Joshua 24:1-25 ▼

1 And Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and calls for [the] elderly of Israel, and for his heads, and for his judges, and for his authorities, and they station themselves before God.

2 And Joshua says to all the people, “Thus said YHWH, God of Israel: Beyond the River your fathers have dwelt of old—Terah father of Abraham and father of Nachor—and they serve other gods;

3 and I take your father Abraham from beyond the River, and cause him to go through all the land of Canaan, and multiply his seed, and give Isaac to him.

4 And I give Jacob and Esau to Isaac; and I give Mount Seir to Esau, to possess it; and Jacob and his sons have gone down to Egypt.

5 And I send Moses and Aaron, and plague Egypt, as I have done in its midst, and afterward I have brought you out.

6 And I bring out your fathers from Egypt, and you go to the sea, and the Egyptians pursue after your fathers, with chariot and with horsemen, to the Red Sea;

7 and they cry to YHWH, and He sets thick darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brings the sea over him, and covers them, and your eyes see that which I have done in Egypt; and you dwell in a wilderness [for] many days.

8 And I bring you into the land of the Amorite who is dwelling beyond the Jordan, and they fight with you, and I give them into your hand, and you possess their land, and I destroy them out of your presence.

9 And Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rises and fights against Israel, and sends and calls for Balaam son of Beor, to revile you,

10 and I have not been willing to listen to Balaam, and he greatly blesses you, and I deliver you out of his hand.

11 And you pass over the Jordan, and come to Jericho, and the possessors of Jericho fight against you—the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—and I give them into your hand.

12 And I send the hornet before you, and it casts them out from your presence—two kings of the Amorite—not by your sword, nor by your bow.

13 And I give a land to you for which you have not labored, and cities which you have not built, and you dwell in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive-yards which you have not planted.

14 And now, fear YHWH, and serve Him, in perfection and in truth, and turn aside the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve YHWH;

15 and if [it is] wrong in your eyes to serve YHWH—choose for yourselves today whom you serve—whether the gods whom your fathers served, which [are] beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorite in whose land you are dwelling; but me and my house—we serve YHWH.”

16 And the people answer and say, “Far be it from us to forsake YHWH, to serve other gods;

17 for our God YHWH [is] He who is bringing us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants, and who has done these great signs before our eyes, and keeps us in all the way in which we have gone, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed;

18 and YHWH casts out the whole of the peoples, even the Amorite inhabiting the land, from our presence; we also serve YHWH, for He [is] our God.”

19 And Joshua says to the people, “You are not able to serve YHWH, for He [is] a most holy God; He [is] a zealous God; He does not bear with your transgression and with your sins.

20 When you forsake YHWH, and have served gods of a stranger, then He has turned back and done harm to you, and consumed you, after that He has done good to you.”

21 And the people say to Joshua, “No, but we serve YHWH!”

22 And Joshua says to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen YHWH for yourselves, to serve Him,” and they say, “Witnesses!”

23 “And now, turn aside the gods of the stranger which [are] in your midst, and incline your heart to YHWH, God of Israel.”

24 And the people say to Joshua, “We serve our God YHWH, and we listen to His voice.”

25 And Joshua makes a covenant with the people on that day, and lays a statute and an ordinance on it, in Shechem.