Joshua 24:20-33

24:20 If ¹  you abandon the Lord and worship ²  foreign gods, he will turn against you; ³  he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, ⁴  though he once treated you well.” ⁵ 

24:21 The people said to Joshua, “No! We really will ⁶  worship ⁷  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?” ⁸  They replied, “We are witnesses!” ⁹  24:23 Joshua said, ¹⁰  “Now put aside the foreign gods that are among you and submit to ¹¹  the Lord God of Israel.”

24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will worship ¹²  the Lord our God and obey him.” ¹³ 

24:25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement ¹⁴  for the people, and he established rules and regulations ¹⁵  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. ¹⁶  It will be a witness against you if ¹⁷  you deny your God.” 24:28 When Joshua dismissed the people, they went to their allotted portions of land. ¹⁸ 

An Era Ends

24:29 After all this ¹⁹  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 ²⁰  in Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 24:31 Israel worshiped ²¹  the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men who outlived him remained alive. ²²  These men had experienced firsthand everything the Lord had done for Israel. ²³ 

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. ²⁴  So it became the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph. ²⁵ 

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. ²⁶ 

[24:20]  ¹ tn Or “when.”

[24:20]  ² tn Or “and serve.”

[24:20]  ³ tn The words “against you” are added for clarification.

[24:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “bring you to an end.”

[24:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “after he did good for you.”

[24:21]  ⁶ tn The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is emphatic. Another option is to take it as explanatory, “No, for we will….”

[24:21]  ⁷ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord to serve him.”

[24:22]  ⁹ 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.

[24:23]  ¹⁰ tn The words “Joshua said” are supplied for clarification.

[24:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “bend your heart toward.” The term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) probably here refers to the people’s volition or will.

[24:24]  ¹² tn Or “will serve.”

[24:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “and listen to his voice.”

[24:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[24:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a statute and a judgment.”

[24:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all the words of the Lord which he spoke with us.”

[24:27]  ¹⁷ tn Or “lest,” “so that you might not.”

[24:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance.”

[24:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “after these things.”

[24:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the territory of his inheritance.”

[24:31]  ²¹ tn Or “served.”

[24:31]  ²² tn Heb “all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived him.”

[24:31]  ²³ tn Heb “who knew all the work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.”

[24:32]  ²⁴ 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.

[24:32]  ²⁵ 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.

[24:33]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in Gibeah of Phinehas, his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.”