Joshua 24

KJV · Chapter 24/24

¹And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

²And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

³And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

⁴And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

⁵I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.

⁶And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea.

⁷And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.

⁸And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.

⁹Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:

¹⁰But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.

¹²And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.

¹³And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

¹⁴Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

¹⁵And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

¹⁶And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;

¹⁷For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:

¹⁸And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.

¹⁹And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

²⁰If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.

²¹And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord.

²²And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.

²³Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.

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

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

²⁶And 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.

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

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

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

³⁰And 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.

³¹And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel.

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

³³And 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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Joshua gathers all Israel at Shechem, recalls the history of the covenant from Abraham onward, and challenges the people to choose whom they will serve. The people commit to serving the Lord, and Joshua dies at 110 years old.

Explanation

This is the solemn conclusion of the book: Joshua summarizes the whole history of God with Israel, from Abraham beyond the Euphrates River to the conquest of the land, so that the people would understand that their entire identity is the result of God's faithfulness, not their own merit. His personal declaration, 'as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord' (v. 15), became one of the most quoted verses in the Bible about a family's commitment of faith. Joshua warns that serving God 'in sincerity and in truth' is difficult precisely because he is holy and does not tolerate half-measures - a prophetic warning that would be repeatedly fulfilled in the following book, Judges.

Fun facts

The large stone Joshua set up under the oak at Shechem (v. 26-27) stood at the very same place where, centuries earlier, Jacob had buried his family's foreign idols (Genesis 35:4).
Joshua dies at 110 years old, exactly the same age Joseph lived to in Egypt (Genesis 50:26) - a parallel connecting the beginning and end of Israel's journey toward the promised land.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Joshua 24:1Joshua gathers all the tribes at Shechem for the final speech, calling the main leaders to present themselves before God.
Joshua 24:2Joshua recalls that Abraham's ancestors, on the other side of the Euphrates River, served other gods before the calling. It's a way of showing that faith in one God didn't come naturally from birth — it began with a specific choice to leave the family's idols behind.
Joshua 24:3God recalls taking Abraham from his homeland, leading him through Canaan, and multiplying his descendants through Isaac.
Joshua 24:4The story continues with Isaac fathering Jacob and Esau; Esau ends up with the region of Seir, while Jacob and his sons end up going down to Egypt.
Joshua 24:5God recalls sending Moses and Aaron and the plagues that struck Egypt, resulting in the people's departure from there.
Joshua 24:6As they left Egypt, the Egyptians pursued the people with chariots as far as the Red Sea.
Joshua 24:7God recalls the people's cry, the darkness that separated the two sides, and the waters that swallowed up the Egyptian army before the people's own eyes.
Joshua 24:8After that, God leads the people to the land of the Amorites, who attacked Israel but ended up defeated.
Joshua 24:9God also recalls King Balak of Moab, who hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel.
Joshua 24:10God reveals that He did not allow Balaam to curse the people; instead, He turned the curse into a blessing.
Joshua 24:11God recalls crossing the Jordan and the battles against the people of Jericho and other Canaanite nations, all won by Israel.
Joshua 24:12God points out that He even sent hornets to drive out the enemies, making it clear that the victory did not come from the people's sword or bow.
Joshua 24:13God sums up the gift He gave Israel: land they did not work for, cities they did not build, and crops they did not plant.
Joshua 24:14After recalling all this, Joshua asks the people to serve God sincerely, giving up for good the foreign gods of their ancestors.
Joshua 24:15Choosing today whom to serve is not a neutral question: Joshua has already revealed his own answer in the same speech. The challenge is meant to force each family to consciously decide between the old gods and the God who brought them out of Egypt, instead of just following out of habit.
Joshua 24:16The people respond firmly, swearing never to forsake the LORD to serve other gods.
Joshua 24:17They justify their choice by recalling that it was God who brought them out of Egypt, performed the great signs, and protected them throughout the whole journey.
Joshua 24:18The people acknowledge that it was God who drove out the peoples of the land, and so they decide to serve Him alone.
Joshua 24:19Joshua surprises the people with a harsh warning: serving God is not easy, because He is holy and demands total faithfulness, with no tolerance for wrongdoing.
Joshua 24:20Joshua warns that if they forsake God to serve other gods, He will turn against them after all the good He has done.
Joshua 24:21Even after the warning, the people reaffirm their decision: they will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:22Joshua makes the commitment official, having the people testify against themselves regarding their own choice.
Joshua 24:23He then asks them to throw away any foreign idols they still kept, turning their hearts fully toward God.
Joshua 24:24The people confirm once more, promising to serve and obey God's voice.
Joshua 24:25Joshua formalizes this commitment as an official covenant, with rules established right there in Shechem.
Joshua 24:26Joshua writes it all down in the book of the law and sets up a large stone under an oak tree, near the sanctuary, as a physical marker of the agreement.
Joshua 24:27Joshua explains that the stone will serve as a silent witness, something that will remind the people of their commitment if they ever deny having made it.
Joshua 24:28After the covenant is sealed, Joshua sends each family back to its own inheritance of land.
Joshua 24:29The book records the death of Joshua, at a hundred and ten years old, ending the leadership that began right after Moses.
Joshua 24:30Joshua is buried on his own property, in Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim.
Joshua 24:31Israel remains faithful to God throughout Joshua's whole life and also during the generation of leaders who personally witnessed everything God had done.
Joshua 24:32The bones of Joseph, carried from Egypt for more than four hundred years in keeping with the request he made back in the book of Genesis, are finally buried in Shechem, closing a cycle that runs through Genesis, Exodus, and Joshua.
Joshua 24:33The book closes with the death of Eleazar the priest, son of Aaron, buried on a hill that belonged to his own son, Phinehas.