Joshua24:14–28

Where the English smooths the original

• בְּתָמִ֣ים BSB's in sincerity renders bə·ṯā·mîm (H8549, tāmîm), the very word used of an unblemished sacrificial animal and of Noah as blameless. The Pulpit Commentary insists it "is rather to be rendered perfection, or perfectness" — the demand is wholeness of allegiance, not merely a candid mood.
• וּבֶֽאֱמֶ֑ת And truth flattens ū·ḇe·’ĕ·meṯ (H571, ʼemeth), which the Pulpit Commentary notes "is derived from the idea of stability, as that which can stand the rude shocks of inquiry." It is firmness/faithfulness, not abstract veracity — the steadiness of a thing that holds.
• וְהָסִ֣ירוּ Cast aside softens the Hifil wə·hā·sî·rū (H5493, sûr, "to turn off, remove") — the same verb the people are commanded again in v.23. It is a decisive putting-away, the deliberate removal of an object, not a casual discarding.
• הַנָּהָר֙ BSB names the Euphrates, but the Hebrew says only han·nā·hār (H5104) — the River. "The River" with the article is the Euphrates by convention, yet the original leaves it a single looming watercourse marking the far edge of the patriarchal past.

Where the English smooths the original

• רַ֨ע Unpleasing in your sight elegantly expands ra‘ (H7451) bə·‘ê·nê·ḵem — literally "evil in your eyes." The Hebrew idiom is blunter than "unpleasing": Joshua frames the alternative to serving Yahweh as something the people might find bad, even repugnant, exposing the absurdity Benson and Poole both press.
• בַּחֲר֨וּ Choose for yourselves renders the Qal imperative ba·ḥă·rū (H977, bāḥar), the same verb used of God choosing Israel. Both Poole and Benson stress this is "a rhetorical and powerful insinuation," not a grant of liberty — Joshua "had no such power himself, nor could give it to any other."
• תַעֲבֹדוּן֒ You will serve drops the paragogic nun on ṯa·‘ă·ḇō·ḏūn — an emphatic, weighty verbal ending. English cannot carry it, but the lengthened form adds solemnity, as if the question "whom will you serve?" is pronounced with deliberate gravity.
• וּבֵיתִ֔י My house (ū·ḇê·ṯî, H1004) is bayith — household, not building. Ellicott observes the haunting silence of Scripture about Joshua's actual descendants and reads "the house of Joshua" as embracing "all the faithful servants of the Lord" — the pledge outruns one man's literal family.

Where the English smooths the original

• חָלִ֣ילָה BSB's Far be it from us renders ḥā·lî·lāh (H2486), an interjection of horror — literally something like "a profanation!" or "ad profanum." It is not measured distance but recoil; Ellicott catches the tone: "the feelings of the people are naturally shocked by the bare mention of apostasy."
• מֵעֲזֹ֖ב To forsake (mê·‘ă·zōḇ, H5800, ʻāzaḇ) is the unit's verb of abandonment — it returns in Joshua's warning in v.20 ("if you forsake the LORD"). The people swear off the very act Joshua will say they are prone to; the word ties their vow to his foreboding.
• וַיַּ֤עַן The doubled "answered and said" (way·ya·‘an, H6030, + wayyōmer) is a Hebrew narrative formula for a weighty, formal reply. Cambridge reads the force: "the entire people, with one voice, responded to his call by loud and hearty declarations."

Where the English smooths the original

• הַמַּעֲלֶ֨ה Brought us out renders the Hifil participle ham·ma·‘ă·leh (H5927, ʻālāh) — literally "the One bringing us up." The people echo the wording fixed to the first commandment; K&D hears in it "the words appended to the first commandment (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6), which they hereby promise to observe."
• עֲבָדִ֑ים The house of slavery is literally mib·bêṯ ‘ă·ḇā·ḏîm (H5650) — "the house of slaves." Note the deliberate clash with the unit's theme-verb ʻāḇaḏ ("serve"): Israel was rescued from slaving in Egypt precisely in order to serve Yahweh — the same root, opposite masters.
• הָאֹת֤וֹת Signs (hā·’ō·ṯō·wṯ, H226) are the wonder-works of the exodus. Gill: "meaning the wonders and marvellous things wrought before Pharaoh." Cambridge lists what the people recite back — deliverance, signs, preservation, and the expulsion of the Amorites — grounding "their promises of fidelity for the future on the dealings of God with them in the past."

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיְגָ֨רֶשׁ Drove out renders the Piel way·ḡā·reš (H1644, gāraš) — the strong, expulsive verb of dispossession, the same word used of driving out the Canaanite nations throughout the conquest. The intensive stem makes it forcible expulsion, not gentle removal.
• גַּם־ BSB's We too will serve hides the structure the Pulpit Commentary insists on: there is "no 'therefore'" in the Hebrew. gam (H1571, "also/too") answers Joshua's "as for me and my house" of v.15. The LXX's ἀλλὰ καί ("but also") gives the true sense: we also, not and so therefore.
• אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ He is our God (’ĕ·lō·hê·nū, H430) is the covenant formula's second half — "Yahweh... our God." The people seize the bond Joshua will pointedly withhold in v.19, where he calls Him only "the LORD," not "your God" — a withholding Maclaren marks as deliberate.

