Joshua 24
Open in the reader1Then He-Who-Is-Saves assembled all the tribes of Strives-with-God at Shoulder. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Strives-with-God, and they presented themselves before God.
2And He-Who-Is-Saves said to all the people, “This is what He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Father-of-a-Multitude and Snorter, lived beyond the Rushing and worshiped other gods.
3But I took your father Father-of-a-Multitude from beyond the Rushing and led him through all the land of Humbled, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him He-Laughs,
4and to He-Laughs I gave Heel-Grabber and Hairy. I gave Hairy Mount Hairy to possess, but Heel-Grabber and his sons went down to Two-Straits.
5Then I sent Drawn-Out and Aaron, and I afflicted the Two-Straitsians by what I did there, and afterward I brought you out.
6When I brought your fathers out of Two-Straits and you reached the Reed Sea, the Two-Straitsians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Reed Sea.
7So your fathers cried out to He-Who-Is, and He put darkness between you and the Two-Straits-Ones, over whom He brought the Sea and engulfed them. Your very eyes saw what I did to the Two-Straits-Ones. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
8Later, I brought you to the land of the Mountaineers who lived beyond the Descender. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your hand, that you should possess their land when I destroyed them before you.
9Then Devastator son of Bird, the king of From-the-Father, set out to fight against Strives-with-God. He sent for Not-of-the-People son of Burning to curse you,
10but I would not listen to Not-of-the-People. So he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you from his hand.
11After this, you crossed the Descender and came to Moon. The people of Moon fought against you, as did the Mountaineers, Open-Country-Dwellers, Humbled-Ones, Son-of-Terrors, Girgashites, Tent-Villagers, and Trodden-Ones, and I delivered them into your hand.
12I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove out the two Mountaineer kings before you, but not by your own sword or bow.
13So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities that you did not build, and now you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
14Now, therefore, fear He-Who-Is and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Rushing and in Two-Straits, and serve He-Who-Is.
15But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve He-Who-Is, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Rushing, or the gods of the Mountaineers in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve He-Who-Is!”
16The people replied, “Far be it from us to forsake He-Who-Is to serve other gods!
17For He-Who-Is our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Two-Straits, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.
18And He-Who-Is drove out before us all the nations, including the Mountaineers who lived in the land. We too will serve He-Who-Is, because He is our God!”
19But He-Who-Is-Saves said to the people, “You are not able to serve He-Who-Is, for He is a devoted God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.
20If you forsake He-Who-Is and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.”
21“No!” replied the people. “We will serve He-Who-Is!”
22Then He-Who-Is-Saves told them, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve He-Who-Is.” “We are witnesses!” they said.
23“Now , therefore,” he said, “get rid of the foreign gods among you and incline your hearts to He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God.”
24So the people said to He-Who-Is-Saves, “We will serve He-Who-Is our God and obey His voice.”
25On that day He-Who-Is-Saves made a covenant for the people, and there at Shoulder he established for them a statute and ordinance.
26He-Who-Is-Saves recorded these things in the Book of the Teaching of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of He-Who-Is.
27And He-Who-Is-Saves said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words He-Who-Is has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”
28Then He-Who-Is-Saves sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
29Some time later, He-Who-Is-Saves son of Nun, the servant of He-Who-Is, died at the age of 110.
30And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Portion-of-Abundance in the hill country of Double-Fruit, north of Mount Quaking.
31Strives-with-God had served He-Who-Is throughout the days of He-Who-Is-Saves and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced all the works that He-Who-Is had done for Strives-with-God.
32And the bones of May-He-Add, which the children of Strives-with-God had brought up out of Two-Straits, were buried at Shoulder in the plot of land that Heel-Grabber had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shoulder’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver. So it became an inheritance for May-He-Add’s descendants.
33My-God-Is-Help son of Aaron also died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which had been given to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Double-Fruit.