SEV Biblia, Chapter 24:14
Ahora pues, temed al SEÑOR, y servidle con perfección y con verdad; y quitad de en medio los dioses a los cuales honraron vuestros padres del otro lado del río, y en Egipto; y servid al SEÑOR.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joshua 24:14
Verse 14. Fear the Lord] Reverence him as the sole object of your religious worship. Serve him] Perform his will by obeying his commands.
In sincerity] Having your whole heart engaged in his worship.
And in truth] According to the directions he has given you in his infallible word.
Put away the gods, &c.] From this exhortation of Joshua we learn of what sort the gods were, to the worship of whom these Israelites were still attached. 1. Those which their fathers worshipped on the other side of the flood: i.e., the gods of the CHALDEANS, fire, light, the sun. 2. Those of the EGYPTIANS, Apis, Anubis, the ape, serpents, vegetables, &c. 3. Those of the CANAANITES, MOABITES, &c., Baal-peor or Priapus, Astarte or Venus, &c., &c. All these he refers to in this and the following verse. See at the conclusion of ver. 33. How astonishing is this, that, after all God had done for them, and all the miracles they had seen, there should still be found among them both idols and idolaters! That it was so we have the fullest evidence, both here and in ver. 23; Amos v. 26; and in Acts vii. 41. But what excuse can be made for such stupid, not to say brutish, blindness? Probably they thought they could the better represent the Divine nature by using symbols and images, and perhaps they professed to worship God through the medium of these. At least this is what has been alleged in behalf of a gross class of Christians who are notorious for image worship. But on such conduct God will never look with any allowance, where he has given his word and testimony.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. Now therefore fear the Lord , etc.] Since he has done such great and good things, fear the Lord and his goodness, fear him for his goodness sake; nothing so influences fear, or a reverential affection for God, as a sense of his goodness; this engages men sensible of it to fear the Lord, that is, to worship him both internally and externally in the exercise of every grace, and in the performance of every duty: and serve him in sincerity and in truth : in the uprightness of their souls, without hypocrisy and deceit, and according to the truth of his word, and of his mind and will revealed in it, without any mixture of superstition and will worship, or of the commands and inventions of men: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt ; that is, express an abhorrence of them, and keep at a distance from them, and show that you are far from giving in to such idolatries your ancestors were guilty of, when they lived on the other side Euphrates, in Chaldea, or when they were sojourners in Egypt; for it cannot be thought that the Israelites were at this time guilty of such gross idolatry, at least openly, since Joshua had bore such a testimony of them, that they had cleaved to the Lord unto that day, ( Joshua 23:8); and their zeal against the two tribes and a half, on suspicion of idolatry, or of going into it, is a proof of it also: and serve ye the Lord : and him only.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-14 - We must never think our work for God done, till our life is done. If he lengthen out our days beyond what we expected, like those of Joshua, it is because he has some further service for us to do. He who aims at the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, will glory in bearing the las testimony to his Saviour's goodness, and in telling to all around, the obligations with which the unmerited goodness of God has bound him. The assembly came together in a solemn religious manner. Joshua spake to them in God's name, and as from him. His sermon consists of doctrin and application. The doctrinal part is a history of the great thing God had done for his people, and for their fathers before them. The application of this history of God's mercies to them, is an exhortatio to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and that it migh be continued.
Original Hebrew
ועתה 6258 יראו 3372 את 853 יהוה 3068 ועבדו 5647 אתו 853 בתמים 8549 ובאמת 571 והסירו 5493 את 853 אלהים 430 אשׁר 834 עבדו 5647 אבותיכם 1 בעבר 5676 הנהר 5104 ובמצרים 4714 ועבדו 5647 את 853 יהוה׃ 3068
