 1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and their judges and their officers and they presented themselves before God. 2 Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers lived Beyond the River in times past, Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. 3 I took your father Abraham from Beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 4 I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau Mount Seir for his own, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. 5 I sent Moses also, and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out. 6 I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And you came to the sea, and the Egyptians followed after your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 They cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them and covered them. And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. 8 I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side Jordan. They fought with you and I gave them to you so that you might possess their land. And I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of King Zippor of Moab arose and warred against Israel and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam. And he still blessed you. And I delivered you out of his hand. 11 You went over Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I delivered them to you. 12 I sent the hornet before you that drove them out from before you, the two kings of the Amorites, not with your sword, nor with your bow. 13 I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities that you did not build, and you live in them. You now eat of the vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant. 14 Now, then, fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods that your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods that your fathers served Beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 16 The people said, Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. 17 For the Lord our God is the one who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He did great wonders in our sight and kept us safe all the way that we went, and among all the people among whom we passed. 18 The Lord drove out all the people from before us, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we will serve the Lord for He is our God. 19 Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the Lord for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then He will do harm to you and destroy you after He has done good to you. 21 The people said to Joshua, No. We will serve the Lord. 22 Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve Him. They said, We are witnesses. 23 Now put away the strange gods among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. 24 The people said to Joshua, We will serve the Lord our God and obey His voice. 25 Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set a statute and an ordinance for them in Shechem. 26 Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and he took a great stone and set it up there under an oak by the sanctuary of the Lord. 27 Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone will be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that He spoke to us. It will therefore be a witness to you lest you deny your God. 28 Joshua sent away the people, each man to his inheritance. 29 After these things, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. 30 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash. 31 Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and who had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel. 32 The bones of Joseph that the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a piece of ground that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for 100 pieces of silver. And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 33 Eleazar the son of Aaron died and they buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas his son that was given him in mount Ephraim.
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