Joshua 24:20-30

20 ¹If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then ²he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good."

21 And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the LORD."

22 Then Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that ³you have chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses."

23 He said, "Then ⁴put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel."

24 And the people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey."

25 So Joshua ⁵made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place ⁶statutes and rules for them at Shechem.

26 And Joshua ⁷wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And ⁸he took a large stone and set it up there ⁹under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.

27 And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, ¹⁰this stone shall be a witness against us, for ¹¹it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God."

28 So Joshua ¹²sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

Joshua's Death and Burial

29 ¹³After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 110 years old.

30 And they buried him in his own inheritance at ¹⁴Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.

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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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. [1 Chronicles 28:9; 2 Chronicles 15:2; Ezra 8:22; Isaiah 1:28; Isaiah 65:11, 12; Jeremiah 17:13]
2. Joshua 23:15; Isaiah 63:10; [Acts 7:42]
3. ver. 15
4. ver. 14; Judges 10:16; 1 Samuel 7:3
5. 2 Kings 11:17; 2 Chronicles 23:16; Nehemiah 9:38
6. Exodus 15:25
7. Deuteronomy 31:24
8. [Joshua 4:3; Genesis 28:18]
9. Genesis 35:4; Judges 9:6
10. Joshua 22:27, 28, 34; Genesis 31:48, 52; Deuteronomy 31:19, 21, 26
11. [Deuteronomy 32:1]
12. Judges 2:6
13. For ver. 29-31, see Judges 2:7-9
14. [Joshua 19:50]

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.