1   Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders of Israel, the heads of families, the judges and officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2   Joshua then said this to all the people: ‘This is the word of the Lord the God of Israel: “Long ago your forefathers, Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor, lived beside the Euphrates, and they worshipped other gods. 3   I took your father Abraham from beside the Euphrates and led him through the length and breadth of Canaan. I gave him many descendants: I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. 4   I put Esau in possession of the hill-country of Seir, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5   I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck the Egyptians with plagues—you know well what I did among them—and after that I brought you out;

Joshua's farewell and death I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came to the Red Sea. 6   The Egyptians sent their chariots and cavalry to pursue your fathers to the sea. 7   But when they appealed to the Lord, he put a screen of darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea down on them and it covered them; you saw for yourselves what I did to Egypt. For a long time you lived in the wilderness. 8   Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan; they fought against you, but I delivered them into your hands; you took possession of their country and I destroyed them for your sake. 9   The king of Moab, Balak son of Zippor, took the field against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to lay a curse on you, but I would not listen to him. 10   Instead of that he blessed you; and so I saved you from the power of Balak. 11   Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, ^note but I delivered them into your hands. 12   I spread panic before you, and it was this, not your sword or your bow, that drove out the two kings of the Amorites. 13   I gave you land on which you had not laboured, cities which you had never built; you have lived in those cities and you eat the produce of vineyards and olive-groves which you did not plant.”

14   ‘Hold the Lord in awe then, and worship him in loyalty and truth. Banish the gods whom your fathers worshipped beside the Euphrates and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. 15   But if it does not please you to worship the Lord, choose here and now whom you will worship: the gods whom your forefathers worshipped beside the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family, we will worship the Lord.’ 16   The people answered, ‘God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to worship other gods, 17   for it was the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from Egypt, that land of slavery; it was he who displayed those great signs before our eyes and guarded us on all our wanderings among the many peoples through whose lands we passed. 18   The Lord drove out before us the Amorites and all the peoples who lived in that country. We too will worship the Lord; he is our God.’ 19   Joshua answered the people, ‘You cannot worship the Lord. He is a holy god, a jealous god, and he will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20   If you forsake the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn and bring adversity upon you and, although he once brought you prosperity, he will make an end of you.’ 21    22   The people said to Joshua, ‘No; we will worship the Lord.’ He said to them, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord and will worship him.’ ‘Yes,’ they answered, ‘we are witnesses.’ 23   He said to them, ‘Then here and now banish the foreign gods that are among you, and turn your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel.’ 24   The

Joshua's farewell and death people said to Joshua, ‘The Lord our God we will worship and his voice we will obey.’ 25   So Joshua made a covenant that day with ^note the people; 26   he drew up a statute and an ordinance for them in Shechem and wrote its terms in the book of the law of God. He took a great stone and set it up there under the terebinth ^note in the sanctuary of the Lord, and said to all the people, ‘This stone is a witness against us; 27   for it has heard all the words which the Lord has spoken to us. If you renounce your God, it shall be a witness against you.’ 28   Then Joshua dismissed the people, each man to his patrimony.

29   After these things, Joshua son of Nun the servant of the Lord died; he was a hundred and ten years old. 30   They buried him within the border of his own patrimony in Timnath-serah in the hill-country of Ephraim to the north of Mount Gaash. 31   Israel served the Lord during the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who well knew all that the Lord had done for Israel.

32   The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem, in the plot of land which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor father of Shechem for a hundred sheep; ^note and they passed into the patrimony of the house of Joseph. 33   Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried in the hill which had been given to Phinehas his son in the hill-country of Ephraim.

Previous section