< Joshua 24 >

1 And Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel to Shechem; and he called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God.
[Many years later], Joshua summoned representatives of all the tribes of Israel. He gathered together the elders, the leaders, the judges, and the other officials at Shechem [city]. He told them to listen to what God wanted to tell them.
2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus hath said the Lord the God of Israel, On the other side of the river did your fathers dwell in old time, even Terach, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods.
Joshua said to all of them, “This is what Yahweh, the God we Israeli people worship, is saying: ‘Long ago, your ancestors, including Abraham’s father Terah and Abraham’s younger brother Nahor, lived on the east side of the Euphrates River.
3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and I led him throughout all the land of Canaan; and I multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
But I took your ancestor Abraham from that land east of the Euphrates River, and I led him as he lived in various places in this land of Canaan, and I enabled him to have many descendants. First, I enabled him to have a son, Isaac.
4 And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
When Isaac grew up, I enabled him to have twin sons, Jacob and Esau. I enabled Esau to live in the hilly area in Seir region, but many years later Jacob and his sons and their families went down to live in Egypt.
5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt in the manner as I have done among them; and after that I brought you out.
“[Many years later], I sent Moses and his older brother Aaron to help your people, and I caused [the people of] Egypt to suffer very much because of what I did there. Then I enabled your ancestors to leave Egypt.
6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt; and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea.
When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, they came to the Red Sea. The Egyptian army pursued them, some riding in chariots and others on horses, and they also arrived at the Red Sea.
7 And they cried unto the Lord, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I had done on Egypt; and ye dwelt in the wilderness many days.
Then [your ancestors] pleaded with me to help them. So he caused (darkness/a very dark cloud) to come between your ancestors and the Egyptian army, so that the Egyptian army could not see your ancestors. I separated the water in the Red Sea so that your ancestors could cross it, but when the Egyptian army tried to cross in the same way to pursue them, I caused the water to come back and cover them, and the Egyptian soldiers all drowned, as your ancestors watched and were amazed [IDM]. But after that, you lived in the desert for many years.
8 And I brought you into the land of the Emorites, that dwelt on the other side of the Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, and ye took possession of their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
“Then I brought your [ancestors] to the area where the groups who were descendants of Amor lived, east of the Jordan River. They fought against you, but I enabled you to defeat them [IDM]. I [enabled you to] destroy them so that you could live in their land [IDM].
9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel; and he sent and called Bil'am the son of Beor to curse you;
Then, Zippor’s son Balak, the King of Moab, (decided that his army would fight against/opposed) the Israelis. He summoned Beor’s son Balaam and asked him to curse you.
10 And I would not hearken unto Bil'am; but he had to bless you instead: and I delivered you out of his hand.
But I would not do what Balaam asked, so he (blessed/said that I would do great things for) you four times, and I did not enable the army of Moab to defeat you [IDM].
11 And ye passed over the Jordan, and came unto Jericho; and then fought the men of Jericho against you, the Emorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I gave them up into your hand.
“Then you all crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho prepared to fight against you, [and the armies of] the descendants of Amor, Periz, Canaan, Heth, Girgash, Hiv, and Jebus [all prepared to do the same thing] but I enabled you to defeat [IDM] them all.
12 And I sent before you the hornet which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Emorites: not with thy sword, and not with thy bow.
I am the one who caused them to panic as you advanced and enabled you to defeat them, as I had enabled you to do earlier to the two kings of the groups who were descendants of Amor. You did not defeat them by using your own bows and arrows and swords; [it was I who defeated them].
13 And I gave you a land for which ye had not toiled, and cities which ye had not built, and ye dwell in them; of vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
So I gave you a land that you had not tilled/planted, and I gave you cities that you did not build. [Now] you live in those [cities] and you eat the grapes from the grapevines that you did not plant, and you eat olives from trees that you did not plant.’”
14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
[Then Joshua said to the people], “[Because of all that] Yahweh [has done for you], revere him, and serve/worship him very faithfully. Throw away the idols that your ancestors worshiped on the east/other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve only Yahweh.
15 And if it be displeasing in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom ye will serve: whether the gods which your fathers that were on the other side of the river served, or the gods of the Emorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
But if you do not want to serve/worship Yahweh, you should decide today what [gods] you will serve/worship. You should decide whether you will serve/worship the gods that your ancestors who lived on the other/east side of the Euphrates River served, or whether you will serve/worship the gods that the descendants of Amor, who previously lived in the land where you are now living, [serve/worship]. But as for me and my family [MTY], we will serve/worship Yahweh!”
