Joshua 24King James Version
The second and final farewell, at Shechem. Joshua recounts the whole story from Abraham to the present day. Then the famous challenge: 'Choose you this day whom ye will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' The people answer: we also will serve the Lord. Joshua sets up a great stone as a witness. He dies at one hundred and ten and is buried in the land of his inheritance.
Joshua assembles all Israel at Shechem for a covenant renewal ceremony. He recites Israel's entire history from Abraham through the conquest as God speaking in first person. He challenges the people to choose whom they will serve. Three times they affirm they will serve the LORD. Joshua sets up a stone as witness, appoints Shechem as a statute, and dies at 110. Joseph's bones are buried at Shechem. Eleazar the priest dies.
The covenant must be chosen, not inherited. Joshua refuses to let Israel coast on its history and demands a deliberate, adult decision.
verse 15: "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." The most famous line in the book, and the most personal declaration Joshua makes.
Shechem, in the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, around 1375 BC. The site carries centuries of covenant history: Abraham, Jacob, the Shechemite incident of Genesis 34. Joshua stands before the whole assembly in this valley, flanked by the mountains of blessing and cursing, and recites four centuries of history in God's voice. The people respond three times. A large stone is set upright under the oak. Then the assembly disperses for the last time under Joshua's leadership, the old man going home to die.
Joshua, presiding at Shechem for the last time; all Israel gathered at the tribal assembly; God, speaking through Joshua's recitation of history; the stone set up as witness under the oak at Shechem; Joseph, whose bones finally rest in the land he never entered; Eleazar son of Aaron, whose death closes the priestly succession of the Exodus generation.
Shechem was the site of Abraham's first altar in Canaan, the place where Jacob built an altar after returning from Paddan-aram, and now the place where the conquest generation renews the covenant. The repeated three-fold affirmation by the people mirrors the gravity Joshua places on the choice. The book ends with three burials: Joshua, Eleazar, and Joseph's bones, closing the narrative arc that began with Abraham's promise and ended with possession.
Joshua's personal declaration, 'as for me and my house,' is not a command but a testimony. He is not telling Israel what to do; he is telling them where he stands. The courage of the Jordan crossing and the sun-stopping prayer distills here into a single sentence of personal allegiance, spoken by a dying man who has never doubted his choice.
1And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
2And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
3And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
4And 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.
5I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
6And 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.
7And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
8And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
9Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:
10But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.
11And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
12And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
13And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
14Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
16And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
17For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which 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:
18And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God.
19And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
21And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.
22And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
23Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
24And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
27And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.
28So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.
29And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
30And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
31And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel.
32And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.