Joshua 23 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

A long time after Yahweh had given Israel rest from all their enemies on every side, Joshua — now old and well along in years —

called together all of Israel — their elders, leaders, judges, and officials — and said to them: "I'm old now. I've lived a long life.

You've seen with your own eyes everything Yahweh your God has done to all these nations for your sake. Yahweh your God — He's the one who fought for you.

Look — I've allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes all the territory of the nations that are left, along with all the nations I've already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.

Yahweh your God — He will push them out ahead of you and drive them away from you. And you will take over their land, just as Yahweh your God promised you.

So be very strong — hold tight to everything written in the book of the instruction of Moses, and do everything it says. Don't turn from it to the right or to the left.

Don't get mixed up with these nations that are still among you. Don't invoke the names of their gods, don't swear by them, don't serve them, and don't bow down to them.

Instead, hold on to Yahweh your God — exactly as you've been doing up to today.

Yahweh has driven out great and powerful nations ahead of you. To this day, no one has been able to stand against you.

One man among you can put a thousand to flight, because Yahweh your God — He's the one fighting for you, just as He promised.

So guard your lives carefully — love Yahweh your God.

But if you do turn away and cling to what's left of these nations — the ones still living among you — and if you intermarry with them and mix in with them and they with you,

then know for certain that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations out ahead of you. Instead, they'll become a trap and a snare for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you disappear from this good land that Yahweh your God has given you.

"Look — today I'm going the way of all the earth. And you know — deep in your hearts and deep in your souls, every single one of you knows — that not one good thing out of everything Yahweh your God promised you has failed to happen. Every single one came true for you. Not one word has failed.

But just as every good thing Yahweh your God promised you has come true, Yahweh can also bring every disaster on you until He's wiped you off this good land that Yahweh your God has given you.

If you break the covenant of Yahweh your God that He commanded you to keep, and go serve other gods and bow down to them, then Yahweh's anger will burn against you, and you'll quickly disappear from the good land He's given you."