1. A long time passed. The Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua had grown very old.
2. Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders, their heads, their judges, and their officers. He said to them, “I’ve grown very old.
3. You’ve seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. It is the Lord your God who fights for you.
4. Look. I’ve allotted to you these remaining nations as a legacy for your tribes, along with all the nations I have destroyed. They stretch from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.
5. The Lord your God will force them out before you and remove them from you. Then you will take over their land, exactly as the Lord your God has promised you.
6. Be very strong. Carefully obey everything written in the Instruction scroll from Moses. Don’t deviate a bit from it either to the right or to the left.
7. Don’t have anything to do with these nations that remain with you. Don’t invoke the names of their gods or take oaths by them. Don’t serve them or worship them.
8. Hold on to the Lord your God instead, exactly as you’ve done right up to today.