Joshua 24

¹ Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; then he called the elders, leaders, judges and scribes of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

² Then Joshua said to all the people: ‘Yahweh the God of Israel says this, “In ancient days your ancestors lived beyond the River – such was Terah the father of Abraham and of Nahor – and they served other gods.

³ Then I brought your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan. I increased his descendants and gave him Isaac.

⁴ To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountain country of Seir as his possession. Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt.

⁵ Then I sent Moses and Aaron and plagued Egypt with the wonders that I worked there. So I brought you out of it.

⁶ I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and you came to the Sea; the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen as far as the Sea of Reeds.

⁷ There they called to Yahweh, and he spread a thick fog between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea go back on them and cover them. You saw with your own eyes the things I did in Egypt. Then for a long time you lived in the wilderness,

⁸ until I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan; they made war on you and I gave them into your hands; you took possession of their country because I destroyed them before you.

⁹ Next, Balak son of Zippor the king of Moab arose to make war on Israel, and sent for Balaam son of Beor to come and curse you.

¹⁰ But I would not listen to Balaam; instead, he had to bless you, and I saved you from his hand.

¹¹ “When you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, those who held Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites and Perizzites, the Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I put them all into your power.

¹² I sent out hornets in front of you, which drove the two Amorite kings before you; this was not the work of your sword or your bow.

¹³ I gave you a land where you never toiled, you live in towns you never built; you eat now from vineyards and olivegroves you never planted.”

¹⁴ ‘So now, fear Yahweh and serve him perfectly and sincerely; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.

¹⁵ But if you will not serve Yahweh, choose today whom you wish to serve, whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. As for me and my House, we will serve Yahweh.’

¹⁶ The people answered, ‘We have no intention of deserting Yahweh and serving other gods!

¹⁷ Was it not Yahweh our God who brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and preserved us all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we journeyed?

¹⁸ What is more, Yahweh drove all those peoples out before us, as well as the Amorites who used to live in this country. We too will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.’

¹⁹ Then Joshua said to the people, ‘You cannot serve Yahweh, because he is a holy God, he is a jealous God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

²⁰ If you desert Yahweh to follow alien gods he in turn will afflict and destroy you after the goodness he has shown you.’

²¹ The people answered Joshua, ‘No; it is Yahweh we wish to serve’.

²² Then Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh, to serve him’. They answered, ‘We are witnesses’.

²³ ‘Then cast away the alien gods among you and give your hearts to Yahweh the God of Israel!’

²⁴ The people answered Joshua, ‘It is Yahweh our God we choose to serve; it is his voice that we will obey’.

²⁵ That day, Joshua made a covenant for the people; he laid down a statute and ordinance for them at Shechem.

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

²⁷ and Joshua said to all the people, ‘See! This stone shall be a witness against us because it has heard all the words that Yahweh has spoken to us: it shall be a witness against you in case you deny your God.’

²⁸ Then Joshua sent the people away, and each returned to his own inheritance.

²⁹ After these things Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died; he was a hundred and ten years old.

³⁰ They buried him on the estate he had received for inheritance, at Timnath-serah which lies in the highlands of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

³¹ Israel served Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the deeds that Yahweh had done for the sake of Israel.

³² The bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the portion of ground that Jacob had bought for a hundred pieces of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, which had become the inheritance of the sons of Joseph.

³³ Then Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, the town of his son Phinehas, which had been given him in the highlands of Ephraim.