¹Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel in Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel and for its heads and for its judges and for its officers, and they stood before God. ²And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Your fathers dwelt across the river in time past – Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor – and they served other gods, ³but I took your father Abraham from the far side of the river, and I led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his seed, and I gave him Isaac. ⁴And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess, while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. ⁵And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in their midst, and afterwards I brought you out. ⁶And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, whereupon Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen at the Red Sea. ⁷And they cried out to the Lord, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over them, and it covered them, and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you dwelt in the desert for many days. ⁸And I brought you to the land of the Amorite who dwelt across the Jordan, and they fought you, and I delivered them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. ⁹Then Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel, and he sent men and called for Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ¹⁰But I was not willing to hear Balaam, and he thoroughly blessed you, and I delivered you out of his hand. ¹¹Then you crossed the Jordan and went to Jericho, and the lords of Jericho fought against you – the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites – and I delivered them into your hand. ¹²And I sent out wasps before you, and they drove them out before you – two kings of the Amorites – not by your sword and not by your bow. ¹³And I gave you land which you did not toil on, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them, and you are eating from vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant.’ ¹⁴So now, 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 river, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵And if it is bad in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, which were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” ¹⁶And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord, to serve other gods. ¹⁷For the Lord is our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from a house of slavery, and who performed in our sight these great signs, and who guarded us along all the way we went, and among all the various peoples through whose midst we crossed. ¹⁸And the Lord drove out all the nations before us, including the Amorites inhabiting the land, so we in turn will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” ¹⁹Then Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God, and he is a jealous God; he will not endure your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, he will turn and do you harm and make an end of you, after doing you good.” ²¹Then the people said to Joshua, “Not that, for we will serve the Lord.” ²²Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses to yourselves, for you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” ²³Joshua said, “And now, put away the strange gods which are in your midst, and extend your heart to the Lord God of Israel.” ²⁴And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God, and we will obey him.” ²⁵Then Joshua made a covenant with the people on that day, and he set up for them a statute and a judicial system in Shechem. ²⁶And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a large stone, and he set it up there under the oak tree at the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷Then Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke with us, and it will be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” ²⁸Then Joshua sent the people away – each one to his inheritance. ²⁹And it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, aged one hundred and ten years. ³⁰And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance at Timnath-Serah, which is at Mount Ephraim, to the north of Mount Gaash. ³¹And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and who knew all the work of the Lord which he had done for Israel. ³²And they buried Joseph's bones, which the sons of Israel had brought up from Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of land which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred kesitahs, and they became an inheritance of the sons of Joseph. ³³Then Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at the hill of Phinehas his son which had been given to him at Mount Ephraim.