Joshua 24:5-26

⁵Many years later, I sent Moses and his older brother Aaron to help your peoeple, and I caused the people of Egypt to suffer very much because of what I did there. Then I enabled your ancestors to leave Egypt.

⁶When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, they came to the Red Sea. The Egyptian army pursued them, some riding in chariots and others on horses, and they also arrived at the Red Sea.

⁷Then your ancestors pleaded with me to help them. So he caused ◄darkness/a very dark cloud► to come between your ancestors and the Egyptian army, so that the Egyptian army could not see your ancestors. I separated the water in the Red Sea so that your ancestors could cross it, but when the Egyptian army tried to cross in the same way to pursue them, I caused the water to come back and cover them, and the Egyptian soldiers all drowned, as your ancestors watched and were amazed IDM. But after that, you lived in the desert for many years.

⁸Then I brought your ancestors to the area where the groups who were descendants of Amor lived, east of the Jordan River. They fought against you, but I enabled you to defeat them IDM. I enabled you to destroy them so that you could live in their land IDM.

⁹Then, Zippor's son Balak, the King of Moab, ◄decided that his army would fight against/opposed► the Israelis. He summoned Beor's son Balaam and asked him to curse you.

¹⁰But I would not do what Balaam asked, so he ◄blessed/said that I would do great things for► you four times, and I did not enable the army of Moab to defeat you IDM.

¹¹Then you all crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho prepared to fight against you, and the armies of the descendants of Amor, Periz, Canaan, Heth, Girgash, Hiv, and Jebus all prepared to do the same thing, but I enabled you to defeat IDM them all.

¹²I am the one who caused them to panic as you advanced and enabled you to defeat them, as I had enabled you to do earlier to the two kings of the groups who were descendants of Amor. You did not defeat them by using your own bows and arrows and swords; it was I who defeated them.

¹³So I gave you a land that you had not tilled/planted, and I gave you cities that you did not build. Now you live in those cities and you eat the grapes from the grapevines that you did not plant, and you eat olives from trees that you did not plant.’ ”

¹⁴Then Joshua said to the people, “ Because of all that Yahweh has done for you, revere him, and serve/worship him very faithfully. Throw away the idols that your ancestors worshiped on the east/other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve only Yahweh.

¹⁵But if you do not want to serve/worship Yahweh, you should decide today what gods you will serve/worship. You should decide whether you will serve/worship the gods that your ancestors who lived on the other/east side of the Euphrates River served, or whether you will serve/worship the gods that the descendants of Amor, who previously lived in the land where you are now living, serve/worship. But as for me and my family MTY, we will serve/worship Yahweh!”

¹⁶The Israeli people answered, “We will never quit serving/worshiping Yahweh! We would never think of IDM serving/worshiping other gods!

¹⁷It was our God, Yahweh, who brought our parents and grandparents up out of Egypt. He rescued them from that land where they were slaves. As he rescued them, they saw him perform great miracles. He protected them all the time when they were traveling. He protected them from all the people-groups through whose territory they traveled.

¹⁸As our forefathers advanced, Yahweh expelled the descendants of Amor and the other people-groups who lived in this land. Yahweh is our God, so we are saying that we also will serve/worship him.”

¹⁹Joshua replied to the people, “ I think that you are not able to serve/worship Yahweh, because he is a holy God. He will not forgive your sinning and rebelling against him. He demands that you serve/worship only him IDM.

²⁰He has been good to you in the past*, but if you turn away from him and serve/worship foreign/other gods, he will turn against you and he will cause you to experience disasters. He will punish IDM you severely!”

²¹But the people replied to Joshua, “No, we will not turn away from worshiping/serving Yahweh We will serve/worship Yahweh!”

²²Then Joshua said, “You yourselves are saying that you have decided to serve/worship Yahweh.” They replied, “Yes, we are saying that.”

²³Then Joshua said, “Since you have decided that, you must throw away all the other gods/idols that you have among you. You must also promise that you will wholeheartedly give yourselves to Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis serve/worship.”

²⁴The people replied, “We will serve/worship Yahweh, our God, and obey him.”

²⁵That day, Joshua established an agreement between the people and Yahweh. He wrote for them all the laws that they were required to obey.

²⁶He wrote all those laws on a scroll. He called it ❛The laws of God❜. Then he told some men to set up a large stone there at Shechem, under the large oak tree near the place where they worshiped Yahweh.