2 Kings 17:32-33

17:32 At the same time they worshiped ¹  the Lord. They appointed some of their own people to serve as priests in the shrines on the high places. ²  17:33 They were worshiping ³  the Lord and at the same time serving their own gods in accordance with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.

Joshua 24:14-20

24:14 Now ⁴  obey ⁵  the Lord and worship ⁶  him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors ⁷  worshiped ⁸  beyond the Euphrates ⁹  and in Egypt and worship ¹⁰  the Lord. 24:15 If you have no desire ¹¹  to worship ¹²  the Lord, choose today whom you will worship, ¹³  whether it be the gods whom your ancestors ¹⁴  worshiped ¹⁵  beyond the Euphrates, ¹⁶  or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family ¹⁷  will worship ¹⁸  the Lord!”

24:16 The people responded, “Far be it from us to abandon the Lord so we can ¹⁹  worship ²⁰  other gods! 24:17 For the Lord our God took us and our fathers out of slavery ²¹  in the land of Egypt ²²  and performed these awesome miracles ²³  before our very eyes. He continually protected us as we traveled and when we passed through nations. ²⁴  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 ²⁵  the Lord, for he is our God!”

24:19 Joshua warned ²⁶  the people, “You will not keep worshiping ²⁷  the Lord, for ²⁸  he is a holy God. ²⁹  He is a jealous God who will not forgive ³⁰  your rebellion or your sins. 24:20 If ³¹  you abandon the Lord and worship ³²  foreign gods, he will turn against you; ³³  he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, ³⁴  though he once treated you well.” ³⁵ 

Joshua 24:1

Israel Renews its Commitment to the Lord

24:1 Joshua assembled all the Israelite tribes at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and they appeared before God.

Joshua 18:21

18:21 These cities belonged to the tribe ³⁶  of Benjamin by its clans: Jericho, ³⁷  Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,

Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove ³⁸  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ³⁹ 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ⁴⁰  while taking oaths in the name of ⁴¹  their ‘king,’ ⁴² 

Matthew 6:24

6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate ⁴³  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ⁴⁴  the other. You cannot serve God and money. ⁴⁵ 

Revelation 3:15-16

3:15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. ⁴⁶  I wish you were either cold or hot! 3:16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going ⁴⁷  to vomit ⁴⁸  you out of my mouth!

[17:32]  ¹ tn Heb “feared.”

[17:32]  ² tn Heb “and they appointed for themselves from their whole people priests for the high places and they were serving for them in the house[s] of the high places.”

[17:33]  ³ tn Heb “fearing.”

[24:14]  ⁴ sn Joshua quotes the Lord’s words in vv. 2b-13 (note that the Lord speaks in the first person in these verses); in vv. 14-15 Joshua himself exhorts the people (note the third person references to the Lord).

[24:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “fear.”

[24:14]  ⁶ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:14]  ⁸ tn Or “served.”

[24:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.

[24:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “if it is bad in your eyes.”

[24:15]  ¹² tn Or “to serve.”

[24:15]  ¹³ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:15]  ¹⁵ tn Or “served.”

[24:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.

[24:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[24:15]  ¹⁸ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to.”

[24:16]  ²⁰ tn Or “can serve.”

[24:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

[24:17]  ²² 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.”

[24:17]  ²³ tn Or “great signs.”

[24:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and he guarded us in all the way in which we walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.”

[24:18]  ²⁵ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “said to.”

[24:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “you are not able to serve.”

[24:19]  ²⁸ sn For an excellent discussion of Joshua’s logical argument here, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 274-75.

[24:19]  ²⁹ 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.

[24:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “lift up” or “take away.”

[24:20]  ³¹ tn Or “when.”

[24:20]  ³² tn Or “and serve.”

[24:20]  ³³ tn The words “against you” are added for clarification.

[24:20]  ³⁴ tn Heb “bring you to an end.”

[24:20]  ³⁵ tn Heb “after he did good for you.”

[18:21]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the sons,” here referring to the tribe.

[18:21]  ³⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[1:5]  ³⁸ tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[1:5]  ³⁹ tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

[1:5]  ⁴⁰ tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

[1:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

[1:5]  ⁴² tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.

[6:24]  ⁴³ sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.

[6:24]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”

[6:24]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “God and mammon.”

[3:15]  ⁴⁶ sn Laodicea was near two other towns, each of which had a unique water source. To the north was Hierapolis which had a natural hot spring, often used for medicinal purposes. To the east was Colossae which had cold, pure waters. In contrast to these towns, Laodicea had no permanent supply of good water. Efforts to pipe water to the city from nearby springs were successful, but it would arrive lukewarm. The metaphor in the text is not meant to relate spiritual fervor to temperature. This would mean that Laodicea would be commended for being spiritually cold, but it is unlikely that Jesus would commend this. Instead, the metaphor condemns Laodicea for not providing spiritual healing (being hot) or spiritual refreshment (being cold) to those around them. It is a condemnation of their lack of works and lack of witness.

[3:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “I intend.”

[3:16]  ⁴⁸ tn This is the literal meaning of the Greek verb ἐμέω (emew). It is usually translated with a much weaker term like “spit out” due to the unpleasant connotations of the English verb “vomit,” as noted by L&N 23.44. The situation confronting the Laodicean church is a dire one, however, and such a term is necessary if the modern reader is to understand the gravity of the situation.