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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.
24
约书亚在示剑最后的讲话
1约书亚召集以色列的众支派到示剑，他召了以色列的长老、领袖、审判官和官长来；他们都站在上帝面前。
2约书亚对众百姓说：“耶和华－以色列的上帝如此说：‘古时你们的列祖，就是亚伯拉罕和拿鹤的父亲他拉，住在大河那边事奉别神。
3我将你们的祖宗亚伯拉罕从大河那边带出来，领他走遍迦南全地，又使他的子孙众多。我把以撒赐给他，
4我又把雅各和以扫赐给以撒，将西珥山赐给以扫为业。但雅各和他的子孙下到埃及去了。
5我差遣摩西和亚伦，照我在埃及中间所做的，降灾与埃及，然后把你们领出来。
6我领你们的祖宗出埃及，你们就到了红海。埃及人带领战车骑兵，追赶你们的祖宗到红海。
7你们的祖宗哀求耶和华，他就用黑暗把你们和埃及人隔开了，又使海水冲向埃及人，淹没他们。我在埃及所做的，你们都亲眼见过。你们在旷野住了很多日子。
8我领你们到约旦河东亚摩利人所住之地。他们与你们争战，我把他们交在你们手中，你们就得了他们的地为业。我也在你们面前灭绝他们。
9那时，摩押王西拨的儿子巴勒起来攻击以色列人，派人去召比珥的儿子巴兰来诅咒你们。
10但我不愿听巴兰，所以他反而为你们连连祝福。这样，我救了你们脱离他的手。
11你们过了约旦河，来到耶利哥。耶利哥人、亚摩利人、比利洗人、迦南人、赫人、革迦撒人、希未人、耶布斯人都与你们争战，我却把他们交在你们手里。
12我派遣瘟疫⚓在你们前面，将亚摩利人的两个王从你们面前赶出，并不是用你的刀，也不是用你的弓。
13我赐给你们的地，不是你们开垦的；我赐给你们的城镇，不是你们建造的。你们却住在其中，又得吃那不是你们栽植的葡萄园和橄榄园的果子。’
14“现在你们要敬畏耶和华，诚心诚意事奉他，除掉你们列祖在大河那边和在埃及事奉的神明，事奉耶和华。
15若你们认为事奉耶和华不好，今日就可以选择所要事奉的：是你们列祖在大河那边所事奉的神明，或是你们所住这地亚摩利人的神明呢？至于我和我家，我们必定事奉耶和华。”
16百姓回答说：“我们绝不离弃耶和华去事奉别神。
17因为耶和华－我们的上帝曾领我们和我们的祖宗从埃及地为奴之家出来，在我们眼前行了那些大神迹，并在我们所行的一切路上，和所经过的各民族中保护了我们。
18耶和华又把各民族和住此地的亚摩利人都从我们面前赶出去。所以，我们也必事奉耶和华，因为他是我们的上帝。”
19约书亚对百姓说：“你们不能事奉耶和华，因为他是神圣的上帝，是忌邪⚓的上帝，必不赦免你们的过犯罪恶。
20你们若离弃耶和华去事奉外邦的神明，耶和华在降福之后，必转而降祸给你们，把你们灭绝。”
21百姓对约书亚说：“不，我们要事奉耶和华。”
22约书亚对百姓说：“你们选择耶和华，要事奉他，你们自己作证吧！”他们说：“我们愿意作证。”
23“现在，你们要除掉你们中间外邦的神明，专心归向耶和华－以色列的上帝。”
24百姓对约书亚说：“我们必事奉耶和华－我们的上帝，听从他的话。”
25那日，约书亚就与百姓立约，在示剑为他们制定律例典章。
26约书亚把这些话写在上帝的律法书上，又拿一块大石头立在橡树下耶和华圣所的旁边。
27约书亚对众百姓说：“看哪，这石头可以向我们作见证，因为它听见了耶和华所吩咐我们的一切话；这石头将向你们作见证，免得你们背叛你们的上帝。”
28于是约书亚解散百姓，各自回到自己的地业去了。
约书亚和以利亚撒去世
29这些事以后，耶和华的仆人，嫩的儿子约书亚死了，那时他一百一十岁。
30以色列人把他葬在他自己地业的境内，以法莲山区的亭拿．西拉，在迦实山的北边。
31约书亚在世的日子和他死了以后，那些知道耶和华为以色列所做一切事的长老还在世的时候，以色列人事奉耶和华。
32以色列人把从埃及所带来约瑟的骸骨安葬在示剑，就是雅各从前用一百可锡塔⚓向示剑的父亲哈抹的众子所买的那块地；这块地就成了约瑟子孙的产业。
33亚伦的儿子以利亚撒也死了，他们把他葬在他儿子非尼哈所得以法莲山区的小山上⚓。