God

why one man of you has chased a thousand - it is because ADONAI your God has fought on your behalf, as he said to you.

"Therefore take great care to love ADONAI your God.

know for certain that ADONAI your God will stop driving out these nations from your sight. Instead, they will become a snare and a trap for you, whipping your sides and pricking your eyes, until you perish from this good land which ADONAI your God has given you.

"Today I am going the way of all the earth. Therefore consider in all your heart and being that not one of all the good things ADONAI your God said concerning you has failed to happen; it has all come to pass; nothing of it has failed

Nevertheless, just as all the good things ADONAI your God promised you have come upon you, likewise ADONAI will bring upon you all the bad things too, until he has destroyed you from this good land which ADONAI your God has given you.

When you violate the covenant of ADONAI your God, which he ordered you to obey, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of ADONAI will blaze up against you; and you will perish quickly from the good land which he has given you!"

Y'hoshua gathered all the tribes of Isra'el to Sh'khem; he summoned the leaders, heads, judges and officials of Isra'el; and they presented themselves before God.

Y'hoshua said to all the people, "This is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'In antiquity your ancestors lived on the other side of the [Euphrates] River-Terach the father of Avraham and Nachor-and they served other gods.

I took your ancestor Avraham from beyond the River, led him through all the land of Kena'an, increased his descendants and gave him Yitz'chak.

I gave to Yitz'chak Ya'akov and 'Esav. To 'Esav I gave Mount Se'ir as his possession, but Ya'akov and his children went down into Egypt.

I sent Moshe and Aharon, I inflicted plagues on Egypt in accordance with what I did among them, and afterwards I brought you out.

Yes, I brought your fathers out of Egypt: you arrived at the sea, and the Egyptians were pursuing your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Sea of Suf.

But when they cried out to ADONAI, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, overwhelmed them with the sea and drowned them. Your eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and then you lived in the desert for a long time.

I brought you into the land of the Emori living beyond the Yarden; they fought against you, but I handed them over to you. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them ahead of you.

But I refused to listen to Bil'am, and he actually blessed you. In this way I rescued you from him.

Next you crossed the Yarden and came to Yericho. The men of Yericho fought against you-the Emori, P'rizi, Kena'ani, Hitti, Girgashi, Hivi and Y'vusi - and I handed them over to you.

I sent the hornet ahead of you, driving them out from ahead of you, the two kings of the Emori - it wasn't by your sword or your bow.

Then I gave you a land where you had not worked and cities you had not built, and you live there. You eat fruit from vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

"Therefore fear ADONAI, and serve him truly and sincerely. Put away the gods your ancestors served beyond the [Euphrates]River and in Egypt, and serve ADONAI!

If it seems bad to you to serve ADONAI, then choose today whom you are going to serve! Will it be the gods your ancestors served beyond the River? or the gods of the Emori, in whose land you are living? As for me and my household, we will serve ADONAI!"

The people answered, "Far be it from us that we would abandon ADONAI to serve other gods;

because it is ADONAI our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from a life of slavery, and did those great signs before our eyes, and preserved us all along the way we traveled and among all the peoples we passed through;

and it was ADONAI who drove out from ahead of us all the peoples, the Emori living in the land. Therefore we too will serve ADONAI, for he is our God."

Y'hoshua said to the people, "You can't serve ADONAI; because he is a holy God, a jealous God, and he will not forgive your crimes and sins.

If you abandon ADONAI and serve foreign gods, he will turn, doing you harm and destroying you after he has done you good."