Joshua 24

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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The tribes gathered at Shechem

¹Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He called for the elders of Israel, its leaders, its judges and its officers, and they took their stand before God. ²Then Joshua told all the people, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: ‘In ancient times your ancestors lived on the far side of the River, Terah, father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods. ³But I took your father Abraham from the far side of the River and led him all through the land of Canaan. I made his descendants many, and I gave him Isaac. ⁴To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir as his own, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. ⁵I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with plagues by what I did among its people. After that I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and you reached the sea, the Egyptians chased after your ancestors with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. ⁷Then they cried out to the LORD, and he set darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea over them, and it covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁸I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I handed them over to you. You took their land as your own, and I wiped them out ahead of you. ⁹Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and made war on Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. ¹⁰But I would not listen to Balaam. Instead he blessed you over and over, and I rescued you from his power. ¹¹Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The leading citizens of Jericho fought against you, and so did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I handed them over to you. ¹²I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove them out before you, the two Amorite kings. It was not your sword or your bow that did it. ¹³I gave you a land you had not worked for and towns you had not built, and you live in them. You eat from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’ ¹⁴So now, fear the LORD and serve him with a whole heart and with faithfulness. Remove from among you the gods your ancestors served across the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵If serving the LORD seems wrong to you, then make your choice today. Whom will you serve? The gods your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, whose land you now live in? My household and I will serve the LORD.”

We will serve the LORD

¹⁶The people answered, “We would never abandon the LORD to serve other gods! ¹⁷It is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. He did these great signs before our eyes, and he kept us safe all along the road we traveled and among all the peoples we passed through. ¹⁸The LORD drove out all the peoples ahead of us, including the Amorites who lived in the land. So we too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

A covenant at Shechem

¹⁹Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, because he is a holy God, a jealous God; he will not pardon your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰If you leave the LORD and serve the gods of foreigners, he will turn against you. He will bring harm on you and put an end to you, after all the good he has done you.” ²¹But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.” ²²Then Joshua said to the people, “You are your own witnesses that you have chosen the LORD for yourselves and will serve him.” They answered, “We are witnesses.” ²³“Then remove the foreign gods that are among you,” he said, “and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” ²⁴And the people told Joshua, “It is the LORD our God we will serve, and it is his voice we will obey.” ²⁵So Joshua made a covenant for the people that day, and at Shechem he laid down a statute and a ruling for them. ²⁶Joshua wrote these words in the book of God’s law. He also took a great stone and raised it there under the oak that stood near the sanctuary of the LORD.

A stone as a witness

²⁷Joshua said to all the people, “See this stone? It will stand as a witness against us, for it has heard every word the LORD said to us. It will be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.” ²⁸Then Joshua sent the people away, each to their own inheritance.

The death of Joshua

²⁹After these events, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, at 110 years of age. ³⁰They buried him within the borders of his own inheritance, at Timnath-serah, north of Mount Gaash in the hill country of Ephraim. ³¹Israel served the LORD all through Joshua’s lifetime, and through the lifetime of the elders who lived on after him and had known for themselves every work that the LORD had done for Israel. ³²The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem, in the piece of ground that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, paying a hundred pieces of silver. It became part of the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants. ³³Eleazar son of Aaron died too. They buried him at Gibeah, the hill town of his son Phinehas, which had been given to Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.