1 Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He called for the elders of Israel, their leaders, judges, and officials, and they presented themselves before God.
2 Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'In ancient times your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and served other gods.
3 But I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him throughout the land of Canaan. I gave him many descendants; I gave him Isaac,
4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir as his possession, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5 Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with plagues by what I did there, and afterward I brought you out.
6 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians chased your fathers with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.
7 They cried out to the LORD, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea over them, and it covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness for many days.
8 I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I handed them over to you. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.
9 Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you.
10 But I was not willing to listen to Balaam, so he kept on blessing you, and I rescued you from his power.
11 You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, but I handed them over to you.
12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites. It was not your sword or your bow that did it.
13 I gave you a land you had not worked for and towns you had not built, and you live in them. You eat from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.'
14 So now, fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully. Get rid of the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
15 But if serving the LORD seems wrong to you, then choose today whom you will serve: the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
16 The people answered, "We would never forsake the LORD to serve other gods!
17 For the LORD our God is the one who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves, who performed those great signs before our eyes, and who protected us along the whole way we traveled and among all the peoples we passed through.
18 The LORD drove out before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. So we too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."
19 Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not pardon your rebellion or your sins.
20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring harm on you and destroy you, after having been good to you."
21 But the people told Joshua, "No! We will serve the LORD."
22 Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD." "We are witnesses," they replied.
23 "Then get rid of the foreign gods among you and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
24 The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey his voice."
25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he laid down a statute and a rule for them.
26 Joshua recorded these words in the book of the law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the sanctuary of the LORD.
27 He said to all the people, "Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard every word the LORD has spoken to us. It will be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God."
28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his own inheritance.
29 After these events Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.
30 They buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
31 Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.
32 Joseph's bones, which the children of Israel had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. It became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33 Eleazar son of Aaron also died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of his son Phinehas, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.