Joshua 23

1A long time after Yahweh had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, when Joshua was old and well advanced in years,

2Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders, leaders, judges, and officers, and said to them, “I am old and well advanced in years.

3You yourselves have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for you.

4See, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes these nations that remain, along with all the nations I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea where the sun sets.

5Yahweh your God himself will push them back before you and drive them out of your way, and you will take possession of their land, just as Yahweh your God promised you.

6So be very strong, and keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, without turning aside from it to the right or to the left.

7Do not mix with these nations that remain among you. Do not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and do not serve them or bow down to them.

8Instead, hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.

9Yahweh has driven out great and powerful nations before you, and as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day.

10One of you chases a thousand, because it is Yahweh your God who fights for you, just as he promised you.

11So take great care, for your own sakes, to love Yahweh your God.

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

13know for certain that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations out before you. Instead they will become a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that Yahweh your God has given you.

14Now look, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and all your soul that not one of all the good promises that Yahweh your God made concerning you has failed. All of them have come true for you; not one of them has failed.

15But just as every good promise that Yahweh your God made to you has come true for you, so Yahweh will bring on you every evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land that Yahweh your God has given you,

16if you break the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then Yahweh’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land that he has given you.”