16 And the people answered and said, Far be it from us to forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;
The Israeli people answered, “We will never quit [serving/worshiping] Yahweh! We would never [think of] [IDM] serving/worshiping other gods!
17 For the Lord our God it is that hath brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who hath done those great signs before our eyes, and preserved us upon all the way whereon we have gone, and among all the people through the midst of whom we have passed:
It was our God, Yahweh, who brought our parents and grandparents up out of Egypt. [He rescued them] from that land where they were slaves. As he rescued them, they saw him perform great miracles. He protected them all the time when they were traveling. He protected them from all the people-groups through whose territory they traveled.
18 And the Lord hath driven out all the nations, and the Emorites who dwelt in the land, from before us; therefore also will we serve the Lord; for he is our God.
As our forefathers advanced, Yahweh expelled the descendants of Amor and the other people-groups who lived in this land. Yahweh is our God, so [we are saying that] we also will serve/worship him.”
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye will not be able to serve the Lord; for he is a holy God; he is a watchful God; he will not have any indulgence for your transgressions and for your sins;
Joshua replied to the people, “[I think that] you are not able to serve/worship Yahweh, because he is a holy God. He will not forgive your sinning and rebelling [against him]. He demands that you serve/worship only him [IDM].
20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then will he again do ye evil, and consume ye, after that he hath done you good.
He has been good to you [in the past], but if you turn away from him and serve/worship foreign/other gods, he will turn [against you] and he will cause you to experience disasters. He will punish [IDM] you severely!”
21 And the people said unto Joshua, No; nevertheless the Lord will we serve.
But the people replied to Joshua, “No, [we will not turn away from worshiping/serving Yahweh] We will serve/worship Yahweh!”
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye yourselves have chosen for you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
Then Joshua said, “You yourselves are saying that you have decided to serve/worship Yahweh.” They replied, “Yes, we are saying that.”
23 And now put away the strange gods which are in the midst of you, and incline your heart unto the Lord the God of Israel.
Then Joshua said, “Since [you have decided] that, you must throw away all the other gods/idols that you have among you. You must also promise that you will wholeheartedly give yourselves to Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [serve/worship].”
24 And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
The people replied, “We will serve/worship Yahweh, our God, and obey him.”
25 And Joshua made a covenant with the people on that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
That day, Joshua established an agreement between the people and Yahweh. He wrote for them all the laws that they were required to obey.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
He wrote all those laws on a scroll. He called it ‘The laws of God’. Then he [told some men to] set up a large stone there at Shechem, under the [large] oak tree near the place where [they worshiped] Yahweh.
27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be among us as a witness; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke unto us: it shall be therefore as a witness against you, that ye may not deny your God.
He said to all the people, “Look! [It is as though] this stone has heard everything that Yahweh said to you [and that you promised Yahweh]. It will serve as a witness against you if you rebel against your God!”
28 And Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.
Then Joshua sent the people away, and all of them returned to their own areas/homes.
29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, one hundred and ten years old.
Some time after that, Nun’s son Joshua, the faithful servant of Yahweh, died. He was 110 years old when he died.
30 And they buried him on the border of his inheritance at Timnath-serach, which is on the mountain of Ephraim, on the north side of mount Ga'ash.
The Israeli people buried his body on his own property in Timnath-Serah [town] town. It is north of Gaash Mountain in the hilly area of the tribe who were descendants of Ephraim.
31 And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who lived many days after Joshua, and who had known all the deeds of the Lord, that he had done for Israel.
The Israeli people served/worshiped Yahweh as long as Joshua was alive. After Joshua died, they continued serving/worshiping Yahweh while the elders who had experienced everything that Yahweh had done for the Israeli people were still alive.
32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons of Chamor the father of Shechem for one hundred kessitah: and it remained the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
Joseph’s bones, which the Israeli people had brought with them from Egypt, were also buried at Shechem. The people buried them in the piece of land that Jacob had bought long ago for 100 pieces of silver from Hamor, the father of Shechem. That piece of land was in the area that was given to the people who were descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph’s sons.
33 And Elazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him on the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the mountain of Ephraim.
Eleazar, the Supreme Priest, the son of Aaron, also died. They buried his body at Gibeah, in the area that had been given to Eleazar’s son Phinehas, in the hilly area that belonged to the people who were descendants of Ephraim.

< Joshua 24 >