Joshua, starting at chapter 22
{22:1} Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the
half-tribe of Manasseh, {22:2} and said to them, "You have kept all
that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have listened to
my voice in all that I commanded you. {22:3} You have not left your
brothers these many days to this day, but have performed the duty of
the commandment of the LORD your God. {22:4} Now the LORD your God has
given rest to your brothers, as he spoke to them. Therefore now return
and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the
servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan. {22:5} Only take
diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the
servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, to walk
in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to
serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."
{22:6} So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went to
their tents. {22:7} Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had
given inheritance in Bashan; but to the other half gave Joshua among
their brothers beyond the Jordan westward. Moreover when Joshua sent
them away to their tents, he blessed them, {22:8} and spoke to them,
saying, "Return with much wealth to your tents, with very much
livestock, with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with
very much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your
brothers."
{22:9} The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the
half-tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of
Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the
land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they owned,
according to the commandment of the LORD by Moses. {22:10} When they
came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan,
the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of
Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look at.
{22:11} The children of Israel heard this, "Behold, the children of
Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have
built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region
about the Jordan, on the side that pertains to the children of
Israel." {22:12} When the children of Israel heard of it, the whole
congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at
Shiloh, to go up against them to war. {22:13} The children of Israel
sent to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the
half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of
Eleazar the priest, {22:14} and with him ten princes, one prince of a
fathers' house for each of the tribes of Israel; and they were
everyone of them head of their fathers' houses among the thousands of
Israel. {22:15} They came to the children of Reuben, and to the
children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of
Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying, {22:16} "Thus says the whole
congregation of the LORD, 'What trespass is this that you have
committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from
following the LORD, in that you have built yourselves an altar, to
rebel this day against the LORD? {22:17} Is the iniquity of Peor too
little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day,
although there came a plague on the congregation of the LORD, {22:18}
that you must turn away this day from following the LORD? It will be,
since you rebel today against the LORD, that tomorrow he will be angry
with the whole congregation of Israel. {22:19} However, if the land of
your possession is unclean, then pass over to the land of the
possession of the LORD, in which the LORD's tabernacle dwells, and
take possession among us; but don't rebel against the LORD, nor rebel
against us, in building an altar other than the altar of the LORD our
God. {22:20} Didn't Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the
devoted thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? That
man didn't perish alone in his iniquity.'"
{22:21} Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the
half-tribe of Manasseh answered, and spoke to the heads of the
thousands of Israel, {22:22} "The Mighty One, God, the LORD, the
Mighty One, God, the LORD, he knows; and Israel shall know: if it was
in rebellion, or if in trespass against the LORD (don't save us this
day), {22:23} that we have built us an altar to turn away from
following the LORD; or if to offer burnt offering or meal offering, or
if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings, let the LORD himself
require it.
{22:24} "If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason,
saying, 'In time to come your children might speak to our children,
saying, "What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? {22:25}
For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you
children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no portion in the
LORD."' So your children might make our children cease from fearing
the LORD.
{22:26} "Therefore we said, 'Let's now prepare to build ourselves an
altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; {22:27} but it will
be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us,
that we may perform the service of the LORD before him with our burnt
offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings;' that
your children may not tell our children in time to come, 'You have no
portion in the LORD.'
{22:28} "Therefore we said, 'It shall be, when they tell us or our
generations this in time to come, that we shall say, "Behold the
pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for
burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and
you."'
{22:29} "Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD,
and turn away this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for
burnt offering, for meal offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar
of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle!"
{22:30} When Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the
congregation, even the heads of the thousands of Israel that were with
him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of
Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them well. {22:31}
Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben,
to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, "Today we
know that the LORD is in the midst of us, because you have not
committed this trespass against the LORD. Now you have delivered the
children of Israel out of the hand of the LORD." {22:32} Phinehas the
son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children
of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, to
the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word
again. {22:33} The thing pleased the children of Israel; and the
children of Israel blessed God, and spoke no more of going up against
them to war, to destroy the land in which the children of Reuben and
the children of Gad lived. {22:34} The children of Reuben and the
children of Gad named the altar "A Witness Between Us that the LORD is
God."
