Joshua 24:20-30

20 If you leave the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn around and do you harm and finish you off, in spite of having done you good in the past."
21 Then the people said to Joshua, "No! The LORD is the one we will serve."
22 So Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD." They said, "We are witnesses!"
23 "So now put aside the foreign gods that are among you. Focus your hearts on the LORD, the God of Israel."
24 The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and will obey him."

Joshua makes a covenant

25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people and established just rule for them at Shechem.
26 Joshua wrote these words in God's Instruction scroll. Then he took a large stone and put it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the LORD.
27 Joshua said to all the people, "This stone will serve here as a witness against us, because it has heard all the LORD's words that he spoke to us. It will serve as a witness against you in case you aren't true to your God."
28 Then Joshua sent the people away to each one's legacy.

Three important graves

29 After these events, Joshua, Nun's son, the LORD's servant, died. He was 110.
30 They buried him within the border of his own legacy, in Timnath-serah in the highlands of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.

Joshua 24:20-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 24

This chapter gives us an account of another summons of the tribes of Israel by Joshua, who obeyed it, and presented themselves before the Lord at Shechem, Jos 24:1; when Joshua in the name of the Lord rehearsed to them the many great and good things the Lord had done for them, from the time of their ancestor Abraham to that day, Jos 24:2-13; and then exhorted them to fear and serve the Lord, and reject idols, Jos 24:14; and put them upon making their choice, whether they would serve the true God, or the gods of the Canaanites; and they choosing the former, he advised them to abide by their choice, Jos 24:15-24; and made a covenant with them to that purpose, and then dismissed them, Jos 24:25-28; and the chapter is concluded with an account of the death and burial of Joshua and Eleazar, and of the interment of the bones of Joseph, Jos 24:29-33.

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