Joshua Chapter 24

Joshua Chapter 24
1 And Joshua assembled again all the
tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called
the elders of Israel, and their heads, and
their judges, and their officers, and they
presented themselves before God.
2 Then Joshua said unto all the people,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your
fathers dwelt beyond the flood in old
time, even Terah the father of Abraham,
and the father of Nachor, and served
other gods.
3 And I took your father Abraham from
beyond the flood, and brought him
through all the land of Canaan, and
multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
4 And I gave onto Isaac, Jacob and
Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir,
to possess it: but Jacob and his children
went down into Egypt. 5 I sent Moses
also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt:
and when I had so done among them, I
brought you out.
6 So 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 Then they cried unto the Lord, and he
put a darkness between you and the
Egyptians, and brought the sea upon
them, and covered them: so your eyes
have seen what I have done in Egypt:
also ye dwelt in the wilderness a long
season.
8 After, I brought you into the land of the
Amorites, which dwelt beyond Jordan,
and they fought with you: but I gave them
into your hand, and ye possessed their
country, and I destroyed them out of your
sight. 9 Also Balak the son of Zippor
king of Moab arose and warred against
Israel, and sent to call Balaam the son of
Beor for to curse you,
10 But I would not hear Balaam:
therefore he blessed you, and I delivered
you out of his hand.
11 And ye went over Jordan, and came
unto 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
into your hand.
12 And I sent hornets before you, which
cast them out before you, even the two
kings of the Amorites, and not with thy
sword, nor with thy bow. 13 And I have
given you a land, wherein ye did not
labor, and cities which ye built not, and
ye dwell in them, and eat of the
vineyards and olive trees, which ye
planted not.
14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and
serve him in uprightness and in truth, and
put away the gods, which your fathers
served beyond the flood and in Egypt,
and serve ye the Lord.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve
the Lord, choose you this day whom ye
will serve, whether the gods which your
fathers served (that were beyond the
flood) or the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land ye dwell: but I and mine
house will serve the Lord.
16 Then the people answered and said,
God forbid, that we should forsake the
Lord, to serve other gods.
17 For the Lord our God, he brought us
and our fathers out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage, and he did
those great miracles in our sight, and
preserved us in all the way that we went,
and among all the people through whom
we came.
18 And the Lord did cast out before us
all the people, even the Amorites which
dwelt in the land: therefore will we also
serve the Lord, for he is our God.
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye
cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy
God: he is a jealous God: he will not
pardon your iniquity nor your sins. 20 If
ye forsake the Lord and serve strange
gods, then he will return and bring evil
upon you, and consume you, after that he
hath done you good. 21 And the people
said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve
the Lord. 22 And Joshua said unto the
people, Ye are witnesses against
yourselves, that ye have chosen you the
Lord, to serve him: and they said, We
are witnesses.
23 Then put away now, said he, the
strange gods which are among you, and
bow your hearts unto the Lord God of
Israel.
24 And the people said unto Joshua, The
Lord our God will we serve, and his
voice will we obey.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the
people the same day, and gave them an
ordinance and law in Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the
book of the law of God, and took a great
stone, and pitched it there under an oak
that was in the sanctuary of the Lord.
27 And Joshua said unto all the people,
Behold, this stone shall be a witness
unto us: for it hath heard all the words of
the Lord which he spake with us: it shall
be therefore a witness against you, lest
ye deny your God. 28 Then Joshua let
the people depart, every man unto his
inheritance. 29 And after these things
Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the
Lord died, being an hundred and ten
years old.
30 And they buried him in the border of
his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which
is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of
mount Gaash.
31 And Israel served the Lord all the
days of Joshua, and all the days of the
elders that over lived Joshua, and which
had known all the works of the Lord that
he had done for Israel.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the
children of Israel brought out of Egypt,
buried they in Shechem in a parcel of
ground which Jacob bought of the sons
of Hamor the father of Shechem, for an
hundred pieces of silver, and the
children of Joseph had them in their
inheritance.
33 Also Eleazar the son of Aaron died,
whom they buried in the hill of Phinehas
his son, which was given him in mount
Ephraim.