God

And the people saith unto Joshua, `No, but Jehovah we do serve.'

And Joshua saith unto the people, `Witnesses ye are against yourselves, that ye have chosen for you Jehovah to serve Him (and they say, `Witnesses!')

and, now, turn aside the gods of the stranger which are in your midst, and incline your heart unto Jehovah, God of Israel.'

And the people say unto Joshua, `Jehovah our God we serve, and to His voice we hearken.'

And Joshua writeth these words in the Book of the Law of God, and taketh a great stone, and raiseth it up there under the oak which is in the sanctuary of Jehovah.

And Joshua saith unto all the people, `Lo, this stone is against us for a witness, for it hath heard all the sayings of Jehovah which He hath spoken with us, and it hath been against you for a witness, lest ye lie against your God.'

And it cometh to pass, after these things, that Joshua son of Nun, servant of Jehovah, dieth, a son of a hundred and ten years,

And Israel serveth Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who prolonged days after Joshua, and who knew all the work of Jehovah which He did to Israel.

And it cometh to pass, after the death of Joshua, that the sons of Israel ask at Jehovah, saying, `Who doth go up for us unto the Canaanite, at the commencement, to fight against it?'

And Jehovah saith, `Judah doth go up; lo, I have given the land into his hand.'

And Judah goeth up, and Jehovah giveth the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand, and they smite them in Bezek--ten thousand men;

and Adoni-Bezek saith, `Seventy kings--their thumbs and their great toes cut off--have been gathering under my table; as I have done so hath God repaid to me;' and they bring him in to Jerusalem, and he dieth there.

and Jehovah is with Judah, and he occupieth the hill-country, but not to dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, for they have chariots of iron.

And the house of Joseph go up--even they--to Beth-El, and Jehovah is with them;

And a messenger of Jehovah goeth up from Gilgal unto Bochim,

And it cometh to pass, when the messenger of Jehovah speaketh these words unto all the sons of Israel, that the people lift up their voice and weep,

and they call the name of that place Bochim, and sacrifice there to Jehovah.

and the people serve Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who prolonged days after Joshua, who saw all the great work of Jehovah which He did to Israel.

And Joshua son of Nun, servant of Jehovah, dieth, a son of a hundred and ten years,

and also all that generation have been gathered unto their fathers, and another generation riseth after them who have not known Jehovah, and even the work which He hath done to Israel.

And the sons of Israel do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and serve the Baalim,

and forsake Jehovah, God of their fathers, who bringeth them out from the land of Egypt, and go after other gods (of the gods of the peoples who are round about them), and bow themselves to them, and provoke Jehovah,

yea, they forsake Jehovah, and do service to Baal and to Ashtaroth.

And the anger of Jehovah burneth against Israel, and He giveth them into the hand of spoilers, and they spoil them, and He selleth them into the hand of their enemies round about, and they have not been able any more to stand before their enemies;

in every place where they have gone out, the hand of Jehovah hath been against them for evil, as Jehovah hath spoken, and as Jehovah hath sworn to them, and they are distressed--greatly.