Short answer: Joshua 24 does not mention Joshua's wife, and no other part of Scripture names her. The chapter closes Israel's story in the land with a covenant renewal at Shechem, where Joshua declares that he and his house will serve Yahweh. It identifies him only as Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, who dies at one hundred ten and is buried at Timnathserah in his own inheritance. The honest answer is silence about her name, paired with a clear word about the God his household was called to serve.
The setting and shape of joshua 24
Joshua 24 closes the book with a covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem. Joshua gathers all the tribes together with their elders, heads, judges and officers, and they present themselves before God (24:1). The chapter is not a loose collection of sayings. It has a deliberate literary shape: a long first-person speech from God, a call to choose, a back-and-forth dialogue of commitment between Joshua and the people, a written record with a witness stone, and then a closing report of three burials. That shape matters for reading it well. The chapter is framed as a solemn assembly, not a casual conversation.
Chapter 23 supplies the immediate backdrop. There Joshua gives a farewell warning: just as God's good promises had come true, so covenant disobedience would bring certain judgment (23:15–16). Chapter 24 moves from warning to renewal. God recounts his own faithful acts, from taking Abraham from beyond the River, through the exodus and the wilderness, to giving land, cities, vineyards and olive groves the people did not build (24:2–13). The recital is the ground of the call that follows. Before the people are asked to serve, they are reminded of what God has already done. Grace precedes response.
Joshua then draws the conclusion: fear Yahweh, serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the foreign gods (24:14). The people declare three times that they will serve Yahweh, and Joshua does not flatter them. He presses them, telling them a holy and jealous God will not treat covenant-breaking lightly (24:19–20). The covenant is written in the book of the law, a stone is set under the oak as a witness, and the chapter ends with the deaths of Joshua and Eleazar and the burial of Joseph's bones. Joshua's own household declaration in 24:15 is a personal resolve, not a guarantee about every family member's faith.
What joshua 24 actually says about households, service and witness
The chapter opens at Shechem, where Joshua gathers the tribes, elders, heads, judges and officers, and they present themselves before God (24:1). What follows is not Joshua's own argument but a word from Yahweh, retelling the family story from Terah beyond the River, through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau, down into Egypt (24:2–4). Notice the repeated 'I': God took, led, multiplied, gave, sent, plagued, brought out. Before any command arrives, the people are told what God has already done. The land, the cities and the vineyards they now enjoy were not earned by them (24:13).
The key word in the chapter is “serve”. It is used for worship of Yahweh and for the rival service of other gods, and Joshua sets the two side by side without softening the contrast (24:14–15). “Choose today” makes the decision present and deliberate, not a vague future intention. When Joshua says “as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh” (24:15), “house” means a household, the whole family unit under one head, not merely a spouse. It is a declaration of Joshua's own resolve, not a guarantee that every member of his household would believe.
The word “witness” appears twice. The people become witnesses against themselves when they claim to have chosen Yahweh (24:22), and later a great stone is set up under the oak as a witness against them (24:27). Joshua's blunt warnings in 24:19–20 are not cruelty but honesty about a holy and jealous God. At his death he is called “the servant of Yahweh” (24:29), and he is buried within his inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim (24:30). The chapter ends with Joseph's bones buried at Shechem and Eleazar buried in the hill country, each resting in land that had been given.
What joshua 24 says about joshua's household
The question about Joshua's wife meets a plain fact in this chapter: she is never mentioned, and no verse anywhere in Scripture gives her name. What the text does give is Joshua's identity and his household's allegiance. He is Joshua the son of Nun, called the servant of Yahweh, who dies at one hundred ten and is buried within his own inheritance at Timnathserah (24:29–30). Against that silence stands one of the Bible's best-known declarations: "but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh." (Joshua 24:15) The verse names no family members. It states a commitment Joshua makes for his household, not a report that every person in it believed.
