Text -- Joshua 24:15-33 (NET)

24:15 If you have no desire to worship the Lord, choose today whom you will worship, whether it be the gods whom your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family will worship the Lord!” 24:16 The people responded, “Far be it from us to abandon the Lord so we can worship other gods! 24:17 For the Lord our God took us and our fathers out of slavery in the land of Egypt and performed these awesome miracles before our very eyes. He continually protected us as we traveled and when we passed through nations. 24:18 The Lord drove out from before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. So we too will worship the Lord, for he is our God!” 24:19 Joshua warned the people, “You will not keep worshiping the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God who will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. 24:20 If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you; he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, though he once treated you well.” 24:21 The people said to Joshua, “No! We really will worship the Lord!” 24:22 Joshua said to the people, “Do you agree to be witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to worship the Lord?” They replied, “We are witnesses!” 24:23 Joshua said, “Now put aside the foreign gods that are among you and submit to the Lord God of Israel.” 24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will worship the Lord our God and obey him.” 24:25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement for the people, and he established rules and regulations for them in Shechem. 24:26 Joshua wrote these words in the Law Scroll of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there under the oak tree near the Lord’s shrine. 24:27 Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against you, for it has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness against you if you deny your God.” 24:28 When Joshua dismissed the people, they went to their allotted portions of land.

An Era Ends

24:29 After all this Joshua son of Nun, the Lord’s servant, died at the age of one hundred ten. 24:30 They buried him in his allotted territory in Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 24:31 Israel worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men who outlived him remained alive. These men had experienced firsthand everything the Lord had done for Israel. 24:32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the part of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of money. So it became the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph. 24:33 Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah in the hill country of Ephraim, where his son Phinehas had been assigned land.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jos 24:15

¹ tn Heb “if it is bad in your eyes.”

² tn Or “to serve.”

³ tn Or “will serve.”

⁴ tn Heb “your fathers.”

⁵ tn Or “served.”

⁶ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.

⁷ tn Heb “house.”

⁸ tn Or “will serve.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:16

¹ tn Heb “to.”

² tn Or “can serve.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:17

¹ tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

² tn Heb “for the Lord our God, he is the one who brought up us and our fathers from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.”

³ tn Or “great signs.”

⁴ tn Heb “and he guarded us in all the way in which we walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:18

¹ tn Or “will serve.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:19

¹ tn Heb “said to.”

² tn Heb “you are not able to serve.”

³ sn For an excellent discussion of Joshua’s logical argument here, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 274-75.

⁴ tn In the Hebrew text both the divine name (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) and the adjective (קְדֹשִׁים, qÿdoshim, “holy”) are plural. Normally the divine name, when referring to the one true God, takes singular modifiers, but this is a rare exception where the adjective agrees grammatically with the honorific plural noun. See GKC §124.i and IBHS 122.

⁵ tn Heb “lift up” or “take away.”

sn This assertion obviously needs qualification, for the OT elsewhere affirms that God does forgive. Joshua is referring to the persistent national rebellion against the Mosaic covenant that eventually cause God to decree unconditionally the nation’s exile.

NET Notes: Jos 24:20

¹ tn Or “when.”

² tn Or “and serve.”

³ tn The words “against you” are added for clarification.

⁴ tn Heb “bring you to an end.”

⁵ tn Heb “after he did good for you.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:21

¹ tn The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is emphatic. Another option is to take it as explanatory, “No, for we will….”

² tn Or “will serve.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:22

¹ tn Heb “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord to serve him.”

² sn Like witnesses in a court of law, Israel’s solemn vow to worship the Lord will testify against them in the divine court if the nation ever violates its commitment.

NET Notes: Jos 24:23

¹ tn The words “Joshua said” are supplied for clarification.

² tn Heb “bend your heart toward.” The term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) probably here refers to the people’s volition or will.

NET Notes: Jos 24:24

¹ tn Or “will serve.”

² tn Heb “and listen to his voice.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:25

¹ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

² tn Heb “a statute and a judgment.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:27

¹ tn Heb “all the words of the Lord which he spoke with us.”

² tn Or “lest,” “so that you might not.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:28

¹ tn Heb “And Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:29

¹ tn Heb “after these things.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:30

¹ tn Heb “in the territory of his inheritance.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:31

¹ tn Or “served.”

² tn Heb “all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived him.”

³ tn Heb “who knew all the work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.”

NET Notes: Jos 24:32

¹ tn Heb “one hundred qesitahs.” The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qesitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value and/or weight is unknown. The word occurs only here and in Gen 33:19 and Job 42:11.

² tn Heb “and they became for the sons of Joseph an inheritance.” One might think “bones” is the subject of the verb “they became,” but the verb is masculine, while “bones” is feminine. The translation follows the emendation suggested in the BHS note, which appeals to the Syriac and Vulgate for support. The emended reading understands “the part (of the field)” as the subject of the verb “became.” The emended verb is feminine singular; this agrees with “the part” (of the field), which is feminine in Hebrew.

NET Notes: Jos 24:33

¹ tn Heb “in Gibeah of Phinehas, his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.”