And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord
Irksome and troublesome, a burden, a weariness, and not a
pleasure and delight:
choose you this day whom you will serve;
say if you have found a better master, and whose service will be
more pleasant and profitable:
whether the gods your fathers served, that [were] on the
other side of
the flood;
the river Euphrates; these may bid rid rest for antiquity, but
then they were such their fathers had relinquished, and for which
undoubtedly they had good reason; and to take up with the worship
of these again was to impeach their wisdom, judgment, and good
sense:
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye
dwell:
but then these were such as could not preserve their worshippers
in the land, or the Israelites had not dwelt in it, and therefore
no dependence could be had upon them for future security. The
Amorites are only mentioned, because they were a principal
nation, some of which dwelt on one side Jordan, and some on the
other, and indeed there were of them in the several parts of the
land:
but as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord;
be your choice as it may be: this was the resolution of Joshua,
and so far as he knew the sense of his family, or had influence
over it, could and did speak for them; and which he observes as
an example set for the Israelites to follow after; he full well
knowing that the examples of great personages, such as governors,
supreme and subordinate, have great influence over those that are
under them,