May
21
Joshua
23, 24
Jos
23:1 It happened after many days, when Yahweh had given rest to
Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well
advanced in years,
Jos
23:2 that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for
their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to
them, "I am old and well advanced in years.
Jos
23:3 You have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these
nations because of you; for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for
you.
Jos
23:4 Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be
an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations
that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of
the sun.
Jos
23:5 Yahweh your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive
them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as Yahweh
your God spoke to you.
Jos
23:6 Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is
written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside from
it to the right hand or to the left;
Jos
23:7 that you not come among these nations, these that remain among
you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to
swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them;
Jos
23:8 but hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.
Jos
23:9 For Yahweh has driven great and strong nations out from before
you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.
Jos
23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is Yahweh your
God who fights for you, as he spoke to you.
Jos
23:11 Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh
your God.
Jos
23:12 Else if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of
these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages
with them, and go in to them, and they to you;
Jos
23:13 know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no longer drive
these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a
trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until
you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given
you.
Jos
23:14 Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in
all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed
of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you.
All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it.
Jos
23:15 It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you
of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you
all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good
land which Yahweh your God has given you,
Jos
23:16 when you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he
commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves
to them. Then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and
you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to
you."
Jos
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.
Jos
24:2 Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says Yahweh, the God
of Israel, 'Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they
served other gods.
Jos
24:3 I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him
throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave
him Isaac.
Jos
24:4 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.
Jos
24:5 I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that
which I did in its midst: and afterward I brought you out.
Jos
24:6 I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea.
The Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with
horsemen to the Red Sea.
Jos
24:7 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: and you lived in the wilderness
many days.
Jos
24:8 I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond
the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand.
You possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
Jos
24:9 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;
Jos
24:10 but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you
still. So I delivered you out of his hand.
Jos
24:11 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.
Jos
24:12 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.
Jos
24:13 I gave you a land whereon 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.'
Jos
24:14 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.
Jos
24:15 If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose this day 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."
Jos
24:16 The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should
forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods;
Jos
24:17 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 midst of whom we passed.
Jos
24:18 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."
Jos
24:19 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.
Jos
24:20 If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will
turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good."
Jos
24:21 The people said to Joshua, "No; but we will serve
Yahweh."
Jos
24:22 Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against
yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him."
They said, "We are witnesses."
Jos
24:23 "Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among
you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel."
Jos
24:24 The people said to Joshua, "We will serve Yahweh our God,
and we will listen to his voice."
Jos
24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made
for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
Jos
24:26 Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he
took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the
sanctuary of Yahweh.
Jos
24:27 Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall
be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of Yahweh
which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you,
lest you deny your God."
Jos
24:28 So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.
Jos
24:29 It happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun,
the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
Jos
24:30 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.
Jos
24:31 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.
Jos
24:32 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 of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred
pieces of money. They became the inheritance of the children of
Joseph.
Jos
24:33 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.