Online Texts for Craig White's Literature Courses

from Joshua 24

 ¹And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel . . . .

 ²And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood [Jordan River] in old time . . .

 ³And I [Jehovah] took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

 ⁴ . . .but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

 ⁵I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.

 ⁶And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea.

 ⁷And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.

 ⁸And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side of 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. . . .

 ¹³And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

 ¹⁴Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

 ¹⁵And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. [popular verse for home-schoolers and other white-flight dominant culture evangelicals, emphasizing moral separation from modern multiculture]

 ¹⁶And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods . . . .

 ¹⁹And Joshua said unto the people . . .

 ²⁰If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. . . .

 ²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

 ²⁶And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. [Instructor's note: writing in a book + "writing on the land."]

[stone claimed to be that set by Joshua in Shechem]

 ²⁷And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.

 ²⁸So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.

 ²⁹And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. . . .

legendary tomb of Joshua

Judges 2

 ¹And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

 ²And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?

 ³Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.

 ⁴And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. . . .

 ⁶And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.

 ⁷And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.

 ⁸And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

 ⁹And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

 ¹⁰And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

 ¹¹And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim [plural of Baal, Phoenician god, here representing "strange gods," "idols," or "images" forbidden by Jehovah]

 ¹²And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them . . . .

 ¹⁴And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

 ¹⁵Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

 ¹⁶Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

 ¹⁷And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so. . . .

[end of selections from the Exodus story; return to index]