King James Version · Entering the land
Joshua 24
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And gathered all the tribes of Israel to , and called for the , and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before . And said unto all the people, Thus saith of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even , of , and of Nachor: and they other gods. And I took your from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of , and multiplied , and gave him . And I gave unto and : and I gave unto mount , to possess it; but and his children went down into . I sent also and , and I plagued , according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. And I brought your fathers out of : and ye came unto the sea; and the pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto . And when they cried unto , he put between you and the , and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in : and ye dwelt in a long season. And I brought you into the land of the , which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you. Then the son of , king of , arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called the son of to you: But I would not unto ; therefore he you still: so I you out of his hand. And ye went over Jordan, and came unto : and the men of fought against you, the , and the , and , and the , and the , the , and the ; and I them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the ; but not with thy , nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. Now therefore , and him in sincerity and in truth: and the gods which your fathers on the other side of the flood, and in ; and ye . And if it seem evil unto you to , choose you this day whom ye will ; whether the gods which your fathers that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the , in whose land ye : but as for me and my house, we will . And the people answered and said, forbid that we should forsake , to other gods; For our , he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of , from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: And drave out from before us all the people, even the which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also ; for he is our . And said unto the people, Ye cannot : for he is an ; he is ; he will not forgive your nor your . If ye forsake , and strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto , Nay; but we will . And said unto the people, Ye are against yourselves that ye have chosen you , to him. And they said, We are . Now therefore , said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline unto of Israel. And the people said unto , our will we , and his voice will we . So made a with the people that day, and set them a and an in . And wrote these words in the book of of , and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by of . And said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a unto us; for it hath heard all the words of which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a unto you, lest ye deny your . So let the people depart, every man unto his . And it came to pass after these things, that the son of , the , , being an hundred and ten years old. And they in the border of his in Timnath–serah, which is in mount , on the north side of the hill of Gaash. And Israel all the days of , and all the days of the that overlived , and which had known all the works of , that he had done for Israel. And the bones of , which the brought up out of , buried they in , in a parcel of ground which bought of the sons of of for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the of the children of . And the son of ; and they in a hill that pertained to his son, which was given him in mount .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.