Joshua 23:1-16

Many years had passed since YAHWEH had given Israel rest from all their enemies, and Joshua was very old. So Joshua called together all the Israelites, including all their leaders—elders, judges, and officials—and told them, “I’m now very old and don’t have much longer to live. YAHWEH your God has shown you his power and fought against your enemies for you. You have seen all the wonders that he has done to all these nations because he loves you. See, I have assigned to your tribes all the land from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. I have given you the land of all the nations that we’ve already conquered as an inheritance, and also the land of those nations that we’ve yet to conquer. YAHWEH your God will absolutely keep his promises to you. He will drive out all your enemies and make them retreat before you so that you will possess their land. So be very strong and steadfast; be careful to obey fully what is written in the Scroll of the teaching of Moses, without deviating from it. Do not intermingle with the nations that are left among you nor speak the names of their gods when you take an oath. And by all means don’t worship or pray to them. As you have done until now, cling tightly to YAHWEH, for he is your God. YAHWEH has driven out great and powerful nations before you! No one was able to withstand you, for YAHWEH your God fights for you as he promised he would! That is why just one of you causes a thousand of our enemies to run away. Above all else, keep watch over your hearts, so as to always love YAHWEH your God. “But if you ever turn away and make alliances with the nations that remain in your midst, and establish friendly relations with them and intermarry, then you may be sure that YAHWEH your God will no longer drive them out before you. Instead they will become a snare and a trap for you! They will be like whips on your backsides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from the good land that YAHWEH your God has given you. “Now I am about to go the way of all humanity. You know with all your heart and soul that not one promise of YAHWEH your God has failed. Without a doubt, every promise he made to us he has kept; he has fulfilled them all. Just as he has kept every wonderful promise he ever made to you, so YAHWEH your God will carry out every threat and will obliterate you completely from this good land which he has given you. If you break the covenant our God, YAHWEH, made with you and worship other gods and bow down to them, his anger will blaze against you. He will punish you, and he will remove you from the face of this good land he has given you.”