Joshua 23:1-10

Joshua's Farewell Address

1 Now it came about after many days, when * the LORD had given ¹rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years,

2 that ²Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, "I am old, advanced in years.

3 "And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because * of you, for ³the LORD your God is He who has been fighting for you.

4 "See, ⁴I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun

5 "The LORD your God, He will thrust them out from before you and ⁵drive them from before you; and ⁶you will possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you.

6 "⁷Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,

7 so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or ⁸mention the name of their gods, or ⁹make anyone swear by them, or ¹⁰serve them, or bow down to them.

8 "But you are to cling to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.

9 "¹¹For the LORD has driven out great and strong nations from before you; and as for you, ¹²no man has stood before you to this day.

10 "¹³One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is ¹⁴He who fights for you, just as He promised you.

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Joshua 23:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 23

Joshua being old, convenes the states of Israel a little before his death, Jos 23:1,2; and in his address to them observes what God had done for them, and would do, Jos 23:3-5; and exhorts them to keep the commandments of God, and cleave to him, and not to mix with the Gentiles, and join with them in idolatrous practices, and then it would be well with them, Jos 23:6-11; but otherwise should they join with them, and depart from the Lord, who had so faithfully and punctually performed every good thing he had promised them, they might expect all evils and calamities, utter ruin and destruction, to befall them, Jos 23:12-16.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. Joshua 21:44
2. Joshua 24:1
3. Deuteronomy 1:30
4. Exodus 23:30
5. Exodus 23:20
6. Numbers 33:53
7. Deuteronomy 5:32; Joshua 1:7
8. Exodus 23:13; Psalms 16:4
9. Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20
10. Exodus 20:5
11. Exodus 23:23, 30
12. Deuteronomy 7:24
13. Leviticus 26:8; Deuteronomy 28:7; Deuteronomy 32:20
14. Deuteronomy 3:22; Joshua 23:3

Footnotes 6

[a]. Lit "from round about"
[b]. Or "dispossess"
[c]. Lit "spoke to"
[d]. Lit "go among"
[e]. Or "dispossessed"
[f]. Lit "spoke to"