Joshua

Joshua’s Farewell

A long time after the Lord gave peace to Israel in all its borders,

Joshua, who was now very old and burdened with age, summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, secretaries, and judges—and he said to them: “I am now very old.

You have seen all that the Lord has done to all these nations for your sake and how he has fought for you.

See, I have distributed to you the territory of all these nations that we destroyed from the Jordan to the Great Sea, as well as those nations that still remain.

The Lord, our God, will continue driving them back before you and deprive them of their lands so that you may take them as the Lord has promised you.

Therefore, be very valiant and be determined to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses without turning aside from it either to the right or the left.

Do not intermingle with these nations that are left among you. Do not call upon their gods or swear by their names. Do not serve or bow before them,

but remain united to the Lord, our God, as you have done to this day.

For that reason, the Lord has driven away before you many powerful nations. No one was able to stand before your presence.

One of you pursued a thousand since the Lord, our God, fought for you as promised.

So, be very careful to love the Lord.

But if you separate yourselves from him and become one with the rest of these nations that still remain among you if they come to be your relatives and you intermarry with them,

know very well that the Lord shall no longer drive out these nations before you. Still, 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 beautiful land the Lord, our God, has given you.

I am now about to go the way of all creatures, so I say to you: know in your soul and your conscience that all the promises of the Lord, our God, have been fulfilled; not one has failed.

But just as all these promises of the Lord in your favor have been fulfilled, so shall the Lord bring all the evil he has threatened against you until you have been wiped out from this magnificent land he has given you.

If you break the Covenant that the Lord, our God, has given us. If you follow and serve other gods and bow before them, the wrath of the Lord shall rise against you, and you shall suddenly perish from this fertile land he has given you.”