Study Desk

For the Lord has put the Jordan between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the Lord.' Then your children might make our children stop worshiping the Lord.

So we said, ‘Let us build an altar. It will not be for burnt gifts or killing animals in worship.

We thought that if they say this to us or our children in the future we can say, ‘See the altar we have made like the altar of the Lord which our fathers made. It is not for burnt gifts or killing animals in worship. But it is something special to see between us and you.'

Never let it be said that we went against the Lord and turned away from following the Lord this day by building an altar. It is not for burnt gifts or grain gifts or killing animals in worship. It is not to be used instead of the altar of the Lord our God before His meeting tent."

And you have seen all the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. The Lord your God is the One Who has fought for you.

See, I have given to you as land for your families those nations that are left, with all the nations I have destroyed. They lie from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.

Do not mix with these nations that stay among you. Do not say the names of their gods or make anyone swear by them. Do not work for them or worship them.

For the Lord has driven away large and strong nations from in front of you. No man has been able to stand in front of you to this day.

One of your men makes a thousand run away. For the Lord your God is the One Who fights for you, just as He promised you.

For if you ever turn away and join the people of these nations left among you and marry some of their people and go among them,

know for sure that the Lord your God will stop driving these nations away from you. And they will be a net and a trap to you. They will be a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you are destroyed from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

"See, today I am going the way of all the earth. Know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God made to you has been broken. All have come true for you. Not one of them has been broken.

Then Joshua gathered all the families of Israel to Shechem. He called for the leaders of Israel, the heads of the families and those who judged between what is right or wrong. And they showed themselves before God.

To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Mount Seir to Esau for his own. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea upon them and covered them. Your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the desert for a long time.

I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived on the east side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them to you. You took their land for your own when I destroyed them in front of you.

'Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, came and fought against Israel. He sent for Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.

But I would not listen to Balaam. So he had to pray for good to come to you. And I saved you from his hand.

I gave you a land you did not work for. You live in cities you did not build. You are eating from vines and olive trees you did not plant.'

If you think it is wrong to serve the Lord, choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods your fathers worshiped on the other side of the river, or choose the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."