Joshua 23:2-12

2 Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, "I am now old and well advanced in years;

3 and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.

4 I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west

5 The Lord your God will push them back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.

6 Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left,

7 so that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow yourselves down to them,

8 but hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.

9 For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations; and as for you, no one has been able to withstand you to this day.

10 One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you.

11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.

12 For if you turn back, and join the survivors of these nations left here among you, and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,

Joshua 23:2-12 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.