Old Testament · Joshua

Joshua 23

Joshua’s Charge to Leaders

1And it came to pass after many days, after the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old, come into days, 2that Joshua called to all Israel, to its elders and to its heads, and to its judges and to its officers, and said to them: "I am old, I am come into days. 3And you yourselves have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God, He it is that fought for you.

4See, I have allotted to you these nations that remain for an inheritance according to your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, and the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun. 5And the LORD your God, He shall thrust them out from before you, and dispossess them from before you; and you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God spoke to you.

6And you shall be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the Torah of Moses, that you turn not aside from it to the right or to the left, 7that you come not among these nations, these that remain with you; and of the name of their gods you shall not make mention, nor cause to swear, neither shall you serve^a them, nor bow down to them; 8but to the LORD your God you shall cleave, as you have done to this day.

9And the LORD has dispossessed from before you great and mighty nations; and as for you, no man^b has stood before you to this day. 10One man of you shall chase a thousand; for the LORD your God, He it is that fought for you, as He spoke to you. 11And you shall take great heed to your souls^c, to love the LORD your God. 12But if you do at all turn back, and cleave to the remnant of these nations, these that remain with you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you, 13know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more dispossess these nations from before you; but they shall be to you a snare and a trap, and a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground^d which the LORD your God has given you.

14And behold, I am going today the way of all the earth; and you know in all your heart and in all your soul, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you; all have come to you, not one thing of it has failed. 15And it shall come to pass, that as every good thing has come upon you which the LORD your God spoke to you, so shall the LORD bring upon you every evil thing, until He has destroyed you from off this good ground which the LORD your God has given you. 16When you transgress the covenant^e of the LORD your God, which He commanded^f you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you."