Bible Strands
Joshua 24:2
And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Joshua addresses all the tribes of Israel, specifically the assembled elders, leaders, judges, and officers, at Shechem immediately after their formal gathering before God. The words — כֹּה (koh) translates literally as “thus,” marking a formal prophetic proclamation, while יְהוָה (Yahweh) names the covenant speaker who initiates the historical review. The thread — The pattern of recalling ancestral idolatry and demanding exclusive loyalty appears in Joshua 24:15’s covenant ultimatum, Ezekiel 16:3’s indictment of Jerusalem’s Canaanite origins, and Genesis 31:30’s account of Laban confronting Jacob over stolen household gods. Why it lands — The text states that Israel’s forebears lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods before God acted on their behalf. It requires the reader to acknowledge that pagan heritage and make a deliberate, present choice to serve Yahweh alone.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And 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.
Cross-references
- Joshua 24:15 But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
- Genesis 31:30 Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
- Ezekiel 16:3 and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
- Genesis 31:19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
- Genesis 31:32 If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
- Genesis 31:53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
- Genesis 35:4 So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.
- Deuteronomy 26:5 and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.
- Isaiah 51:2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.
- Genesis 11:26 When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.