The Covenant at Shechem^(A)

24 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to ^(B)Shechem and ^(C)called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they ^(D)presented themselves before God.

^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;

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed^(A)

¹² Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—^(B)take them out of this place! ¹³ For we will destroy this place, because the ^(C)outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and ^(D)the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, ^(E)who had married his daughters, and said, ^(F)“Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” ^(G)But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

⁶ and turning the cities of ^(A)Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; ⁷ and ^(B)delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, ^(C)tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—

¹¹ And have ^(A)no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather ^[a]expose them. ^12 (B)For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.