Study Desk

Then ^(a)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.

Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the ^[a]River, namely, ^(b)Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Then ^(c)I took your father Abraham from beyond the ^[b]River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and ^(d)multiplied his ^[c]descendants and gave him ^(e)Isaac.

To Isaac I gave ^(f)Jacob and Esau, and ^(g)to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it; but ^(h)Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

Then ⁽ⁱ⁾I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt ^[d]by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.

I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and ^(j)you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the ^[e]Red Sea.

But when they cried out to the Lord , He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And ^(k)you lived in the wilderness for a long time.

Then ^(l)I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you.

Then ^(m)Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.

But I ⁽ⁿ⁾was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand.

^(o)You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and ^(p)the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Girgashite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Thus ^(q)I gave them into your hand.

Then I ^(r)sent the hornet before you and it ^[f]drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before you, but ^(s)not by your sword or your bow.

^(t)I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

"Now, therefore, ^[g](u)fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and ^[h]truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the ^[i]River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord .

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord , choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or ^(v)the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord ."

The people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods;

for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of ^[j]bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.

The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord , for He is our God."

Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the Lord , ^(w)for He is a holy God. He is ^(x)a jealous God; ^(y)He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

^(z)If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you."

The people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord ."

Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that ^(aa)you have chosen for yourselves the Lord , to serve Him." And they said, "We are witnesses."

"Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and ^(ab)incline your hearts to the Lord , the God of Israel."

^(ac)The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God and we will ^[k]obey His voice."

^(ad)So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

And Joshua ^(ae)wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord .

Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, ^(af)this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke ^[l]to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God."

Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

It came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord , died, being one hundred and ten years old.

And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in ^(ag)Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

^(ah)Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who ^[m]survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

Now ^(ai)they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground ^(aj)which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred ^[n]pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph's sons.

And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him ^[o]at Gibeah of ^(ak)Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.