Joshua 24:23-33

23 Now therefore put away ([said he]) the strange gods which [are] among you, and incline your heart to the LORD God of Israel.

24 And the people said to Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.

25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

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

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

28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man to his inheritance.

29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the LORD died, [being] a hundred and ten years old.

30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which [is] in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill 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 for Israel.

32 And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel brought out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver; and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill [that pertained] to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.

Joshua 24:23-33 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.