Joshua 24:18-33
24:18 The
Lord drove out from before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. So we too will worship
the
Lord, for he is our God!”
24:19 Joshua warned the people, “You will not keep worshiping the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God who will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.
24:20 If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you; he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, though he once treated you well.”
24:21 The people said to Joshua, “No! We really will worship the Lord!”
24:22 Joshua said to the people, “Do you agree to be witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to worship the Lord?” They replied, “We are witnesses!”
24:23 Joshua said, “Now put aside the foreign gods that are among you and submit to the Lord God of Israel.”
24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will worship the Lord our God and obey him.”
24:25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement for the people, and he established rules and regulations for them in Shechem.
24:26 Joshua wrote these words in the Law Scroll of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there under the oak tree near the Lord’s shrine.
24:27 Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against you, for it has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness against you if you deny your God.”
24:28 When Joshua dismissed the people, they went to their allotted portions of land.
An Era Ends
24:29 After all this Joshua son of Nun, the Lord’s servant, died at the age of one hundred ten.
24:30 They buried him in his allotted territory in Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
24:31 Israel worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men who outlived him remained alive. These men had experienced firsthand everything the Lord had done for Israel.
24:32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the part of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of money. So it became the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph.
24:33 Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah in the hill country of Ephraim, where his son Phinehas had been assigned land.