Joshua 23
23
Joshua’s Farewell at Shiloh
1Many years had passed since Yahweh had given Israel rest # 23:1 See Matt. 11:28; Heb. 4:1–11. Jesus brings us into the faith-rest life. from all their enemies, and Joshua was very old. # 23:1 This was about twenty-five years later. Joshua was one hundred and ten when he made a final speech to the nation. As Jacob had blessed his sons (see Gen. 49) and Moses the people (see Deut. 33), so Joshua gave a final speech before he died. 2So 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. 3Yahweh 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. 4See, 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. 5Yahweh 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. 6So be very strong and steadfast; be careful to obey fully what is written in the Scroll # 23:6 Singular, not “Scrolls,” which shows that Moses was the author of the Torah and that it is one book in five parts, a five-fold expression of God’s instruction to Israel. of the teaching of Moses, without deviating from it. # 23:6 Or “turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left.” See Num. 20:17; Deut. 2:27; 2 Sam. 2:19–21. This signifies being steadfast in following God’s Word. 7Do 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. 8As you have done until now, cling tightly to Yahweh, for he is your God. 9Yahweh has driven out great and powerful nations before you! No one was able to withstand you, 10for 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. # 23:10 See Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30. 11Above all else, keep watch over your hearts, so as to always love Yahweh your God. # 23:11 To those under the law of Moses, God is to be loved (see Deut. 6:4–5), and so much more for those who have been set free to follow Jesus Christ, our Beloved. Serving God must be based on loving him with all our hearts.
12“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, 13then 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. # 23:13 See Deut. 4:25–26; 11:16–17.
14“Now I am about to go the way of all humanity. # 23:14 Or “I am going the way of everything earthly.” Joshua realized his mortality and knew he didn’t have much longer to live. See 1 Kings 2:2–3. 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. # 23:14 See 2 Cor. 1:20. 15Just 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. 16If 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.”
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Joshua 23: TPT
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