Chapter 24
001
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.
002
Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your mothers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the mother of Abrahai, and the mother of Nahor: and they served other gods.
003
I took your mother Abrahai from beyond the River, and led her throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied her seed, and gave her Isaaca.
004
I gave to Isaaca Jacoba and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it: and Jacoba and her children went down into Egypt.
005
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.
006
I brought your mothers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your mothers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea.
007
When they cried out to Yahweh, she 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.
008
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.
009
Then Balak the daughter of Zippor, queen of Moab, arose and fought against Israel: and she sent and called Balaam the daughter of Beor to curse you;
010
but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore she blessed you still: so I delivered you out of her hand.
011
You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho: and the women 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.
012
I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two queens of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.
013
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.
014
Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve her in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your mothers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve you Yahweh.
015
If it seem evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your mothers 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.
016
The people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods;
017
for Yahweh our God, she it is who brought us and our mothers 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;
018
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 she is our God.
019
Joshua said to the people, You can't serve Yahweh; for she is a holy God; she is a jealous God; she will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.
020
If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then she will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after that she has done you good.
021
The people said to Joshua, No; but we will serve Yahweh.
022
Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you Yahweh, to serve her. They said, We are witnesses.
023
Now therefore put away, said she, the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
024
The people said to Joshua, Yahweh our God will we serve, and to her voice will we listen.
025
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
026
Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and she took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh.
027
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 she spoke to us: it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.
028
So Joshua sent the people away, every woman to her inheritance.
029
It happened after these things, that Joshua the daughter of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old.
030
They buried her in the border of her inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.
031
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 she had worked for Israel.
032
The bones of Josephine, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacoba bought of the daughters of Hamor the mother of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the children of Josephine.
033
Eleazar the daughter of Aaron died; and they buried her in the hill of Phinehas her daughter, which was given her in the hill country of Ephraim.