Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13
Joshua is old. He gathers all Israel at Shechem: the same place Abraham first stopped in the land six hundred years earlier, where Jacob buried the foreign gods his household carried. The location is chosen: this is where covenant identity has been contested before.
He recites the whole story from Abraham through Egypt through the wilderness through the conquest. Then the choice: fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and truth, or choose whom you will serve, the gods of your fathers from beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
The people respond: we will serve the LORD. Joshua pushes back: you cannot serve the LORD, for he is holy and jealous; if you forsake him and serve foreign gods he will turn and harm you. The people insist. Joshua establishes a witness: the stone under the oak is the witness against them if they deny.
Thread 4 is the bachar imperative: choose this day. The covenant is not a condition the people were born into and carry passively. It is a living commitment that has to be re-chosen at every generation's turning point. Thread 2 is the corporate covenant renewal: all Israel at Shechem, the whole community together, making the same commitment at the same moment. Thread 5 is the dispensational closing of the conquest period: the land is distributed, the covenant is renewed, Joshua dies. The next phase, the judges period, begins immediately.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, bicharu lakhem ha-yom, the bachar imperative in its most direct covenant-renewal form; Joshua's own declaration (as for me and my house) is the model of genuine personal commitment preceding the communal call.
בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת מִי תַעֲבֹדוּן (bacharu lakhem ha-yom et mi ta'avdun): choose you this day whom you will serve: bacharu (Qal imperative plural of bachar, choose, the same imperative form as Deuteronomy 30:19's u-vacharta; the choosing is commanded, which presupposes genuine capacity; a meaningless command cannot be addressed to those without the capacity to comply); ha-yom (this day, the urgency of the present moment; the covenant is not inherited passively across generations but chosen actively by each generation) · וְאָנֹכִי וּבֵיתִי נַעֲבֹד אֶת יְהוָה (ve-anokhi u-veiti na'avod et YHWH): as for me and my house we will serve the LORD: the emphatic anokhi (I) fronted before the household; Joshua does not simply call others to choose; he declares his own choice first; the household committed alongside the individual
threads t2 · t4 · t5 · see Genesis 12:6 · Deuteronomy 30:19 · Acts 3:13