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¹ Yehoshua gathered all the tribes of Yisra'el to Shekhem, and called for the Zakenim of Yisra'el, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. ² Yehoshua said to all the people, Thus says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terach, the father of Avraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. ³ I took your father Avraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Kana`an, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Yitzchak. <sup>4</sup> I gave to Yitzchak Ya`akov and Esav: and I gave to Esav Mount Se`ir, to possess it: and Ya`akov and his children went down into Mitzrayim. ⁵ I sent Moshe and Aharon, and I plagued Mitzrayim, according to that which I did in the midst of it: and afterward I brought you out. ⁶ I brought your fathers out of Mitzrayim: and you came to the sea; and the Mitzrim pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Sea of Suf. ⁷ When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Mitzrim, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Mitzrayim: and you lived in the wilderness many days. ⁸ I brought you into the land of the Amori, that lived beyond the Yarden: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you. ⁹ Then Balak the son of Tzippor, king of Mo'av, arose and fought against Yisra'el: and he sent and called Bil`am the son of Be'or to curse you; <sup>10</sup> but I would not listen to Bil`am; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. ¹¹ You went over the Yarden, and came to Yericho: and the men of Yericho fought against you, the Amori, and the Perizzi, and the Kana`ani, and the Hittite, and the Girgashi, the Hivvi, and the Yevusi; and I delivered them into your hand. ¹² I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amori; not with your sword, nor with your bow. ¹³ I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn't build, and you dwell therein; of vineyards and olive groves which you didn't plant do you eat. ¹⁴ Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Mitzrayim; and serve you the LORD.

¹⁵ If it seem evil to you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amori, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. ¹⁶ The people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; ¹⁷ for the LORD our God, he it is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Mitzrayim, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed; ¹⁸ and the LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amori who lived in the land: therefore we also will serve the LORD; for he is our God. ¹⁹ Yehoshua said to the people, You can't serve the LORD; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the LORD, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after that he has done you good. ²¹ The people said to Yehoshua, No; but we will serve the LORD. ²² Yehoshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. They said, We are witnesses. ²³ Now therefore put away, [said he], the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Yisra'el. ²⁴ The people said to Yehoshua, the LORD our God will we serve, and to his voice will we listen. ²⁵ So Yehoshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shekhem. ²⁶ Yehoshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. ²⁷ Yehoshua 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 deny your God. ²⁸ So Yehoshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

²⁹ It happened after these things, that Yehoshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old. ³⁰ They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnat-Serach, which is in the hill-country of Efrayim, on the north of the mountain of Ga`ash. <sup>31</sup> Yisra'el served the LORD all the days of Yehoshua, and all the days of the Zakenim who outlived Yehoshua, and had known all the work of the LORD, that he had worked for Yisra'el. <sup>32</sup> The bones of Yosef, which the children of Yisra'el brought up out of Mitzrayim, buried they in Shekhem, in the parcel of ground which Ya`akov bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shekhem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the children of Yosef. ³³ El`azar the son of Aharon died; and they buried him in the hill of Pinechas his son, which was given him in the hill-country of Efrayim.