Joshua 23-24

Common English Bible

Joshua’s word of warning

23 A long time passed. The Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua had grown very old. ² Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders, their heads, their judges, and their officers. He said to them, “I’ve grown very old. ³ You’ve seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. It is the Lord your God who fights for you. ⁴ Look. I’ve allotted to you these remaining nations as a legacy for your tribes, along with all the nations I have destroyed. They stretch from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. ⁵ The Lord your God will force them out before you and remove them from you. Then you will take over their land, exactly as the Lord your God has promised you. ⁶ Be very strong. Carefully obey everything written in the Instruction scroll from Moses. Don’t deviate a bit from it either to the right or to the left. ⁷ Don’t have anything to do with these nations that remain with you. Don’t invoke the names of their gods or take oaths by them. Don’t serve them or worship them. ⁸ Hold on to the Lord your God instead, exactly as you’ve done right up to today.

⁹ “The Lord has removed great and powerful nations before you. To this day, no one has stood up to you. ¹⁰ A single one of you puts a thousand to flight. This is because the Lord your God fights for you, exactly as he promised you. ¹¹ For your own sake, be very careful to love the Lord your God. ¹² But if you should turn away and join the rest of these nations that remain with you, intermarry with them, and associate with each other, ¹³ then know for certain that the Lord your God won’t keep on removing these nations before you. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap for you. They will be a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you vanish from this fertile land that the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “Look. I’m now walking on the road to death that all the earth must take. You know with all your heart and being that not a single one of all the good things that the Lord your God promised about you has failed. They were all fulfilled for you. Not a single one of them has failed. ¹⁵ But in the same way that every good thing that the Lord your God promised about you has been fulfilled, so the Lord could bring against you every bad thing as well. He could wipe you out from this fertile land that the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶ If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you to keep, and go on to serve other gods and worship them, then the Lord will be furious with you. You will quickly vanish from the fertile land that he has given you.”

What God has done

24 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders of Israel, its leaders, judges, and officers. They presented themselves before God. ² Then Joshua said to the entire people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates. They served other gods. Among them was Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. ³ I took Abraham your ancestor from the other side of the Euphrates. I led him around through the whole land of Canaan. I added to his descendants and gave him Isaac. ⁴ To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Mount Seir to Esau to take over. But Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. ⁵ Then I sent Moses and Aaron. I plagued Egypt with what I did to them. After that I brought you out. ⁶ I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. The Egyptians chased your ancestors with chariots and horses to the Reed Sea.^{[a] 7} Then they cried for help to the Lord. So he set darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea down on them, and it covered them. With your own eyes you saw what I did to the Egyptians. You lived in the desert for a long time.

⁸ “Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They attacked you, but I gave them into your power, and you took over their land. I wiped them out before you. ⁹ Then Moab’s King Balak, Zippor’s son, set out to attack Israel. He summoned Balaam, Beor’s son, to curse you. ¹⁰ But I wasn’t willing to listen to Balaam, so he actually blessed you. I rescued you from his power. ¹¹ Then you crossed over the Jordan. You came to Jericho, and the citizens of Jericho attacked you. They were Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. But I gave them into your power. ¹² I sent the hornet^[b] before you. It drove them out before you and did the same to the two kings of the Amorites. It wasn’t your sword or bow that did this. ¹³ I gave you land on which you hadn’t toiled and cities that you hadn’t built. You settled in them and are enjoying produce from vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant.

Challenge to be faithful

¹⁴ “So now, revere the Lord. Serve him honestly and faithfully. Put aside the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if it seems wrong in your opinion to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But my family and I will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “God forbid that we ever leave the Lord to serve other gods! ¹⁷ The Lord is our God. He is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He has done these mighty signs in our sight. He has protected us the whole way we’ve gone and in all the nations through which we’ve passed. ¹⁸ The Lord has driven out all the nations before us, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

¹⁹ Then Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He won’t forgive your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰ If you leave the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn around and do you harm and finish you off, in spite of having done you good in the past.”

²¹ Then the people said to Joshua, “No! The Lord is the one we will serve.”

²² So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

They said, “We are witnesses!”

²³ “So now put aside the foreign gods that are among you. Focus your hearts on the Lord, the God of Israel.”

²⁴ The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and will obey him.”

Joshua makes a covenant

²⁵ On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people and established just rule for them at Shechem. ²⁶ Joshua wrote these words in God’s Instruction scroll. Then he took a large stone and put it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ Joshua said to all the people, “This stone will serve here as a witness against us, because it has heard all the Lord’s words that he spoke to us. It will serve as a witness against you in case you aren’t true to your God.” ²⁸ Then Joshua sent the people away to each one’s legacy.

Three important graves

²⁹ After these events, Joshua, Nun’s son, the Lord’s servant, died. He was 110. ³⁰ They buried him within the border of his own legacy, in Timnath-serah in the highlands of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash. ³¹ Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had known every act the Lord had done for Israel.

³² The Israelites had brought up the bones of Joseph from Egypt. They buried them at Shechem in the portion of field that Jacob had purchased for one hundred qesitahs from the descendants of Hamor the father of Shechem. They became a legacy of the descendants of Joseph.

³³ Eleazar son of Aaron died. They buried him at Gibeah, which belonged to his son Phinehas. It had been given to him in the highlands of Ephraim.