Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
variance with the rest of the book, in which Israel is represented as only serving
Jehovah during the lifetime of Joshua. If the people had been in possession of idols,
they would have given them up to Joshua to be destroyed, as they promised to
comply with his demand (vv. 16ff.). But even if the Israelites were not addicted to
gross idolatry in the worship of idols, they were not altogether free from idolatry
either in Egypt or in the desert.
As their fathers were possessed of teraphim in Mesopotamia (see at v. 2), so the
Israelites had not kept themselves entirely free from heathen and idolatrous ways,
more especially the demon-worship of Egypt (comp. Lev 17:7 with Ezek 20:7ff., Josh
23:3,8, and Amos 5:26); and even in the time of Joshua their worship of Jehovah may
have been corrupted by idolatrous elements. This admixture of the pure and genuine
worship of Jehovah with idolatrous or heathen elements, which is condemned in Lev
17:7 as the worship of Seirim , and by Ezekiel ( l. c. ) as the idolatrous worship of the
people in Egypt, had its roots in the corruption of the natural heart, through which it
is at all times led to make to itself idols of mammon, worldly lusts, and other impure
thoughts and desires, to which it cleaves, without being able to tear itself entirely
away from them. This more refined idolatry might degenerate in the case of many
persons into the grosser worship of idols, so that Joshua had ample ground for
admonishing the people to put away the strange gods, and serve the Lord.
Verse 15. But as the true worship of the living God must have its roots in the heart,
and spring from the heart, and therefore cannot be forced by prohibitions and
commands, Joshua concluded by calling upon the representatives of the nation, in
case they were not inclined ("if it seem evil unto you") to serve Jehovah, to choose
now this day the gods whom they would serve, whether the gods of their fathers in
Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they were now dwelling,
though he and his house would serve the Lord. There is no necessity to adduce any
special proofs that this appeal was not intended to release them from the obligation to
serve Jehovah, but rather contained the strongest admonition to remain faithful to the
Lord.
Verse 16-18. The people responded to this appeal by declaring, with an expression of
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