Joshua 24

REVIEW OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY

24Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem^e and summoned Israel’s elders, leaders, judges, and officers, and they presented themselves before God.^{f 2}Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah,^g the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. ³But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants.^h I gave him Isaac,^{i 4}and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.^j I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau as a possession.^k

“ ‘Jacob and his sons, however, went down to Egypt.^{l 5}I sent Moses and Aaron,^m and I defeated Egypt by what I did within it, and afterward I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea,ⁿ the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen as far as the sea. ⁷Your ancestors cried out to the Lord, so he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea over them, engulfing them. Your own eyes saw what I did to Egypt. After that, you lived in the wilderness a long time.

⁸“ ‘Later, I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan.^o They fought against you, but I handed them over to you. You possessed their land, and I annihilated them before you. ⁹Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab,^p set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you, ¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam. Instead, he repeatedly blessed you, and I rescued you from him.

¹¹“ ‘You then crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho.^q Jericho’s citizens—as well as the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hethites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites—fought against you, but I handed them over to you. ¹²I sent hornets^Cr ahead of you, and they drove out the two Amorite kings^s before you. It was not by your sword or bow. ¹³I gave you a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build,^t though you live in them; you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’

THE COVENANT RENEWAL

¹⁴“Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth.^u Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped^v beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. ¹⁵But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living?^w As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”

¹⁶The people replied, “We will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods! ¹⁷For the Lord our God brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery,^x and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us all along the way we went and among all the peoples whose lands we traveled through. ¹⁸The Lord drove out before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will worship the Lord, because he is our God.”

¹⁹But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God;^y he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.^{z 20}If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy^aa you, after he has been good to you.”

²¹“No!” the people answered Joshua. “We will worship the Lord.”

²²Joshua then told the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen to worship the Lord.”

“We are witnesses,” they said.

²³“Then get rid of the foreign gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

²⁴So the people said to Joshua, “We will worship the Lord our God and obey him.”

²⁵On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people at Shechem and established a statute and ordinance for them. ²⁶Joshua recorded these things in the book of the law of God;^a he also took a large stone and set it up there under the oak at the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone—it will be a witness against us,^b for it has heard all the words the Lord said to us, and it will be a witness against you, so that you will not deny your God.” ²⁸Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.

BURIAL OF THREE LEADERS

²⁹After these things, the Lord’s servant, Joshua son of Nun, died at the age of 110. ³⁰They buried him in his allotted territory at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim^c north of Mount Gaash. ³¹Israel worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua^d and who had experienced all the works the Lord had done for Israel.

³²Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,^e were buried at Shechem in the parcel of land Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.^Af It was an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants.

³³And Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah,^B which had been given to his son Phinehas^g in the hill country of Ephraim.