The Covenant Renewed at Shechem
1
Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem.
He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel,
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 worshiped other gods.
3
But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him
throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Issac,
4
and to Issac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau,
but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5
" 'Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians
by what I did there, and I brought you out.
6
When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea,
and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen
as far as the Red Sea.
7
But they cried to theLORD for help, and he put darkness between you
and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them.
You saw your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians.
Then you lived in the desert for a long time.
8
" 'I brought you to the land of Amorites who lived east of the Jordan.
They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands.
I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of
their land.
9
When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight
against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put 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 citizens of Jericho
fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites,
Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.
12
I sen the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you -
also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow.
13
So I gave you a land on which you did not toil
and cities you did not build;
and you live in them and eat from vineyards
and olive groves that you did not plant
14
"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.
Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River
and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
15
But if serving the LORD seems u ndesirable to you,
then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods your forefathers served 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 to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!
17
It was the our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt,
from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes.
He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations
through which we traveled.
18
And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites,
who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."
19
Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD.
He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive
your rebellion and your sins.
20
If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn
and bring disaster on you and make an end of you,
after he has been good to you."
21
But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the LORD."
22
Then Joshua said, "ou are witnesses against yourselves that
you have chosen to serve the LORD." "Yes, we are witnesses," they repled.
23
"Now then," said Joshua,"throw away the foreign gods that are among
you and yields your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
24
And the people said to Joshua,
"We will serve the LORD our God and obey him."
25
On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem
he drew up for them decrees and laws.
26
And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God.
Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak
near the holy place of the LORD.
27
"See!" he said to all the people. "This stone will be a witness against us.
It has heard all the words of the LORD has said to us.
It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God."
Buried in the Promised Land
28
Then 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 of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything
the LORD had done for Israel.
32
And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,
were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred
pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants.
33
And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah,
which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country
of Ephraim.
