Then
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders
of Israel and said,
“I am old
and stricken in age, and ye have seen all that the Lord you God hath done unto
those nations because of you, for it is He that hath fought for you.
“Now,
therefore, fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth.
“If it
seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will service;
but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
And the
people said, “God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.
For the Lord our God, He it is that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
from the house of bondage.”
So Joshua
took a great stone and set it up there under an oak. And Joshua said, “Behold,
this stone shall be a witness unto us; lest ye deny your God.”
Josh. 24