The Book of Joshua, chapters 23 & 24
23 A long time had passed since the LORD had given Israel security
from all the enemies who surrounded them, and Joshua was now a
very old man. He summoned all Israel, their elders and heads of families,
Their judges and officers, and said to them, 'I have become a very old man.
You have seen for yourselves all that the LORD our God has done to these
people for your sake; it was the LORD God himself who fought for you.
I have allotted you your patrimony tribe by tribe, the land of all the peoples
that I have wiped out and of all these that remain between the Jordan and
the Great Sea which lies towards the setting sun. The LORD your God him-
self drove them out for your sake; he drove them out to make room for
you, and you occupied their land, as the LORD your God had promised
you. Be resolute therefore: observe and perform everything written in the
book of the law of Moses, without swerving to right or to left. You must
not associate with the peoples that are left among you; you must not call
upon their gods by name, nor swear by them nor prostrate yourselves in
worship before them. You must hold fast to the LORD your God as you
have done down to this day. For your sake the LORD has driven out great
and mighty nations; to this day not a man of them has withstood you. One
of you can put to flight a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for
you, as he promised. Be on your guard then, love the LORD your God, for
if you do turn away and attach yourself to the peoples that still remain
among you, and intermarry with them and associate with them and they
with you, then be sure that the LORD will not continue to drive those
peoples out to make room for you. They will be snares to entrap you,
whips for your backs and barbed hooks in your eyes, until you vanish from
the good land which the LORD your God has given you. And now I am going
the way of all mankind. You know in your heart of hearts that nothing
that the LORD your God has promised you has failed to come true, every
word of it. But the same LORD God who has kept his word to you to such
good effect can equally bring every kind of evil on you, until he has rooted
you out from this good land which he has given you. If you break the cove-
nant which the LORD your God has prescribed and prostrate yourselves in
worship before other gods, then the LORD will be angry with you and you
will quickly vanish from the good land he has given you.'
24 Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the
elders of Israel, the heads of families, the judges and officers; and they
presented themselves before God. Joshua then said this to all the people:
'This is the word of the LORD the God of Israel: "Long ago your fore-
fathers, Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor, lived beside the Euphra-
tes, and they worshipped other gods. I took your father Abraham from
beside the Euphrates and led him through the length and breadth of Canaan.
I gave him many descendants: I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob
and Esau. I put Esau in possession of the hill-country of Seir, but Jacob
and his sons went down to Egypt. I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck
the Egyptians with plagues — you know well what I did among them — and
after that I brought you out; I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you
came to the Red Sea. The Egyptians sent their chariots and cavalry to
pursue your fathers to the sea. But when they appealed to the LORD, he
put a screen of darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the
sea down on them and it covered them; you saw for yourselves what I did
to Egypt. For a long time you lived in the wilderness. Then I brought you
into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan; they fought
against you, but I delivered them into your hands; you took possession of
their country and I destroyed them for your sake. The king of Moab, Balak
son of Zippor, took the field against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor
to lay a curse on you, but I would not listen to him. Instead of that he
blessed you; and so I saved you from the power of Balak. Then he crossed
the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you,
but I delivered them into your hands. I spread panic before you, and it was
this, not your sword or your bow, that drove out the two kings of the
Amorites. I gave you land on which you had not laboured, cities which you
had never built; you have lived in those cities and you eat the produce of
vineyards and olive-groves which you did not plant."
'Hold the LORD in awe then, and worship him in loyalty and truth.
Banish the gods whom your fathers worshipped beside the Euphrates and
in Egypt, and worship the LORD. But if it does not please you to worship
the LORD, choose here and now whom you will worship: the gods whom
your forefathers worshipped beside the Euphrates, or the gods of the
Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family, we will
worship the LORD." The people answered, 'God forbid that we should for-
sake the LORD to worship other gods, for it was the LORD our God who
brought us and our fathers up from Egypt, that land of slavery; it was he
who displayed those great signs before our eyes and guarded us on all our
wanderings among the many peoples through whose lands we passed. The
LORD drove out before us the Amorites and all the peoples who lived in
that country. We too will worship the LORD; he is our God.' Joshua
answered the people, 'You cannot worship the LORD. He is a holy god, a
jealous god, and he will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you
forsake the LORD and worship foreign Gods, he will turn and bring adver-
sity upon you and, although he once brought you prosperity, he will make
an end of you.' The people said to Joshua, 'No; we will worship the LORD.'
He said to them, 'You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen
the LORD and will worship him.' 'Yes,' they answered,'we are witnesses.'
He said to them, 'Then here and now banish the foreign gods that are
among you, and turn your hearts to the LORD the God of Israel.' The
people said to Joshua, 'The LORD our God we will worship and his voice
we will obey.' So Joshua made a covenant that day with the people; he
drew up a statute and an ordinance for them in Shechem and wrote its terms
in the book of the law of God. He took a great stone and set it up there under
the terebinth in the sanctuary of the LORD, and he said to all the people, 'This
stone is a witness against us; for it has heard all the words which the LORD
has spoken to us. If you renounce your God, it shall be a witness against
you.' Then Joshua dismissed the people, each man to his patrimony.
After these things, Joshua son of Nun the servant of the LORD died; he
was a hundred and ten years old. They buried him within the border of his
own patrimony in Timnath-serah in the hill-country of Ephraim to the
north of Mount Gaash. Israel served the LORD during the lifetime of
Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who well knew all that the
LORD had done for Israel.
The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,
were buried in Shechem, in the plot of land which Jacob had bought from
the sons of Hamor father of Shechem for a hundred sheep; and they passed
into the patrimony of the house of Joseph. Eleazar son of Aaron died and
was buried in the hill which had been given to Phinehas his son in the hill-
country of Ephraim.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Jun 26, 2018, 1:35 PM UTC
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