{23:1} It happened after many days, when the LORD had given rest to
Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well
advanced in years, {23:2} that Joshua called for all Israel, for their
elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their
officers, and said to them, "I am old and well advanced in years.
{23:3} You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these
nations because of you; for it is the LORD your God who has fought for
you. {23:4} Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain,
to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the
nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going
down of the sun. {23:5} The LORD your God will thrust them out from
before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess
their land, as the LORD your God spoke to you.
{23:6} "Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is
written in the scroll of the Torah of Moses, that you not turn aside
from it to the right hand or to the left; {23:7} that you not come
among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention
of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve
them, nor bow down yourselves to them; {23:8} but hold fast to the
LORD your God, as you have done to this day.
{23:9} "For the LORD has driven great and strong nations out from
before you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.
{23:10} One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is the LORD your
God who fights for you, as he spoke to you. {23:11} Take good heed
therefore to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God.
{23:12} "But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant
of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages
with them, and go in to them, and they to you; {23:13} know for a
certainty that the LORD your God will no longer drive these nations
from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a
scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from
off this good land which the LORD your God has given you.
{23:14} "Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know
in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed
of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you.
All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it. {23:15} It
shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which the
LORD your God spoke to you, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil
things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the
LORD your God has given you, {23:16} when you disobey the covenant of
the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other
gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the anger of the LORD will
be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good
land which he has given to you."
{24:1} 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.
{24:2} Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel, 'Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah,
the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other
gods. {24:3} I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led
him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and
gave him Isaac. {24:4} I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to
Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into
Egypt.
{24:5} "'I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to
that which I did in its midst: and afterward I brought you out. {24:6}
I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The
Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen
to the Sea of Suf. {24:7} When they cried out to the LORD, he put
darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them,
and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you lived
in the wilderness many days.
{24:8} "'I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived
beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your
hand. You possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
{24:9} Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought
against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse
you; {24:10} but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed
you still. So I delivered you out of his hand.
{24:11} "'You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of
Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite,
the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I
delivered them into your hand. {24:12} I sent the hornet before you,
which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the
Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow. {24:13} I gave you a
land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn't build,
and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you
didn't plant.'
{24:14} "Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and
in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the
River, in Egypt; and serve the LORD. {24:15} If it seems evil to you
to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the
gods which your fathers served that were beyond 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."
{24:16} The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should
forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; {24:17} for it is the LORD our
God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and
preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the
peoples through the midst of whom we passed. {24:18} The LORD drove
out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the
land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD; for he is our God."
{24:19} Joshua said to the people, "You can't serve the LORD; for he
is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your
disobedience nor your sins. {24:20} If you forsake the LORD, and serve
foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you,
after he has done you good."
{24:21} The people said to Joshua, "No; but we will serve the LORD."
{24:22} Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against
yourselves that you have chosen the LORD yourselves, to serve him."
They said, "We are witnesses."
{24:23} "Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among
you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel."
{24:24} The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God,
and we will listen to his voice."
{24:25} So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made
for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. {24:26} Joshua wrote
these words in the scroll of the Torah of God; and he took a great
stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of
the LORD. {24:27} Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone
shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the
LORD which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against
you, lest you deny your God." {24:28} So Joshua sent the people away,
every man to his inheritance.
{24:29} It happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun,
the servant of the LORD, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
{24:30} They buried him in the border of his inheritance in
Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of
the mountain of Gaash. {24:31} Israel served the LORD all the days of
Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had
known all the work of the LORD, that he had worked for Israel. {24:32}
They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought
up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob
bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces
of money. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
{24:33} Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of
Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
________________________________________________________________________
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