Joshua 23:1-13

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Joshua Exhorts the People

23 A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around and Joshua was old and well advanced in years,^{(A) 2} Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years,^{(B) 3} and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.^{(C) 4} I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵ The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.^{(D) 6} Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left,^{(E) 7} so that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow yourselves down to them,^{(F) 8} but hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.^{(G) 9} For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no one has been able to withstand you to this day.^{(H) 10} One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you.^{(I) 11} Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you turn back and join the survivors of these nations left here among you and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,^{(J) 13} know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.^(K)