And he said, Nay; but as captain of the army of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What says my lord unto his servant?

O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turns their backs before their enemies!

Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow: for thus says the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of you, O Israel: you can not stand before your enemies, until you take away the accursed thing from among you.

(For they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them.

Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make you a covenant with us.

Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that you have built you an altar, that you might rebel this day against the LORD?

But that it may be a witness between us and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, you have no part in the LORD.

Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you.

And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the River in former times, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.