Joshua 24:19

“And Joshua said unto the people, etc.] To their heads and representatives now assembled together, and who had returned to him the preceding answer: ye cannot serve the Lord; which he said not to discourage or deter them from serving the Lord, since it was his principal view, through the whole of this conversation with them, to engage them in it, but to observe to them their own inability and insufficiency of themselves to perform service acceptable to God; and therefore it became them to implore grace and strength from the Lord to assist them in it, and to depend upon that and not to lean to and trust in their own strength; as also to observe to them, that they could not serve him perfectly…”

“Ye cannot - He speaks not of an absolute impossibility, (for then both his resolution to serve God himself, and his exhortation to them had been vain) but of a moral impossibility, or a very great difficulty, which he alledgeth not to discourage them from God's service, but to make them more considerate in obliging themselves; and more resolved in answering their obligations. The meaning is, God's service is not, as you seem to fancy, a slight and easy thing, but it is a work of great difficulty, and requires great care, and courage and resolution; and when I consider the infinite purity of God, that he will not be mocked or abused; and withal your proneness to superstition and idolatry,…”

“24:19-24 Joshua pressed the Israelites from a different perspective to underscore the seriousness of their commitment and to ensure that they were not merely responding to the enthusiasm of the moment. 24:19 God is holy: See “God’s Absolute Holiness” Theme Note. • God is also jealous; he created every human being for relationship with himself.”

“Ye cannot: Jos 24:23; Rut 1:15; Mat 6:24; Luk 14:25-33 holy: Lev 10:3, Lev 19:2; Sa1 6:20; Psa 99:5, Psa 99:9; Isa 5:16, Isa 6:3-5, Isa 30:11, Isa 30:15; Hab 1:13 a jealous: Exo 20:5, Exo 34:14; Co1 10:20-22 he will not: Exo 23:21, Exo 34:7; Sa1 3:14; Ch2 36:16; Isa 27:11 Joshua 24:20”

“But in order to place most vividly before the minds of the people to what it was that they bound themselves by this declaration, that they might not inconsiderately vow what they would not afterwards observe, Joshua adds, "Ye cannot serve Jehovah," sc., in the state of mind in which ye are at present, or "by your own resolution only, and without the assistance of divine grace, without solid and serious conversion from all idols, and without true repentance and faith" (J. H. Michaelis). For Jehovah is "a holy God," etc. Elohim, used to denote the Supreme Being (see at Gen 2:4), is construed with the predicate in the plural. On the holiness of God, see the exposition of Exo 19:6. On the…”