Joshua 24:20-30

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."

23 "Now," Y'hoshua urged, "put away the foreign gods you have among you, and turn your hearts to ADONAI, the God of Isra'el."

24 The people answered Y'hoshua, "We will serve ADONAI our God; we will pay attention to what he says."

25 So Y'hoshua made a covenant with the people that day, laying down for them laws and rulings there in Sh'khem.

26 Y'hoshua wrote these words in the book of the Torah of God. Then he took a big stone and set it up there under the oak next to the sanctuary of ADONAI.

27 Y'hoshua said to all the people, "See, this stone will be a witness against us; because it has heard all the words of ADONAI which he said to us; therefore it will be a witness against you, in case you deny your God."

28 Then Y'hoshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

29 After this, Y'hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of ADONAI, died; he was 110 years old.

30 They buried him on his property in Timnat-Serach, which is in the hills of Efrayim, north of Mount 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.