Joshua 23

Joshua’s Final Charge to Israel’s Leaders

1Many days after the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies around them, and Joshua was old and advanced in days, 2Joshua called all Israel, their elders, heads, judges, and officers, and said to them, “I am old, advanced in days. 3You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations before you, for the LORD your God is the one who fought for you. 4See, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes these nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. 5The LORD your God himself will push them out from before you and drive them out from before you, and you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God spoke to you.

Be Very Strong to Keep the Instruction

6Therefore be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the instruction of Moses, not turning aside from it to the right or to the left, 7so that you do not mix with these nations that remain among you or make mention of the names of their gods, cause anyone to swear by them, serve them, or bow down to them. 8But you shall cling to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. 9For the LORD has driven out from before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no one has stood before you to this day. 10One man from you has pursued a thousand, for the LORD your God is the one who fights for you, as he spoke to you. 11So be very careful for your own lives to love the LORD your God.

Do Not Turn Back

12For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain with you, and intermarry with them, and go in to them and they to you, 13know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They shall 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 the LORD your God has given you.

Not One Good Word Has Failed

14Look, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and with all your life that not one word has failed from all the good words that the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed. 15And just as every good word that the LORD your God spoke to you has come upon you, so the LORD will bring upon you every harmful word until he destroys you from this good land that the LORD your God has given you, 16if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God that he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land that he has given you.”