Joshua 23

¹ Long after Yahweh had given Israel rest from all the enemies round them – Joshua was old now, far advanced in years –

² Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders, chief men, judges and scribes, and said to them, ‘I myself am old, far advanced in years;

³ you for your part have witnessed all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations before your eyes; Yahweh your God himself has fought for you.

⁴ Now as an inheritance for your tribes, I have apportioned you by lot the peoples who still remain to be conquered, no less than those that I have wiped out between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west.

⁵ Yahweh your God will himself drive them out before you; he will cast them out before you and you will take possession of their country as Yahweh your God promised you.

⁶ ‘Therefore stand firm to keep and fulfil all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, never turning aside from it to right or left,

⁷ never mingling with the peoples who are still left beside you. Do not utter the names of their gods, do not swear by them, do not serve them and do not bow down before them.

⁸ No; you must be loyal to Yahweh your God as you have been till now.

⁹ Because of this, Yahweh has driven out great and powerful nations before you, and no one so far has been able to resist you.

¹⁰ One man of you could rout a thousand of them, because Yahweh your God himself fought for you as he had promised you.

¹¹ Be very careful, as you value your life, to love Yahweh your God.

¹² ‘But if you prove faithless, if you make friends with the remnant of those peoples who are still left beside you, if you form kinships with them and intermarry,

¹³ then know for certain that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these peoples before you; instead, they will be a snare and a pitfall for you, a scourge to your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you vanish from this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁴ ‘And now today I must go the way of all the earth. Acknowledge with all your heart and soul that of all the promises of good that Yahweh your God has made you, not one has failed: all have been fulfilled, and not one has failed.

¹⁵ ‘But just as every promise of good made to you by Yahweh your God has been fulfilled for you, so also will Yahweh fulfil against you all his threats of evil, even to driving you out of the good land that Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁶ ‘For if you violate the covenant which Yahweh your God has demanded of you, if you go and serve other gods and bow down before them, then Yahweh’s anger will be roused against you and you will quickly vanish from the good land that he has given you.’