Joshua 24:20-30

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

21 And the people said to Joshua, "Nay; but we will serve the LORD."

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

23 He said, "Then put away the foreign gods which 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 made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the LORD.

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

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

29 After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old.

30 And they buried him in his own inheritance at Tim'nath-se'rah, which is in the hill country of E'phraim, north of the mountain of Ga'ash.

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.