14. “Now fear the Lord, and serve Him with sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.
15. If it is displeasing to you to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve, if it should be the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites’ land where you are now living. Yet as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16. The people answered and said, “God forbid that we forsake the Lord and serve other gods!
17. For it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers out from slavery in the land of Egypt and performed these great signs in our sight and guarded us all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed.
18. The Lord drove out before us all the people, even the Amorites, who lived in the land. So we will indeed serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19. Then Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God, and He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn, bring disaster upon you, and finish you off, after having been good to you.”
21. The people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”
22. Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen the Lord, to serve Him.”Then they said, “We are witnesses.”
23. “Now then,” he said, “put away the foreign gods in your midst, and stretch out your hearts to the Lord God of Israel!”