Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. After having enumerated so many grounds for national gratitude, Joshua calls on them to declare, in a public and solemn manner whether they will be faithful and obedient to the God of Israel. He avowed this to be his own unalterable resolution, and urges them, if they were sincere in making a similar avowal, 'to put away the strange gods that were among them'-a requirement which seems to imply that some were suspected of a strong hankering for, or concealed practice of, idolatry, whether in the form of Zabaism, the fire-worship of their Chaldean ancestors, the scarabaei of Egypt, or the grosser superstitions of the Canaanites.