Joshua 24:12-22

12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, driving them out from ahead of you, the two kings of the Emori - it wasn't by your sword or your bow.

13 Then I gave you a land where you had not worked and cities you had not built, and you live there. You eat fruit from vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

14 "Therefore fear ADONAI, and serve him truly and sincerely. Put away the gods your ancestors served beyond the [Euphrates]River and in Egypt, and serve ADONAI!

15 If it seems bad to you to serve ADONAI, then choose today whom you are going to serve! Will it be the gods your ancestors served beyond the River? or the gods of the Emori, in whose land you are living? As for me and my household, we will serve ADONAI!"

16 The people answered, "Far be it from us that we would abandon ADONAI to serve other gods;

17 because it is ADONAI our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from a life of slavery, and did those great signs before our eyes, and preserved us all along the way we traveled and among all the peoples we passed through;

18 and it was ADONAI who drove out from ahead of us all the peoples, the Emori living in the land. Therefore we too will serve ADONAI, for he is our God."

19 Y'hoshua said to the people, "You can't serve ADONAI; because he is a holy God, a jealous God, and he will not forgive your crimes and sins.

20 If you abandon ADONAI and serve foreign gods, he will turn, doing you harm and destroying you after he has done you good."

21 But the people said to Y'hoshua, "No, but we will serve ADONAI."

22 Y'hoshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen ADONAI, to serve him." They answered, "We are witnesses."

Joshua 24:12-22 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.