Joshua 23:9-16

9 And the Lord shall destroy them before you, great and strong nations; and no one has stood before us until this day.

10 One of you has chased a thousand, for the Lord our God, he fought for you, as he said to us.

11 And take ye great heed to love the Lord our God.

12 For if ye shall turn aside and attach yourselves to these nations that are left with you, and make marriages with them, and become mingled with them and they with you,

13 know that the Lord will no more destroy these nations from before you; and they will be to you snares and stumbling-blocks, and nails in your heels, and darts in your eyes, until ye be destroyed from off this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.

14 But I hasten to go the way , as all that are upon the earth also : and ye know in your heart and in your soul, that not one word has fallen of all the words which the Lord our God has spoken respecting all that concerns us; there has not one of them failed.

15 And it shall come to pass, that as all the good things are come upon us which the Lord God will bring upon you all the evil things, until he shall have destroyed you from off this good land, which the Lord has given you,

16 when ye transgress the covenant of the Lord our God, which he has charged us, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them.

Joshua 23:9-16 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.