Joshua 24

1Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoned Israel's elders and their chiefs, judges, and officers, and they stationed themselves before God.

2Joshua said to all the people, "Yahweh God of Israel says: Your fathers lived beyond the River long ago, Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods."

3I took your father Abraham from across the river, led him through all the land of Canaan, greatly multiplied his offspring, and gave Isaac to him.

4To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it; Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

5I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt as I did in its midst; afterward I brought you out.

6I 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.

7They cried out to Yahweh, and he placed darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them; your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness many days.

8I brought you to the land of the Amorites who dwelt beyond the Jordan, and they fought against you; I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before you.

9Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel, and sent to summon Balaam son of Beor to curse you.

10But I refused to heed Balaam, so he blessed you abundantly, and I rescued you from his hand.

11You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the inhabitants of Jericho—the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites—fought against you, and I gave them into your hand.

12I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out from before you—the two kings of the Amorites—not with your sword, nor with your bow.

13I gave you a land you did not toil in, and cities you did not build, and you dwell in them; from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant, you eat.

14Now revere Yahweh and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully, and remove the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt; serve Yahweh.

15But if it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.

16The people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake Yahweh to serve other gods.”

17For Yahweh our God—he brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes, and guarded us along every path we walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.

18Yahweh drove out from before us all the nations and the Amorites dwelling in the land, so we too will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.

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

20If you forsake Yahweh and serve foreign gods, he will turn and harm you and destroy you, after he has treated you well.

21The people said to Joshua, "No, we will serve Yahweh."

22Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh for yourselves to serve him." They said, "We are witnesses."

23Now then, remove the foreign gods from among you, and turn your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

24The people answered Joshua, "We will serve Yahweh our God and obey his voice."

25That day Joshua made a covenant with the people and set a statute and an ordinance for them in Shechem.

26Joshua wrote these words in the book of God's law, took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak by Yahweh's sanctuary.

27Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone will stand as a witness against us, for it has heard every word Yahweh spoke to us; it will therefore testify against you, lest you deny your God."

28Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

29After these matters, Joshua son of Nun, servant of Yahweh, died at a hundred and ten years old.

30They buried him in the boundary of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of Gaash Hill.

31Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who prolonged their days after Joshua and who knew all the work of Yahweh that he had done for Israel.

32They buried Joseph's bones, which the children of Israel brought up from Egypt, in Shechem, in the portion of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces; and it became an inheritance for the children of Joseph.

33Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him on the hill of his son Phinehas, which was given to him in Mount Ephraim.