1   And Iosue gathered together al the tribes of Israel into Sichem, and called the ancientes, and princes, and iudges, and maisters: and they stoode in the sight of our Lord:

2   and to the people he spake in this maner: Thus saith our Lord the God of Israel: Beyond the riuer did your fathers dwel from the beginning, Thare the father of Abraham, and ^note of Nachor: and09Q0178 they serued strange goddes.

3   I tooke therfore your father Abraham from the coastes of Mesopotamia: and brought him into the Land of Chanaan: and multiplied his seede,

4   and gaue him Isaac: and againe to him I gaue Iacob and Esau. Of whom, to Esau I gaue mount Seir to possesse: but Iacob, and his children went downe into Ægypt.

5   And I sent Moyses and Aaron, and stroke Ægypt with many signes and wonders.

6   And I brought you and your fathers out of Ægypt, and you came to the sea: and the Ægyptians pursewed your fathers with chariotes and horsemen, as farre as the Read sea.

7   And the children of Israel cried to the Lord: who did put darkenes betwen you and the Ægyptians, and brought the sea vpon them, & ouerwhelmed them. Your eies saw al thinges that I did in Ægypt, and you dwelt in the wildernes a great time:

8   and I brought you into the Land of the Amorrheite, which dwelt beyond Iordan. And when they fought against you, I deliuered them

Gods couenant renewed. into your handes, and you possessed their Land, and slew them.

9   And there rose Balac the sonne of Sephor king of Moab, and fought against Israel. And he sent and called Balaam the sonne of Beor, that he might curse you:

10   and I would not heare him, but contrariwise by him I blessed you, and deliuered you out of his hand.

11   And you passed Iordan, and came to Iericho. And the men of that citie fought against you, the Amorrheite, and Pherezeite and Chananeite, and the Hetheite, and Gergeseite, and the Heueite, and Iebuseite: and I deliuered them into your handes.

12   And I sent before you hornettes: and I cast them forth out of their places, the two Kinges of the Amorrheites, not in thy sword and bow.

13   And I gaue you the Land, wherein you laboured not, and the cities which you built not, to dwel in them: vineyardes and oliue trees, which you planted not.

14   Now therfore feare our Lord and serue him with a perfect and verie true hart: and ^note take away the goddes, which your fathers serued in Mesopotamia and in Ægypt, and serue our Lord.

15   But if it like you not to serue our Lord, choise is geuen you: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you ought especially to serue, whether the goddes, which your fathers serued in Mesopotamia, or the goddes of the Amorrheites, in whose Land you dwel: but I and my house wil serue our Lord.

16   And the people answered, and said: God forbid we should leaue our Lord, and serue strange goddes.

17   Our Lord God he brought vs, and our fathers out of the Land of Ægypt, out of the house of seruitude: and did in our sight great signes, and kept vs in al the way, by the which we walked, and among al the peoples, through which we passed.

18   And he hath cast out al the nations, the Amorrheite inhabiter of the Land, which we haue entred. We therfore wil serue our Lord, because he is our God.

19   And Iosue said to the people: You can not serue our Lord: for God is holie, and a mightie aemulator, neither wil he pardon your wickednes and sinnes.

20   If you leaue our Lord, and serue strange goddes, he wil turne him self, and wil afflict you, and ouerthrow you after he hath geuen you good thinges.

21   And the people said to Iosue: No, it shal not be so as thou speakest, but we wil serue our Lord.

22   And Iosue said to the people: You are witnesses, that your selues haue chosen to you our Lord for to serue him. And they answered: Witnesses.

Gods couenant renewed.

23   Now therfore, quoth he, take away strange goddes out of the middes of you, and incline your hartes to our Lord the God of Israel.

24   And the people said to Iosue: We wil serue our Lord God, and wil be obedient to his preceptes.

25   Iosue therfore in that day ^note made a couenant, and proposed to the people preceptes and iudgementes in Sichem.

26   He wrote also al these wordes in the volume of the law of our Lord: and he tooke a very great stone, and put it vnder the oke, that was in the Sanctuarie of our Lord:

27   and said to al the people: Behold this stone shal be a testimonie for you, that ^note it hath heard al the wordes of our Lord, which he hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you wil denie, and lye to our Lord your God.

28   And he dismist the people, euerie one into their possession.

29    ^noteAnd after these thinges Iosue the sonne of Nun the seruant of our Lord died, being a hundred and ten yeares old:

30   and09Q0179 they buried him in the coastes of his possession in Thamnathsare, which is situated in the mountaine of Ephraim, on the North part of mount Gaas.

31   And Israel serued our Lord al the daies of Iosue, and of the ancientes, that liued a long time after Iosue, and that had knowen al the workes of our Lord which he had done in Israel.

32   The ^note bones also of Ioseph which the children of Israel had taken out of Ægypt, they buried in Sichem, in part of the field, which Iacob had bought of the sonnes of Hemor the father of Sichem, for a hundred yong ewes, and it was in the possession of the sonnes of Ioseph.

33   Eleazar also the sonne of Aaron died: and they buried him in Gabaath of Phinees his sonne, which was geuen him in mount Ephraim.

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