1Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel, its heads, its judges, and its officers, and they presented themselves before God.
2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘Long ago your fathers lived beyond the River—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and they served other gods.
3But I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his offspring and gave him Isaac.
4And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave to Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.
6I 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.
7Then they cried out to Yahweh, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea over them and covered them; your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness for many days.
8Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought against you; but I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.
9Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and called for Balaam son of Beor to curse you.
10But I was not willing to listen to Balaam, so he actually blessed you, and I delivered you from his hand.
11Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The lords of Jericho fought against you—the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—but I gave them into your hand.
12And I sent the hornet before you, and it drove them out before you—the two kings of the Amorites—not by your sword and not by your bow.
13So I gave you a land for which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them; you eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
14“Now therefore fear Yahweh and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.
15But if it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
16Then the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake Yahweh to serve other gods!
17For Yahweh our God is the one who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and who did those great signs before our eyes, and who kept us in all the way we walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.
18And Yahweh drove out before us all the peoples, and the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We too will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.”
19But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgression and your sins.
20If you forsake Yahweh and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and finish you off, after he has done you good.”
21But the people said to Joshua, “No, for we will serve Yahweh.”
22Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen Yahweh, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”
23“Now therefore put away the foreign gods that are in your midst, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
24And the people said to Joshua, “Yahweh our God we will serve, and to his voice we will listen.”
25So Joshua cut a covenant with the people that day, and he set for them a statute and an ordinance at Shechem.
26And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. Then he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak that was in the sanctuary of Yahweh.
27And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of Yahweh that he spoke with us; and it shall be a witness against you, lest you deny your God.”
28Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance.
29And it happened, after these things, that Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being a hundred and ten years old.
30And they buried him within the territory of his inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
31So Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who prolonged their days after Joshua, and who had known all the work of Yahweh that he had done for Israel.
32And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the portion of the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred qesitah; and it became an inheritance for the sons of Joseph.
33And Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.
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