The setting makes that commitment weighty. Chapter 23 had warned that covenant-breaking would bring judgment as surely as God's good gifts had come. Chapter 24 gathers the tribes at Shechem, and God speaks first, recounting his own acts: taking Abraham from beyond the River, giving Isaac and Jacob, sending Moses and Aaron, bringing Israel through the sea, defeating the Amorites, and giving land, cities and vineyards the people did not build (24:2–13). Only then does Joshua call for fear, sincerity and truth, and demand that foreign gods be put away (24:14). Grace precedes the demand.
When the people vow three times to serve Yahweh, Joshua does not flatter them. He tells them a holy and jealous God will not treat covenant-breaking lightly (24:19–20), and he has them acknowledge themselves as witnesses. The covenant is written in the book of the law, and a stone is set under the oak by the sanctuary as a witness (24:25–27). The chapter closes with Joshua's death, Joseph's bones buried at Shechem, and Eleazar's death (24:32–33). About Joshua's wife, the passage is simply silent; about the God her household was called to serve, it speaks clearly.
What the text does and does not say about joshua's household
Scripture never names Joshua's wife. Readers who want to fill the gap sometimes reason backward from Caleb's daughter Achsah or from the pattern of tribal inheritance and conclude she must have been an Israelite. That may be plausible, but the text never says it, and the argument is an inference, not a statement. Others observe that Joshua's household appears only in the declaration near the end of the chapter, where the whole assembly stands before God at Shechem and the focus falls on covenant loyalty rather than family records. Both readings can be held honestly. What the passage actually gives is a leader publicly committing his house to Yahweh, not a biography of his home.
A second disagreement centers on Joshua 24:19, where Joshua tells the people they cannot serve Yahweh because he is holy and jealous. Some read this as deliberate shock, a way of exposing a shallow resolve that had not yet put away foreign gods. Others hear a statement about covenant security, that a people still holding idols cannot presume on God's patience. The narrative itself answers the question: the people respond, Joshua keeps pressing them to put away the foreign gods among them, and a covenant is made that day. The tension is resolved by repentance and reform, not by softening what Joshua said about God's character.
Across these readings, what stays central is plain in the chapter. God recounts his own faithfulness from Abraham through Egypt, the wilderness, and the land given without labor. He is holy and jealous, and he will not be treated as one option among many. The assembly at Shechem is called to exclusive service, and the stone set up under the oak stands as a witness. Joshua's declaration that he and his house will serve Yahweh is a personal commitment, not a promise that every member of a household will believe. The call still goes out: put away what competes with him and incline your heart to him.
The covenant at shechem and the savior it points toward
At Shechem Joshua gathers the tribes and retells their story as God's story, from Terah's idolatry beyond the River to a land they did not labor for and vineyards they did not plant (24:2–13). Then he presses the choice: fear Yahweh, serve him in sincerity and truth, put away the foreign gods (24:14–15). The people answer with confidence, reciting what God did in Egypt and in the wilderness. Joshua answers strangely: "You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins." (24:19). He is not turning them away. He is exposing how lightly they have weighed their own weakness.
The rest of the chapter proves his point. The people repeat their promise, Joshua makes a covenant, writes it in the book of the law, and sets up a stone as a witness against them (24:25–27). Then the record turns to graves: Joshua dies at a hundred ten and is buried in the hill country of Ephraim, Joseph's bones are laid in Shechem, and Eleazar is buried too (24:29–33). The book that began with a promise and a crossing ends with three funerals and a stone that has heard everything. Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, but the resolve of a generation is not the same as a changed heart.
This is where the chapter points beyond itself. Joshua's name means the Lord saves, yet he dies and is buried, and the land rests in the hands of men who will later forget. The New Testament presents Jesus as the greater Joshua who does not only call a household to serve God but secures a people who actually will, by his own covenant work. That means Joshua's challenge, "as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh" (24:15), is a good resolve but not a guarantee about every family member. The gospel answer to Joshua's demand is grace: God himself provides the obedience he requires, and the stone that witnessed against Israel finds its answer at an empty tomb.
