CHAPTER 24
1 And Joshua gathered all the lineages of Israel into Shechem; and he called the greater men in birth, and the princes, and judges, and masters; and they stood in the sight of the Lord.
2 And Joshua spake thus to the people, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, Your fathers dwelled at the beginning beyond the flood Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and Nachor, and they served alien gods.
3 Therefore I took your father Abraham from the coasts of Mesopotamia, and I brought him into the land of Canaan; and I multiplied his seed, and I gave Isaac to him;
4 and again, I gave to Isaac, Jacob, and Esau; of which I gave to Esau the hill of Seir, to have in possession; and Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt.
5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I smote Egypt with many signs and wonders, and I led you
6 and your fathers out of Egypt. And ye came to the Sea, and Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots, and multitude of knights, unto the Red Sea.
7 And the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, and he put darknesses betwixt you and [the] Egyptians; and he brought the sea on them, and covered them. Your eyes have seen all things, which I did in Egypt. And ye dwelled in wilderness much time.
8 And I brought you into the land of Amorites, that dwelled beyond Jordan; and when they fought against you, I betook them into your hands, and ye had their land in possession, and ye killed them.
9 And Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, rose, and fought against Israel; and he sent, and called Balaam, the son of Beor, that he should curse you.
10 And I would not hear him, but on the contrary by Balaam I blessed you, and I delivered you from the hands of Balak.
11 And ye passed [over] Jordan, and came to Jericho; and men of that city fought against you, Amorites, and Perizzites, and Canaanites, Hittites, and Girgashites, and Hivites, and Jebusites; and I betook them into your hands.
12 And I sent flies with venomous tongues before you, and I casted them out of their places; I killed [the] two kings of Amorites, not in thy sword, nor in thy bow.
13 And I gave to you the land in which ye travailed not, and cities which ye builded not, that ye should dwell in those, and vineries, and places of olive trees, which ye planted not.
14 Now therefore dread ye the Lord, and serve ye him with perfect heart and most true; and do ye away the gods, to which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
15 But if it seemeth evil to you, that ye serve the Lord, choosing is given to you; choose ye to you today that, that pleaseth, whom ye owe most to serve; whether to gods, which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, whether to the gods of Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; forsooth I, and mine house, shall serve the Lord.
16 And all the people answered, and said, Far be it from us that we forsake the Lord, and serve alien gods.
17 Our Lord God himself led us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of servage, and did great signs in our sight; and he kept us in all the way, by which we went, and in all peoples, by which we passed;
18 and he casted out all folks, Amorites, the dwellers of the land, into which we entered. Therefore we shall serve the Lord, for he is our Lord God.
19 And Joshua said to the people, Ye may not serve the Lord; for God is holy, and a strong fervent lover, and he forgiveth not your trespasses and sins.
20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve alien gods, the Lord shall turn himself from you, and he shall torment, and destroy you, after that he hath given good things to you.
21 And the people said to Joshua, It shall not be so, as thou speakest, but we shall serve the Lord.
22 And Joshua said to the people, Ye be witnesses, that ye have chosen the Lord to you, that ye serve him. And they answered, We be witnesses.
23 Therefore, he said, now do ye away alien gods from the midst of you, and bow ye your hearts to the Lord God of Israel.
24 And the people said to Joshua, We shall serve the Lord our God, and we shall be obedient to his behests.
25 Therefore Joshua smote a bond of peace in that day, and setted forth to the people commandments and dooms in Shechem.
26 And he wrote all these words in the book of God’s law. And he took a great stone, and putted it under an oak, that was in the saintuary of the Lord.
27 And he said to all the people, Lo! this stone shall be to you into witnessing, that ye [have] heard all the words of the Lord, which he spake to you, lest peradventure ye would deny afterward, and lie to your Lord God.
28 And Joshua let the people go, each man into his possession.
29 And after these things Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, an hundred years eld and ten.
30 And they buried him in the coasts of his possession, in Timnath of Serah, which is set in the hill of Ephraim, from the north part of the hill Gaash.
31 And Israel served the Lord in all the days of Joshua, and of the elder men, that lived long time after Joshua, and which elder men knew all the works of the Lord, which he had done in Israel.
32 Also the bones of Joseph, the which the sons of Israel bare from Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a part of the field, the which field Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred young sheep; and that field was into possession of the sons of Joseph.
33 Also Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, died; and Phinehas and his sons buried him in Gibeah, which was given to him in the hill of Ephraim.