Joshua 24

Joshua Reviews Israel’s History

1Then 1Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates River, namely, 2Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. 3Then 3I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and 4multiplied his 5descendants and gave him 6Isaac. 4To Isaac I gave 7Jacob and Esau, and 8to Esau I gave Mount Seir, to possess it; but 9Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5Then 10I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt 11by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out. 6So I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and 12you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the 13Red Sea. 7But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And 14you lived in the wilderness for a long time. 8Then 15I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; but I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land when I eliminated them before you. 9Then 16Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel, and he sent messengers and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. 10But I 17was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I saved you from his hand. 1118You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and 19the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Therefore 20I handed them over to you. 12Then I 21sent the hornet before you and it 22drove out the two kings of the Amorites from you--23not by your sword nor your bow. 13And 24I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’

“We Will Serve the Lord”

14“Now, therefore, 2526fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and 27truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or 28the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

16The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we would abandon the Lord to serve other gods; 17for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and did these great signs in our sight and watched over us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. 18The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

19Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, 29for He is a holy God. He is 30a jealous God; 31He will not forgive your wrongdoing or your sins. 2032If you abandon the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and destroy you after He has done good to you.” 21And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” 22So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that 33you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23“Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and 34incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24And 35the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and 36obey His voice.” 2537So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26And Joshua 38wrote 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 the Lord. 27Then Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, 39this stone shall be a witness against us, because it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke 40to us; so it shall be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.” 28Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

29Now it came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. 30And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in 41Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

3142Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who 43survived Joshua, and had known every deed of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

32Now 44they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the plot of land 45which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred 46pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons. 33And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of his son 47Phinehas, which was given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.