You must serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst.

“On six days you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest; even at the time of plowing and of harvest you are to rest.

“‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service.

He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee,

and at the age of fifty years they must retire from performing the work and may no longer work.

Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name.

Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods!

You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them.

“Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have,

However, if you turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods,

The people responded, “Far be it from us to abandon the Lord so we can worship other gods!

The people said to Joshua, “No! We really will worship the Lord!”

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

The Israelites did evil before the Lord by worshiping the Baals.

They took the Canaanites’ daughters as wives and gave their daughters to the Canaanites; they worshiped their gods as well.

The Israelites were subject to King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.

But since you abandoned me and worshiped other gods, I will not deliver you again.

They threw away the foreign gods they owned and worshiped the Lord. Finally the Lord grew tired of seeing Israel suffer so much.

So the Israelites removed the Baals and images of Ashtoreth. They served only the Lord.

You rescue me from a hostile army; you preserve me as a leader of nations; people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects.