Joshua 24

²he summoned all Israel, including its elders, leaders, judges, and officers. “I am old and well along in years,” he said,

¹⁹But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions, and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

²⁵So Moses chose capable men from all Israel and made them heads over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²⁶And they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult cases to Moses, but any minor issue they would judge themselves.

¹⁸After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.

¹⁹And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.

⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

³³So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has instructed you to tell us.”

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

³⁰Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”

³and tell her that this is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

²Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

⁵³May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

⁵and you are to declare before the Lord your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.

¹Then the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

²I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

²So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.

³And Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore to him.

²And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’

⁵And the Lord took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”

³Children are indeed a heritage from the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.

⁷You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

⁸You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites and Hittites, of the Amorites and Perizzites, of the Jebusites and Girgashites—to give it to his descendants. You have kept Your promise, because You are righteous.

⁸So Esau (that is, Edom) settled in the area of Mount Seir.

⁵Do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a footprint, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as his possession.

²⁴When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.

²⁵The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau.

¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.

²³Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.

³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

¹⁰Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

¹The Lord answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

²You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.

⁴³when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink.

⁵¹And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.

²⁶He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

²⁷They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

¹⁰He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever.

³⁶He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.

²⁹By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned.

¹²who sent His glorious arm to lead them by the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to gain for Himself everlasting renown,

¹³who led them through the depths like a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?

³⁷The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.

¹³He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.

¹⁴and led Israel through the midst, His loving devotion endures forever.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal-zephon.

³⁴Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?

²⁰so that it came between the camps of Egypt and Israel. The cloud was there in the darkness, but it lit up the night. So all night long neither camp went near the other.

¹⁰As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified and cried out to the Lord.

¹²You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should travel.

¹³You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.

³¹When Israel saw the great power that the Lord had exercised over the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in Him and in His servant Moses.

²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state. As the Egyptians were retreating, the Lord swept them into the sea.

²⁸The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

²¹Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

²²“Let us pass through your land. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will stay on the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”

¹⁷He struck down great kings His loving devotion endures forever.

¹⁸and slaughtered mighty kings—His loving devotion endures forever.

³²So Sihon and his whole army came out for battle against us at Jahaz.

²²You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner of the land. So they took the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and of Og king of Bashan.

¹⁰He struck down many nations and slaughtered mighty kings:

¹¹Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan.

¹⁰and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the border of the Ammonites;

²⁵Are you now so much better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?

⁵My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteousness of the Lord.’”

²Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites,

⁴For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

⁵Yet the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, and the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

⁵he sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is by the Euphrates in the land of his people. “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt,” said Balak. “They cover the face of the land and have settled next to me.

⁶So please come now and put a curse on this people, because they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land; for I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.”

⁵Yet the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, and the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

¹⁷No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

⁵How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel!

⁶They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the Lord has planted, like cedars beside the waters.

³⁵But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you are to speak only what I tell you.” So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

¹¹‘Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and they cover the face of the land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps I may be able to fight against them and drive them away.’”

¹²But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”

³“Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the Lord will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height,

⁴and God met with him. “I have set up seven altars,” Balaam said, “and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

¹⁴So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

¹⁵Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,

¹⁰Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across,

¹¹and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the Lord crossed in the sight of the people.

¹When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

⁴⁴He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor,

⁵⁴He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

¹Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

²And the Lord said to Joshua, “Behold, I have delivered Jericho into your hand, along with its king and its mighty men of valor.

²⁸I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.

²⁰Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.

³For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them.

⁴You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob.

¹⁰And when the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,

¹¹with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,

⁷For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;

⁴⁵Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel had failed; everything was fulfilled.

²²A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.

¹³Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds, except Hazor, which Joshua burned.

²⁴Above all, fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.

¹²And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

²So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

²³“Now, therefore,” he said, “get rid of the foreign gods among you and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

¹²For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

¹Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord.

²¹Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word.

⁶⁷So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you want to leave too?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

¹⁵“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”

¹⁶But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

¹⁸Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,

³⁹And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord God says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.

³²You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.

³³They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

³⁸But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

²³As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

²Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

⁶Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?

