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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.

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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.

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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 you.

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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.

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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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cised the children of Israel at Galgala, as the Lord commanded them, when he had brought them out of Egypt. And there they are at this day.

Now the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, the bones of Joseph, and they buried them at Sikimoi, in that portion of the field which Jacob purchased of the Amorites who dwelt at Sikimoi, for a hundred lambs, and which he gave to Joseph for an inheritance.

And after these things, Eleazar son of Aaron, the chief priest, died, and was buried in Gabaar, which belonged to Phineas his son, which he had given him on mount Ephraim. At that time the children of Israel took up the ark of God, and carried it about among them. And Phineas officiated as priest in the room of his father Eleazar. And when he died, he was buried in Gabaar, which belonged to him. As for the children of Israel, they had gone to their several homes, and to their respective cities. And when the children of Israel fell to worshipping Astarte, and Astaroth, and the gods of the nations around them, the Lord delivered them into the hands of Eglon king of Moab, and he exercised dominion over them eighteen years.

JUDGES.

Now, after the decease of Joshua,the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us as our leader against the Chananites, to conduct the war against them? 2 And the Lord said, Juda shall go up. Behold I have delivered 3 the land into his hand. Whereupon Juda said to his brother

Symeon, Come up with me in my lot, and let us array ourselves against the Chananites, and I will go up with thee in 4 thy lot. So Symeon went up with him. And Juda went up, and the Lord delivered into their hands the Chananites, and the Pherezites, and they smote them in Bezek, to the num5 ber of ten thousand men. When they came up with Adonibezek, in Bezek, they drew up in array against him, and 6 smote the Chananites and the Pherezites. And Adonibezek fled, and they pursued him, and took him, and cut off his 7 thumbs and his great toes. Whereupon Adonibezek said, Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut

off, have been under my table, gathering up the offals thereof; therefore as I have done, so hath God requited me: And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

8 (Now the children of Juda had fought against Jerusalem, and taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and 9 burned the city with fire; And, after that, the children of Juda had gone down to wage war with the Chananites, who 10 inhabited the hilly country, and the south, and the plain. And when Juda went against the Chananites who dwelt in Chebron, (the name of which city formerly was Kariath-arbok-sepher,) Chebron came out against them; and they smote Sessi, and Achiman, and Tholmi, descendants of Enak, and they went 11 up thence against the inhabitants of Dabir, (now the name of 12 Dabir formerly was Kariath-sepher [city of letters]) and Cha

leb said, whoever will smite the city of letters, and take it, I 13 will give him my daughter Ascha for a wife; whereupon Go

thoniel, the younger son of Kenez, Chaleb's brother, took it, 14 and Chaleb gave him his daughter Ascha for a wife, and when she was going home to him, Gothoniel persuaded her to ask a field of her father: so she murmured, and with a loud voice said, as she was riding, Thou hast sent me away to the land of the south. And Chaleb said to her, What is the matter with 15 thee? And Ascha said to him, Give me, I beseech thee, a

blessing. Since thou hast sent me away to the land of the south, thou shouldst therefore give me a portion of water. Thereupon Chaleb gave her according to her desire, a portion 16 of high lands, and a portion of low grounds. Now the children of Jothor, the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up from the city of palm trees, with the children of Juda, into the wilderness, which is in the south of Juda, at the steep of Arad, and dwelt with this tribe.)

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Then Juda went with his brother Symeon, and smote the Chananites who dwelt in Sepheth, and utterly destroyed them, 18 and called the name of that city Anathema. Though Juda did not take possession of Gaza, nor the borders thereof, nor of Ascalon nor its borders, nor of Akkaron, nor its borders, nor 19 of Azotus, nor the grounds about it; yet the Lord was with

him, and he took possession of the mountain, for they were not enabled to drive out the inhabitants of the vale, because

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