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And Joshua
gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and
called for the elders of Israel, and for their
heads, and for their judges, and for their
officers; and they presented themselves before
God.
02 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt
on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of
Nachor: and they served other gods.
03 And I took your father Abraham from the other
side of the flood, and led him throughout all the
land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave
him Isaac.
04 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I
gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but
Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
05 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued
Egypt, according to that which I did among them:
and afterward I brought you out.
06 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and
ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued
after your fathers with chariots and horsemen
unto the Red sea.
07 And when they cried unto the Lord, he put
darkness between you and the Egyptians, and
brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and
your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt:
and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
08 And I brought you into the land of the
Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan;
and they fought with you: and I gave them into
your hand, that ye might possess their land; and
I destroyed them from before you.
09 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab,
arose and warred against Israel, and sent and
called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:
10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore
he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of
his hand.
11 And you went over Jordan, and came unto
Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against
you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the
Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and
I delivered them into your hand.
12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave
them out from before you, even the two kings of
the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with
thy bow.
13 And I have given you a land for which ye did
not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye
dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards
which ye planted not do ye eat.
14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in
sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods
which your fathers served on the other side of
the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the
Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid
that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other
gods;
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17 For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us
up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage, and which did those great
signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the
way wherein we went, and among all the people
through whom we passed:
18 And the Lord drave out from before us all the
people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the
land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for
he is our God.
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot
serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a
jealous God; he will not forgive your
transgressions nor your sins.
20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange
gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and
consume you, after that he hath done you good.
21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we
will serve the Lord.
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are
witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen
you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are
witnesses.
23 Now therefore put away, said he, the strange
gods which are among you, and incline your heart
unto the Lord God of Israel.
24 And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our
God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that
day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in
Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of
the law of God, and took a great stone, and set
it up there under an oak, that was by the
sanctuary of the Lord.
27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold,
this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it
hath heard all the words of the Lord which he
spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness
unto you, lest ye deny your God.
28 So Joshua let the people depart, every man
unto his inheritance.
29 And it came to pass after these things, that
Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord,
died, being an hundred and ten years old.
30 And they buried him in the border of his
inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in mount
Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
31 And Israel served the Lord all the days of
Joshua, and all the days of the elders that
overlived Joshua, and which had known all the
works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of
Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in
Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought
of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an
hundred pieces of silver: and it became the
inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they
buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas
his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.
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