Bible, King James Version
Joshua
Josh.24
[1] 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.
[2] 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.
[3] 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.
[4] 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.
[5] I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt,
according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought
you out.
[6] 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.
[7] 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.
[8] 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.
[9] 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 ye 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;
[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 Timnath-serah, 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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