The Covenant Renewed at Shechem

1Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders, heads, judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. 2Joshua said to all the people, “YHWH, the God of Israel, says, ‘Long ago, y’all’s ancestors lived beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor. They served other gods. 3I took y’all’s father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 4I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir, as a possession. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

5“‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did among them, and afterward I brought y’all out. 6When I brought y’all’s ancestors out of Egypt, y’all reached to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued y’all’s ancestors with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea. 7But they cried out to YHWH, and ʜᴇ put darkness between y’all and the Egyptians, and ʜᴇ brought the sea on them and covered them. Y’all’s eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then y’all lived in the wilderness many days.

8“‘I brought y’all into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought with y’all, but I gave them into y’all’s hand. Y’all possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before y’all. 9Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse y’all, 10but I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed-blessed y’all, and I delivered y’all from his hand.

11“‘Y’all went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho as well as the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite fought against y’all, But I delivered them into y’all’s hand. 12I sent the hornet ahead of y’all to drive them out from the two kings of the Amorites from before y’all. It was not with your sword or your bow. 13So I gave y’all a land on which y’all had not labored, and cities which y’all didn’t build, and y’all live in them. Y’all eat of vineyards and olive groves which y’all didn’t plant.’

14“Therefore y’all are to fear YHWH and worship ʜɪᴍ in sincerity and in truth. Y’all must turn from the gods your* ancestors worshiped beyond the River in Egypt and worship YHWH. 15If it seems terrible in your* eyes to worship YHWH, y’all must choose today whom y’all will worship—the gods y’all’s ancestors worshiped beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land y’all dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH.”

16The people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake YHWH to serve other gods. 17For it is YHWH our God who brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the middle of whom we passed. 18YHWH drove out all the peoples from before us, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will worship YHWH, for ʜᴇ is our God.”

19Joshua said to the people, “Y’all are not able to worship YHWH, because ʜᴇ is a holy God. Hᴇ is a jealous God. Hᴇ will not forgive y’all’s disobedience or y’all’s sins. 20If y’all forsake YHWH, and serve foreign gods, then ʜᴇ will turn against y’all, harm y’all and destroy y’all, after ʜᴇ has done good for y’all.”

21The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will worship YHWH.” 22Joshua said to the people, “Y’all are witnesses against yourselves* that y’all have to worship YHWH.”

They said, “We are witnesses.”

23“Now therefore y’all must throw away the foreign gods among y’all, and incline y’all’s heart to YHWH, the God of Israel.”

24The people said to Joshua, “We will worship YHWH our God, and we will listen to ʜɪꜱ voice.”

25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. Then he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of YHWH. 27Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard all YHWH’s words which ʜᴇ spoke to us. It will be therefore a witness against y’all, so that y’all won’t deny y’all’s God.” 28So Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

29After these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of YHWH, died, being one hundred ten years old. 30They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 31Israel served YHWH all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of YHWH, that he had worked for Israel. 32They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver.+24:32 Hebrew: kesitahs. A kesitah was a kind of silver coin. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 33Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.