Study Desk

Now it came about after many days, when the LORD had given ^(C1)rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years,

that ^(C1)Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, their heads, their judges, and their officers, and said to them, "I am old, advanced in years.

"And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you, for ^(C1)the LORD your God is He who has been fighting for you.

"See, ^(C1)I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have eliminated, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the ^(F1)west.

"And the LORD your God, He will thrust them away from you and ^(F1)(C1)drive them from you; and ^(C2)you will take possession of their land, just as the LORD your God ^(F2)promised you.

"^(C1)Be very determined, then, to keep and do everything that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, so that you will not turn aside from it to the right or to the left,

so that you will not ^(F1)associate with these nations, these which remain with you, or ^(C1)mention the name of their gods, or ^(C2)make anyone swear by them, or ^(C3)serve them, or bow down to them.

"But you are to cling to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.

"^(C1)For the LORD has ^(F1)driven out great and mighty nations from before you; and as for you, ^(C2)no one has stood against you to this day.

"^(C1)One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is ^(C2)He who fights for you, just as He ^(F1)promised you.

"So take great care for yourselves that you love the LORD your God.

"For if you ever go back and ^(C1)cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain with you, and ^(C2)intermarry with them, so that you ^(F1)associate with them and they with you,

know with certainty that the LORD your God will not continue to ^(F1)drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a ^(C1)snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.

"Now behold, today ^(C1)I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that ^(C2)not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; they all have ^(F1)been fulfilled for you, not ^(F2)one of them has failed.

"But it will come about that just as all the good words which the LORD your God spoke to you have come upon you, so ^(C1)the LORD will bring upon you ^(F1)all the warnings, until He has eliminated you from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.

"^(C1)When you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from the good land which He has given you."

Then ^(C1)Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates River, namely, ^(C1)Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

'Then ^(C1)I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and ^(C2)multiplied his ^(F1)descendants and gave him ^(C3)Isaac.

'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.

'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.

'So 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.

'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.

'Then ^(C1)I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; but I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land when I eliminated them before you.

'Then ^(C1)Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel, and he sent messengers and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.

'But I ^(C1)was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I saved you from his hand.

'^(C1)You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and ^(C2)the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Therefore ^(C3)I handed them over to you.

'Then I ^(C1)sent the hornet before you and it ^(F1)drove out the two kings of the Amorites from you—^(C2)not by your sword nor your bow.

'And ^(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.'

"Now, therefore, ^(F1)(C1)fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and ^(F2)truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

"But 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 Euphrates 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."

The people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we would abandon the LORD to serve other gods;

for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and did these great signs in our sight and watched over us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.

"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."

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 wrongdoing or your sins.

"^(C1)If you abandon the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and destroy you after He has done good to you."

And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the LORD."

So 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."

"Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and ^(C1)incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."

And ^(C1)the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and ^(F1)obey His voice."

^(C1)So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

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.

Then Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, ^(C1)this stone shall be a witness against us, because it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke ^(F1)to us; so it shall be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God."

Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

Now it came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 110 years old.

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.

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

Now ^(C1)they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the plot of land ^(C2)which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred ^(F1)pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph's sons.

And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of his son ^(C1)Phinehas, which was given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.