God

“No!” replied the people. “We will serve the LORD!”

Then Joshua told them, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “We are witnesses!” they said.

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

So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.”

Joshua 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.

And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

Some time later, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.

Israel had served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced all the works that the LORD had done for Israel.

After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the LORD, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?”

“Judah shall go up,” answered the LORD. “Indeed, I have delivered the land into their hands.”

When Judah attacked, the LORD delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek.

Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.

The LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plains because they had chariots of iron.

The house of Joseph also attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,

When the angel of the LORD had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

So they called that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

And 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.

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

After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works that He had done for Israel.

And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.

Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger,

for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

Wherever Israel marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring calamity, just as He had sworn to them. So they were greatly distressed.