Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God.
Parallel translations
- WEB Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.
- BSB Therefore watch yourselves carefully, that you love the LORD your God.
- NKJV Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God.
- NASB So take great care for yourselves that you love the Lord your God.
- NLT So be very careful to love the Lord your God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joshua urges them to be very careful to love Yahweh their God. It places love for God at the center of faithfulness.
Overview
At the heart of all obedience stands love for the Lord, and Joshua warns them to guard it diligently. He knows that when love grows cold, idolatry and ruin follow. This emphasis on loving God anticipates Jesus' identifying love for God as the greatest commandment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Josh 22:5But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Deut 6:5–12And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
- Jude 1:20–21But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
- Rom 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
- 1 Cor 8:3But if any man love God, the same is known of him.
- 1 Cor 16:22If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
- Exod 20:6And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
- Prov 4:23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
- Heb 12:15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
- Deut 4:9Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
- Eph 5:15See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
- Luke 21:34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Joshua — the same name as Jesus, 'the LORD saves' — leads God's people into their inheritance, a shadow of the greater Joshua who brings us into the true rest and the promised land that remains.
How Joshua 23:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.