Joshua 23-24New King James Version (NKJV)
Joshua’s Farewell Address
23 Now it came to pass, a long time after
the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about,
that Joshua was old, advanced in age. 2 And Joshua
called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and
for their officers, and said to them:
“I am old, advanced in age. 3 You
have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations
because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has
fought for you. 4 See, I have divided to you by lot
these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the
Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea
westward. 5 And the Lord your God will
expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall
possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you. 6 Therefore
be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law
of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, 7 and lest
you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make
mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to
swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to
them, 8 but you shall hold fast to
the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. 9 For
the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations;
but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to
this day. 10 One man of you shall chase a thousand,
for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as
He promised you. 11 Therefore take careful heed to
yourselves, that you love the Lord your God. 12 Or
else, if indeed you do go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations—these
that remain among you—and make marriages with them, and go in to them and they
to you, 13 know for certain that
the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before
you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and
thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which
the Lord your God has given you.
14 “Behold, this day I am going
the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls
that not one thing has failed of all the good things which
the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for
you; not one word of them has failed. 15 Therefore
it shall come to pass, that as all the good things have come upon you which
the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon
you all harmful things, until He has destroyed you from this good land which
the Lord your God has given you. 16 When
you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He
commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them,
then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall
perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”
The Covenant at Shechem
24 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel
to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their
judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2 And
Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel:
‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the
father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River[a] in old times; and they
served other gods. 3 Then I took your father
Abraham from the other side of the River, led him throughout all the land of
Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 4 To
Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess,
but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. 5 Also
I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among
them. Afterward I brought you out.
6 ‘Then I 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. 7 So they
cried out to the Lord; and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians,
brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And your eyes saw what I did in
Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. 8 And
I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the
Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you
might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then
Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and
sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. 10 But
I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I
delivered you out of his hand. 11 Then you went
over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought against you—also the
Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the
Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand. 12 I
sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the
two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with
your bow. 13 I have given you a land for which you
did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you
eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’
14 “Now therefore, fear
the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which
your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve
the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to
serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the
other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 So the people answered and said:
“Far be it from us that we should forsake 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
bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the
way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And
the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the
Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our
God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people,
“You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God.
He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions
nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and
serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He
has done you good.”
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 you have chosen
the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put
away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your
heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
24 And the people said to Joshua,
“The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the
people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 Then Joshua 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 And Joshua said to all the
people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the
words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a
witness to you, lest you deny your God.” 28 So
Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.
Death of Joshua and Eleazar
29 Now it came to pass after these
things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one
hundred and ten years old. 30 And they buried him
within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in
the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
31 Israel served
the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who
outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had
done for Israel.
32 The bones of Joseph, which the
children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the
plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of
Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance
of the children of Joseph.
33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died.
They buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas his son, which
was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim.
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