Joshua
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.
24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served
other gods.
24:3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led
him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave
him Isaac.
24:4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir,
to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
24:5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that
which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
24:6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and
the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto
the Red sea.
24:7 And when they cried unto 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 ye dwelt in the wilderness
a long season.
24:8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the
other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your
hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before
you.
24:9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against
Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:
24:10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so
I delivered you out of his hand.
24:11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto 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.
24:12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you,
even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy
bow.
24:13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities
which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and
oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
24:14 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
flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom
ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on
the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
24:16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the
LORD, to serve other gods;
24:17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of
the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great
signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and
among all the people through whom we passed:
24:18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites
which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he
is our God.
24:19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an
holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions
nor your sins.
24:20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do
you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
24:21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.
24:22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves
that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are
witnesses.
24:23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you,
and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
24:24 And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his
voice will we obey.
24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a
statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
24:26 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.
24:27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a
witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he
spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny
your God.
24:28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.
24:29 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.
24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah,
which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
24:31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of
the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of
the LORD, that he had done for Israel.
24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of
Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought
of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of
silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
24:33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that
pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.
