THE BOOK OF JOSHUA

Joshua Chapter 24

1 ¶ And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at 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 saith the LORD God of Israel, Long ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the river, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and Nahor: and they served other gods.

3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and led him through 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, as a possession; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

5 I also sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, with what I did among them: 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 your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red sea.

7 And when they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and you lived in the desert for a long time.

8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.

9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and made war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:

10 But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you instead: so I delivered you out of his hand.

11 And you crossed the Jordan, and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.

12 And I sent terror ahead of you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with your sword, or with your bow.

13 And I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you live in them; and you eat of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant.

14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river, and in Egypt; and serve the LORD.

15 ¶ But if you think that it is not good to serve the LORD, then choose this day whom you will serve; the idols that your fathers served on the other side of the river, or the idols of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;

17 For it is the LORD our God, who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great miracles in our sight, and preserved us all along the way we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:

18 And the LORD drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites who lived in the land: therefore we will also serve the LORD; for he is our God.

19 And Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not overlook your transgressions or your sins.

20 If you forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after he has done you good.

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

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

23 Then, Joshua said, put away, the strange gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD God of Israel.

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

25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and laws for them in Shechem.

26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.

27 And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us; for it has heard all the words that the LORD spoke to us: therefore it shall be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.

28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man to his inheritance.

29 ¶ And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

30 And they buried him at the edge of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.

31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel.

32 And they buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him on the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.