Bible Strands
Joshua 1:7
Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Joshua at the moment of succession, immediately after commissioning him to give Israel the land (v. 6).
The words — רַק (rak, "only") opens the verse and subordinates every other command to a single priority: the law of Moses.
The thread — The "right or left" formula echoes Deuteronomy 5:32; the conditional prosperity mirrors 1 Chronicles 22:13; the following verse (Joshua 1:8) extends the command into daily meditation.
Why it lands — It makes prosperity a function of fidelity rather than effort: Joshua's strength and courage are real, but they are directed at one thing—doing what was already commanded.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 22:13 Then you will succeed, if you carefully follow the statutes and ordinances that the LORD commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
- Deuteronomy 5:32 So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.
- Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.
- Joshua 11:15 As the LORD had commanded His servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. That is what Joshua did, leaving nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Proverbs 4:27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.
- Deuteronomy 12:32 See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
- Deuteronomy 28:14 Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.
- Deuteronomy 31:7 Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance.
- Deuteronomy 29:9 So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do.
- Proverbs 8:20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,