God

But the people said to Y'hoshua, "No, but we will serve ADONAI."

Y'hoshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen ADONAI, to serve him." They answered, "We are witnesses."

"Now," Y'hoshua urged, "put away the foreign gods you have among you, and turn your hearts to ADONAI, the God of Isra'el."

The people answered Y'hoshua, "We will serve ADONAI our God; we will pay attention to what he says."

Y'hoshua wrote these words in the book of the Torah of God. Then he took a big stone and set it up there under the oak next to the sanctuary of ADONAI.

Y'hoshua said to all the people, "See, this stone will be a witness against us; because it has heard all the words of ADONAI which he said to us; therefore it will be a witness against you, in case you deny your God."

After this, Y'hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of ADONAI, died; he was 110 years old.

Isra'el served ADONAI throughout Y'hoshua's lifetime and throughout the lifetimes of the leaders who outlived Y'hoshua and had known all the deeds that ADONAI had done on behalf of Isra'el.

After the death of Y'hoshua, the people of Isra'el asked ADONAI, "Who will go up for us first to fight against the Kena'ani?"

ADONAI said: "Y'hudah will go up; here, I have handed the land over to him."

Y'hudah went up; and ADONAI gave the Kena'ani and the P'rizi into their hands; of those in Bezek they killed ten thousand men.

Adoni-Bezek said: "Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their big toes cut off, gathered food under my table; God has paid me back in accordance with what I did." They brought him to Yerushalayim, and he died there.

ADONAI was with Y'hudah, and they took possession of the hill-country, because they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, since they had iron chariots.

The house of Yosef likewise attacked Beit-El; and ADONAI was with them.

Now the angel of ADONAI came up from Gilgal to Bokhim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt, led you to the land I swore to your fathers and said, 'I will never break my covenant with you;

When the angel of ADONAI spoke these words to all the people of Isra'el, they began crying and wailing at the top of their voices.

So they called the name of that place Bokhim [crying] and sacrificed there to ADONAI.

The people served ADONAI throughout Y'hoshua's life and throughout the lives of all the older men who outlived Y'hoshua and who had seen all the great work of ADONAI which he had done for Isra'el.

When Y'hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of ADONAI, died, he was 110 years old;

When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither ADONAI nor the work he had done for Isra'el.

Then the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective and served the ba'alim.

They abandoned ADONAI, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made ADONAI angry.

They abandoned ADONAI and served Ba'al and the 'ashtarot.

The anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies.

Whenever they launched an attack, the power of ADONAI was against them, so that things turned out badly - just as ADONAI had said would happen and had sworn to them. They were in dire distress.