Joshua Reviews Israel’s History

24 Then ^(A)Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers; and they presented themselves before God. ² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates River, namely, ^(B)Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. ³ Then ^(C)I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and ^(D)multiplied his ^[a]descendants and gave him ^(E)Isaac. ⁴ To Isaac I gave ^(F)Jacob and Esau, and ^(G)to Esau I gave Mount Seir, to possess it; but ^(H)Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. ⁵ Then ^(I)I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt ^[b]by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out. ⁶ So I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and ^(J)you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the ^[c]Red Sea. ⁷ But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And ^(K)you lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁸ Then ^(L)I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; but I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land when I eliminated them before you. ⁹ Then ^(M)Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel, and he sent messengers and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ¹⁰ But I ^(N)was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I saved you from his hand. ^11 (O)You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and ^(P)the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Therefore ^(Q)I handed them over to you. ¹² Then I ^(R)sent the hornet before you and it ^[d]drove out the two kings of the Amorites from you—^(S)not by your sword nor your bow. ¹³ And ^(T)I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’

“We Will Serve the Lord”

¹⁴ “Now, therefore, ^[e](U)fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and ^[f]truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or ^(V)the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we would abandon the Lord to serve other gods; ¹⁷ for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and did these great signs in our sight and watched over us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. ¹⁸ The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

¹⁹ Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, ^(W)for He is a holy God. He is ^(X)a jealous God; ^(Y)He will not forgive your wrongdoing or your sins. ^20 (Z)If you abandon the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and destroy you after He has done good to you.” ²¹ And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” ²² So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that ^(AA)you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” ²³ “Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and ^(AB)incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ And ^(AC)the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and ^[g]obey His voice.” ^25 (AD)So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. ²⁶ And Joshua ^(AE)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 that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ Then Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, ^(AF)this stone shall be a witness against us, because it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke ^[h]to us; so it shall be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.” ²⁸ Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

²⁹ Now it came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. ³⁰ And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in ^(AG)Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

^31 (AH)Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who ^[i]survived Joshua, and had known every deed of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

³² Now ^(AI)they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the plot of land ^(AJ)which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred ^[j]pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons. ³³ And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of his son ^(AK)Phinehas, which was given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.

The Widow’s Gift

21 ^(A)Now He looked up and saw the wealthy putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² And He saw a poor widow putting ^[a]in ^(B)two ^[b]lepta coins. ³ And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; ⁴ for they all ^[c]contributed to the ^[d]offering from their ^[e]surplus; but she, from her poverty, put in all ^[f]that she had ^(C)to live on.”

^5 (D)And while some were talking about the temple, that it was decorated with beautiful stones and ^[g]vowed gifts, He said, ⁶ “As for these things which you are observing, the days will come when ^(E)there will not be left one stone upon ^[h]another, which will not be torn down.”

⁷ They asked Him questions, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the ^[i]sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸ And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘^(F)I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ ^(G)Do not go after them. ⁹ And when you hear of wars and revolts, do not be alarmed; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”

Things to Come

¹⁰ Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, ¹¹ and there will be ^[j]massive earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrible sights and great ^[k]signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all these things, ^(H)they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, turning you over to the synagogues and prisons, ^[l]bringing you before kings and governors on account of My name. ^13 (I)It will lead to ^[m]an opportunity for your testimony. ^14 (J)So ^[n]make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; ¹⁵ for ^(K)I will provide you ^[o]eloquence and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to oppose or refute. ¹⁶ But you will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, other relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be hated by all people because of My name. ¹⁸ And yet ^(L)not a hair of your head will perish. ^19 (M)By your endurance you will gain your ^[p]lives.

²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem ^(N)surrounded by armies, then ^[q]recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are inside ^[r]the city must leave, and ^(O)those who are in the country must not enter ^[s]the city; ²² because these are ^(P)days of punishment, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled. ²³ Woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for ^(Q)there will be great distress upon the ^[t]land, and wrath to this people; ²⁴ and they will fall by ^(R)the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and ^(S)Jerusalem will be ^(T)trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until ^(U)the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The Return of Christ

²⁵ “There will be ^[u]signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ people fainting from fear and the expectation of the things that are coming upon the ^[v]world; for the powers of ^[w]the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ And ^(V)then they will see ^(W)the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because ^(X)your redemption is drawing near.”