¹ And Josue gathered together all the tribes of Israel in Sichem, and called for the ancients, and the princes, and the judges, and the masters: and they stood in the sight of the Lord:

² And he spoke thus to the people: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt of old on the other side of the river, Thare the father of Abraham, and Nachor: and they served strange gods.

³ And I took your father Abraham from the borders of Mesopotamia: and brought him into the land of Chanaan: and I multiplied his seed,

⁴ And gave him Isaac: and to him again I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave to Esau mount Seir for his possession: but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

⁵ And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with many signs and wonders.

⁶ And I brought you and your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea: and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen, as far as the Red Sea.

⁷ And the children of Israel cried to the Lord: and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them. Your eyes saw all that I did in Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long time:

⁸ And I brought you into the land of the Amorrhite, who dwelt beyond the Jordan. And when they fought against you, I delivered them into your hands, and you possessed their land, and slew them.

⁹ And Balac son of Sephor king of Moab arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and called for Balaam son of Beor, to curse you:

¹⁰ And I would not hear him, but on the contrary I blessed you by him, and I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹ And you passed over the Jordan, and you came to Jericho. And the men of that city fought against you, the Amorrhite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Gergesite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite: and I delivered them into your hands.

¹² And I sent before you hornets: and I drove them out from their places, the two kings of the Amorrhites, not with thy sword nor with thy bow.

¹³ And I gave you a land, in which you had not laboured, and cities to dwell in which you built not, vineyards and oliveyards, which you planted not.

¹⁴ Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him with a perfect and most sincere heart: and put away the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

¹⁵ But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

¹⁶ And the people answered, and said: God forbid we should leave the Lord, and serve strange gods.

¹⁷ The Lord our God he brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: and did very great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way by which we journeyed, and among all the people through whom we passed.

¹⁸ And he hath cast out all the nations, the Amorrhite the inhabitant of the land into which we are come. Therefore we will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

¹⁹ And Josue said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord: for he is a holy God, and mighty and jealous, and will not forgive your wickedness and sins.

²⁰ If you leave the Lord, and serve strange gods, he will turn, and will afflict you, and will destroy you after all the good he hath done you.

²¹ And the people said to Josue: No, it shall not be so as thou sayest, but we will serve the Lord.

²² And Josue said to the people: You are witnesses, that you yourselves have chosen you the Lord to serve him. And they answered: We are witnesses.

²³ Now therefore, said he, put away strange gods from among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel.

²⁴ And the people said to Josue: We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to his commandments.

²⁵ Josue therefore on that day made a covenant, and set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem.

²⁶ And he wrote all these things in the volume of the law of the Lord: and he took a great stone, and set it under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the Lord.

²⁷ And he said to all the people: Behold this stone shall be a testimony unto you, that it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you will deny it, and lie to the Lord your God.

²⁸ And he sent the people away every one to their own possession.

²⁹ And after these things Josue the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten years old:

³⁰ And they buried him in the border of his possession in Thamnathsare, which is situate in mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaas.

³¹ 31And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue, and of the ancients that lived a long time after Josue, and that had known all the works of the Lord which he had done in Israel.

³² And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel had taken out of Egypt, they buried in Sichem, in that part of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons of Hemor the father of Sichem, for a hundred young ewes, and it was in the possession of the sons of Joseph.

³³ Eleazar also the son of Aaron died: and they buried him in Gabaath that belongeth to Phinees his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.

¹ These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab: beside that covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

² And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all the things that the Lord did before you in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land.

³ The great temptations, which thy eyes have seen, those mighty signs and wonders,

⁴ And the Lord hath not given you al heart to understand, and eyes to see, and ears that may hear, unto this present day.

⁵ He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn out, neither are the shoes of your feet consumed with age.

⁶ You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the Lord your God.

⁷ And you came to this place: and Sehon king of Hesebon, and Og king of Basan, came out against us to fight. And we slew them.

⁸ And took their land, and delivered it for a possession to h Ruben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses.

⁹ Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and fulfil them: that you may understand all that you do.

¹⁰ You all stand this day before the Lord your God, your princes, and tribes, and ancients, and doctors, all the people of Israel,

¹¹ 11Your children and your wives, and the stranger that abideth with thee in the camp, besides the hewers of wood, and them that bring water:

¹² That thou mayst pass in the covenant of the Lord thy God, and in the oath which this day the Lord thy God maketh with thee.

¹³ That he may raise thee up a people to himself, and he may be thy God as he hath spoken to thee, and as he swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ Neither with you only do I make this covenant, and confirm these oaths,

¹⁵ But with all that are present and that are absent.

¹⁶ For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we have passed through the midst of nations, and passing through them,

¹⁷ You have seen their abominations and filth, that is to say, their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which they worshipped.

¹⁸ Lest perhaps there should be among you a man or a woman, a family or a tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations: and there should be among you a root bringing forth gall and bitterness.

¹⁹ And when he shall hear the words of this oath, he should bless himself in his heart saying: I shall have peace, and will walk on in the naughtiness of my heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty,

²⁰ And the Lord should not forgive him: but his wrath and jealousy against that man should be exceedingly enkindled at that time, and all the curses that are written in this volume should light upon him: and the Lord should blot out his name from under heaven,

²¹ And utterly destroy him out of all the tribes of Israel, according to the curses that are contained in the book of this law and covenant:

²² And the following generation shall say, and the children that shall be born hereafter, and the strangers that shall come from afar, seeing the plagues of that land and the evils wherewith the Lord hath afflicted it,

²³ Burning it with brimstone, and the heat of salt, so that it cannot be sown any more, nor any green thing grow therein, after the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim, which the Lord destroyed in his wrath and indignation:

²⁴ And all the nations shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land? what meaneth this exceeding great heat of his wrath?

²⁵ And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, which he made with their fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt:

²⁶ And they have served strange gods, and adored them, whom they knew not, and for whom they had not been assigned:

²⁷ Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this volume :

²⁸ And he hath cast them out of their land, in anger and in wrath, and in very great indignation, and hath thrown them into a strange land, as it is seen this day.

²⁹ Secret things to the Lord our God: things that are manifest, to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.