Joshua 24

1Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel, its heads, its judges, and its officers, and they presented themselves before God.

2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Long ago your fathers lived beyond the River—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and they served other gods.”

3Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and I led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his offspring and gave him Isaac.

4And I gave Isaac Jacob and Esau, and I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

5Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt as I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out.

6Then I brought your fathers out from Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

7Then they cried out to Yahweh, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon him and covered him, and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness many days.

8Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them from before you.

9Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam son of Beor to curse you.

10But I was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he indeed blessed you; so I delivered you from his hand.

11Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you—the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—and I gave them into your hand.

12And I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove them out before you—the two kings of the Amorites—not by your sword and not by your bow.

13And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built, and you live in them. You are eating from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.

14Now fear Yahweh and serve him with integrity and faithfulness, and put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.

15But if it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling. But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.

16Then the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake Yahweh and serve other gods.”

17For Yahweh our God is the one who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of servants, and who did these great signs before our eyes, and kept us in all the way in which we walked, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.

18And Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.

19And Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions and your sins.”

20If you forsake Yahweh and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after he has done good to you.

21But the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve Yahweh.”

22Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh for yourselves, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”

23So now, remove the foreign gods that are among you, and turn your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

24And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will obey his voice.”

25So Joshua made a covenant with the people on that day, and there in Shechem he set for them a statute and an ordinance.

26And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God, and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was in the sanctuary of Yahweh.

27And Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of Yahweh that he spoke with us. And it will be a witness against you, lest you deny your God.”

28Then Joshua sent the people away, each man to his inheritance.

29And it happened after these things that Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred and ten years old.

30And they buried him within the territory of his inheritance, at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

31Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and who had known all the work of Yahweh that he had done for Israel.

32And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the portion of the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred qesitahs; and it became an inheritance for the sons of Joseph.

33And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeath-phinehas, his son’s hill country, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.