In verses 6-13 Joshua urges the people to remain faithful to the Lord by careful obedience to all the commands in the Law (verse 6), by absolute rejection of the Canaanite gods (verse 7), and by not intermarrying with the Canaanites (verse 12). He warns them of the consequences if they fail to heed his instructions (verse 13).

Be careful to obey and do is more literally “be very strong (or, courageous) to keep and do.” The use of the two verb forms “keep and do” (Revised Standard Version) represents once again the use of two synonyms to strengthen the thought. The same idea may be expressed as “obey completely.” A negative expression may also be used: “not to neglect in any way” or “never to depart in any way from.”

That is written in may be changed to an active: “that you read in.” The entire clause that is written in the book of the Law of Moses may be translated “that Moses wrote in the book of the Law.”

For the book of the Law of Moses, see 1.7.

Do not neglect any part of it translates the Hebrew idiom “not turning aside to the right or to the left.” It means complete, total obedience and may be translated positively as “obey every part of it.”

A greater effect may be achieved by breaking the sentence at the end of this verse. Otherwise, in combination with verse 7, it produces a very lengthy sentence. If a new sentence is begun at verse 7, then it may take the form of an imperative, similar to Do not neglect any part of it of this verse.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .