... (23:2)
Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people.... (24: 1 - 2a)
It looks to me like he spoke first to the elders, and then addressed the whole assembly of tribes, with the leaders positioned in front. But it could go either way. In any case, with no jumbo trons or public address systems, the upshot was that only the leaders heard him anyway, and repeated to their tribes what he said. And the words of chapter 24 are clearly meant for the entire nation.
Joshua first reviews the history of Israel, speaking to them the words God had laid on him to speak (notice the first person pronouns in verses 2 - 13):
I took your father Abraham...and led him...and gave him many descendants
I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.
I assigned Esau the hill country of Seir; Jacob and his sons went to Egypt.
I sent Moses and Aaron
I afflicted the Egyptians
You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians
I brought you to the land of the Amorites...I gave them into your hands.
I destroyed them before you.
I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again.
I delivered you out of his hand.
I gave [the citizens of Jericho, the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Gigashites, Hivites and Jebusites] into your hands.
I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you.
I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.
God did all of that. ALL of that. After reminding the people of all that God did, and that they are where they are solely because of what God did, Joshua gives them a challenge that is still ringing in our ears today.
"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worship beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (24:15)
The people, of course, responded,
'Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!...We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God.' (24:16, 18a)
Joshua, however, knew the fickleness of his people, and warned them,
'If you forsake the LORD and serve foreigh gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.'
And the people declared again...and again...that they would serve the Lord.
Joshua then recorded all the decrees and laws, and had a large stone set near the Tabernacle at Shechem. The stone, he stated, was to be a witness.
'This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God." (v. 27).
Then the people were dismissed to go to their designated inheritance.
There is an epilogue of sorts, recording the death and burial of Joshua (at age 110), the burial of Joseph's embalmed body, as he had requested (Gen. 50:25), and the death and burial of Aaron's son Eleazar.
There is also a little declaration in verse 31:
Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.
The first two chapters of Judges overlap the narrative in Joshua somewhat and reiterates that the people who were there that day served the Lord. The later generations, however...well, their story is related in the rest of the book of Judges, dismal as it is.
Because, of course, we are notoriously bad at remembering what God has done for us. And we humans have a history, down through the ages, of disregarding the lessons and wisdom of our elders. Even as individuals, we tend to forget the awe of standing in the moment and seeing God move as we go about the normal tasks of everyday life. We forget that the freedom and ability to actually go about those tasks...and not be hiding from marauders or scraping for food or trying to find a place to shelter for the night or dealing with disease or any of the hundreds of other things that would disrupt life to the point of just trying to survive...is one of God's richest blessings. That was the covenant: God said to serve Him alone as God, from a heart devoted to Him, and He would keep away the wild animals and the invading armies and the devouring locusts and all the other hazards. It sounds so simple.
But it requires being different than the people who do not serve God. Not obnoxious about it, but different. They serve different gods.. they have different priorities...and, remember, those pagan societies killed their own children as sacrifices to their gods. Serve the LORD, Moses said, So that you and your children might live.
So ultimately the book of Joshua reminds us that God is the one who fights our battles, if we serve Him, and every one of us has a choice to make. Will we obey the God who loves and cares for us...or will we be like those around us? There's nothing magical about crossing the Jordan to the Promised Land; once arrived there, it takes an intentional choice to live by God's heart. It's easy to think we can handle it on our own; living in a house we didn't build and eating food we didn't plant, but the truth is...we have to continue to choose to serve the LORD.
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