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over to the land of the possession of the Lord, where the tabernacle of the Lord is pitched, and take a possession among us, and do not become apostates from God, nor revolt from the Lord by building for yourselves an altar apart from the al20 tar of the Lord our God. Behold when Achar, son of Zara, committed a trespass in regard to the Anathema, was there not wrath against all the congregation of Israel, so that he perished not alone for his sin?

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In reply to this the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half of the tribe of Manasses, said to the chiliarchs of Israel, 22 The Lord God is our God, and God himself our God hath seen, and Israel themselves may determine. If through apostacy we have trespassed in the sight of the Lord, let him not 23 this day deliver us. Or if we have built an altar for ourselves, to apostatize from the Lord our God, or to offer thereon a sacrifice of whole burnt offerings, or to offer thereon a sacrifice of 24 thanksgiving, let the Lord make inquisition. Indeed from a

sacred regard to this matter we have done this, saying, That 25 your children may not hereafter say to our children, What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? The Lord hath made the Jordan a boundary between us and you; so that you have no portion in the Lord. And so your children may make 26 our children strangers, that they may not worship the Lord, we therefore determined to act in this manner-to build this altar, 27 not for the purpose of homage offerings, nor for sacrifices; but that it may be a witness between us and you, and our posterity after us, of our right to perform the service of the Lord before him, with our homage offerings, and our incense offerings, and our sacrifices of thanksgiving; so that your children may not say to our children, You have no portion in the Lord. 28 For we said, If it should ever happen that they should speak so to us, or to our posterity hereafter, they may say, Behold the similitude of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, not for the purpose of homage offerings, nor for sacrifices, but to be a witness between you and us, and our children after 29 us. God forbid that we should turn away from the Lord, by apostatizing this day from the Lord, so far as to build an altar for the purpose of homage offerings, or incense offerings, or sacrifices of thanksgiving, over and above the altar of the Lord, which is before his tabernacle.

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When Phineas the priest, and all the chiefs of the congregation of Israel who were with him, heard the words which the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half of the tribe of Ma31 nasses, had spoken, they were pleased. And Phineas the priest said to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half of the tribe of Manasses, This day we perceive that the Lord is with us, because you have not committed a trespass before the Lord, and be32 cause you have delivered the Israelites out of the hand of the Lord.

So Phineas the priest returned, with the chiefs, from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, and from the half of the tribe of Manasses, from Galaad to the land of Chanaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them this answer, and 33 it pleased them. Upon their delivering this message to the children of Israel, they blessed the God of the Israelites, and no more talked of going up against them to battle, to lay waste the land of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half of 34 the tribe of Manasses. So they dwelt therein, and Joshua gave a name to the altar of Reuben, and Gad, and the half of the tribe of Manasses, and said, It is a witness for them that the Lord is their God.

XXIII. Now after many years, when the Lord had given Is2 rael rest from all their enemies round about, Joshua being far advanced in years, convoked all the sons of Israel, their senate, and their chiefs, and their judges, and their under officers, and 3 said to them, I am grown old, and am far advanced in years.

Now you have seen all that the Lord our God hath done to these nations for your sake; for it is the Lord your God who 4 hath fought for you. You see that I have thrown in among the lots for your tribes, the nations which are left by you, with all the nations which I have exterminated between the Jordan and 5 the great sea, which is to be your western boundary. The Lord our God will himself root them out from before you until they be destroyed. He will send the wild beasts against them, until they utterly destroy them and their kings from before you, so that you may possess their land, as the Lord our God hath spoken 6 to you. Be strong therefore to keep with all diligence, and to do

all that are written in the book of the law of Moses, that you 7 may not turn aside to the right, nor to the left. That you

may have no fellowship with those nations which are left,

the names of their gods must not be mentioned among you; nor shall you perform religious service to them, nor worship 8 them; but you shall cleave to the Lord our God, as you have 9 done to this day. Then will the Lord root them out from before you, though they are great and powerful nations. None indeed have been able to stand before you even to this day. 10 One of you hath chased a thousand, because the Lord our 11 God himself fought for you, as he promised you. Therefore 12 take good heed to love the Lord our God. For if you turn

away, and join yourselves with those nations which are left 13 with you, and intermarry with them, and be mixed with them, and they with you; be assured that the Lord will no more drive out those nations from before you; but they shall be to you snares and stumbling blocks, and nails in your heels, and darts in your eyes, until you be destroyed from this good land, which 14 the Lord your God hath given you. As for me, I am going

speedily the way of all who are on the earth. Now you must know in your heart, and in your soul, that not one word hath 15 failed of all that the Lord our God hath said. With respect to all that have come to us, not one of them have failed. Now as all the good things, which the Lord hath spoken respecting you, have come to you, so the Lord God will bring upon you all the evil things, until he destroy you from this good land, 16 which the Lord hath given you, when you transgress the covenant of the Lord our God, which he hath commanded us, and go and serve other gods and worship them.

