Joshua's Last Warning

"I am old and stricken in age: And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you." "I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain."

"Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left." "Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God." If they intermarry with the remaining nations and serve their gods, "they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land."

"And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you."

Rest and unfinished work

Joshua 23:1 says "the LORD had given rest unto Israel," yet verse 4 speaks of "nations that remain." The book holds both: a rest that is real but not yet complete. Judges 2:20–3:6 picks up the theme: the nations left behind become a test.

Deuteronomy's voice

The speech is full of Deuteronomy's phrases: "turn not aside to the right hand or to the left" (Deuteronomy 5:32), "love the LORD your God," the warnings against intermarriage (Deuteronomy 7:3–4), and perishing "from off this good land" (Deuteronomy 11:17). Scholars see this as evidence that Joshua belongs to a Deuteronomic history; traditional readers see a leader quoting Moses.