What Does Joshua 24:16 Mean in the King James?
And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew pairs abandoning (עזב) with serving (עבד): the loyalty you leave behind is the service you give elsewhere.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks as a present answer: loyalty to the LORD means refusing to abandon that bond for the service of other gods. The direction of your service makes that allegiance visible, because what receives your labor also receives your loyalty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You can remain loyal to the LORD while giving your service to rival gods.
THE ROOT
מֵעֲזֹב
meʿazov
GROWS FROM
עזב
To leave or abandon.
The sentence binds leaving to what follows: forsaking the LORD means directing service toward other gods. The root gives “forsake” the sense of abandoning a bond, not merely changing an opinion.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazuvah: Forsaken; desolate.
עֲזוּבָה
This form shows how leaving can leave a person or place abandoned.
neʿezav: Left; abandoned.
נֶעֱזָב
The passive form makes the state of being forsaken visible.
לַעֲבֹד
laʿavod
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work, labor, or serve.
“serve” in this verse is laʿavod. This root holds work and service together, with “servant” as one of its branches. The verse sets one bond against another: to leave the LORD is to direct service elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
The servant is defined by the one served, giving the verse’s claim of allegiance a lived shape.
ʿavodah: Work; service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch keeps the labor inside the idea of serving: allegiance is expressed through what receives one’s work.
THE PATTERN
Allegiance becomes visible in exclusive service: leaving one god means giving oneself to another.
Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.The Hebrew root עבד (ʿavad), meaning “work” or “serve,” appears repeatedly in this verse around the choice of whom to serve. Joshua 24:16 answers that choice by binding the refusal to abandon the LORD to the refusal to serve other gods.
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