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.^{(A) 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.^{(B) 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,^{(C) 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.^{(D) 5} Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out.^{(E) 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](F) 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.^{(G) 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,^{(H) 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.^{(I) 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.^{(J) 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.^(K)

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.^{(L) 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.”^(M)

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.^{(N) 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.”^{(O) 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.”^{(P) 24} The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.”^{(Q) 25} So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.^{(R) 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.”^{(S) 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.^{(T) 30} They buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.^(U)

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.^(V)

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.^(W)

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.^(X)

A Life Pleasing to God

4 Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more.^{(A) 2} For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;^{(B) 4} that each one of you know how to control your own body^[a] in holiness and honor, ⁵ not with lustful passion, like the gentiles who do not know God; ⁶ that no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.^{(C) 7} For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. ⁸ Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.

⁹ Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,^{(D) 10} and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, ¹¹ to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you,^{(E) 12} so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.^(F)

The Coming of the Lord

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died,^[b] so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.^{[c](G) 15} For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.^{[d] 16} For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.^{(H) 17} Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.^{(I) 18} Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women^[a] took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.^{[b](A) 2} Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.^{(B) 3} When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.^{(C) 6} But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those young women^[c] got up and trimmed their lamps.^{(D) 8} The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.^{(E) 11} Later the other young women^[d] came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’^{(F) 12} But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.^[e](G)