Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem and called for their elders, leaders, judges, and officials to present themselves before God.

"The Lord God of Israel says," Joshua declared to the people, "your fathers lived long ago beyond the River. They served other gods, including Terah, Abraham's father." He took them back to the beginning: "I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, multiplying his descendants and giving him Isaac."

"I gave Isaac Jacob and Esau," he continued, "and I gave Esau mount Seir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt." He recalled the exodus: "I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to what I had done among them. Afterward, I brought you out."

Joshua took the people through their history: "Your ancestors came to the sea; the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea." The people remembered how God intervened: "And when they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, bringing the sea upon them and covering them."

The people had dwelled in the wilderness a long season before God brought them into the land of the Amorites. Joshua said, "I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you." However, not all battles were won through their own strength: "Then Balak, king of Moab, rose up to wage war against Israel and sent for Balaam to curse you."

Joshua recalled how God intervened once again: "But I refused to listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand." The people had crossed the Jordan River and fought battles at Jericho, where they encountered various nations that God also defeated.

"I sent the hornet before you," Joshua explained, "which drove out the two Amorite kings from their lands, not through your sword or bow." He emphasized how God provided for them: "I have given you a land that you did not work to acquire, and cities that you did not build, and you live in them. Of vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant, you eat."

Joshua urged the people to serve the Lord with sincerity and truth. He encouraged them to put away their ancestors' idols and worship only God: "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him... putting away the gods your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt to serve the Lord." If they couldn't accept this, Joshua proposed a choice between their ancestors' gods or the Amorites' deities. He concluded, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

The people responded with commitment: "May it never be that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods." They looked back at God's faithfulness: "For the Lord our God, he it is who brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed."

The Lord had driven out all the Amorites who lived in the land; therefore they would serve him because he was their God: "The Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who lived in the land. And so we will also serve the Lord, because he is our God."

Joshua warned them that serving foreign gods would lead to harm and reversal of God's blessings: "You cannot serve the Lord, because he is a holy God who will not forgive your sins and transgressions. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn against you and bring harm, consuming what he had previously done for your good."

The people reaffirmed their commitment to the Lord: "No, but we will serve the Lord." Joshua set a covenant with them at Shechem, establishing a statute and an ordinance. He wrote down the agreement in the book of God's law and set up a great stone under an oak as a witness against them.

"This stone will be our witness," he said, "having heard all the Lord's words spoken to us; it will testify against you if you deny your God." Joshua dismissed the people, allowing each to return to their inheritance. Later, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten years old.

The Israelites buried him in Timnath-serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash. They continued to serve the Lord throughout his lifetime and that of the elders who outlived him. The bones of Joseph were finally laid to rest in a plot of land purchased by Jacob from Hamor for 100 pieces of silver.

Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died and was buried in a hill belonging to Phinehas his grandson, which had been given to him in Mount Ephraim.