Joshua 24:1-33
24 And Joshuaʽ brought together all the tribes of Israel at Shekem and summoned the elders of Israel and its chiefs and judges and marshals, and they took their stand before God.
2 And Joshuaʽ said to all the people “Says Israel’s God Jehovah, Of old your forefathers lived on the other side of the River, Terah the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and worshiped other gods.
3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River and had him go throughout Canaan, and I made him prolific and gave him Isaac
4 and gave Isaac Jacob and ʽEsau, and gave ʽEsau the highland of Seʽir to take possession of, while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5 And I sent Moses and Aaron and smote the Egyptians with what I did among them,
6 ** and afterward I brought you out of Egypt; and you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and cavalry at the Red Sea,
7 and they cried out to Jehovah, and he placed a mass of darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea on them, and it covered them, and your eyes saw what I had done to the Egyptians; and you lived in the wilderness a long time.
8 And I brought you to the country of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan; and they made war with you, and I gave them into your hands, and you took possession of their country, and I rooted them out before you.
9 And the king of Moab, Balak the son of Sippor, stood up and made war on Israel, and called in Balaam the son of Beʽor to misspeak you;
10 but I was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he positively blessed you, and I delivered you out of his hands.
11 * And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the burghers of Jericho made war on you, and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivvites and the Jebusites, and I gave them into your hands.
12 * And I sent before you hornets which expelled them before you, the twelve kings of the Amorites, not by your sword or bow.
13 And I gave you a country you had not labored on, and cities you had not built, and you settled in them; it is vineyards and olive-trees which you did not plant that you are eating from.
14 Now fear Jehovah and worship him wholeheartedly and loyally, and clear away the gods your forefathers worshiped on the other side of the River and in Egypt, and worship Jehovah.
15 And if you do not like to worship Jehovah, make your choice today whom you will worship, whether the gods your forefathers on the other side of the River worshiped or the gods of the Amorites whose country you are living in; but I and my family will worship Jehovah.”
16 And the people answered “Away with the thought of our leaving Jehovah to worship other gods,
17 for it was our God Jehovah that brought us up out of Egypt and guarded us through all the distance we went and all the peoples we passed among,
18 * and expelled before us the Amorites that lived in the country; we too will worship Jehovah, because he is our God.”
19 And Joshuaʽ said to the people “You will not be able to worship Jehovah, because he is a holy God; he is a jealous deity who will not pardon your crimes and sins;
20 for you will leave Jehovah and worship foreign gods, and he will turn back and do you harm and exterminate you after he had done you good.”
21 And the people said to Joshuaʽ “No, we will worship Jehovah.”
22 * And Joshuaʽ said to the people “You are witnesses to your bargain, that you have made your choice of Jehovah, to worship him.
23 Now clear away the foreign gods you have among you and bend your hearts to Israel’s God Jehovah.”
24 And the people said to Joshuaʽ “We will worship our God Jehovah and obey him.”
25 And Joshuaʽ made an agreement with the people that day, and established a usage and law for them at Shekem.
26 And Joshuaʽ wrote these terms in the book of the code of Moses, and took a great stone and set it up there under the oak at Jehovah’s sanctuary;
27 * and Joshuaʽ said to all the people “There, we will have this stone for a witness to our bargain, because it had heard all Jehovah’s words that he spoke with us and will be a witness to your bargain so that you may not cheat your God Jehovah.”
28 And Joshuaʽ sent the people away to their estates.
29 And after this Jehovah’s servant Joshuaʽ the son of Nun died at the age of a hundred and ten years,
30 and they buried him within the bounds of his estate at Timnath-Heres in the highland of Ephraim, north of Gaʽash Mountain.
31 And Israel worshiped Jehovah throughout Joshuaʽ’s time and throughout the time of the elders who survived after Joshuaʽ who had known all Jehovah’s work which he had done for Israel.
32 And Joseph’s bones, which the sons of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shekem in the lot of land that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shekem for a hundred kesitahs and that had become Joseph’s estate.
33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him on his son Pinehas’s hill which had been given to him in the highland of Ephraim.
Footnotes
^ 24:6 Var. I brought you out, and I brought your fathers out of Egypt
^ 24:6 Conj. pursued you
^ 24:11 Codd. on you, the Amorites
^ 24:12 Var. the two kings
^ 24:18 Codd. before us all the peoples and the Amorites Var. before us the Amorites and all the peoples
^ 24:22 Var. to worship him”; and the people said “We are.” “Now
^ 24:27 Or under the terebinth
