The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Joshua 24
1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel
to Shechem, and called for the elders of
Israel, for their heads, for their judges,
and for their officers; and they presented
themselves before God.
2 Joshua said to all the people, “Yahweh,
the God of Israel, says, ‘Your fathers lived
of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of
Nahor. They served other gods.
3 I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout
all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his
offspring,† and gave him Isaac.
4 I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and
I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it.
Jacob and his children went down into
Egypt.
5 “ ‘I sentMoses and Aaron, andIplagued
Egypt, according to that which I did among
them: and afterward I brought you out.
6 I brought your fathers out of Egypt:
and you came to the sea. The Egyptians
pursued your fathers with chariots and
with horsemen to the Red Sea.
7 When they cried out to Yahweh, he put
darkness between you and the Egyptians,
and brought the sea on them, and covered
them; and your eyes saw what I did in
Egypt. You lived in the wilderness many
days.
8 “ ‘I brought you into the land of the
Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan.
They fought with you, and I gave them into
your hand. You possessed their land, and I
destroyed them from before you.
9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of
Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He
sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to
curse you,
10 butI wouldnotlistentoBalaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you
out of his hand.
11 “ ‘You went over the Jordan, and came
to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought
against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the
Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the
Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered
them into your hand.
12 I sent the hornet before you, which
drove them out from before you, even the
two kings of the Amorites; not with your
sword, nor with your bow.
13 I gave you a land on which you had not
labored, and cities which you didn’t build,
and you live in them. You eat of vineyards
and olive groves which you didn’t plant.’
14 “Now therefore fear Yahweh, and
serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put
away the gods which your fathers served
beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh.
15 If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers
served that were beyond the River, or the
gods of the Amorites, in whose land you
dwell; but as for me and my house, we will
serve Yahweh.”
16 The people answered, “Far be it from
us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve
other gods;
17 for it is Yahweh our God who brought
us and our fathers up 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 peoples through
the middle of whom we passed.
18 Yahweh drove out from before us all
the peoples, even the Amorites who lived
in the land. Therefore we also will serve
Yahweh; for he is our God.”
19 Joshua said to the people, “You can’t
serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He
is a jealous God. He will not forgive your
disobedience nor your sins.
20 If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreigngods,thenhe willturnanddo youevil,
and consume you, after he has done you
good.”
21 The people said to Joshua, “No, but we
will serve Yahweh.”
22 Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have
chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him.”
They said, “We are witnesses.”
23 “Now therefore put away the foreign
gods which are among you, and incline
your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
24 The people said to Joshua, “We will
serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen
to his voice.”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the
people that day, and made for them a
statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 Joshua wrote these words in the book
ofthe law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was
by the sanctuary of Yahweh.
27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold,
this stone shall be a witness against us, for
it has heard all Yahweh’s words which he
spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness
against you, lest you deny your God.”
28 So Joshua sent the people away, each
to his own inheritance.
29 After these things, Joshua the son of
Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being
one hundred ten years old.
30 They buried him in the border of his
inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in
the hill country of Ephraim, on the north
of the mountain of Gaash.
31 Israel served Yahweh all the days of
Joshua, and all the days of the elders who
outlived Joshua, and had known all the
work of Yahweh, that he had worked for
Israel.
32 They buried the bones of Joseph,
which the children of Israel brought up
out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel
of ground which Jacob bought from the
sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for
a hundred pieces of silver.‡ They became
the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33 Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They
buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son,
which was given him in the hill country of
Ephraim.