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Today's Bible Reading :: Joshua 22 - 24 (ESV)

Joshua 22Listen to the passage

Joshua 23Listen to the passage

Joshua 24Listen to the passage

Joshua 22

The Eastern Tribes Return Home

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:1 - At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:2 - and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:3 - You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the LORD your God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:4 - And now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:5 - Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:6 - So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:7 - Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:8 - he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:9 - So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.

The Eastern Tribes’ Altar of Witness

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:10 - And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:11 - And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:12 - And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:13 - Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:14 - and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:15 - And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:16 - “Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the LORD by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the LORD?

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:17 - Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the LORD,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:18 - that you too must turn away this day from following the LORD? And if you too rebel against the LORD today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:19 - But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the LORD’s land where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:20 - Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:21

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:21 - Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:22

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:22 - “The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:23

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:23 - for building an altar to turn away from following the LORD. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself take vengeance.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:24

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:24 - No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:25

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:25 - For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:26

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:26 - Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:27

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:27 - but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:28

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:28 - And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:29

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:29 - Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away this day from following the LORD by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:30

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:30 - When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:31

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:31 - And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the LORD. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the LORD.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:32

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:32 - Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:33

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:33 - And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 22:34

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 22:34 - The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.”

Joshua 23

Joshua’s Charge to Israel’s Leaders

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:1 - A long time afterward, when the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:2 - Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:3 - And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:4 - Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:5 - The LORD your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:6 - Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:7 - that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:8 - but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:9 - For the LORD has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:10 - One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, just as he promised you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:11 - Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:12 - For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:13 - know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:14 - “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things[fn] that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:15 - But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 23:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 23:16 - if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
ESV Footnotes
Or words; also twice in verse 15

Joshua 24

The Covenant Renewal at Shechem

(cf. Exo 24:9–18 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:1 - Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:2 - And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates,[fn] Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:3 - Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River[fn] and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:4 - And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:5 - And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:6 - “‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:7 - And when they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:8 - Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:9 - Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:10 - but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:11 - And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:12 - And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:13 - I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’

Choose Whom You Will Serve

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:14 - “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:15 - And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:16 - Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:17 - for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:18 - And the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:19 - But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:20 - If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:21

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:21 - And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:22

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:22 - Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:23

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:23 - He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:24

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:24 - And the people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:25

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:25 - So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:26

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:26 - And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:27

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:27 - And 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 that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:28

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:28 - So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

Joshua’s Death and Burial

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:29

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:29 - After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 110 years old.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:30

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:30 - And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:31

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 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 that the LORD did for Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:32

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:32 - As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money.[fn] It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jos 24:33

Unchecked Copy BoxJos 24:33 - And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim.
See the ESV Preface
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew the River
That is, the Euphrates; also verses 14, 15
Hebrew for a hundred qesitah; a unit of money of uncertain value
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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