Covenant Ceremony.

1^a Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel. When they stood in ranks before God,

2Joshua addressed all the people: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In times past your ancestors, down to Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River^* and served other gods.

3But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac.

4To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir to possess, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

5“Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and struck Egypt with the plagues and wonders that I wrought in her midst. Afterward I led you out.

6And when I led your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors to the Red Sea with chariots and charioteers.

7When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, upon whom he brought the sea so that it covered them. Your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. After you dwelt a long time in the wilderness,

8^h I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your power. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them at your approach.

9ⁱ Then Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, prepared to war against Israel. He summoned Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you,

10^j but I would not listen to Balaam. Instead, he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his power.

11Once you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, but I delivered them also into your power.

12And I sent the hornets^* ahead of you which drove them—the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites—out of your way; it was not your sword or your bow.

13I gave you a land you did not till and cities you did not build, to dwell in; you ate of vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.

14ⁿ “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

15^o If it is displeasing to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

16But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods.

17For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He performed those great signs before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among all the peoples through whom we passed.

18At our approach the LORD drove out all the peoples, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

19Joshua in turn said to the people, “You may not be able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a passionate God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

20If you forsake the LORD and serve strange gods, he will then do evil to you and destroy you, after having done you good.”

21But the people answered Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”

22Joshua therefore said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” They replied, “We are witnesses!”

23“Now, therefore, put away the foreign gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

24Then the people promised Joshua, “We will serve the LORD, our God, and will listen to his voice.”

25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

26Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was in the sanctuary of the LORD.

27And Joshua said to all the people, “This stone shall be our witness, for it has heard all the words which the LORD spoke to us. It shall be a witness against you, should you wish to deny your God.”

28Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own heritage.

^* Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come,^* and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year.

2Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins?

3But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins,

4for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.

5For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:^*

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but a body you prepared for me;

6holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.

7Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,

Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”

8First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings,^* you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the law.

9Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second.

10By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11^* Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins.

12But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;

13 now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.

14For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.

15 The holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying:

16“This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord:

‘I will put my laws in their hearts,

and I will write them upon their minds,’”

17he also says:

“Their sins and their evildoing

I will remember no more.”

18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.

Recalling the Past.

19Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary

20 by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh,

21 and since we have “a great priest over the house of God,”

22let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.

23Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.

24We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.

25We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.