Joshua 23:9-16

9 The Lord has driven great and powerful nations out as you advanced, and no one has ever been able to stand against you.

10 Any one of you can make a thousand men run away, because the Lord your God is fighting for you, just as he promised. ¹

11 Be careful, then, to love the Lord your God.

12 If you are disloyal and join with the nations that are still left among you and intermarry with them,

13 you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive these nations out as you advance. Rather, they will be as dangerous for you as a trap or a pit and as painful as a whip on your back or thorns in your eyes. And this will last until none of you are left in this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

14 "Now my time has come to die. Every one of you knows in his heart and soul that the Lord your God has given you all the good things that he promised. Every promise he made has been kept; not one has failed

15 But just as he kept every promise that he made to you, so he will carry out every threat.

16 If you do not keep the covenant which the Lord your God commanded you to keep and if you serve and worship other gods, then in his anger he will punish you, and soon none of you will be left in this good land that he has given you."

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.

Cross References

• 1. 23.10 aDeuteronomy 32.30; bDeuteronomy 3.22.