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49  Remember your word to your servant, ♦︎
   on which you have built my hope.
50  This is my comfort in my trouble, ♦︎
   that your promise gives me life.
51  The proud have derided me cruelly, ♦︎
   but I have not turned aside from your law.
52  I have remembered your everlasting judgements, O Lord, ♦︎
   and have been comforted.
53  I am seized with indignation at the wicked, ♦︎
   for they have forsaken your law.
54  Your statutes have been like songs to me ♦︎
   in the house of my pilgrimage.
55  I have thought on your name in the night, O Lord, ♦︎
   and so have I kept your law.
56  These blessings have been mine, ♦︎
   for I have kept your commandments.
57  You only are my portion, O Lord; ♦︎
   I have promised to keep your words.
58  I entreat you with all my heart, ♦︎
   be merciful to me according to your promise.
59  I have considered my ways ♦︎
   and turned my feet back to your testimonies.
60  I made haste and did not delay ♦︎
   to keep your commandments.
61  Though the cords of the wicked entangle me, ♦︎
   I do not forget your law.
62  At midnight I will rise to give you thanks, ♦︎
   because of your righteous judgements.
63  I am a companion of all those who fear you, ♦︎
   those who keep your commandments.
64  The earth, O Lord, is full of your faithful love; ♦︎
   instruct me in your statutes.
65  You have dealt graciously with your servant, ♦︎
   according to your word, O Lord.
66  O teach me true understanding and knowledge, ♦︎
   for I have trusted in your commandments.
67  Before I was afflicted I went astray, ♦︎
   but now I keep your word.
68  You are gracious and do good; ♦︎
   O Lord, teach me your statutes.
69  The proud have smeared me with lies, ♦︎
   but I will keep your commandments with my whole heart.
70  Their heart has become gross with fat, ♦︎
   but my delight is in your law.
71  It is good for me that I have been afflicted, ♦︎
   that I may learn your statutes.
72  The law of your mouth is dearer to me ♦︎
   than a hoard of gold and silver.

Joshua Exhorts the People

23A long time afterwards, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, ²Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, ‘I am now old and well advanced in years; ³and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. ⁴I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵The Lord your God will push them back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you. ⁶Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left, ⁷so that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow yourselves down to them, ⁸but hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. ⁹For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations; and as for you, no one has been able to withstand you to this day. ¹⁰One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you. ¹¹Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. ¹²For if you turn back, and join the survivors of these nations left here among you, and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours, ¹³know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.

14 ‘And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. ¹⁵But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the bad things, until he has destroyed you from this good land that the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.’

The Tribes Renew the Covenant

24Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. ²And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. ³Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac; ⁴and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. ⁵Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterwards I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.^{* 7}When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁸Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. ⁹Then King Balak, son of Zippor of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you, ¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you; so I rescued you out of his hand. ¹¹When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to you. ¹²I sent the hornet^* ahead of you, which drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. ¹³I gave you a land on which you had not laboured, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.

²⁵At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem in a ministry to the saints; ²⁶for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. ²⁷They were pleased to do this, and indeed they owe it to them; for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material things. ²⁸So, when I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been collected,^* I will set out by way of you to Spain; ²⁹and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing^* of Christ.

30 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,^* by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, ³¹that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry^* to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, ³²so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. ³³The God of peace be with all of you.^* Amen.