XXIV. Again Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Selo, and having convened their elders, and their under officers, and their judges, and placed them before God, Joshua said 2 to all the people, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, your fathers dwelt in old time Beyond the river, namely, Thara, the 3 father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor. And they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from Beyond the river, and led him through all this land, and multiplied his 4 seed, and gave him Isaak; and to Isaak, Jacob and Esau; and to Esau I gave mount Seir for a possession; but Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt, and became there a nation, 5 great, numerous and powerful. And when the Egyptians af

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flicted them, I smote Egypt with signal miracles, which I did among them.

Now after this he brought our fathers out of Egypt, and you marched into the Red sea; and when the Egyptians pur7 sued our fathers, with horses and chariots, into the Red sea, and we cried to the Lord, he put a cloud and darkness between us and the Egyptians; and brought the sea upon them, and it 8 overwhelmed them. Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in the land of Egypt. And when you had been many years in the wilderness, he brought us to the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the border of the Jordan; and the Lord delivered them into our hands, and you took possession of their land, 9 and extirpated them from before you. And when Balak, son

of Sepphor, king of Moab, arose and drew up in array against 10 Israel, and sent for Balaam to curse us, the Lord thy God

would not destroy thee, nay he caused him to bless us with blessings, and rescued us out of their hands, and delivered 11 them up. And when you crossed the Jordan, and came to Jericho, and the Amorites who inhabited Jericho, and the Chananites, and the Pherezites, and the Evites, and the Jebusites, and the Chettites, and the Gergasites, fought against us, 12 the Lord delivered them into our hands. Indeed he sent before you the hornet, and drove them out from before us, even the twelve kings of the Amorites, not with thy sword, nor with thy bow, and hath given you a land, on which you did not bestow labour, and cities which you did not build, and you are settled therein, and are eating of vineyards, and olive yards, which you did not plant. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him with sincerity and truth, and put away the strange gods which our fathers worshipped in Beyond the river, and in 15 Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if it seemeth not good to you

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to serve the Lord, chuse for yourselves this day whom you will serve, either the gods of your fathers who were in Beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord; for he is holy.

Upon this the people answered, and said, God forbid that 17 we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. The Lord is our God. He is God. He hath brought up us and our fathers

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out of Egypt, and preserved us all the way we went, and among all the nations through which we passed, and the Lord 18 hath driven out from before us the Amorites, and all the nations who dwelt in this land; therefore we will serve none but the Lord; for he is our God.

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And Joshua said to the people, You may not be able to serve the Lord, because he is the Holy God, and will be zealous. He will not bear with your sins and your iniquities. 20 When you forsake the Lord, and serve other gods, he will come and afflict you; and consume you, proportionably to the good he hath done

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you.

And the people said to Joshua, Nay, we will serve none but the Lord.

Then Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against 23 yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. Now therefore put away the strange gods which are among you, 24 and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, We will serve the Lord, and hearken to his voice.

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So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and gave it to them as a law, and a solemn decision at Selo, before 26 the tabernacle of the Lord God of Israel. And when he had

written these words in the book of the laws of God, he took a great stone, and set it up under a fir tree which was over 27 against the Lord, and Joshua said to the people, Behold this stone shall be among you for a witness, that it hath heard all that were said by the Lord, for he hath this day spoken to you; and this shall be among you for a witness in the latter days, whenever you prove false to the Lord my God.

28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, and they departed 31 every one to his place: and Israel served the Lord all the

days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who out lived Joshua, and who had seen all the works of the Lord which he 29 had done for Israel. And after those things, Joshua the son of 30 Nave, the servant of the Lord died at the age of a hundred and ten years; and they buried him in the boundaries of his inheritance, at Thamnasachar, on mount Ephraim, north of mount Gaas. There they deposited with him, in the grave in which they buried him, the stone knives with which he had circum

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