Joshua 24

¹And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel, and for its heads, and for its judges, and for its officers; and they presented themselves before the face of God.

²And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says YHWH, God of Israel: ‘On the other side of the River dwelt Your fathers of old—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and they served other gods.

³And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave to him Isaac.

⁴And I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau, and I gave to Esau Mount Seir to possess, and Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

⁵And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did among them, and afterward I brought you out.

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

⁷And they cried out to YHWH, and He put darkness between you and between the Egyptians, and He brought upon them the sea and covered them, and your eyes saw what I did against Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness many days.

⁸And I brought you into the land of the Amorite, the ones dwelling on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hands, and you possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before your faces.

⁹And Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and he sent and called Balaam son of Beor to curse you.

¹⁰And I was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he blessed you again and again. And I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, and 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 hands.

¹²And I sent before your faces the hornet, and it drove them out from before your faces—two kings of the Amorite—not by your sword and not by your bow.

¹³And I have given to you a land on which you did not labor, and cities that you did not build, and you dwell in them. You are eating of vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

¹⁴And now, fear YHWH and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods that your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt, and Serve YHWH!

¹⁵And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods that your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorite, in whose land you are dwelling. And I and my house, we will serve YHWH!”

¹⁶And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake YHWH to serve other gods!

¹⁷For YHWH our God is He who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who did in our sight these great signs, and preserved us in all the way that we went in it, and in all the people among whom we passed.

¹⁸And YHWH drove out all the people, and the Amorite who dwelt in the land, from before us. We also will serve YHWH, for He is our God!”

¹⁹And Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve YHWH, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God. He will not lift your transgressions and your sins.

²⁰If you forsake YHWH and serve foreign gods, He will turn and do harm to you and consume you after that He has done good to you.”

²¹And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve YHWH!”

²²And Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves YHWH, to serve Him.” And they said, “Witnesses!”

²³“And now, put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to YHWH, God of Israel.”

²⁴And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve YHWH our God, and to His voice we will listen.”

²⁵And Joshua cut a covenant with the people that day, and he set for them a statute and an ordinance in 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 oak that was by the sanctuary of YHWH.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be to us a witness, for it has heard all the words of YHWH that He spoke to us. And it will be for a witness against you, lest you deny your God.”

²⁸And Joshua sent away the people, each man to his inheritance.

²⁹And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua son of Nun, the servant of YHWH, died, a son of a hundred and ten years.

³⁰And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.

³¹And Israel served YHWH all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who lengthened days after Joshua, and who had known all the works of YHWH that He had done for Israel.

³²And the bones of Joseph that the sons of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem in the plot of the ground that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred kesitah, and it was to the sons of Joseph for an inheritance.

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