Chapter 23 – Chapter 24

Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

1 And it was after many days, after Jehovah gave rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua became old and stricken in years.

2 Then Joshua called all Israel, their elders, their heads, and their judges, and their prefects, and said to them, I am old and stricken in years,

3 And you have seen all that Jehovah your God has given to all those nations in your sight, because Jehovah your God has fought for you.

4 See that those remaining nations have been distributed to you for an inheritance by your tribes, from the Jordan, and all the nations which I have destroyed, even to the great sea towards the setting of the sun.

5 And Jehovah your God will himself drive them before you, and will drive them out from your presence, and you shall possess their land by hereditary right, as Jehovah your God spoke to you.

6 Be very strong, therefore, to keep and do whatever is written in the book of the law of Moses, not to recede from it, either to the right hand or the left;

7 Do not become mingled with those nations which remain with you, and do not make mention of the name of their gods, nor swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow yourselves to them;

8 But cleave to Jehovah your God, as you have done even to this day.

9 Therefore he has driven out before you great nations and strong, nor has any one stood in your presence even to this day.

10 One man of you has pursued a thousand, because Jehovah your God is he who fights for you, as he had spoken to you.

11 Be very watchful over your souls in loving Jehovah your God.

12 For if you shall turn and turn away, and adhere to those remaining nations, those remaining nations, I say, which are with you, and contract marriages with them, and mingle yourselves with them, and they with you;

13 Then know how that after this Jehovah your God will not drive out all those nations from your face; but they will be to you for a snare, and an offence, and a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from that best land which Jehovah your God has given you.

14 And lo, I am this day entering the way of all the earth; know, therefore, with your whole heart and your whole soul, that not one word has fallen of all the most excellent words which Jehovah your God spoke over you; all things have happened to you; not one word of them has fallen.

15 Therefore, as every good word which Jehovah your God spoke to you has been fulfilled, so Jehovah will bring upon you every evil word, until he destroy you from that best land which Jehovah your God has given you.

16 When you shall have transgressed the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he commanded you, and shall have gone away and served other gods, and bowed yourselves unto them, the wrath of Jehovah will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from the most excellent land which he has given you.

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

1 And thus Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel in Sichem, and called the elders of Israel, and their heads, and their judges, and their prefects; and they stood before God.

2 And Joshua said unto the whole people, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt beyond the river at the beginning, as Terah, the father of Abraham and father of Nachor, and they served strange gods.

3 And I brought your father Abraham from the place which was beyond the river, and I led him through the whole land of Canaan, and I multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.

4 And to Isaac I have Jacob and Esau; and to Esau I gave mount Seir, that he might possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt.

5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and smote Egypt, as I did in the midst of it, and I afterwards led you out.

6 And I led your fathers out of Egypt, and you came down to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horses even to the Red Sea.

7 Then they cried to Jehovah, and he placed darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over him and covered him; and your eyes saw what I did in the desert, and you dwelt in the desert during many days.

8 Afterwards I brought you to the land of the Amorite, dwelling beyond the Jordan; and they fought with you, and I delivered them into your hand; and you possessed their land, and I destroyed them before your face.

9 And Balac the son of Sippor, the king of Moab, rose up and fought with Israel; and he sent and called Bileam, the son of Beor, to curse you.

10 And I refused to hear Bileam; but blessing I blessed you, and freed you from his hand.

11 And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho, the Amorite, and the Perezite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite fought against you, and I delivered them into your hand.

12 And I sent before you hornets, who expelled them before your face, the two kings of the Amorite, not by thy sword nor by thy bow.

13 And I gave to you a land in which you labored not, and cities which you built not, and you dwelt in them; of vineyards and oliveyards which you planted not, you eat.

14 Now therefore fear Jehovah, and serve him in perfection and truth, and take away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah.

15 But if it is irksome to you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom you are to worship; whether the gods whom your fathers who were beyond the river served, or the gods of the Amorite, in whose land you dwell; but I and my house will worship Jehovah.

16 And the people answered him, saying, Far be it from us to forsake Jehovah, by serving strange gods;

17 For Jehovah our God is he who led us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and who did in our eyes those great signs: and he preserved us in all the way in which we walked, and among all the nations through the midst of whom we passed.

18 And Jehovah drove out all the nations, and also the Amorite, the inhabitant of the land, from our face; even will we serve Jehovah, for he is our God.

19 And Joshua said unto the people, You will not be able to serve Jehovah, inasmuch as he is a holy God, he is a jealous God; he will not spare your wickedness and your sins.

20 If you shall forsake Jehovah, and serve a strange god, he will turn, and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.

21 And the people answered him, By no means; but we will serve Jehovah.

22 And Joshua said unto the people, You are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen Jehovah, to serve him; and they said, (We are) witnesses.

23 Now therefore take away the strange gods which are in the midst of you, and incline your heart to Jehovah the God of Israel.

24 And the people answered, Jehovah our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.

25 Joshua therefore made a covenant with the people on that day; and held forth to them precept and judgment in Sichem.

26 Joshua wrote those words in the book of the law of God; he also brought a great stone, and placed it there beneath the oak which was in the sanctuary of Jehovah.

27 And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, that stone will be for a testimony to you, for it has heard all the words of Jehovah which he has spoken to us, and it will be for a testimony against you, lest perchance you lie against your God.

28 And Joshua sent back the people, every one to his own inheritance.

29 And these things having been done, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of a hundred and ten years.

30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Thimnat-serah, which is on mount Ephraim, to the north of mount Gaas.

31 And Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders, who lived long after Joshua, and who had known all the work of Jehovah, which he had done to Israel.

32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought out of Egypt, they buried in Sichem, in a part of the field which Jacob had acquired from the children of Hamor, the father of Sichem, for a hundred pieces of money, and the children of Joseph had them in their possession.

33 Moreover, Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeath, belonging to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.

THE END OF THE NEW TRANSLATION
OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA.