CHAPTER XXIV.

XXIV. And after these days Jesus the son of Naue assembled all the people yet again, and said unto them: Behold now the Lord hath testified (Dt. 4:26, etc.) unto you this day: I have called heaven and earth to witness to you that if ye will continue to serve the Lord ye shall be unto him a peculiar people. But if ye will not serve him and will obey the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell, say so this day before the Lord and go forth. (Jos. 24:15) But I and my house will serve the Lord. 2. And all the people lifted up their voice and wept saying: Peradventure the Lord will account us worthy, and it is better for us to die in the fear of him, than to be destroyed out of the land.

3. And Jesus the son of Naue blessed the people and kissed them and said unto them: Let your words be for mercy before our Lord, and let him send his angel, and preserve you: Remember me after my death, and remember ye Moses the friend of the Lord. And let not the words of the covenant which he hath made with you depart from you all the days of your life. And he, sent them away and they departed every man to his inheritance.

4. But Jesus laid himself upon his bed, and sent and called Phineës the son of Eleazar the priest and said unto him: Behold now I see with mine eyes the transgression of this people wherein they will begin to deceive: but thou, strengthen thy hands in the time that thou art with them, And he kissed him and his father and his sons and blessed him and said: The Lord God of your fathers direct your ways and the ways of this people. 5. And when he ceased speaking unto them, he drew up his feet into the bed and slept (Gen. 49:33) with his fathers. And his sons laid their hands (Gen. 46:4) upon his eyes.

6. And then all Israel gathered together to bury him, and they lamented him with a great lamentation, and thus said they in their : Weep ye for the wing of this swift eagle, for he hath flown away from us. And weep ye for the strength of this lion's whelp, for he is hidden from us. Who now will go and report unto Moses the righteous, that we have had forty years a leader like unto him? And they fulfilled their mourning and buried him with their own (Jos. 24:30) hands in the mount Effraim and returned every man unto his tent. And after the death of Jesus the land of Israel was at rest.