Joshua 24:16

16 responditque populus et ait absit a nobis ut relinquamus Dominum et serviamus diis alienis

Joshua 24:16 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 24:16

And the people answered and said
To Joshua, upon his proposal to them, the option he gave them to serve the Lord or idols, and which was only done to try them:

God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;
they speak with the utmost abhorrence of idolatry, as a thing far from their hearts and thoughts, as the most abominable and execrable that could be thought or spoken of; to forsake the word, and worship, and ordinances of God, and serve the idols of the Gentiles, strange gods, whether more ancient or more recent, such as their fathers worshipped in former times, or the inhabitants of the land they now dwelt in, for which they were spewed out of it.

Joshua 24:16 In-Context

14 nunc ergo timete Dominum et servite ei perfecto corde atque verissimo et auferte deos quibus servierunt patres vestri in Mesopotamia et in Aegypto ac servite Domino

15 sin autem malum vobis videtur ut Domino serviatis optio vobis datur eligite hodie quod placet cui potissimum servire debeatis utrum diis quibus servierunt patres vestri in Mesopotamia an diis Amorreorum in quorum terra habitatis ego autem et domus mea serviemus Domino

16 responditque populus et ait absit a nobis ut relinquamus Dominum et serviamus diis alienis

17 Dominus Deus noster ipse eduxit nos et patres nostros de terra Aegypti de domo servitutis fecitque videntibus nobis signa ingentia et custodivit nos in omni via per quam ambulavimus et in cunctis populis per quos transivimus

18 et eiecit universas gentes Amorreum habitatorem terrae quam nos intravimus serviemus igitur Domino quia ipse est Deus noster