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Joshua Reviews Israel's History

¹ Then ^(C1)Joshua 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 ^(F1)River, namely, ^(C1)Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.³ 'Then ^(C1)I took your father Abraham from beyond the ^(F1)River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and ^(C2)multiplied his ^(F2)descendants and gave him ^(C3)Isaac.⁴ 'To Isaac I gave ^(C1)Jacob and Esau, and ^(C2)to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it; but ^(C3)Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.⁵ 'Then ^(C1)I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt ^(F1)by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.⁶ 'I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and ^(C1)you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the ^(F1)Red 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 ^(C1)you lived in the wilderness for a long time.⁸ 'Then ^(C1)I 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 ^(C1)Balak 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 ^(C1)was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand.¹¹ '^(C1)You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and ^(C2)the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Girgashite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Thus ^(C3)I gave them into your hand.¹² 'Then I ^(C1)sent the hornet before you and it ^(F1)drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before you, but ^(C2)not by your sword or your bow.¹³ '^(C1)I 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, ^(F1)(C1)fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and ^(F2)truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the ^(F3)River 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 ^(C1)the 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 ^(F1)bondage, 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, ^(C1)for He is a holy God. He is ^(C2)a jealous God; ^(C3)He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.²⁰ "^(C1)If 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 ^(C1)you 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 ^(C1)incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."^24 (C1)The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and we will ^(F1)obey His voice."^25 (C1)So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.²⁶ And Joshua ^(C1)wrote 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, ^(C1)this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke ^(F1)to 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 ^(C1)Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

^31 (C1)Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who ^(F1)survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

³² Now ^(C1)they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground ^(C2)which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred ^(F1)pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph's sons.³³ And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him ^(F1)at Gibeah of ^(C1)Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.