Joshua 24

¹Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders , the heads , the judges , and the officers of Israel . And they presented themselves before God .

²And Joshua said to all the people , Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel , Long ago , your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates , Terah , the father of Abraham and of Nahor ; and they served other gods .

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

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

⁵And I sent Moses and Aaron , and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it , and afterward I brought you out .

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

⁷And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt . And you lived in the wilderness a long time .

⁸Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites , who lived on the other side of the Jordan . They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand , and you took possession of their land , and I destroyed them before you.

⁹Then Balak the son of Zippor , king of Moab , arose and fought against Israel . And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you,

¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam . Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand .

¹¹And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho , and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also 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 before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites ; it was not by your sword or by your bow .

¹³I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built , and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant .

¹⁴Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness . Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt , and serve the Lord.

¹⁵And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve , whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River , or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell . But as for me and my house , we will serve the Lord.

¹⁶Then the people answered , Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods ,

¹⁷for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt , out of the house of slavery , and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went , and among all the peoples through whom we passed .

¹⁸And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples , the Amorites who lived in the land . Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God .

¹⁹But Joshua said to the people , You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God . He is a jealous God ; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins .

²⁰If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods , then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good .

²¹And the people said to Joshua , No, but we will serve the Lord.

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

²³He said, Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel .

²⁴And the people said to Joshua , The Lord our God we will serve , and his voice we will obey .

²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day , and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem .

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 terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people , Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God .

²⁸So Joshua sent the people away , every man to his inheritance .

²⁹After these things Joshua the son of Nun , the servant of the Lord, died , being 110 years old .

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

³¹Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua , and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel .

³²As for the bones of Joseph , which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt , they buried them at Shechem , in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money . It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph .

³³And Eleazar the son of Aaron died , and they buried him at Gibeah , the town of Phinehas his son , which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim .