Josh 23.1-16 tells us that Joshua is old, being 110 at the time. He had enjoyed the pand for awhile but now it was time to address the people before his death. He tells them what God has done for them, and he did not brag about his own exploits. The Canaanites have not been totally cut off, but the rest will gradually be driven out to teach the people warfare (Judges 3.1-2). It had to be done this way because to quickly cut them off would have left the land desolate.
But Joshua does tell them to observe the commandments that are written (no hint of an oral law), to avoid idolatry and to not intermarry or associate with them. If they do the Lord will not drive them out and they will become a snare and a trap to them. He tells them that not one word God has spoken has failed, but just as he blesses obedience he will also punish disobedience.
v 1…Now it came about after many days (years), when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years,
v 2…that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders (zekanim) and their heads (roshei’iv) and their judges (shophtei’iv) and their officers (shoterei’iv), and said to them, “I am old, advanced in years.
v 3…And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is he who has been fighting for you (Joshua could have bragged but he glorified God because he knew he could not have done it).
v 4…See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan, even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun (Mediterranean).
v 5…And the Lord your God, he shall thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you and drive them from before you; and you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.
v 6…Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written (no hint of an oral law) in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left (cling to it),
v 7…in order that you may not associate (go among them) with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention (invoke, remember, call out, celebrate) the name of their gods, or make anyone sear (an oath) by them, or serve them, or bow down to them.
v 8…But you are to cling to the Lord your God (and his written law, not an oral law-v 6), as you have done to this day.
v 9…For the Lord has driven out great and strong nations from before you; and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.
v 10…One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, just as he promised you.
v 11…So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God (How do we love him? By action-John 14.15).
v 12…For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you; and intermarry with them, so that you associate (go among) with them and they with you,
v 13…know for a certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes (like a thorn in the flesh) until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
v 14…Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth (about to die, not that day, but in a short time), and you know in all your hearts (desires, intentions, thoughts) and in all your souls (a parallelism) that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed, all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.
v 15…And it shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the threats, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you (this happened with the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, and if he is the God of those events, he is also the God of the Holocaust-See the teaching at the end of Deut 28 called “The Levitical and Deuteronomic Covenantal Discipline and Judgment”).
v 16…When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given you.”
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