Joshua 24:19
New International Version
Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.

New Living Translation
Then Joshua warned the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.

English Standard Version
But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

Berean Standard Bible
But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.

King James Bible
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

New King James Version
But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

New American Standard Bible
Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your wrongdoing or your sins.

NASB 1995
Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

NASB 1977
Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve Yahweh, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

Amplified Bible
Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD [if you serve any other gods], for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]. He will not forgive your transgression [of His law] or your sins.

Christian Standard Bible
But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the LORD, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship Yahweh, because He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not remove your transgressions and sins.

American Standard Version
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve Jehovah; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Yeshua said to the people: “See, but how, when you are unable to serve LORD JEHOVAH, because God is holy and God is zealous, but he does not forgive your debts and your sins?

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Joshua said to the people, Indeed ye will not be able to serve the Lord, for God is holy; and he being jealous will not forgive your sins and your transgressions.

Contemporary English Version
Joshua said: The LORD is fearsome; he is the one true God, and I don't think you are able to worship and obey him in the ways he demands. You would have to be completely faithful, and if you sin or rebel, he won't let you get away with it.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Josue said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord: for he is a holy God, and mighty and jealous, and will not forgive your wickedness and sins.

English Revised Version
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD; for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
But Joshua answered the people, "Since the LORD is a holy God, you can't possibly serve him. He is a God who does not tolerate rivals. He will not forgive your rebellious acts and sins.

Good News Translation
Joshua said to the people, "But you may not be able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God and will not forgive your sins. He will tolerate no rivals,

International Standard Version
So Joshua told the people, "You will not be able to serve the LORD, because he is a God of Holiness. He is a jealous God, and he will forgive neither your transgressions nor your sins.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Joshua said unto the people: 'Ye cannot serve the LORD; for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression nor your sins.

Literal Standard Version
And Joshua says to the people, “You are not able to serve YHWH, for He [is] a most holy God; He [is] a zealous God; He does not bear with your transgression and with your sins.

Majority Standard Bible
But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.

New American Bible
Joshua in turn said to the people, “You may not be able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a passionate God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

NET Bible
Joshua warned the people, "You will not keep worshiping the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God who will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.

New Revised Standard Version
But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

New Heart English Bible
Joshua said to the people, "You can't serve the LORD; for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Joshua said to the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins.

World English Bible
Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.

Young's Literal Translation
And Joshua saith unto the people, 'Ye are not able to serve Jehovah, for a God most holy He is; a zealous God He is; He doth not bear with your transgression and with your sins.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Choose Whom You will Serve
18And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!” 19But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. 20If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.”…

Cross References
Exodus 20:5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Exodus 23:21
Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.

Exodus 34:14
For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Leviticus 19:2
"Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

Leviticus 20:7
Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20:26
You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.

Joshua 24:18
And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!"


Treasury of Scripture

And Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

Ye cannot

Joshua 24:23
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.

Ruth 1:15
And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

holy

Leviticus 10:3
Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

Leviticus 19:2
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.

1 Samuel 6:20
And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?

a jealous

Exodus 20:5
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exodus 34:14
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

1 Corinthians 10:20-22
But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils…

he will not

Exodus 23:21
Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

Exodus 34:7
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

1 Samuel 3:14
And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.

Jump to Previous
Able Bear Disobedience Holy Honour Jealous Joshua Mercy Rebellion Servants Serve Sins Transgression Transgressions Wrongdoing Zealous
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Able Bear Disobedience Holy Honour Jealous Joshua Mercy Rebellion Servants Serve Sins Transgression Transgressions Wrongdoing Zealous
Joshua 24
1. Joshua assembles the tribes at Shechem
2. A brief history of God's benefits from Terah
14. He renews the covenant between them and God
26. A stone the witness of the covenant
29. Joshua's age, death, and burial
32. Joseph's bones are buried
33. Eleazar dies














(19) And Joshua said . . . Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is . . . jealous . . .--Jehovah will not consent to be served as one God among many: the very thing which Israel was doing at the moment, which they meant to do, and did do, with rare intervals, down to the Babylonish captivity, when the evil spirit of (literal) idolatry was expelled for evermore. Israel always maintained the worship of Jehovah (except in very evil times) as the national Deity, but did not abstain from the recognition and partial worship of other national deities of whom they were afraid, and whom they thought it necessary to propitiate. Therefore Joshua's argument is perfectly intelligible, and was entirely necessary for those times.

