Josh 24
1
And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders
of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and
they presented themselves before God.
2
And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, Your fathers
dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father
of Nahor: and they served other gods.
3
And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the
land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
4
And I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau mount Seir, to possess it:
and Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
5
And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in
its midst: and afterward I brought you out.
6
And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians
pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea.
7
And when they cried out to YHWH, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and
brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt:
and you dwelt in the wilderness many days.
8
And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that dwelt beyond the Jordan: and
they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land;
and I destroyed them from before you.
9
Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel: and he
sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;
10
but I would not hearken to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered
you out of his hand.
11
And you went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against
you, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite,
the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand.
12
And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two
kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.
13
And I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you built not,
and you dwell therein; of vineyards and oliveyards which you planted not do you eat.
14
Now therefore fear YHWH, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the
gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve you YHWH.
15
And if it seem evil to you to serve YHWH, choose you this day whom you will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve
YHWH.
16
And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake YHWH, to
serve other gods;
17
for YHWH our God, he it is that brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage, and that did those great signs in our sight, and preserved
us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of
whom we passed;
18
and YHWH drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites that dwelt in
the land: therefore we also will serve YHWH; for he is our God.
19
And Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve YHWH; for he is a holy God; he is
a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins.
20
If you forsake YHWH, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and
consume you, after that he has done you good.
21
And the people said to Joshua, Nay; but we will serve YHWH.
22
And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have
chosen you YHWH, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
23
Now therefore put away, [said he], the foreign gods which are among you, and incline
your heart to YHWH, the God of Israel.
24
And the people said to Joshua, YHWH our God will we serve, and to his voice will we
hearken.
25
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an
ordinance in Shechem.
26
And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone,
and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of YHWH.
27
And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us;
for it has heard all the words of YHWH which he spoke to us: it shall be therefore
a witness against you, lest you deny your God.
28
So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.
29
And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of
YHWH, died, being a hundred and ten years old.
30
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in
the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.
31
And Israel served YHWH all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that
outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of YHWH, that he had wrought for Israel.
32
And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried
they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the
father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of
the children of Joseph.
33
And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas his
son, which was given him in the hill-country of Ephraim.