Joshua 24

Covenant Renewal at Shechem

1And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders of Israel, its heads, its judges, and its officers, and they presented themselves before God. 2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your fathers lived beyond the River—Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor—and they served other gods. 3Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.

4“And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt according to what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. 6I brought your fathers out from Egypt, and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Sea of Reeds. 7They cried out to the LORD, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them. Your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness many days.

8I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before you. 9Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam son of Beor to curse you. 10But I was not willing to listen to Balaam, so he surely blessed you, and I rescued you from his hand. 11Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The lords of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I gave them into your hand. 12I sent the hornet before you, and it drove them out from before you—the two kings of the Amorites—not by your sword and not by your bow. 13I gave you a land for which you did not labor and cities that you did not build, and you live in them. You eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.”

14“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in integrity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve—whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

16Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, 17for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed. 18And the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

19But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression or your sins. 20If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”

21And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.” 22Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.” 24And the people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”

25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set for them a statute and an ordinance at Shechem.

Joshua’s Final Witness and Death

26Joshua wrote these words in the book of the instruction of God. Then he took a great stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. 27Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke with us. It shall be a witness against you, lest you deny your God.” 28Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance.

29And it happened after these things that Joshua son of Nun, servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred ten years old. 30They buried him in the territory of his inheritance at Timnath-Serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 31Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and who knew all the work of the LORD that he had done for Israel.

32The bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried at Shechem in the portion of the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for one hundred qesitah. It became an inheritance for the sons of Joseph. 33Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.