Beginning
The 2½ tribes go home
22 Then Joshua called together the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. 2 Joshua said, ‘You have done everything that Moses, the Lord's servant, told you to do.[a] You have also obeyed everything that I told you to do. 3 You have helped the other tribes for a long time now. You have stayed with them even until today. You have done all the work that the Lord your God gave you to do. 4 Now your brothers can live safely in the land, as the Lord promised them. So you can return to your homes on the other side of the Jordan River. Moses, the Lord's servant, gave that land to you. 5 But you must be very careful to obey the rules and the laws that Moses gave to you. You must love the Lord your God. You must obey the rules and commands that he has given to us. You must worship him and serve him with everything that you have.’
6 Joshua then blessed them and he sent them away to their homes. 7 (Moses had given land in Bashan to half the tribe of Manasseh. But Joshua had given land on the west side of the Jordan to the other half of the tribe, as he did for the other tribes.) When Joshua sent the 2½ tribes home, he blessed them. 8 He said, ‘Go back to your homes with the valuable things that you took from your enemies. Take many animals with you. Take silver, gold, bronze and iron things, as well as beautiful clothes. Share these things with the other people of your tribes.’
9 So the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelites in Shiloh, in the land of Canaan. They returned to their own land in Gilead. Moses had given this land to them, as the Lord had told him.
An altar causes trouble
10 The 2½ tribes came to Geliloth, near the Jordan River, in Canaan. They built a big altar there, beside the river. 11 The other Israelites heard this news: ‘Those 2½ tribes have built an altar on the border of Canaan, at Geliloth! They have built it on the west side of the Jordan River, our side!’ 12 So the Israelites came together at Shiloh to fight against the other 2½ tribes.
13 The Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, to the land of Gilead. He went to meet with the 2½ tribes, Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. 14 10 Israelite leaders went with him, one man from each of their tribes. Each man was a leader of his own clan.
15 The Israelite leaders arrived in the land of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, in Gilead. 16 They said, ‘You have not obeyed the Lord, Israel's God. All the people of Israel agree that you have done a bad thing. You have turned against the Lord. You should not have built this altar for yourselves.[b] 17 We did something very bad at Peor.[c] Even now, we have not made it right. The Lord brought a bad disease to punish us as his people. 18 Now you are doing another bad thing. You no longer want to obey the Lord. You are turning against him today. So tomorrow the Lord may punish us all!
19 If your land here in Gilead is unclean, come back across the river to the Lord's own land. You can come and live among us, in the land where the Lord's tabernacle is. But do not turn against the Lord or against us. Do not build an altar for yourselves. The Lord our God already has his altar here. 20 Remember the time when Achan, son of Zerah, took things that belonged to God for himself. He refused to obey God's command about Jericho's valuable things. Then God became angry with all the people of Israel. Achan died because of his sin, but he was not the only one.’[d]
21 Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered the Israelite leaders. 22 They said, ‘God, the Lord, is the great God! God, the Lord knows what is true! So all Israel must also know! Punish us today if we have turned against the Lord. We have not refused to obey him. 23 We did not build our own altar to make burnt offerings or grain offerings or friendship offerings on it. If we have done that, the Lord himself should certainly punish us.
24 No! We had a very different idea. We were afraid that in the future, your descendants might say to our descendants, “You have nothing to do with the Lord, Israel's God. 25 The Lord put the Jordan River as a border between our tribes and your tribes. The tribes of Reuben and Gad cannot worship the Lord!” In that way, your descendants might stop our descendants from serving the Lord.
26 That is why we decided to build this altar. It will not be an altar where we make sacrifices or burnt offerings. 27 But it will help us all, our descendants and your descendants, to remember to obey the Lord. We will go to worship him at his tabernacle. There we will bring to him our burnt offerings, our sacrifices and our friendship offerings. Then, in future years, your descendants will not say to our descendants, “You cannot worship the Lord with us.”
