Joshua 24

1Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He called for Israel’s elders, heads, judges, and officers, and they took their stand before God.

2Joshua said to all the people, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘Your ancestors lived beyond the River in ancient times—Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor—and they served other gods.

3Then I took your father Abraham from the far side of the River and guided him through the whole land of Canaan. I multiplied his descendants, and I gave him Isaac.

4To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the hill country of Seir as his own, while Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt.

5Later I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with plagues through the things I did among them. After that I brought you out.

6When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and you reached the sea, the Egyptians chased your ancestors with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.

7They cried out to Yahweh, and he set darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea down on them and covered them over. You saw with your own eyes what I did in Egypt. Then you stayed in the wilderness many days.

8I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. When they fought you, I gave them into your power; you took their land as your own, and I wiped them out ahead of you.

9Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose and went to war against Israel. He sent word and summoned Balaam son of Beor to curse you,

10but I refused to listen to Balaam. So he blessed you repeatedly, and I saved you from his power.

11Then you crossed the Jordan and reached Jericho, and the lords of Jericho made war on you—the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites—but I gave them into your power.

12I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove them out before you—the two kings of the Amorites. It was not done with your sword or your bow.

13I gave you land you had not worked for and towns you had not built, and now you live in them; you eat from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’

14So now fear Yahweh, and serve him with integrity and faithfulness. Get rid of the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.

15If it seems wrong in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: the gods your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my household will serve Yahweh.”

16The people replied, “We would never abandon Yahweh to serve other gods!

17For it was Yahweh our God who brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who performed these great signs in our sight. He kept us safe on the whole road we traveled and among all the peoples we passed through.

18Yahweh drove all the peoples out ahead of us, even the Amorites who lived in the land. So we too will serve Yahweh, because he is our God.”

19Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God, and he will not pardon your rebellion or your sins.

20If you leave Yahweh and serve foreign gods, he will turn around and harm you and destroy you, even after he has treated you well.”

21The people answered Joshua, “No! It is Yahweh we will serve.”

22Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen Yahweh as the one you will serve.” “We are witnesses,” they said.

23“Then get rid of the foreign gods among you, and bend your hearts toward Yahweh, the God of Israel.”

24The people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice.”

25That day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and he established a statute and an ordinance for them at Shechem.

26Joshua recorded these words in the book of the law of God. Then he took a large stone and stood it up there under the oak by the sanctuary of Yahweh.

27Joshua told all the people, “See this stone? It will serve as a witness against us, because it has heard every word Yahweh spoke to us. It will stand as a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.”

28Then Joshua sent the people off, each one to his inheritance.

29After these events Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died; he was 110 years old.

30They buried him in the territory he had inherited, at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

31Israel served Yahweh during all of Joshua’s days and all the days of the elders who lived on after Joshua and who knew every work Yahweh had done for Israel.

32The Israelites had brought Joseph’s bones up from Egypt, and they buried them at Shechem in the plot of ground Jacob had purchased for a hundred kesitahs from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father. It became an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants.

33Then Eleazar son of Aaron died. They buried him on the hill that belonged to his son Phinehas, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.