What faithful response looks like when the Bible is silent
The Bible never names Joshua's wife, and this closing chapter does not supply the gap. What it does give is a household decision. Joshua gathers the tribes at Shechem, recites what God has done from Abraham to the conquest, and then says, as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh (24:15). Notice that he speaks for himself and his household without claiming to control anyone else's heart. His declaration is a settled choice, not a guarantee about every family member. Readers who want a name for his wife are left with silence, and the honest response is to leave it there rather than invent one.
The chapter makes the choice concrete. Joshua tells the people to fear Yahweh, serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods their fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt (24:14). Later he names foreign gods still among them and calls for hearts inclined to Yahweh (24:23). That is ordinary work: identifying what actually competes for our trust, whether money, comfort, approval or a habit, and removing it rather than managing it. The people answer three times that they will serve, and Joshua has them acknowledge their own words as witnesses (24:21–22). Commitment spoken aloud matters.
The ground of all this is what God has already done. The recital runs from taking Abraham across the River to giving land he did not labor for and vineyards he did not plant (24:2–13). Obedience rests there, not on a promise of ease. Joshua warns that forsaking Yahweh brings ruin, and the stone set up under the oak stands as a witness against denial (24:20, 24:27). The chapter ends with Joshua's death and Israel's faithfulness lasting only as long as his generation (24:29–31). Let your yes to God be backed by a changed life, while the choice stays yours to make today.
Biblical fidelity check
Read carefully, Joshua 24:1–33 is a covenant assembly at Shechem, not a family record. The risks are real: the narrator reports the people's pledges without endorsing them, and Joshua's hard words in 24:19 can be lifted out of the exchange that follows. Watch the movement from God's speech in 24:2–13, all first person giving, to the demand of 24:14. The chapter names no wife for Joshua. "But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh" (Joshua 24:15) describes a household under one head, and nothing more.
The genuine limit is that Scripture is silent about Joshua's wife. Some infer an Israelite wife from tribal patterns or from Caleb's daughter, but the text never says so, and the inference is not required. Readers also differ on 24:19: a shock exposing shallow resolve, or a statement about covenant security. Either way, the people answer and Joshua still presses them to put away foreign gods. What stays central is God's holiness and jealousy, his faithful giving of land and cities, and the call to exclusive service.
Reading Joshua 24:1-33 alongside other passages
For further study, compare this covenant renewal with Joshua 24: Joshua's Covenant Renewal at Shechem, trace how the land promise is described in Joshua 8: Victory at Ai and Covenant Renewal, and read the farewell charge that precedes it in Joshua 10: Sun Stands Still, Kings Defeated. Then follow the burial notices at the end of the chapter alongside Joshua 11: Israel Defeats the Northern Kings.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Bible name Joshua's wife anywhere?
No, the Bible never gives her name, and Joshua 24 does not mention her at all. The chapter names Joshua's father Nun and his inheritance at Timnathserah, but says nothing about a wife or children. Any name offered for her comes from outside the text, so it should be treated as speculation rather than Scripture. What readers can say with confidence is that Joshua had a household, since he speaks of it in 24:15.
Why does Joshua say the people cannot serve Yahweh in Joshua 24:19?
Joshua is pressing the people to count the cost, not telling them that obedience is impossible. He has just recited what God did for them, and now he warns that Yahweh is holy and jealous and will not treat covenant loyalty lightly. The people had grown up around foreign gods, and Joshua has already told them to put those gods away in 24:14. His blunt words expose a cheap yes and draw out a serious one, which the people then give in 24:21 and 24:24.
What did Joshua mean by “as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh”?
Joshua was stating his own settled decision and the direction he would give his household, not guaranteeing that every member would believe. The verse is a personal pledge set against the alternatives he names, the gods beyond the River and the gods of the Amorites. It is a resolve to lead his family toward Yahweh's covenant, and the rest of the chapter shows him calling the whole nation to the same loyalty. A parent's declaration of faith is a faithful commitment to make, but Scripture does not treat it as a promise about another person's heart.
