Joshua 23:1-13 ▼

1 Now it happened after many days, after Yahweh had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years,

2 that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, “I am old, advanced in years.

3 And you have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you, for Yahweh your God is He who has been fighting for you.

4 See, I have allotted to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun.

5 And Yahweh your God, He will thrust them out from before you and dispossess them before you; and you will possess their land, just as Yahweh your God promised you.

6 Be very strong, then, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,

7 so that you will not go along with these nations, these which remain among you, and you will not mention the name of their gods, and you will not make anyone swear by them, and you will not serve them, and you will not bow down to them.

8 But you are to cling to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.

9 For Yahweh has dispossessed great and mighty nations from before you; and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.

10 One of your men will pursue one thousand, for Yahweh your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you.

11 So keep your souls very carefully to love Yahweh your God.

12 For if you ever turn back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you go along with them and they with you,

13 know with certainty that Yahweh your God will not continue to dispossess these nations from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.