The people respond enthusiastically to Joshua’s challenge and declare that they also will worship only the Lord (verse 16). They recognize that it was the Lord who delivered them from slavery in Egypt and brought them safely into Canaan: he is their God and they will worship him (verses 17-18).

We would never translates the Hebrew idiom “Far be it from us” (Revised Standard Version). For languages where a rhetorical question is effective, one may want to translate “How could we ever…?” One may even want to translate by two brief affirmations: “We would never be unfaithful to the LORD! We would never serve other gods!”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .