Chapter 22

Tribes beyond Jordan Return

1 aThen Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,

2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, aand have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you.

3 “You have not forsaken your brothers these many days to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.

4 “And now athe Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as He spoke to them; therefore turn now and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan.

5 “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to alove the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him bwith all your heart and with all your soul.”

6 So Joshua ablessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

7 Now ato the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but bto the other half Joshua gave a possession among their brothers westward beyond the Jordan. So when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them,

8 and said to 1them, “Return to your tents with great riches and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and with very many clothes; adivide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

9 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home and departed from the sons of Israel at Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the aland of Gilead, to the land of their possession which they had possessed, according to the 1command of the Lord 2through Moses.

The Offensive Altar

10 When they came to the region of the Jordan which is in the land of Canaan, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a large altar in appearance.

11 And the sons of Israel heard it 1said, “Behold, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have abuilt an altar at the 2frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan, on the side belonging to the sons of Israel.”

12 When the sons of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel gathered themselves at aShiloh to go up against them in war.

13 Then the sons of Israel sent to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, aPhinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,

14 and with him ten chiefs, one chief for each father’s household from each of the tribes of Israel; and aeach one of them was the head of his father’s household among the 1thousands of Israel.

15 They came to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them saying,

16 “Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, ‘What is this unfaithful act which you have committed against the God of Israel, turning away from following the Lord this day, by abuilding yourselves an altar, to rebel against the Lord this day?

17 ‘Is not athe iniquity of Peor 1enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although a plague came on the congregation of the Lord,

18 that you must turn away this day from following the Lord? If you rebel against the Lord today, aHe will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow.

19 ‘If, however, the land of your possession is unclean, then 1cross into the land of the possession of the Lord, where the Lord’s tabernacle 2stands, and take possession among us. Only do not rebel against the Lord, or rebel against us by abuilding an altar for yourselves, besides the altar of the Lord our God.

20 ‘Did not aAchan the son of Zerah act unfaithfully in the things under the ban, and wrath fall on all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.’ ”

21 Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the 1families of Israel.

22 “The aMighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, God, the Lord! bHe knows, and may Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord do not save us this day!

23 “If we have built us an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if to aoffer a burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself require it.

24 “But truly we have done this out of concern, 1for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons may say to our 2sons, “What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel?

25 “For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; you have no portion in the Lord.” So your sons may make our sons stop fearing the Lord.’

26 “Therefore we said, ‘Let us 1build an altar, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice;

27 rather it shall be aa witness between us and you and between our generations after us, that we are to bperform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, so that your sons will not say to our sons in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.” ’

28 “Therefore we said, ‘It shall also come about if they say this to us or to our generations in time to come, then we shall say, “See the copy of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; rather it is a witness between us and you.” ’

29 “Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away from following the Lord this day, by abuilding an altar for burnt offering, for grain offering or for sacrifice, besides the altar of the Lord our God which is before His 1tabernacle.”

30 So when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation, even the heads of the 1families of Israel who were with him, heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them.

31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, “Today we know that the aLord is in our midst, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the Lord; now you have delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of the Lord.”

32 Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them.

33 The word pleased the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel ablessed God; and they did not speak of going up against them in war to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living.

34 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad acalled the altar Witness; “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

Chapter 23

Joshua’s Farewell Address

1 Now it came about after many days, when the Lord had given arest to Israel from all their enemies 1on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years,

2 that aJoshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, “I am old, advanced in years.

3 “And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for athe Lord your God is He who has been fighting for you.

4 “See, aI have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun.

5 “The Lord your God, He will thrust them out from before you and 1adrive them from before you; and byou will possess their land, just as the Lord your God 2promised you.

6 “aBe very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,

7 so that you will not 1associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or amention the name of their gods, or bmake anyone swear by them, or cserve them, or bow down to them.

8 “But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.

9 “aFor the Lord has 1driven out great and strong nations from before you; and as for you, bno man has stood before you to this day.

10 “aOne of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is bHe who fights for you, just as He 1promised you.

11 “So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God.

12 “For if you ever go back and acling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and bintermarry with them, so that you 1associate with them and they with you,

13 know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to 1drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a asnare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

14 “Now behold, today aI am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that bnot one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have 1been fulfilled for you, not 2one of them has failed.

15 “It shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so athe Lord will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

16 “aWhen you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you.”

Chapter 24

Joshua Reviews Israel’s History

1 Then aJoshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and their judges and their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

2 Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the 1River, namely, aTerah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

3 ‘Then aI took your father Abraham from beyond the 1River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and bmultiplied his 2descendants and gave him cIsaac.

4 ‘To Isaac I gave aJacob and Esau, and bto Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it; but cJacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

5 ‘Then aI sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt 1by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.

6 ‘I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and ayou came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the 1Red Sea.

7 ‘But 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 ayou lived in the wilderness for a long time.

8 ‘Then aI brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you.

9 ‘Then aBalak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.

10 ‘But I awas not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand.

11 ‘aYou crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and bthe Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Girgashite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Thus cI gave them into your hand.

12 ‘Then I asent the hornet before you and it 1drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before you, but bnot by your sword or your bow.

13 ‘aI 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, 1afear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and 2truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the 3River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

15 “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 River, or athe gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

16 The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods;

17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of 1bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.

18 “The 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.”

19 Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, afor He is a holy God. He is ba jealous God; cHe will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

20 “aIf you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

21 The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.”

22 Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that ayou have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”

23 “Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and aincline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

24 aThe people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and we will 1obey His voice.”

25 aSo Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

26 And Joshua awrote 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.

27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, athis stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke 1to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.”

28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

29 It came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old.

30 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in aTimnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

31 aIsrael served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who 1survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

32 Now athey buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground bwhich Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred 1pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons.

33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him 1at Gibeah of aPhinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

The Book of

JUDGES

Chapter 1

Jerusalem Is Captured

1 Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel ainquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us bagainst the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

2 The Lord said, “aJudah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”

3 Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into 1the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and 2I in turn will go with you into 3the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him.

4 Judah went up, and athe Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they 1defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.

5 They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they 1defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his 1thumbs and big toes.

7 Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; aas I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.

8 Then the sons of Judah fought against aJerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.

9 Afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the 1Negev and in the lowland.

10 aSo Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

Capture of Other Cities

11 Then afrom there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher).

12 And Caleb said, “The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.”

13 aOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife.

14 Then ait came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from 1her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What 2do you want?”

15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the 1Negev, give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

16 The 1descendants of athe Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the bcity of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of cArad; and they went and lived with the people.

17 Then Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called aHormah.

18 And Judah took aGaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory.

19 Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not 1drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had airon chariots.

20 Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, aas Moses had 1promised; and he drove out from there bthe three sons of Anak.

21 aBut the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the bJebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

22 Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them.

23 The house of Joseph spied out Bethel (anow the name of the city was formerly Luz).

24 The spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city and awe will treat you kindly.”

25 So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, abut they let the man and all his family go free.

26 The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz 1which is its name to this day.

Places Not Conquered

27 aBut Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; so bthe Canaanites persisted in living in that land.

28 It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

29 aEphraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor.

31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, or of Helbah, or of Aphik, or of Rehob.

32 So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

34 Then the Amorites 1forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley;

35 yet the Amorites persisted in 1living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; but when the 2power of the house of Joseph 3grew strong, they became forced labor.

36 The border of the Amorites ran from the aascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.