Epilogue

22 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. 2 He said to them, ‘You have obeyed everything that Moses the servant of the Lord ordered you, and listened to what I have said by way of command to you. 3 You have not abandoned your fellow Israelites all this time, but have obeyed the injunctions laid down for you by the Lord your God. 4 Now that the Lord your God has granted rest to your fellow Israelites, as he promised, you may go home to your tents in the land of your holdings, assigned to you by Moses the servant of the Lord on the east of the Jordan. 5 Only be most careful to obey the commands and laws laid down for you by Moses the servant of the Lord, mindful to love the Lord your God, always to live his life, to obey his commands, to be loyal to him, and to serve him with all your heart and mind.’ 6 So Joshua blessed them and sent them away home.

7 To the one half tribe of Manasseh Moses had assigned territory in Bashan, but Joshua assigned the other half territory near the fellow Israelites to the west of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them home he blessed them, 8 and they returned home to their tents with great wealth, rich in cattle, silver and gold, bronze, iron, and a lot of clothing, the plunder of their enemies which they divided among their relatives.

9 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh went home, leaving the Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, and returning to the land of Gilead which was their holding, assigned them by Moses under orders from the Lord. 10 When they reached the region near the Jordon, inside the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh set up an altar there beside the Jordan, a large conspicuous altar. 11 The Israelites were told that the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh had set up an altar at Gilgal, on the western bank belonging to Israel, 12 and on hearing this the whole community of Israel mustered at Shilo to make war upon them.

13 The Israelites sent a mission to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, namely, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 14 and ten chieftains, each a chieftain of his tribe, a leader of his family among the clans of Israel. 15 They went to Gilead and said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 16 ‘The whole community of the Lord asks what you mean by breaking faith with the God of Israel and ceasing now to follow him by setting up an altar for yourselves? This is rebellion against the Lord. 17 Was it not enough to sin at Peor? A sin from which we have not even yet cleansed ourselves, though a plague fell upon the community of the Lord then! 18 And here you cease to follow the Lord now! You rebel today against the Lord, and tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel. 19 If the land you hold is unclean, then cross over to the land which the Lord himself holds, where his dwelling stands, and occupy a holding among us. But do not rebel against the Lord, do not make us rebels against the Lord, by setting up for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. 20 Wasn’t Achan the son of Zerah guilty of a breach of faith in the matter of the spoil which was dedicated to God, until God”s anger fell upon the whole community? He was not the only one to die for his crime.’

21 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh replied to the leaders of Israel: 22 ‘The Mighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, God, the Lord, knows well, and Israel will know, if we were rebels or broke faith (if we did, do not spare us!) 23 when we set up an altar for ourselves, if we meant to cease following the Lord, or to sacrifice burnt offerings, cereal offerings, and recompense offerings. 24 Let the Lord himself punish us, if we did not do this in the fear that, later, descendants might say to our descendants, “What relationship do you have with the Lord the God of Israel? 25 The Lord made the Jordan the boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the Lord.” Your descendants would make descendants give up the religion of the Lord. 26 So we thought we would prepare to build an altar for ourselves, not to sacrifice burnt offerings or any sacrifice at all, 27 but to stand as a witness between us and you, and between our descendants and yours, attesting that we are to worship before the Lord with our burnt offerings and recompense offerings, so that your descendants may never claim in time to come that we have no share in the Lord. 28 If ever that is claimed to us or to our descendants in time to come, we thought the answer would be, “There is the replica of the altar of the Lord, the replica made by our ancestors, though not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice. It stands as a witness between us and you!” 29 Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and cease now to follow him by setting up any altar for burnt offerings, cereal offerings, or any sacrifice, apart from the altar of the Lord our God in front of his own Tent.’

30 When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community, the chieftains of the clans of Israel who were with him, heard what the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites said, they were quite satisfied. 31 Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, ‘Now we know that the Lord is among us, since you have not broken faith here with the Lord. You have delivered the Israelites from the hand of the Lord.’ 32 Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the chieftains left the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead and returned to the land of Canaan, and reported the news to the Israelites. 33 The Israelites were satisfied. They blessed God and said no more about waging war against them and destroying the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived. 34 The Reubenites and the Gadites named the altar, saying ‘it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.’

