The Bible

Joshua Chapter 23

¹After many days, when ForeverOne had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, ²Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to them, "I am old and well advanced in years.

³You have seen all that ForeverOne your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is ForeverOne your God who has fought for you.

⁴Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun.

⁵ForeverOne your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as ForeverOne your God spoke to you.

⁶"Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left; ⁷that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them; ⁸but hold fast to ForeverOne your God, as you have done to this day.

⁹"For ForeverOne has driven great and strong nations out from before you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.

¹⁰One man of you shall pursue a thousand; for it is ForeverOne your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you.

¹¹Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love ForeverOne your God.

¹²"But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; ¹³know for a certainty that ForeverOne your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which ForeverOne your God has given you.

¹⁴"Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which ForeverOne your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it.

¹⁵As all the good things have come on you of which ForeverOne your God spoke to you, so ForeverOne will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which ForeverOne your God has given you, ¹⁶when you disobey the covenant of ForeverOne your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the anger of ForeverOne will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you."