Joshua Exhorts the People

23 A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around and Joshua was old and well advanced in years,^{(A) 2} Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years,^{(B) 3} and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.^{(C) 4} I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵ The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.^{(D) 6} Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left,^{(E) 7} so that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow yourselves down to them,^{(F) 8} but hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.^{(G) 9} For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no one has been able to withstand you to this day.^{(H) 10} One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you.^{(I) 11} Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you turn back and join the survivors of these nations left here among you and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,^{(J) 13} know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.^(K)

¹⁴ “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.^{(L) 15} But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the bad things until he has destroyed you from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.^{(M) 16} If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.”

The Tribes Renew the Covenant

24 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.^{(N) 2} And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.^{(O) 3} Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac,^{(P) 4} and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.^{(Q) 5} Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out.^{(R) 6} When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.^{[a](S) 7} When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them, and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterward you lived in the wilderness a long time. ⁸ Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.^{(T) 9} Then King Balak son of Zippor of Moab set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you,^{(U) 10} but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you, so I rescued you out of his hand. ¹¹ When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, as well as the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I handed them over to you.^{(V) 12} I sent swarms of hornets^[b] ahead of you that drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.^{(W) 13} I gave you a land on which you had not labored and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant.^(X)

¹⁴ “Now, therefore, revere the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord.^{(Y) 15} Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region 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.”^(Z)

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, ¹⁷ for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed, ¹⁸ and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.^{(AA) 20} If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”^{(AB) 21} And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!” ²² Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” ²³ He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”^{(AC) 24} The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.”^{(AD) 25} So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.^{(AE) 26} Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ Joshua said to all the people, “See, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you if you deal falsely with your God.”^{(AF) 28} So Joshua sent the people away to their inheritances.

Death of Joshua and Eleazar

²⁹ After these things Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred ten years old.^{(AG) 30} They buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.^(AH)

³¹ Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.^(AI)

³² The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem, in the portion of ground that Jacob had bought from the children of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of money;^[c] it became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.^(AJ)

³³ Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of his son Phinehas, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim.^(AK)