Joshua’s Farewell Address
1A long time after Yahweh had given Israel rest from all their enemies on every side, Joshua, now old and advanced in years, 2summoned all Israel — its elders, its leaders, its judges, and its officers — and said to them, “I am old, advanced in years. 3You have seen everything Yahweh your God has done to all these nations on your account, for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for you. 4See, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes these remaining nations, along with all the nations I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5Yahweh your God himself will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you will possess their land, just as Yahweh your God promised you. 6Be very strong, then, to keep and do everything written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning from it to the right or to the left, 7so that you do not associate with these remaining nations among you. Do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them; do not serve them or bow down to them. 8Instead, hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day. 9Yahweh has driven out before you great and powerful nations; no one has been able to stand against you to this day. 10One of you routs a thousand, because Yahweh your God fights for you, just as he promised. 11So be very careful to love Yahweh your God. 12But if you turn away and join the survivors of these remaining nations among you, intermarrying with them and mingling with them, and they with you, 13know for certain that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations out before you. They will become a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land Yahweh your God has given you. 14Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and all your soul that not one of all the good promises Yahweh your God made concerning you has failed; every one has been fulfilled — not a single one has failed. 15But just as every good promise Yahweh your God made to you has come true, so Yahweh will bring on you every disaster he threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land Yahweh your God has given you. 16If you break the covenant of Yahweh your God that he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the anger of Yahweh will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”
