1Now it happened, many days after Yahweh had given Israel rest from all their surrounding enemies, when Joshua was old and advanced in years,
2that Joshua summoned all Israel—its elders, its heads, its judges, and its officers—and said to them: “I am old, advanced in years.
3And you yourselves have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations before you, for it is Yahweh your God who has been fighting for you.
4See, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, as an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan—along with all the nations I have cut off—as far as the Great Sea at the setting of the sun.
5And Yahweh your God—he will drive them out before you and dispossess them from before you, and you will take possession of their land, just as Yahweh your God spoke to you.
6So be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so as not to turn aside from it to the right or to the left.
7Do not come in among these nations, these that remain with you. Do not invoke the name of their gods or swear by them; do not serve them or bow down to them.
8But to Yahweh your God you shall cling, as you have done to this day.
9For Yahweh has dispossessed before you nations great and mighty; as for you, no one has stood before you to this day.
10One man of you puts a thousand to flight, for it is Yahweh your God who has been fighting for you, just as he spoke to you.
11So watch yourselves closely, to love Yahweh your God.
12For if you ever turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain with you, and intermarry with them and come in among them and they among you,
13know for certain that Yahweh your God will no longer dispossess these nations from before you; they will become for you a snare and a trap, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that Yahweh your God has given you.
14And behold, I am going today the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and with all your soul that not one word has failed of all the good words that Yahweh your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.
15But it will happen that, just as every good word that Yahweh your God spoke to you has come upon you, so Yahweh will bring upon you every evil word, until he has destroyed you from off this good ground that Yahweh your God has given you.
16When you transgress the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of Yahweh will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land that he has given you.”
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