Nay; but we will serve the Lord. — Being brought to the point, no other answer was possible. If they must give up Jehovah or the idols, the idols must go first.
(22,23) Ye are witnesses... that ye have chosen you the Lord... Now therefore put away... the strange gods. — This was the practical conclusion to which Joshua desired that they should come. But we do not read that they did anything in obedience to these words. We read of no images being buried or burned, as in the days of Jacob by David (Genesis 35:4; 2 Samuel 5:21). There is only a verbal promise: “The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey.”