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Joshua 24
1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders of
Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers; and they presented themselves before
God.
2 And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel: Your fathers
(Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor) dwelt on the other side of the River in
ancient times; and they served other gods.
3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, led him throughout all
the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.
4 To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, but
Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I have done
among them. Afterward I have brought you out.
6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians
pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
7 And they cried out unto Jehovah; and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians,
brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And your eyes saw what I have done in
Egypt. And you dwelt in the wilderness many days.
8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the
Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess
their land, and I destroyed them before you.
9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and sent
and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.
10 But I was not willing to heed Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. And I
delivered you out of his hand.
11 And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the lords of Jericho fought
against you; also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand.
12 I sent the hornet before you which drove them out before you, even the two kings
of the Amorites; not with your sword or with your bow.
13 I have given you a land for which you have not labored, and cities which you have not
built, and you dwell in them; you are eating of the vineyards and olive groves which you
have not planted.
14 Now therefore, fear Jehovah, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the
gods which your fathers have served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve
Jehovah!
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods which your fathers have served that were on the other side of
the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my
house, we will serve Jehovah.
16 And the people answered and said: Far be it from us to forsake Jehovah to serve other
gods;
17 for Jehovah our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage, who has done those great signs before our eyes, and preserved
us in all the way that we have gone and among all the people through whom we have
passed.
18 And Jehovah drove out before us all the people, including the Amorites who were
living in the land. We also will serve Jehovah, for He is our God.
19 And Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve Jehovah, for He is a holy God. He is
a jealous Mighty God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20 If you forsake Jehovah and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do evil and
consume you, after He has done you good.
21 And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve Jehovah!
22 And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have
chosen Jehovah for yourselves, to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses.
23 Now therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline
your heart unto Jehovah the God of Israel.
24 And the people said to Joshua, Jehovah our God we will serve, and His voice we will
obey!
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and established for them a statute
and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 And 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 Jehovah.
27 And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has
heard all the words of Jehovah which He has spoken to us. It shall therefore be a witness to
you, lest you deny your God.
28 So Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance.
29 And it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of
Jehovah, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
30 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, in the
mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
31 And Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose
days were prolonged after Joshua, who had known all the works of Jehovah which He had
done for Israel.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt,
they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of
Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an
inheritance of the sons of Joseph.
33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas
his son, which had been given to him in the mountains of Ephraim.
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