28 If they say that to us, we will reply, “Look at this altar that our ancestors built. It is a copy of the Lord's true altar. It is not for burnt offerings or sacrifices. They built it so that we would remember that we all belong to the Lord.”
29 We would never decide to turn against the Lord. We want to continue to obey him. We know that the only altar where we must make burnt offerings, sacrifices and friendship offerings is the true altar of the Lord our God. That altar stands in front of his tabernacle.’
30 Phinehas the priest and the Israelite leaders that were with him heard this. They were happy with what the people of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had told them. 31 They said to them, ‘Now we know that the Lord is with us! You have not refused to obey the Lord. So we know that he will not punish us Israelites.’
32 Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the leaders left Gilead and they went back to the land of Canaan. They told the Israelites in Canaan what the people of Reuben and Gad had said. 33 The Israelites were happy to hear their report. They thanked God. They did not think any more that they might attack the other tribes and destroy their land.
34 The people of Reuben and Gad gave their altar a name, because they wanted to remember that the Lord is their God. So they called the altar ‘Remember’.
Joshua says ‘goodbye’
23 Joshua became very old. The Lord had let the Israelite people live safely for many years. The other nations who lived near them did not attack them. 2 One day, Joshua called all the leaders to meet with him. They were the leaders of Israel's tribes and clans, the judges and the officers. He said to them,
‘I am now very old. 3 You yourselves have seen what the Lord has done to these other nations. It was the Lord who fought against them on your behalf. 4 Remember how I have given land to each of your tribes. The land is between the Jordan River in the east, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. It is land that belonged to different nations. Some of those people we have chased away, but some of them still remain in the land. 5 The Lord himself will chase those people out of the land, so that you can live there. The Lord your God has promised you all this.
6 Be very strong. Be careful that you obey everything that Moses wrote in the Book of the Law. Do not turn away from any of those rules. 7 Do not become friends of the nations that live near you. Do not call out to their gods. Do not use the names of their gods to make a promise. You must not serve them or worship them. 8 But you must always serve the Lord your God, as you have until now.
9 The Lord has chased out in front of you nations that are great and strong. None of them has been strong enough to win against you. 10 Because the Lord your God fights on your behalf, one of you can chase away 1,000 men! The Lord has promised to do this for you. 11 You must be very careful that you continue to love the Lord your God. 12 You must not turn away from him to join with the other nations that still live near you. Do not marry any of them. Do not live in the way that they live. 13 If you do that, the Lord your God will not chase them out in front of you any more. Instead, those nations will become a danger for you. They will be like a trap that catches you. They will be like sticks that beat your backs, and like sharp thorns in your eyes. They will bring trouble to you until none of you remain in this good land that the Lord your God has given to you.
14 I will soon die, as all men do. The Lord your God has done everything that he promised you he would do. Deep inside yourselves, you know that is true. He has not failed to do even one thing that he promised. 15 The Lord has given to you every good thing that he has promised. But if you refuse to obey him, he will also punish you in every way that he has promised. He will destroy you so that you no longer live in this good land that he has given to you. 16 You must obey the rules that he commanded you to obey in his covenant. You must not serve or worship other gods. If you turn against him, the Lord your God will be very angry with you. Then very soon none of you will remain in this good land that he has given to you.’
The people agree to serve the Lord
24 Joshua called all the Israelite tribes to meet together at Shechem.[e] He called the leaders of clans, the rulers, the judges and the officers to stand in front of the tabernacle. 2 Joshua said to the people, ‘This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says:
“A long time ago, your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates river. They included Terah who was the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshipped other gods. 3 But I took Abraham, your ancestor, away from that land beyond the Euphrates river. I brought him here and I led him through all the land of Canaan. I gave him many descendants. I gave him a son, Isaac. 4 I gave to Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau. I gave to Esau the hills of Seir. But Jacob and his sons went down to live in Egypt.
