Joshua 23:7-16

Common English Bible

⁷ Don’t have anything to do with these nations that remain with you. Don’t invoke the names of their gods or take oaths by them. Don’t serve them or worship them. ⁸ Hold on to the Lord your God instead, exactly as you’ve done right up to today.

⁹ “The Lord has removed great and powerful nations before you. To this day, no one has stood up to you. ¹⁰ A single one of you puts a thousand to flight. This is because the Lord your God fights for you, exactly as he promised you. ¹¹ For your own sake, be very careful to love the Lord your God. ¹² But if you should turn away and join the rest of these nations that remain with you, intermarry with them, and associate with each other, ¹³ then know for certain that the Lord your God won’t keep on removing these nations before you. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap for you. They will be a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you vanish from this fertile land that the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “Look. I’m now walking on the road to death that all the earth must take. You know with all your heart and being that not a single one of all the good things that the Lord your God promised about you has failed. They were all fulfilled for you. Not a single one of them has failed. ¹⁵ But in the same way that every good thing that the Lord your God promised about you has been fulfilled, so the Lord could bring against you every bad thing as well. He could wipe you out from this fertile land that the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶ If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you to keep, and go on to serve other gods and worship them, then the Lord will be furious with you. You will quickly vanish from the fertile land that he has given you.”