Where the English smooths the original

• תֽוּכְלוּ֙ You are not able renders lō ṯū·ḵə·lū (H3201, yākōl) — a flat "you cannot." Nearly every voice insists this is not absolute. Benson: "he speaks not of an absolute impossibility... but of a moral impossibility, or a very great difficulty." The Pulpit Commentary alone reads it as plain fact: the law "was too 'holy, just, and good' for it to be possible that Israel should keep it."
• קְדֹשִׁ֖ים A holy God uses the plural adjective qə·ḏō·šîm (H6918) with the plural noun ’ĕlōhîm — "holy Gods is He." The Pulpit Commentary calls it the pluralis excellentiae; Gill and Benson press it toward Trinity ("holy Father, holy Son, holy Spirit"). The grammar is a plural of majesty; the dogmatic load is the interpreter's, marked as such.
• קַנּ֣וֹא Jealous renders the rare form qan·nō·w (H7072) — not the usual qannāʼ. K&D notes "the only other place in which the form qannôʼ is used for qannāʼ is Nahum 1:2." The word's root, the Pulpit Commentary observes, means "to be red" — a zeal first felt in human passion, transferred to God "without his infirmity."
• יִשָּׂ֥א He will not forgive renders lō yiś·śā (H5375, nāśāʼ) — literally "He will not lift/bear away." The Pulpit Commentary fixes the image: it "signifies to remove or to bear the burden of guilt, corresponding to the word αἴρω in the New Testament" — the very verb John's Gospel uses of the Lamb who takes away sin.

Where the English smooths the original

• תַֽעַזְבוּ֙ Forsake (ṯa·‘az·ḇū, H5800, ʻāzaḇ) is the very word the people used in their oath in v.16 ("far be it that we should forsake"). Joshua throws their own verb back at them as a live possibility — the abandonment they swore was unthinkable is exactly what he warns against.
• וְשָׁ֨ב He will turn renders wə·šāḇ (H7725, šûḇ). Poole and Benson are careful: "he will alter his course and the manner of his dealing with you." The Pulpit Commentary guards against misreading it as God changing — "it is not He but we who change" — harmonizing with James 1:17 by analogy of the sun's apparent rising and setting.
• וְכִלָּ֣ה Consume renders the Piel wə·ḵil·lāh (H3615, kālāh) — "bring to an end, finish off, annihilate." The intensive stem is total: not merely "harm" but make a full end of you, the covenant-curse language K&D says "is used to denote the judgments threatened in the law against transgressors."

Where the English smooths the original

• לֹ֕א No! is the bare emphatic lō (H3808). K&D parses the force: "lōʼ, minime, as in Joshua 5:14, i.e., we will not serve other gods, but Jehovah." The single word is a refusal of Joshua's grim alternative, not a contradiction of him.
• כִּ֥י The kî (H3588) after "No" is adversative — "but rather." The construction lōʼ kî ("no, but...") is a Hebrew idiom of strong correction: not that, but this. The people are not arguing; they are re-staking their choice against the very danger Joshua named.

Where the English smooths the original

• עֵדִ֤ים Witnesses against yourselves compresses ‘ê·ḏîm bā·ḵem (H5707) — "witnesses in/among you." Cambridge gives the literal order of the people's reply: "Witnesses are we against ourselves." The legal sense is sharp: their own testimony becomes the indictment if they later defect.
• בְּחַרְתֶּ֥ם You have chosen is bə·ḥar·tem (H977, bāḥar) — the same "choose" verb Joshua commanded in v.15, now in the perfect: the deed is done. Geneva: "if you do the contrary, your own mouths will condemn you." The choice, once spoken, is self-binding.
• אַתֶּ֞ם The repeated emphatic ’at·tem (H859, "you yourselves") drives the point home — you are witnesses, you have chosen. Joshua removes every future plea of ignorance; as the Pulpit Commentary notes, "such an excuse never was pleaded afterwards."

Where the English smooths the original

• הַנֵּכָ֖ר The foreign gods renders han·nê·ḵār (H5236, nēḵār) — gods of "foreignness," the same word Joshua used in v.20 and that links this scene to Jacob's purge at the same place (Genesis 35:4). It is alienage itself: gods belonging to elsewhere.
• בְּקִרְבְּכֶ֑ם Among you renders bə·qir·bə·ḵem (H7130, qereḇ), which K&D and Keil insist can equally mean "within you / in the heart." The ambiguity is theologically live: are these carved idols still hidden in tents, or "idols of the heart"? The Pulpit Commentary argues for literal teraphim; K&D for the inner idol, since the people produced no images to destroy.
• וְהַטּוּ֙ Incline renders the Hifil wə·haṭ·ṭū (H5186, nāṭāh) — "stretch out, bend, turn." The heart is pictured as a thing that must be tilted toward Yahweh. Gill reads it as both prayer and effort: "pray that your hearts may be inclined... and make use of all means."