Verse 19. - And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord. Calvin thinks that Joshua said this to rouse the sluggish heart of the people to some sense of their duty. But this is quite contrary to the fact, for the heart of the people, as we have seen (ch. 22.), was not sluggish. As little can we accept the explanation of Michaelis, who paraphrases, "Ye will not be able, from merely human resolutions, to serve God." Joshua was stating nothing but a plain fact, which his own higher conception of the law had taught him, that the law was too "holy, just, and good" for it to be possible that Israel should keep it. He had forebodings of coming failure, when he looked on one side at the law with its stern morality and rigorous provisions, and the undisciplined, untamed people that he saw around him. True and faithful to the last, he set before them the law in all its majesty and fulness, the nature of its requirements, and the unsuspected dangers that lay in their weak and wayward hearts. No doubt he had a dim presentiment of the truth, to teach which, to St. Paul, required a miracle and three years' wrestling in Arabia, that by the deeds of the law "shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). As yet the Spirit of God had barely begun to unveil the figure of the Deliverer who was to declare at once God's righteousness and His forgiveness. Yet none the less did Joshua do his duty, and strove to brace up the Israelites to theirs, not by disguising the nature of the undertaking to which they were pledging themselves, but by causing them to be penetrated with a sense of its awfulness and of the solemn responsibilities which it entailed. St. Augustine thinks that Joshua detected in the Israelites already the signs of that self righteousness which St. Paul (Romans 10:3) blames, and that he wished to make them conscious of it. But this is hardly borne out by the narrative. He is a holy God. The pluralis excellentiae is used here in the case of the adjective as well as the substantive. This is to enhance the idea of the holiness which is an essential attribute of God. He is a Jealous God. The meaning is that God will not permit others to share the affections or rights which are His due alone. The word, which, as its root, "to be red," shows, was first applied to human affections, is yet transferred to God, since we can but approximate to His attributes by ideas derived from human relations. Not that God stoops to the meanness and unreasonableness of human jealousy. His vindication of His rights is no other than reasonable in Him. "His glory" He not only "will not," but cannot "give to another." And therefore, as a jealous man does, yet without his infirmity, God refuses to allow another to share in what is due to Himself alone. The word, as well as the existence of the Mosaic covenant, has no doubt led the prophets to use, as they do on innumerable occasions, the figure of a husband and wife (Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 23:25; Hosea 2:2, 13, 16 (margin), Hosea 2:19, 20) in describing the relations of God to His Church, and approximate to His attitude towards His people by the illustration of an injured husband towards a faithless wife (see also Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 6:15). He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins (see Exodus 23:21). There were many words used for "forgive" in Scripture: נשׁא כפר and סלה (see Pearson's learned note in his 'Treatise on the Creed,' Art. 10). The one here used signifies to remove or to bear the burden of guilt, corresponding to the word αἴρω in the New Testament. The word here translated" transgressions" is not the same as in Joshua 7:15, and the cognate word to the one rendered "transgressed" in Joshua 7:11, is here rendered "sins." It signifies a "breach of covenant," while the word translated" sins" is the equivalent of the Greek ἀματία.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
But Joshua
יְהוֹשֻׁ֜עַ (yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3091: Joshua -- 'the LORD is salvation', Moses' successor, also the name of a number of Israelites

said
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

the people,
הָעָ֗ם (hā·‘ām)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

“You are not
לֹ֤א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

able
תֽוּכְלוּ֙ (ṯū·ḵə·lū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 3201: To be able, have power

to serve
לַעֲבֹ֣ד (la·‘ă·ḇōḏ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 5647: To work, to serve, till, enslave

the LORD,
יְהוָ֔ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

for
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

He
ה֑וּא (hū)
Pronoun - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1931: He, self, the same, this, that, as, are

is a holy
קְדֹשִׁ֖ים (qə·ḏō·šîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 6918: Sacred, God, an angel, a saint, a sanctuary

God;
אֱלֹהִ֥ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

He
ה֔וּא (hū)
Pronoun - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1931: He, self, the same, this, that, as, are

is a jealous
קַנּ֣וֹא (qan·nō·w)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 7072: Jealous, angry

God;
אֵֽל־ (’êl-)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 410: Strength -- as adjective, mighty, the Almighty

He will not
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

forgive
יִשָּׂ֥א (yiś·śā)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5375: To lift, carry, take

your rebellion
לְפִשְׁעֲכֶ֖ם (lə·p̄iš·‘ă·ḵem)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 6588: Transgression

or your sins.
וּלְחַטֹּאותֵיכֶֽם׃ (ū·lə·ḥaṭ·ṭō·w·ṯê·ḵem)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 2403: An offence, its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, expiation, an offender


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OT History: Joshua 24:19 Joshua said to the people You can't (Josh. Jos)
Joshua 24:18
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