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¹ AND Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their scribes; and they presented themselves before God in front of the tabernacle of the congregation.² And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river Euphrates in olden times, even Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nachor; and they served there other gods.³ And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river Euphrates, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his offspring, and I gave him Isaac,⁴ And I gave to Isaac, Jacob and Esau; and I gave to Esau mount Seir for a possession; but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.⁵ I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, and performed wonders among them; and afterward I brought you out.⁶ And I brought your fathers out of Egypt; and I brought them to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.⁷ And when your fathers cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and then the LORD divided the Red Sea, and brought your fathers through the midst thereof; then he brought the sea upon the Egyptians, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I did to the Egyptians; and I brought you to the wilderness, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long time.⁸ And I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan; and they fought with you; and I delivered them into your bands, and I destroyed them from before you and you possessed their land.⁹ Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moabites, arose and fought against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;¹⁰ But I would not hearken to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still; so I delivered you from his hands.¹¹ And you crossed the Jordan, and came to Jericho; and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hittites, the Girgasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hands.¹² And I sent raiders before you, and I destroyed from before you the two kings of the Amorites; but not with your swords, nor with your bows.¹³ And I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; and behold, you eat of vineyards and olive yards which you did not plant.¹⁴ Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away out of your heart the strange gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river Euphrates, and in Egypt; and serve the LORD.

¹⁵ And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.¹⁶ And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods;¹⁷ For it is the LORD our God who has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who performed those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed;¹⁸ And the LORD destroyed from before us all these peoples, the Amorites in whose land we dwell; the LORD destroyed them from before us; therefore we will serve the LORD; for he is the only God, and he is our God.¹⁹ And Joshua said to the people, Behold, but it may be you cannot serve the LORD faithfully; for he is a holy God and a zealous God; he may not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.²⁰ If you forsake the LORD and serve strange gods of the land, then the LORD will turn and do you harm, and consume you after having been good to you.²¹ And the people said to Joshua, Nay, we will not serve any other, but we will serve the LORD God.²² And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.²³ Then Joshua said to them, Now therefore put away the strange gods which are among you, and incline your hearts to the LORD God of Israel.²⁴ And the people said to Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.²⁵ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and taught them the commandments and the ordinances in Shechem.²⁶ And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people. Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke to us; it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deal treacherously with the LORD your God.²⁸ And after Joshua had charged the people, he sent them away, every man to his inheritance.

²⁹ And it came to pass after these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being a hundred and ten years old.³⁰ And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is on mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaash.³¹ And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and who had known all the works of the LORD that he had done for Israel.³² And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried in Shechem in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred ewes; and it became the inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.³³ And Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron the priest, died; and they buried him at Gibaatha that belongs to Phinehas his son, which was given him on mount Ephraim.