Joshua 23
One Man of You Puts a Thousand to Flight
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Joshua’s Charge to Israel
23:1After many days, after the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies all around, Joshua was old, advanced in days,
23:2and Joshua summoned all the sons of Israel, their council of elders, leaders, scribes, and judges, and said to them, “I have grown old and advanced in days.
23:3You have seen all that the Lord your God did to all these nations before you, for the Lord your God is the One who fought for you.
23:4See, I have assigned these nations left to you in the lots for your tribes: from the Jordan, all the nations I destroyed; and the boundary shall extend from the Great Sea toward the sunset.
23:5The Lord your God Himself will destroy them before you until they perish. He will send wild animals against them until He destroys them and their kings before you. Inherit their land, as the Lord your God told you.
Keep the Law and Cling to the Lord
23:6Therefore be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you do not turn aside to the right or to the left,
23:7so that you do not enter among these remaining nations, and the names of their gods shall not be named among you; neither shall you bow down to them nor serve them,
23:8but you shall cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.
23:9The Lord destroyed them before you, great and strong nations; no one has stood against you to this day.
23:10One of you pursued a thousand, for the Lord your God was fighting for you, as He told you.
23:11Take great care to love the Lord your God.
The Cost of Turning Back
23:12For if you turn back and attach yourselves to these remaining nations with you, make marriages with them, and mingle with them and they with you,
23:13know that the Lord will certainly no longer destroy these nations before you. They shall be traps and stumbling blocks for you, nails in your heels and darts in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.
Joshua’s Departing Word
23:14I am departing on the way of all who are upon the earth. You shall know in your heart and soul that not one word has failed of all the words the Lord your God spoke concerning everything that belongs to you; none of them has proved at variance.
23:15As all the good words that the Lord spoke to you have come upon you, so the Lord God will bring upon you all the harmful words until He destroys you from this good land that the Lord gave you,
23:16when you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God that He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them.”
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.