God’s Commission to Joshua

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ ^(A)assistant, saying: ^2 (B)“Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. ^3 (C)Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. ^4 (D)From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. ^5 (E)No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; ^(F)as I was with Moses, so ^(G)I will be with you. ^(H)I will not leave you nor forsake you. ^6 (I)Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall ^[a]divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. ⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law ^(J)which Moses My servant commanded you; ^(K)do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may ^[b]prosper wherever you go. ^8 (L)This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but ^(M)you^[c] shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. ^9 (N)Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; ^(O)do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The Order to Cross the Jordan

¹⁰ Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, ¹¹ “Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for ^(P)within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’ ”

^14 (A)“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in ^(B)sincerity and in truth, and ^(C)put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of ^[a]the River and ^(D)in Egypt. Serve the Lord! ¹⁵ And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, ^(E)choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether ^(F)the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of ^[b]the River, or ^(G)the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. ^(H)But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; ¹⁷ for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. ¹⁸ And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. ^(I)We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, ^(J)“You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a ^(K)holy God. He is ^(L)a jealous God; ^(M)He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. ^20 (N)If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, ^(O)then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”

²¹ And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”

²² So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that ^(P)you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”

And they said, “We are witnesses!”

²³ “Now therefore,” he said, ^(Q)“put away the foreign gods which are among you, and ^(R)incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”

²⁴ And the people ^(S)said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”

²⁵ So Joshua ^(T)made^[c] a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance ^(U)in Shechem.

²⁶ Then Joshua ^(V)wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took ^(W)a large stone, and ^(X)set it up there ^(Y)under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be ^(Z)a witness to us, for ^(AA)it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” ²⁸ So ^(AB)Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.

Death of Joshua and Eleazar

^29 (AC)Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old. ³⁰ And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at ^(AD)Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.

^31 (AE)Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had ^(AF)known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.