the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Joshua 24
1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.2 And Joshua said to all the people, This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.3 And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.4 And I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau mount Seir, to possess it: and Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt.5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in the midst thereof: and afterward I brought you out.6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea.7 And when they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you dwelt in the wilderness many days.8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that dwelt beyond the Jordan: 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 Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel: and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;10 but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.11 And you went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand.12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.13 And I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell therein; of vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant, you are eating.14 Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve Yahweh.
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, 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 Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.16 And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods;17 for Yahweh our God, it is he that brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and that did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed;18 and Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites that dwelt in the land: therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.19 And Joshua said to the people, You can't serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins.20 If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do evil to you, and consume you, after he has done you good.21 And the people said to Joshua, No; but we will serve Yahweh.22 And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves Yahweh, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.23 Now therefore put away, [he said], the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.24 And the people said to Joshua, Yahweh our God we will serve, and to his voice we will listen.25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.26 And Joshua 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 Yahweh.27 And Joshua said to all the people, Look, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of Yahweh which he spoke to us: it shall therefore be a witness against you, in case you deny your God.28 So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.
29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the slave of Yahweh, died, being a hundred and ten years old.30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.31 And Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Yahweh, that he had wrought for Israel.32 And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the sons of Joseph.33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the hill-country of Ephraim.
Updated Bible Version
Scripture quotations are from the UPDV® Updated Bible Version 1.9, Copyright © 2003-4 by Updated Publishers. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.