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The Covenant at Shechem
1Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to ⚓Shechem and ⚓called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they ⚓presented themselves before God.
2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ⚓‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and ⚓they served other gods.
3⚓Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and ⚓gave him Isaac.
4To Isaac I gave ⚓Jacob and Esau. To ⚓Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, ⚓but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.
5⚓Also I sent Moses and Aaron, and ⚓I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out.
6‘Then I ⚓brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
7So they cried out to the Lord; and He put ⚓darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And ⚓your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness ⚓a long time.
8And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, ⚓and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you.
9Then ⚓Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and ⚓sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.
10⚓But I would not listen to Balaam; ⚓therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand.
11Then ⚓you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And ⚓the men of Jericho fought against you—also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I delivered them into your hand.
12⚓I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but⚓not with your sword or with your bow.
13I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and ⚓cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’
14⚓“Now therefore, fear the Lord, 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. Serve the Lord!
15And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, ⚓choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether ⚓the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or ⚓the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. ⚓But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods;
17for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.
18And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. ⚓We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19But Joshua said to the people, ⚓“You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a ⚓holy God. He is⚓a jealous God; ⚓He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20⚓If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, ⚓then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
21And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
22So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that ⚓you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
23“Now therefore,” he said,⚓“put away the foreign gods which are among you, and ⚓incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
24And the people ⚓said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”
25So Joshua ⚓made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance ⚓in Shechem.
26Then Joshua ⚓wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took ⚓a large stone, and ⚓set it up there ⚓under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
27And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be ⚓a witness to us, for ⚓it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.”
28So ⚓Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.
Death of Joshua and Eleazar
29⚓Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
30And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at ⚓Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
31⚓Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had ⚓known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.
32⚓The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground ⚓which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33And ⚓Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in a hill belonging to⚓Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim.
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約書亞在示劍最後的講話
1約書亞召集以色列的眾支派到示劍，他召了以色列的長老、領袖、審判官和官長來；他們都站在上帝面前。
2約書亞對眾百姓說：「耶和華－以色列的上帝如此說：『古時你們的列祖，就是亞伯拉罕和拿鶴的父親他拉，住在大河那邊事奉別神。
3我將你們的祖宗亞伯拉罕從大河那邊帶出來，領他走遍迦南全地，又使他的子孫眾多。我把以撒賜給他，
4我又把雅各和以掃賜給以撒，將西珥山賜給以掃為業。但雅各和他的子孫下到埃及去了。
5我差遣摩西和亞倫，照我在埃及中間所做的，降災與埃及，然後把你們領出來。
6我領你們的祖宗出埃及，你們就到了紅海。埃及人帶領戰車騎兵，追趕你們的祖宗到紅海。
7你們的祖宗哀求耶和華，他就用黑暗把你們和埃及人隔開了，又使海水衝向埃及人，淹沒他們。我在埃及所做的，你們都親眼見過。你們在曠野住了很多日子。
8我領你們到約旦河東亞摩利人所住之地。他們與你們爭戰，我把他們交在你們手中，你們就得了他們的地為業。我也在你們面前滅絕他們。
9那時，摩押王西撥的兒子巴勒起來攻擊以色列人，派人去召比珥的兒子巴蘭來詛咒你們。
10但我不願聽巴蘭，所以他反而為你們連連祝福。這樣，我救了你們脫離他的手。
11你們過了約旦河，來到耶利哥。耶利哥人、亞摩利人、比利洗人、迦南人、赫人、革迦撒人、希未人、耶布斯人都與你們爭戰，我卻把他們交在你們手裏。
12我派遣瘟疫⚓在你們前面，將亞摩利人的兩個王從你們面前趕出，並不是用你的刀，也不是用你的弓。
13我賜給你們的地，不是你們開墾的；我賜給你們的城鎮，不是你們建造的。你們卻住在其中，又得吃那不是你們栽植的葡萄園和橄欖園的果子。』
14「現在你們要敬畏耶和華，誠心誠意事奉他，除掉你們列祖在大河那邊和在埃及事奉的神明，事奉耶和華。
15若你們認為事奉耶和華不好，今日就可以選擇所要事奉的：是你們列祖在大河那邊所事奉的神明，或是你們所住這地亞摩利人的神明呢？至於我和我家，我們必定事奉耶和華。」
16百姓回答說：「我們絕不離棄耶和華去事奉別神。
17因為耶和華－我們的上帝曾領我們和我們的祖宗從埃及地為奴之家出來，在我們眼前行了那些大神蹟，並在我們所行的一切路上，和所經過的各民族中保護了我們。
18耶和華又把各民族和住此地的亞摩利人都從我們面前趕出去。所以，我們也必事奉耶和華，因為他是我們的上帝。」
19約書亞對百姓說：「你們不能事奉耶和華，因為他是神聖的上帝，是忌邪⚓的上帝，必不赦免你們的過犯罪惡。
20你們若離棄耶和華去事奉外邦的神明，耶和華在降福之後，必轉而降禍給你們，把你們滅絕。」
21百姓對約書亞說：「不，我們要事奉耶和華。」
22約書亞對百姓說：「你們選擇耶和華，要事奉他，你們自己作證吧！」他們說：「我們願意作證。」
23「現在，你們要除掉你們中間外邦的神明，專心歸向耶和華－以色列的上帝。」
24百姓對約書亞說：「我們必事奉耶和華－我們的上帝，聽從他的話。」
25那日，約書亞就與百姓立約，在示劍為他們制定律例典章。
26約書亞把這些話寫在上帝的律法書上，又拿一塊大石頭立在橡樹下耶和華聖所的旁邊。
27約書亞對眾百姓說：「看哪，這石頭可以向我們作見證，因為它聽見了耶和華所吩咐我們的一切話；這石頭將向你們作見證，免得你們背叛你們的上帝。」
28於是約書亞解散百姓，各自回到自己的地業去了。
約書亞和以利亞撒去世
29這些事以後，耶和華的僕人，嫩的兒子約書亞死了，那時他一百一十歲。
30以色列人把他葬在他自己地業的境內，以法蓮山區的亭拿‧西拉，在迦實山的北邊。
31約書亞在世的日子和他死了以後，那些知道耶和華為以色列所做一切事的長老還在世的時候，以色列人事奉耶和華。
32以色列人把從埃及所帶來約瑟的骸骨安葬在示劍，就是雅各從前用一百可錫塔⚓向示劍的父親哈抹的眾子所買的那塊地；這塊地就成了約瑟子孫的產業。
33亞倫的兒子以利亞撒也死了，他們把他葬在他兒子非尼哈所得以法蓮山區的小山上⚓。