[1] 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. [2] Joshua said to all
the people, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived of old
time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of
Nahor: and they served other gods. [3] I took your father Abraham from
beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and
multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. [4] I gave to Isaac Jacob and
Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it: and Jacob and his
children went down into Egypt. [5] I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued
Egypt, according to that which I did in the midst of it: and afterward I
brought you out. [6] I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to
the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and
with horsemen to the Red Sea. [7] When they cried out to Yahweh, he put
darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and
covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you lived in the
wilderness many days. [8] I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that
lived beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into
your hand, and you possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before
you. [9] Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought
against Israel: and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;
[10] but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I
delivered you out of his hand. [11] You went over the Jordan, and came to
Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, and the
Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the
Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand. [12] I sent
the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two
kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow. [13] I gave
you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn`t build,
and you dwell therein; of vineyards and olive groves which you didn`t plant
do you eat. [14] Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and
in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River,
and in Egypt; and serve you Yahweh. [15] If it seem evil to you to serve
Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which
your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will
serve Yahweh. [16] The people answered, Far be it from us that we should
forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; [17] for Yahweh our God, he it is who
brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of
bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in
all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst
of whom we passed; [18] and Yahweh drove out from before us all the
peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land: therefore we also will
serve Yahweh; for he is our God. [19] Joshua said to the people, You can`t
serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not
forgive your disobedience nor your sins. [20] If you forsake Yahweh, and
serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you,
after that he has done you good. [21] The people said to Joshua, No; but we
will serve Yahweh. [22] Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses
against yourselves that you have chosen you Yahweh, to serve him. They
said, We are witnesses. [23] Now therefore put away, [said he], the foreign
gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of
Israel. [24] The people said to Joshua, Yahweh our God will we serve, and
to his voice will we listen. [25] So Joshua made a covenant with the people
that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. [26] Joshua
wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone,
and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh. [27]
Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness
against us; for it has heard all the words of Yahweh which he spoke to us:
it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God. [28]
So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance. [29] It
happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of
Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old. [30] They buried him in the
border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill-country of
Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. [31] Israel served Yahweh
all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua,
and had known all the work of Yahweh, that he had worked for Israel. [32]
The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt,
buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the
sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they
became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. [33] Eleazar the son of
Aaron died; and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was
given him in the hill-country of Ephraim.