Where the English smooths the original

• נִשְׁמָֽע And obey renders niš·māʻ (H8085, šāmaʻ) — literally "we will hear / hearken." In Hebrew, to truly hear God's voice is to obey; the verb fuses the two. The people add obedience to service, advancing past their earlier vows.
• וּבְקוֹל֖וֹ His voice (ū·ḇə·qō·w·lōw, H6963, qôl) is the covenant idiom "hearken to the voice of Yahweh." Gill hears more: "his word, as the Targum, not only his word of command, but his essential Word, the Son of God" — a christological reading he flags as the Targum's, marked here as such.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּכְרֹ֨ת Made a covenant is literally way·yiḵ·rōṯ bə·rîṯ (H3772 + H1285) — "cut a covenant." The Pulpit Commentary: "a phrase common to the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues, and derived from the custom of sacrifice, in which the victims were cut in pieces." Yet Barnes and Benson note no sacrifice is recorded here — it is the renewal of Sinai, not a new cutting.
• חֹ֥ק Statute (ḥōq, H2706) is, the Pulpit Commentary observes, "derived from the same root as our word hack, signifying to cut, and hence to engrave in indelible characters." A ḥōq is something incised — fixed, prescribed law. The same root that cuts the covenant engraves its statute.
• וּמִשְׁפָּ֖ט Ordinance renders miš·pāṭ (H4941), more often "judgment" — "a thing set upright," per the Pulpit Commentary. K&D pairs the two: a ḥōq "which bound the people" and a mišpāṭ, "or right, by virtue of which they might expect... the fulfilment of all the covenant mercies of the Lord."

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּכְתֹּ֤ב Recorded renders way·yiḵ·tōḇ (H3789, kāṯaḇ) — "wrote." Ellicott calls this "the second signature among the sacred writers of the Old Testament" after Moses (Deuteronomy 31:9): writers "authorised to add their part to the book already written." The smoothing to "recorded" loses the startling claim that Joshua wrote into Scripture.
• הָֽאַלָּ֔ה The oak (hā·’al·lāh, H427) is more precisely a terebinth; the LXX and several voices prefer it. This is, by old tradition (Jarchi, Kimchi, JFB), the very tree under which Jacob buried the strange gods (Genesis 35:4) — making the memorial stone rise where idolatry was once interred.
• בְּמִקְדַּ֥שׁ Near the sanctuary renders bə·miq·daš (H4720) — literally "in the sanctuary." K&D presses the preposition hard: it cannot mean "near," so the "sanctuary" is no tent or ark but "the holy place under the oak, where Abraham had formerly built an altar." The Pulpit Commentary disputes this, insisting bə can mean "near"; the editors openly disagree.

Where the English smooths the original

• שָׁמְעָ֗ה It has heard (šā·mə·‘āh, H8085, šāmaʻ) attributes hearing to a stone. Poole names the figure: "prosopopaeia, whereby the sense of hearing is oft ascribed to the heavens and the earth, and other senseless creatures." The same verb (šāmaʻ) the people vowed in v.24 ("we will hearken") is now lodged in the witnessing stone.
• לְעֵדָ֔ה A witness (lə·‘ê·ḏāh, H5713, ʻēḏāh) makes the stone a legal witness, like Laban's heap (Genesis 31:48). Geneva sharpens the threat: "the dumb creatures will cry for vengeance," so "man's deception should not go unpunished."
• תְּכַחֲשׁ֖וּן Deny renders the Piel tə·ḵa·ḥă·šūn (H3584, kāḥaš) with paragogic nun — "deal falsely with, lie to, disown." The Pulpit Commentary: "to deny concerning Him, to contest the truth of what has been revealed of His essence." It is covenant-perjury, not mere intellectual unbelief — the stone hears, so the lie cannot hide.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיְשַׁלַּ֤ח Sent away renders the Piel way·šal·laḥ (H7971, šālaḥ) — a formal dismissal, the verb of releasing an assembly. Gill: "dismissed them, and took his final leave and farewell of them, dying soon after." The covenant assembly is closed with deliberate ceremony.
• לְנַחֲלָתֽוֹ To his own inheritance (lə·na·ḥă·lā·ṯōw, H5159, naḥălāh) is the allotted possession — the fulfilled promise. Ellicott notes "this passage is recited in Judges 2:6-9," where the same dispersal opens the tragedy of the judges: the people scatter to the land, and the next generation forgets.