Joshua 24:14

Now therefore fear the Lord Comp. Job 28:28, "Behold, the fearof the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding;" Psalms 2:11, "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling;" Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lordis the beginning of knowledge."

in sincerity and in truth "with perfite herte and most trewe," Wyclif. The Greek word here rendered "sincerity" in the LXX. occurs also in 1 Corinthians 5:8, "let us keep the feast … with the unleavened bread of sincerityand truth;" 2 Corinthians 1:12, "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity… we have had our conversation in the world;" 2 Corinthians 2:17, "but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." The Latin word from which our "sincerity" comes, denotes "honey without wax," unmixed purity. The Greek word is considered by some to be founded on the idea of something held up in the rays of the sun, and proved to be without speck or flaw.

put away the gods which your fathers served Two epochs of ancestral idolatry are here alluded to; (a) on the other side of the flood, i. e. the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia; and (b) in Egypt. Some have supposed that the expression alludes to idolatry "in the heart," but this is untenable. (i) In Leviticus 17:7 we read, "they (the people) shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring." (ii) Again in Amos 5:25-26, quoted by St Stephen in his address before the Sanhedrim (Acts 7:42-43), "Have ye offered (did ye offer) unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." (iii) Once more, in Ezekiel 20:6-8 we read, "In the day that I lifted up my hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt … then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt … but they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt." Joshua's words plainly imply his sad conviction that there were still idolaters amongst them in secret, as there were in the days of Jacob before him, Genesis 35:2, and of Samuel after him, 1 Samuel 7:3, seq.