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, "No, 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 that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."

24 The people said to Joshua, "The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey."

25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

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

27 Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, if you deal falsely with your God."

28 So Joshua sent the people away to their inheritances.

29 After these things Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred ten years old.

30 They buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country 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.