2. He called a meeting of all the elders, heads of families, judges, and officers of Israel. He said, “I am now very old.
3. You have seen what the Lord has done to our enemies to help us. The Lord your God fought for you.
4. Remember that your people have been given their land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the land I promised to give you.
5. The Lord your God will force out the people living there. The Lord will push them out ahead of you. And you will own the land, as he has promised you.
6. “Be strong. You must be careful to obey everything commanded in the Book of the Teachings of Moses. Do not stray from it either from the left or the right.
7. Don’t become friends with the people living among us who are not Israelites. Don’t say the names of their gods or make anyone swear by them. Don’t serve or worship them.
8. You must continue to follow the Lord your God, as you have done in the past.
9. “The Lord has forced many great and powerful nations to leave ahead of you. No nation has been able to defeat you.
10. With his help, one Israelite could defeat a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, as he promised to do.
11. So you must be careful to love the Lord your God.
12. “If you turn away from the way of the Lord and become friends with these people who are not part of Israel and marry them,