﻿Joshua.
Chapter 24.
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He called the elders of Israel, its heads, judges, and officers, and they presented themselves before God. 
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors lived beyond the River—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and they served other gods. 
I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan. I multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 
To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 
I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with what I did in its midst. Afterward I brought you out. 
I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 
They cried out to the LORD, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea over them and covered them. Your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness for many days. 
I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land, and I destroyed them before you. 
Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose and fought against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you. 
But I would not listen to Balaam, and he kept blessing you. So I delivered you from his hand. 
You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The inhabitants of Jericho fought against you, along with the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hand. 
I sent hornets ahead of you, and they drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites—not by your sword or by your bow. 
I gave you a land you had not worked for and cities you had not built, and you live in them. You eat from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’ 
Now fear the LORD and serve him in integrity and truth. Put away the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 
If it seems wrong to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve: the gods your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” 
The people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 
For the LORD our God is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. He did these great signs before our eyes and kept us all along the way we traveled and among all the peoples through whom we passed. 
The LORD drove out all the peoples before us, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” 
Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions and your sins. 
If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and harm you and consume you after he has done you good.” 
The people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the LORD.” 
Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD for yourselves, to serve him.” They said, “We are witnesses.” 
“Now put away the foreign gods among you and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.” 
The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey his voice.” 
Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and established a statute and an ordinance for them at Shechem. 
Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. He took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the LORD. 
Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD spoke to us. It will be a witness against you, lest you deny your God.” 
Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance. 
After these things Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred ten. 
They buried him within the territory of his inheritance at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 
Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and knew all the work the LORD had done for Israel. 
The bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried at Shechem in the plot of land Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred qesitahs. They became an inheritance for the descendants of Joseph. 
Eleazar son of Aaron also died, and they buried him on the hill belonging to Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim. 
