24:1 And Joshua convened all the tribes of Israel to Shechem,
and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and
for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented
themselves before God.
24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, Thus saith the LORD God
of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in
old time, [even] Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father
of Nahor: and they served other gods.
24:3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the
flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and
multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
24:4 And I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau
mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down
into Egypt.
24:5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according
to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you
out.
24:6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came to the
sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots
and horsemen to the Red sea.
24:7 And when they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between
you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and
covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in
Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
24:8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt
on the other side of Jordan, and they fought with you: and I
gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and
I destroyed them from before you.
24:9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and
warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of
Beor to curse you:
24:10 But I would not hearken to Balaam; therefore he blessed
you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.
24:11 And ye 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 into your hand.
24:12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out
from before you, [even] the two kings of the Amorites; [but]
not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
24:13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor,
and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the
vineyards and olive-yards which ye planted not do ye eat.
24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity
and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served
on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the
LORD.
24:15 And if it seemeth evil to you to serve the LORD, choose
you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your
fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or
the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell: but as for me
and my house, we will serve the LORD.
24:16 And the people answered, and said, Be it far from us that
we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
24:17 For the LORD our God, he [it is] that brought us, and our
fathers, out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage,
and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in
all the way in which we went, and among all the people through
whom we passed:
24:18 And the LORD drove out from before us all the people, even
the Amorites who dwelt in the land: [therefore] will we also
serve the LORD; for he [is] our God.
24:19 And Joshua said to the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD:
for he [is] a holy God; he [is] a jealous God; he will not
forgive your transgressions, nor your sins.
24:20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he
will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath
done you good.
24:21 And the people said to Joshua, No; but we will serve the
LORD.
24:22 And Joshua said to the people, Ye [are] witnesses against
yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And
they said, [We are] witnesses.
24:23 Now therefore put away ([said he]) the strange gods which
[are] among you, and incline your heart to the LORD God of
Israel.
24:24 And the people said to Joshua, The LORD our God will we
serve, and his voice will we obey.
24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and
set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
24:26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of
God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak
that [was] by the sanctuary of the LORD.
24:27 And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone
shall be a witness to us; for it hath heard all the words of
the LORD which he spoke to us, it shall be therefore a witness
to you, lest ye deny your God.
24:28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man to his
inheritance.
24:29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the
son of Nun the servant of the LORD died, [being] a hundred and
ten years old.
24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in
Timnath-serah, which [is] in mount Ephraim, on the north side
of the hill of Gaash.
24:31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all
the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and who had known
all the works of the LORD that he had done for Israel.
24:32 And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel
brought out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of
ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of
Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver; and it became the
inheritance of the children of Joseph.
24:33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in
a hill [that pertained] to Phinehas his son, which was given
him in mount Ephraim.
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