23 A long time afterwards, when the Lord had given Israel rest from all its surrounding enemies, and when Joshua was old, far advanced in years, 2 he summoned all Israel, their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers. ‘I am an old man,’ he said, ‘well advanced in years. 3 You have seen all that the Lord your God has done for your sake to all these nations. It is the Lord your God who has been fighting for you. 4 I have allotted you to the remaining nations, after those which I have wiped out, and you will hold the land of these nations from the Jordan to the Mediterranean in the west. 5 The Lord your God will drive them out before you and evict them out of your sight, until you occupy their land, as the Lord your God promised you. 6 Be resolute, then, in carrying out and obeying all that is written in the law book of Moses, never swerving from it to the right or to the left, 7 never mixing with those nations that remain beside you, never mentioning the names of their gods, never swearing by them nor serving them nor bowing down to them. 8 Be loyal to the Lord your God as you have been up until now. 9 The Lord has evicted great, powerful nations in front of you. To this day, no one has been able to hold their own against you. 10 One of you routs a thousand men, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you. 11 Be careful, then, always to love the Lord your God. 12 Otherwise, if you turn to ally yourselves with the remnant of nations left beside you, and intermarry with them, and join with them and they with you, 13 be sure of this, that the Lord your God will no longer evict these nations before your eyes. They will be a danger to you, they will entrap you, they will be a scourge for your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish off this fine country which the Lord your God has assigned you. 14 I am now going the way of all the earth. But you know in your own hearts and minds, all of you, that not one good promise made by the Lord about you has ever failed. All have been fulfilled, and not one has failed. 15 Well, as all the good promises have been fulfilled to you, of which the Lord your God told you, so will the Lord fulfil all his threats to you until he wipes you off this fine country which the Lord your God has given you. 16 Whenever you break the covenant of the Lord your God, which he has laid upon you, and go to serve other gods, bowing down to them, then will the anger of the Lord blaze against you, until you perish quickly off the fine country which he has given you.’

24 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, summoning the elders of Israel and their leaders, their judges, and their officers. They presented themselves before God, 2 and Joshua said to all the people, ‘This is the message of the Lord the God of Israel: In days of old your ancestors lived east of the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, worshipping other gods. 3 But I took your ancestor Abraham from the other side of the Euphrates, I led him through all the land of Canaan, multiplying his family, and giving him Isaac. 4 To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave Mount Seir as his holding, while Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5 Later I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with wonders which I wrought among them. Afterwards I brought you out, 6 I brought out your ancestors from Egypt, and when you reached the sea the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and cavalry as far as the Reed Sea. 7 But when your ancestors cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea over them. You saw with your own eyes what I did in Egypt. You lived many days in the desert, 8 but I brought you to the land of the Amorites on the eastern side of the Jordan, and when they fought you I put them into your hands and you occupied their land, until I destroyed them before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, made an attack upon Israel. He sent for Balaam the son of Beer to curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam. He had to bless you instead, and so I saved you from him. 11 You crossed the Jordan and reached Jericho, where the men of Jericho fought you, as did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I put them all into your hands. 12 I sent panic[fn] before you to drive out these nations, even the two kings of the Amorites. It was not your sword nor your bow that beat them. 13 I gave you a land on which you had never laboured, you live in towns you never built, and you now eat from vineyards and olive groves that you never planted. 14 So revere the Lord and serve him honestly and loyally, put away the gods your ancestors served on the east of the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the Lord yourselves. 15 If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve, either the gods your ancestors served on the east of the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ 16 The people replied, ‘Far be it from us to forsake the Lord and serve other gods! 17 It is the Lord our God who has brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, out of that slave-pen, who wrought these great portents before our eyes, who preserved us wherever we went and among all the nations through whom we passed. 18 The Lord drove out all the nations before us, all the Amorites who lived in the land. So we will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’ 19 Joshua said to the people, ‘You may not be able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God, a jealous God, he will not forgive any sinful disloyalty of yours. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn to do evil to you and consume you after he has been doing you good.’ 21 ‘No,’ said the people, ‘we will serve the Lord.’ 22 So Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him.’ ‘Yes, we are!’ they responded. 23 ‘Then here and now,’ he said, ‘put away the foreign gods which are among you and give your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel.’ 24 The people answered, ‘The Lord our God will we serve, and we will listen to his voice.’ 25 So Joshua made a covenant that day with the people, fixing rules and laws for them at Shechem. 26 Joshua wrote these terms in the law book of God. He took a large boulder and set it up there under the sacred oak in the sanctuary of the Lord, 27 saying to all the people, ‘This stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard all that the Lord has said to us. So will it be a witness against you, lest you deny your God.’ 28 Then Joshua sent the people away home, every man to his own inheritance. 29 After this Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, at the age of a hundred and ten. 30 They buried him in his own estate at Timnath-serah in the highlands of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

31 Israel served the Lord during all the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who survived Joshua and who had known all the deeds done by the Lord for Israel.

32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought for a hundred silver pieces from the sons of Hamer, the father of Shechem, and presented to the descendants of Joseph as their own.

33 Eleazar the son of Aaron died also, and they buried him at Gibeath, which had been given to his son Phinehas, in the highlands of Ephraim.