Joshua 24:14 (YLT)

Passage

`And now, fear ye Jehovah, and serve Him, in perfection and in truth, and turn aside the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve ye Jehovah;

Nearby Context

Joshua 24:12 And I send before you the hornet, and it casteth them out from your presence--two kings of the Amorite--not by thy sword, nor by thy bow.

Joshua 24:13 `And I give to you a land for which thou hast not laboured, and cities which ye have not built, and ye dwell in them; of vineyards and olive-yards which ye have not planted ye are eating.

Joshua 24:14 `And now, fear ye Jehovah, and serve Him, in perfection and in truth, and turn aside the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve ye Jehovah;

Joshua 24:15 and if wrong in your eyes to serve Jehovah--choose for you to-day whom ye do serve; --whether the gods whom your fathers served, which <FI>are<Fi> beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorite in whose land ye are dwelling; and I and my house--we serve Jehovah.'

Joshua 24:16 And the people answer and say, `Far be it from us to forsake Jehovah, to serve other gods;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "fear", "jehovah", "serve", "perfection", "truth", "turn", "aside", and "gods". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "fear" and "jehovah", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 13's "And I give to you a land..." into verse 15's "and if wrong in your eyes to...", so "fear" and "jehovah" belong inside that flow. In Joshua context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "fear" and "jehovah" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.