Joshua 23

CHAPTER 23

Joshua Calls All Israel

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

²that ^aJoshua 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 ^aYahweh your God is He who has been fighting for you.

⁴“See, ^aI 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 ^adispossess them before you; and ^byou will possess their land, just as Yahweh your God ¹promised you.

⁶“^aBe 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,

⁷so that you will not go along with these nations, these which remain among you, and you will not ^amention the name of their gods, and you will not ^bmake anyone swear by them, and you will not ^cserve 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“^aFor Yahweh has dispossessed great and mighty nations from before you; and as for you, ^bno man has stood before you to this day.

¹⁰“^aOne of your men will pursue one thousand, for Yahweh your God is ^bHe who fights for you, just as He ¹promised you.

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

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

¹³know with certainty that Yahweh your God will not continue to dispossess these nations from before you; but they will be a ^asnare 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.

¹⁴“Now behold, today ^aI am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that ^bnot one word of all the good words which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.

¹⁵“And it will be that just as all the good words which Yahweh your God spoke to you have come upon you, so ^aYahweh will bring upon you all the calamitous words, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁶“^aWhen you trespass against the covenant of Yahweh your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of Yahweh will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you.”