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. ² And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^(E)‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of ^[a]the River in old times; and ^(F)they served other gods. ^3 (G)Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of ^[b]the River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his ^[c]descendants and ^(H)gave him Isaac. ⁴ To Isaac I gave ^(I)Jacob and Esau. To ^(J)Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, ^(K)but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. ^5 (L)Also I sent Moses and Aaron, and ^(M)I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out.

⁶ ‘Then I ^(N)brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. ⁷ So they cried out to the Lord; and He put ^(O)darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And ^(P)your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness ^(Q)a long time. ⁸ And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, ^(R)and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. ⁹ Then ^(S)Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and ^(T)sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ^10 (U)But I would not listen to Balaam; ^(V)therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand. ¹¹ Then ^(W)you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And ^(X)the men of Jericho fought against you—also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand. ^12 (Y)I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but ^(Z)not with your sword or with your bow. ¹³ I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and ^(AA)cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’

^14 (AB)“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in ^(AC)sincerity and in truth, and ^(AD)put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of ^[d]the River and ^(AE)in Egypt. Serve the Lord! ¹⁵ And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, ^(AF)choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether ^(AG)the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of ^[e]the River, or ^(AH)the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. ^(AI)But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

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

And they said, “We are witnesses!”

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

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

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

²⁶ Then Joshua ^(G)wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took ^(H)a large stone, and ^(I)set it up there ^(J)under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be ^(K)a witness to us, for ^(L)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 ^(M)Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.

Death of Joshua and Eleazar

^29 (N)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 ^(O)Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.

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