Joshua’s last discourse
1 A long time after Yahweh gave peace to Israel in all its borders,
2 Joshua, who was now very old and burdened with age, summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, secretaries and jud ges—and he said to them: “I am now very old.
3 You have seen all that Yahweh has done to all these nations for your sake and how he himself has fought for you.
4 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.
5 Yah weh, our God, will continue driving them back before you and will deprive them of their lands that you may take them as Yahweh has promised you.
6 Therefore be very valiant and have the determination to do all that is written in the book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside from it either to the right or to the left.
7 Do not intermingle with these nations that are left among you. Do not call upon their gods or swear by their name. Do not serve them or bow before them,
8 but remain united to Yahweh, our God, as you have done to this day.
9 For that reason, Yahweh has driven away before you many powerful nations: no one was able to stand before your presence.
10 One of you pursued a thousand since Yahweh, our God, fought for you as he had promised.
11 So then, be very careful to love Yahweh, your God.
12 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,
13 know very well that Yahweh shall no longer 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 beau tiful land Yahweh, our God, has given you.
14 I am now about to go the way of all creatures, so I say to you: know in your soul and in your conscience that all the promises of Yahweh, our God, have been fulfilled; not one of them has failed.
15 But just as all these promises of Yahweh in your favor have been ful filled, so shall Yahweh bring all the evil he has threatened against you until you have been wiped out from this magnificent land he has given you,
16 if you break the cove nant that Yahweh, our God, has given us. If you follow and serve other gods and bow before them, the wrath of Yahweh shall rise against you, and you shall suddenly perish from this fertile land he has given you.”