⁴‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

⁷I will make known the Lord’s loving devotion and His praiseworthy acts, because of all that the Lord has done for us—the many good things for the house of Israel according to His great compassion and loving devotion.

⁸For He said, “They are surely My people, sons who will not be disloyal.” So He became their Savior.

⁹Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, though his height was like that of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below.

¹⁰And I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, that you might take possession of the land of the Amorite.

¹¹As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.

¹²The Lord alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.

⁴Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.

⁵Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and afterward I brought you out.

⁶When I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.

¹⁶Truly, O Lord, I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have broken my bonds.

²And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

²and that you may tell your children and grandchildren how severely I dealt with the Egyptians when I performed miraculous signs among them, so that all of you may know that I am the Lord.”

²³This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

⁷³the oath He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

⁷⁴deliverance from hostile hands, that we may serve Him without fear,

²The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

²¹Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.

¹⁶But the Lord of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁵Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; He is holy!

⁹Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.

²⁰The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”

²⁶If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,

²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries.

⁴²But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

²⁴But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.

⁹As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

¹³O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.

¹¹But you who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,

¹²I will destine you for the sword, and you will all kneel down to be slaughtered, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen; you did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

¹⁹“Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”

²⁷Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then you can tell us everything the Lord our God tells you; we will listen and obey.”

²⁸And the Lord heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

⁸And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the Lord has spoken.” So Moses brought their words back to the Lord.

⁵One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord,’ another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name of Israel.”

⁷Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

³When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.”

¹⁷³May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.

¹¹I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.

⁶Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you; your own lips testify against you.

⁴²But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

¹⁷Today you have proclaimed that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice.

²²His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?

¹⁴Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

¹⁶What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

¹⁷“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

³Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”

⁴So the Israelites put away the Baals and Ashtoreths and served only the Lord.

¹⁵“We have sinned,” the Israelites said to the Lord. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!”

¹⁶So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.

²⁹“For our God is a consuming fire.”

²So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

³Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”

⁷Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

³When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.”

²⁷Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then you can tell us everything the Lord our God tells you; we will listen and obey.”

²⁸And the Lord heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

³⁸In view of all this, we make a binding agreement, putting it in writing and sealing it with the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.”

²⁵And Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them,

¹⁶Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the king and the people that they would be the Lord’s people.

¹⁷Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people that they would be the Lord’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.

²⁶Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the Lord.

³When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.”

⁶Then all the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered beside the oak at the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.

⁴So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.

²⁰And there at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.

²¹Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’

²⁴When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end,

²⁵he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord:

⁴And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁸Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.

⁴⁰“I tell you,” He answered, “if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out.”

³⁴So the Reubenites and Gadites named the altar Witness, for they said, “It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

²⁶“Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you.

³³But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.

²⁷Rather, let it be a witness between us and you and the generations to come, that we will worship the Lord in His presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings.’ Then in the future, your descendants cannot say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord!’

²⁸Therefore we said, ‘If they ever say this to us or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the altar of the Lord that our fathers made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’

²¹And when many troubles and afflictions have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their inclination, even before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them.”

⁶After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.

⁸And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110.

²²Now Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to the age of 110.

²⁶So Joseph died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin in Egypt.

¹⁷It is not the dead who praise the Lord, nor any who descend into silence.

⁵So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, as the Lord had said.

⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

⁸From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.

⁵⁰as the Lord had commanded. They gave him the city of Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, as he requested. He rebuilt the city and settled in it.

⁹They buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

³⁰Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai from the brooks of Gaash,

⁷And the people served the Lord throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who had seen all the great works that the Lord had done for Israel.

¹³Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

²Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the Lord your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm;

²⁹For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. And in the days to come, disaster will befall you because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger by the work of your hands.”

²And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, however, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.

¹⁸They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.

²⁵And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

¹⁹And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.

¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear a solemn oath when he said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place.”

¹⁶Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.

⁵So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

²²By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his bones.

²⁵Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families by their clans.

¹³The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the land of Gilead, to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

²³And Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²³Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

³²The chief of the leaders of the Levites was Eleazar son of Aaron the priest; he oversaw those responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.

²⁴But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.