Joshua
Chapter 23
1 Long after God gave Israel peace from all their enemies, Joshua grew very old.
2 Joshua called all Israel, their elders, leaders, judges, and officials, and said to them, “I am old and advanced in years.”
3 You have seen everything God has done to these nations for your sake; God has fought for you.
4 Look, I have given you these remaining nations as an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan River to the great sea in the west.
5 God will force them out from in front of you and push them away from your view; and you will take over their land, just as God promised you.
6 So be very brave to follow and do everything written in Moses’ law book, without turning away to the right or the left.
7 Do not join these nations still living among you; do not speak of their gods, swear by them, serve them, or bow down to them.
8 Stick close to God, just as you’ve been doing until now.
9 God has forced powerful nations out of your way: but no one has been able to defeat you up to now.
10 One of you will chase a thousand because it is God who fights for you, just as he promised.
11 Be very careful, then, to love God with all your heart.
12 But if you turn away and join with the remaining nations among you, and marry them and they marry you:
13 Be sure that God will not drive out these nations for you anymore. They will be like traps and whips to hurt you, and like thorns in your eyes, until you are gone from this good land God has given you.
14 Look, today I am following the path of everyone on earth, and you know with all your hearts and souls that not one of the good things God promised you has failed; everything has happened for you, and not one promise has gone unfulfilled.
15 So it will happen that just as all the good things God promised you have come to you, God will also bring all the bad things until he has destroyed you from this good land that God gave you.
16 When you break God’s agreement that he gave you, and follow and worship other gods, God will get very angry with you, and you will soon be destroyed and taken away from the good land he gave you.