What Does Joshua 24:21 Mean?

And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:21 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.

THE KEY

The promise to “serve” carries the root of both labor and servant: the people’s “No” pledges their work and allegiance to the LORD.

THE MEANING

The verse places a decisive answer before the reader: “No; we will serve the LORD.” Its verb names work and service, so the declaration carries the shape of an allegiance expressed through what a life serves.

THE ROOT

עָבַד

ʿāvad

GROWS FROM

עבד

To work, serve, or labor.

The same root gives Hebrew its words for a servant and for work or service. “We will serve” therefore reaches beyond a spoken pledge: it names a life’s labor and allegiance.

ALSO GROWS

ʿeved: Servant, worker

עֶבֶד

The servant is named from the same root as the people’s promise to serve, tying allegiance to a lived role.

ʿavodah: Work, service

עֲבֹדָה

This branch makes the labor inside “serve” visible: the pledge concerns the work given to the LORD.

THE PATTERN

Service is a whole-life allegiance: what the mouth pledges, the hands enact, and one cannot serve competing masters.

And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

Exodus 3:12 · SDVThe same verb for serving connects being brought out with a life directed toward God.

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you, but to stand in awe of the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your living soul,

Deuteronomy 10:12 · SDVService here belongs to the whole person, joining the pledge to the heart, soul, love, and way of life.

No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold fast to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 6:24 · SDVThe verse makes service an allegiance that cannot be divided between competing masters.

THE THREAD

And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

Exodus 3:12 · SDV

The same ⁨עבד⁩ root joins Joshua’s pledge to the service named here: being brought out opens into a life oriented toward God. “We will serve” names what freedom is for.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us