Joshua 24:16-33
Contemporary English Version
16 The people answered:
We could never worship other gods or stop worshiping the Lord. 17 The Lord is our God. We were slaves in Egypt as our ancestors had been, but we saw the Lord work miracles to set our people free and to bring us out of Egypt. Even though other nations were all around us, the Lord protected us wherever we went. 18 And when we fought the Amorites and the other nations that lived in this land, the Lord made them run away. Yes, we will worship and obey the Lord, because the Lord is our God.
19 Joshua said:
The Lord is fearsome; he is the one true God, and I don't think you are able to worship and obey him in the ways he demands. You would have to be completely faithful, and if you sin or rebel, he won't let you get away with it. 20 If you turn your backs on the Lord and worship the gods of other nations, the Lord will turn against you. He will make terrible things happen to you and wipe you out, even though he had been good to you before.
21 But the people shouted, “We won't worship any other gods. We will worship and obey only the Lord!”
22 Joshua said, “You have heard yourselves say that you will worship and obey the Lord. Isn't that true?”
“Yes, it's true,” they answered.
23 Joshua said, “But you still have some idols, like those the other nations worship. Get rid of your idols! You must decide once and for all that you really want to obey the Lord God of Israel.”
24 The people said, “The Lord is our God, and we will worship and obey only him.”
25 Joshua helped Israel make an agreement with the Lord that day at Shechem. Joshua made laws for Israel 26 and wrote them down in The Book of the Law of God.[a] Then he set up a large stone under the oak tree at the place of worship in Shechem 27 and told the people, “Look at this stone. It has heard everything that the Lord has said to us. Our God can call this stone as a witness if we ever reject him.”
28 Joshua sent everyone back to their homes.
Joshua, Joseph, and Eleazar Are Buried
29 Not long afterwards, the Lord's servant Joshua died at the age of 110. 30 (A) The Israelites buried him in his own land at Timnath-Serah, north of Mount Gaash in the hill country of Ephraim.
31 As long as Joshua lived, Israel worshiped and obeyed the Lord. There were other leaders old enough to remember everything that the Lord had done for Israel. And for as long as these men lived, Israel continued to worship and obey the Lord.
32 (B) When the people of Israel left Egypt, they brought the bones of Joseph along with them. They took the bones to the town of Shechem and buried them in the field that Jacob had bought for 100 pieces of silver[b] from Hamor, the founder of Shechem. The town and the field both[c] became part of the land belonging to the descendants of Joseph.
33 When Eleazar the priest[d] died, he was buried in the hill country of Ephraim on a hill that belonged to his son Phinehas.
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