Jos 24 | Lees | STEP | And Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel to Shechem; and he called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

‏ Joshua 24

1 And Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel to Shechem; and he 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 unto all the people, Thus hath said the Lord the God of Israel, On the other side of the river did your fathers dwell in old time, even Terach, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and I led him throughout all the land of Canaan; and I multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt in the manner as I have done among them; and after that I brought you out. 6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt; and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. 7 And they cried unto the Lord, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I had done on Egypt; and ye dwelt in the wilderness many days. 8 And I brought you into the land of the Emorites, that dwelt on the other side of the Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, and ye took possession of their land; and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel; and he sent and called Bil’am the son of Beor to curse you; 10 And I would not hearken unto Bil’am; but he had to bless you instead: and I delivered you out of his hand. 11 And ye passed over the Jordan, and came unto Jericho; and then fought the men of Jericho against you, the Emorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I gave them up into your hand. 12 And I sent before you the hornet which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Emorites: not with thy sword, and not with thy bow. 13 And I gave you a land for which ye had not toiled, and cities which ye had not built, and ye dwell in them; of vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. 14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it be displeasing in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom ye will serve: whether the gods which your fathers that were on the other side of the river served, or the gods of the Emorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 16 And the people answered and said, Far be it from us to forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; 17 For the Lord our God it is that hath brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who hath done those great signs before our eyes, and preserved us upon all the way whereon we have gone, and among all the people through the midst of whom we have passed: 18 And the Lord hath driven out all the nations, and the Emorites who dwelt in the land, from before us; therefore also will we serve the Lord; for he is our God. 19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye will not be able to serve the Lord; for he is a holy God; he is a watchful God; he will not have any indulgence for your transgressions and for your sins; 20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then will he again do ye evil, and consume ye, after that he hath done you good. 21 And the people said unto Joshua, No; nevertheless the Lord will we serve. 22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye yourselves have chosen for you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. 23 And now put away the strange gods which are in the midst of you, and incline your heart unto the Lord the God of Israel. 24 And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. 25 And Joshua made a covenant with the people on 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 the Lord. 27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be among us as a witness; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke unto us: it shall be therefore as a witness against you, that ye may not deny your God. 28 And Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance. 29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, one hundred and ten years old. 30 And they buried him on the border of his inheritance at Timnath-serach, which is on the mountain of Ephraim, on the north side of mount Ga’ash. 31 And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who lived many days after Joshua, and who had known all the deeds of the Lord, that he had done for Israel. 32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons of Chamor the father of Shechem for one hundred kessitah: and it remained the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 33 And Elazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him on the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the mountain of Ephraim.