5 I sent Moses and Aaron to lead the Israelites when they were in Egypt. I punished the people of Egypt, and I brought you out from there. 6 When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, they reached the Red Sea. The Egyptians chased after them to the sea, with soldiers on horses and in chariots. 7 But your ancestors called to the Lord for help. He made the space between them and the Egyptians become dark. He caused the Egyptian soldiers to drown in the sea. Your ancestors saw what I did to the Egyptians with their own eyes. After that, they lived in the desert for a long time.
8 I brought you to the land of the Amorites, on the east side of the Jordan River. They fought against you, but I helped you to win the fight. I destroyed them in front of you, and you took their land. 9 The king of Moab, Zippor's son Balak, prepared to attack you. When he did this, he asked Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam. So he could not curse you but he continued to bless you. In that way I saved you from Balak's power.
11 Then you went across the Jordan River and you came to Jericho city. The people of Jericho fought against you. So did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites. I helped you to win against all those people. 12 I sent great fear on your enemies as you moved into the land.[f] I chased them all away, as well as the two kings of the Amorites. You did not win because of your strong weapons, but because of me. 13 The land was a gift from me. I gave you a land where you had not worked in its fields. I gave you towns to live in that you did not build. You eat grapes and olives from trees that you did not plant.” ’
14 Joshua said to the people, ‘Now you must serve the Lord with fear. You must worship him. You must continue to trust him. Throw away the gods that your ancestors worshipped when they lived beyond the Euphrates river and in Egypt. Worship the Lord. 15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then you should choose another god to worship. Decide today! Will you serve the gods that your ancestors worshipped across the river? Will you serve the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living? You choose! But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.’
16 The people answered Joshua, ‘We would never turn against the Lord to serve other gods! 17 We and our fathers were slaves in Egypt. But the Lord our God brought us out from there. We saw the great miracles that he did there. He kept us safe all the time on our journey, as we travelled through other nations. 18 The Lord chased all the nations out as we moved into the land. He chased out the Amorites and the other people who lived in the land. So we too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.’
19 Joshua said to them, ‘The Lord is a holy God. You will not be able to serve him. He wants you to belong to him. If you turn against him or you do not obey him, he will not forgive you. 20 If you turn away from the Lord and you serve foreign gods, he will turn against you. He has been kind and he has helped you until now. But he will bring trouble to you and he will destroy you, if you turn away from him.’
21 The people said to Joshua, ‘Never! We will only serve the Lord.’
22 Joshua said to them, ‘You yourselves have chosen to serve the Lord. Agree now that you have done that.’
They replied, ‘Yes, we agree!’
23 Joshua said, ‘So now you must throw away the foreign gods that you still keep. Trust the Lord, Israel's God, and obey him.’
24 The people said to Joshua, ‘We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey him.’
25 That same day, Joshua made an agreement for the people to accept. There at Shechem, he made a list of rules and laws for them to obey. 26 Joshua wrote these things in the Book of God's Law. Then he took a big stone. He stood it there under the oak tree that was near the Lord's holy place.
27 Joshua said to all the people, ‘Look at this stone! It has heard everything that the Lord has said to us today! It will speak against you if you fail to obey your God!’[g]
28 Then Joshua sent the people away. They went to the parts of the land that now belonged to each of them.
Joshua dies
29 After this, the Lord's servant, Joshua, son of Nun, died at the age of 110. 30 The Israelites buried him in his own land that was at Timnah Serah. That was in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
31 The people of Israel continued to serve the Lord while Joshua and the old men were still alive. Joshua and those men had seen everything that the Lord had done to help Israel.
32 The Israelites had brought Joseph's bones up from Egypt, to bury him at Shechem.[h] This land was in the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father. Jacob had paid them 100 pieces of silver for the land. Now the land belonged to Joseph's descendants.
33 Aaron's son, Eleazar, also died. The people buried him at Gibeah, in the hill country of Ephraim. That land had been given to Eleazar's son Phinehas.
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