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Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders, leaders, judges, and officials, and they presented themselves before God.
2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Long ago your forefathers including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River, and they worshipped other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.
5 ‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did among them, and afterward I brought all of you out. 6 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. 7 When they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them. Your own eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness a long time.
8 ‘Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hand. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. 9 When Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, set out to make war against Israel, he sent for Balaam son on Beor to place a curse on you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
11 ‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, but I delivered them into your hands. 12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove them out before you, and also the two kings of the Amorites. But it was not by your own sword or your bow. 13 I gave you a land which you did not labour for, and cities that you did not built, and you live in them; you eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant’.
14 “Now fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your forefathers worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if it seems undesirable to you to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 For the Lord our God brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the land of slavery, and He performed those great signs in our sight. He protected and preserved us along the way we went, and among all the peoples whose lands we travelled through. 18 The Lord drove out before us all the peoples, including the Amorites, who were living in the land. We therefore will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, because He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
21 But the people replied to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
22 Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
“We are witnesses,” they replied.
23 “Now then,” Joshua said, “put away the foreign gods that are among you and commit your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God, and His voice we will obey.”
25 So Joshua made a covenant for the people that day, there at Shechem he established statutes and ordinances for them. 26 Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak near the sanctuary of the Lord.
27 Then Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will for be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you, if you forsake your God.”
28 So Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
29 After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 30 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.
31 Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the lifetime of the elders who outlived Joshua, and who had experienced all the works of the Lord, that He had done for Israel.
32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the parcel of land Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.
33 And Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.