JoshuaChapter 23

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¹A long time passed after the LORD gave Israel rest from all the enemies around them. Joshua was now old, and he had lived many years. ²He called together all Israel, with its elders, leaders, judges, and officers. He said, "I am old, and I have lived many years. ³You have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for you, because it was the LORD your God who fought for you. ⁴Look, I have given your tribes the land of the nations that are left. It is your share. It includes all the nations I have already wiped out. It reaches from the Jordan west to the Great Sea. ⁵The LORD your God will push them out of your way. He will drive them out ahead of you. Then you can take over their land, as the LORD your God promised you. ⁶So be very strong, so that you can keep and obey everything written in the Book of the Law of Moses. Do not turn away from it to the right or to the left. ⁷Do not mix with these nations that are left among you. Do not call on the names of their gods. Do not make promises in their names. Do not serve them or bow down to them. ⁸Instead, hold on tight to the LORD your God, as you have done until today. ⁹The LORD has driven out great and powerful nations ahead of you. To this day no one has been able to stand against you. ¹⁰One of you can make a thousand run away. That is because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. ¹¹So be very careful to love the LORD your God. ¹²But you might turn away. You might hold on to the rest of these nations that are left among you. You might marry them and mix with them. ¹³If you do, know this for sure. The LORD your God will not drive out these nations ahead of you anymore. Instead, they will be like a net and a trap to you. They will be like a whip on your backs and thorns in your eyes. This will go on until you perish from this good land. The LORD your God gave you this land. ¹⁴Look, today I am about to die, as everyone on earth must. You know with all your heart and soul that the LORD your God has kept every good promise he made to you. Not one has failed. Every one has come true for you. Not one promise has failed. ¹⁵Every good thing the LORD your God promised you has come true. In the same way, the LORD will bring on you the disaster he warned about. He will do it until he has wiped you out from this good land he has given you. ¹⁶If you break the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the LORD's anger will burn against you. And you will quickly perish from this good land he has given you."