16. The people answered and said, “God forbid that we forsake the Lord and serve other gods!
17. For it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers out from slavery in the land of Egypt and performed these great signs in our sight and guarded us all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed.
18. The Lord drove out before us all the people, even the Amorites, who lived in the land. So we will indeed serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19. Then Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God, and He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn, bring disaster upon you, and finish you off, after having been good to you.”
21. The people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”
22. Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen the Lord, to serve Him.”Then they said, “We are witnesses.”
23. “Now then,” he said, “put away the foreign gods in your midst, and stretch out your hearts to the Lord God of Israel!”
24. The people said to Joshua, “It is the Lord our God we will serve, and His voice that we will obey.”
25. So that day Joshua made a covenant for the people and established regulations and laws for them at Shechem.
26. Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. He took a large stone and set it up under the oak by the sanctuary of the Lord.
27. Joshua said to all the people, “See, this stone will be a witness for us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that He spoke to us. It will be a witness for us, lest you deny your God.”
28. Then Joshua sent the people away, each man to his inheritance.