Joshua 23

¹ It happened after many days, when Yahweh had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, ² that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, “I am old and well advanced in years. ³ 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 fought for you. ⁴ Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun. ⁵ Yahweh your God himself will drive them out from before you, and dispossess them from before you; and you shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.

⁶ “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; ⁷ that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them; ⁸ but cling to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day. ⁹ For Yahweh has driven out great and strong nations from before you. As for you, no man has stood before you to this day. ¹⁰ One man of you chases a thousand; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you, as he spoke to you.

¹¹ “Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God. ¹² Else if you do at all go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; ¹³ know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no more drive these nations from before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, and a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁴ “Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you. Not one thing has failed of it. ¹⁵ It shall happen that as all good things have come on you, which Yahweh your God promised you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you, ¹⁶ when you transgress the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then Yahweh’s anger will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.”