Study Desk

For the Lord our God is the One Who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house where we were made to work. He did these powerful works in front of our eyes. He kept us safe everywhere we went, among all the nations we passed through.

The Lord drove away from in front of us all the nations, even the Amorites who lived in the land. So we will serve the Lord. For He is our God."

Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the Lord. For He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your wrong-doing or your sins.

The people said to Joshua, "Not so, for we will serve the Lord."

Then Joshua said to the people, "You have spoken for yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord." And they said, "We have spoken for ourselves."

So Joshua made an agreement with the people that day. And he made Laws for them in Shechem.

Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone will be here to speak against us. For it has heard all the words the Lord spoke to us. So it will be here to speak against you, if you do not stay true to your God."

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and of the leaders who lived after him who had known all the works the Lord had done for Israel.

The people of Israel brought the bones of Joseph from Egypt. They buried them in Shechem, in the piece of ground Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for 100 pieces of money. It became the land of Joseph's children.

After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel asked the Lord, "Who will be first to go up and fight against the Canaanites for us?"

Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off had to gather their food under my table. Now God has paid me for what I have done." So they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died.

Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took the city. So Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife.

When she came to Othniel, she talked him into asking her father for a field. As she came down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, "What do you want?"

The Lord was with Judah. They took the hill country for their own. They could not drive out the people living in the valley, because they had iron war-wagons.

But the men of Manasseh did not take for their own Bethshean and its towns or Taanach and its towns. They did not drive out the people of Dor and its towns, or of Ibleam and its towns, or of Megiddo and its towns. So the Canaanites stayed in that land.

When Israel became strong, they made the Canaanites work for them. But they did not drive all of them out.

So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the people of the land. For they did not drive them out.

Naphtali did not drive out the people of Beth-shemesh or the people of Beth-anath. But they lived among the Canaanites, the people of the land. The people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were made to work for them.

The Amorites would not leave Mount Heres, Aijalon or Shaalbim. But when the family of Joseph became strong, they made the Amorites work for them.

The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the leaders who lived longer than Joshua and who had seen all the great works the Lord had done for Israel.