Joshua 24:21-31

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

22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye shall be witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We shall be witnesses.

23 Now, therefore, take away, the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.

24 And the people replied unto Joshua, We will serve the LORD our God and hear his voice.

25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them statutes and laws in Shechem.

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

27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke unto us: it shall be, therefore, a witness unto you lest ye deny your God.

28 So Joshua sent the people, each one unto his inheritance.

29 And after these things, Joshua, the son of Nun, the slave of the LORD, died, being one hundred and ten years old.

30 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the Mountain of Gaash.

31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua and who had known all the works of the LORD that he had done with Israel.

Joshua 24:21-31 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.