Joshua 24:14-24 »‘Honor Jehovah and serve him sincerely and in truth. Get rid of the gods that your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only Jehovah.

NSB⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹⁴ »‘Honor Jehovah and serve him sincerely and in truth. Get rid of the gods that your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only Jehovah. ¹⁵ »‘If you are not willing to serve him, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living. As for my family and me, we will serve Jehovah.’« ¹⁶ The people replied: »We would never leave Jehovah to serve other gods! ¹⁷ »Jehovah our God brought our fathers and us out of slavery in Egypt. We saw the miracles he performed. He kept us safe wherever we went among all the nations through which we passed. ¹⁸ »As we advanced to this land, Jehovah drove out all the Amorites who lived here. We also will serve Jehovah. He is our God!« ¹⁹ Joshua said to the people: »You may not be able to serve Jehovah. He is a holy God and will not forgive your sins. He will tolerate no rivals, ²⁰ and if you leave him to serve foreign gods, he will turn against you and punish you. He will destroy you, even though he was good to you before.« ²¹ The people said to Joshua: »No! We will serve Jehovah!« ²² Joshua replied: »You are your own witnesses to the fact that you have chosen to serve Jehovah.« They said: »We are witnesses!« ²³ »Remove the foreign gods you have.« He demanded: »Pledge your loyalty to Jehovah, the God of Israel.« ²⁴ The people said to Joshua: »We will serve Jehovah our God. We will obey his commands.«