Chapter 23 of Sefer Yehoshua is Yehoshua's farewell address. The conquest has been halted midway, Yehoshua senses that his days are numbered, and he gathers the leadership of the people in order to place them before a decision: either to complete the driving out of the nations that remained, or to make a covenant with them and become intermingled with them. The entire chapter is built around this decision, and in it Yehoshua explains the benefit that will come from the one path and the double harm (natural and providential) that will come from the other path.
וַיְהִי מִיָּמִים רַבִּים אַחֲרֵי אֲשֶׁר־הֵנִיחַ יְהֹוָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל מִכׇּל־אֹיְבֵיהֶם מִסָּבִיב וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ זָקֵן בָּא בַּיָּמִים׃ וַיִּקְרָא יְהוֹשֻׁעַ לְכׇל־יִשְׂרָאֵל לִזְקֵנָיו וּלְרָאשָׁיו וּלְשֹׁפְטָיו וּלְשֹׁטְרָיו וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם אֲנִי זָקַנְתִּי בָּאתִי בַּיָּמִים׃ - And it came to pass, a long time after Hashem had given Israel rest from all their enemies round about, that Yehoshua was old and advanced in years. And Yehoshua called for all Israel, for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them: I am old and advanced in years.
The Malbim emphasizes: for a long time Hashem had given Israel rest from all their enemies round about, but the conquest itself they had not finished. "Their elders" refers to the Sanhedrin; "their heads" means the heads of the tribes; "their judges and their officers" are those who were appointed in each and every city. Before all this leadership Yehoshua lays out the situation exactly as it is: there are still many nations that you have not driven out, the work is not finished.
Yehoshua sets before them two paths and no more. The first: to make a covenant with them, to intermarry with them, to be one people with them, and thereby to try to remove the hatred and enmity. The second: to fight them until they drive them out. For without one of these two possibilities it is impossible for Israel to dwell in the land in tranquility. Either complete peace, or war; a middle state does not exist.
And here lies Yehoshua's great concern: that perhaps after his death Israel will be afraid to provoke war, and will choose the easy and comfortable option: let us make peace with them, let us intermarry with them. Therefore he opens and says to them: I am old, I can no longer go out and come in to war. And if you should ask from where we will have the strength to fight from now on, the answer is right before you.
וְאַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם אֵת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לְכׇל־הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה מִפְּנֵיכֶם כִּי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא הַנִּלְחָם לָכֶם׃ - And you have seen all that Hashem your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is Hashem your God who fights for you.
You have seen the signs and wonders that Hashem did to all the nations, and through this you have seen that it was not your own hands that made you this valor. The success did not come from me, but rather "Hashem your God is the One who fights for you." And if so, even if I, Yehoshua, die, the Holy One, blessed be He, is eternal, and death does not apply to Him. The One who helped you until now will continue to help you conquer the rest of the land.
רְאוּ הִפַּלְתִּי לָכֶם אֶת־הַגּוֹיִם הַנִּשְׁאָרִים הָאֵלֶּה בְּנַחֲלָה לְשִׁבְטֵיכֶם מִן־הַיַּרְדֵּן וְכׇל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר הִכְרַתִּי וְהַיָּם הַגָּדוֹל מְבוֹא הַשָּׁמֶשׁ׃ - See, I have allotted to you these remaining nations as an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, together with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun.
The Malbim notes that in this passage there are several matters that are repeated and things that seem disordered, and in the course of the explanation they will become clear and be resolved. Yehoshua says: what depended on me, the allotting of the inheritance, I have done. And we already explained above that the Holy One, blessed be He, told Yehoshua that his task was to see that each one would know his portion, and after each one would know his portion, they would wage war and He would help them win, as it is stated "and you shall cause them to inherit it," "I will drive them out from before the children of Israel, only allot it as an inheritance": your task is to determine for each one where his inheritance is.
"From the Jordan and all the nations that I have cut off" - these are the ones dwelling in the southeast beside the Jordan, whom he had already conquered in his lifetime; "and the Great Sea" - these are the ones still to be conquered. But the allotting of the inheritance, according to the divine command, I have already done; all that remains is to come and actually conquer the places. "Toward the setting of the sun" (mevo hashemesh) means like "and the sun set" (uva hashemesh), that is, the sun went down, and it refers to the side of the Great Sea, which is the side of the sunset, for the sun sets in the west.
וַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא יֶהְדֳּפֵם מִפְּנֵיכֶם וְהוֹרִישׁ אֹתָם מִלִּפְנֵיכֶם וִירִשְׁתֶּם אֶת־אַרְצָם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לָכֶם׃ - And Hashem your God, He will thrust them out from before you and dispossess them from before you, and you shall possess their land, as Hashem your God spoke to you.
After I have allotted the inheritance and divided to each one his portion, what remains is only the conquest. And even after my death - Hashem your God is alive, the Holy One, blessed be He, remains here, and He will thrust them out and help you conquer all who remain.
What does "yehdafem" mean? The Metzudat Tzion explains: a term of pushing and striking, like "the wind drives it away." And what is the difference between "He will thrust them out from before you" and "He will dispossess them from before you"? The Malbim explains: "yehdafem" refers to the nations that have already been conquered, those who turned and left, as we saw above with the Girgashite who turned and went to Africa. They will want to return, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will thrust them back and prevent their return - like one who comes to leap forward and you shove him back. "And He will dispossess them" refers to those who have not yet been conquered, whom He will now dispossess from before you.
וַחֲזַקְתֶּם מְאֹד לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲשׂוֹת אֵת כׇּל־הַכָּתוּב בְּסֵפֶר תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה לְבִלְתִּי סוּר־מִמֶּנּוּ יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול׃ - And you shall be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the Torah of Moshe, not to turn aside from it to the right or to the left.
The divine assistance is conditional. "And you shall be strong to keep" - this corresponds to the negative commandments, for every expression of "beware," "lest," and "do not" is a prohibition, and one must be careful of them. "And to do" - this corresponds to the positive commandments. And this is exactly the command with which we opened the book, when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Yehoshua: if you keep all that is written in the book of the Torah of Moshe and do not turn aside from it to the right or the left - I will conquer the land for you. Now Yehoshua conveys this command to the people and says: know that this condition is still in force and still stands.
לְבִלְתִּי־בֹא בַּגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה הַנִּשְׁאָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אִתְּכֶם וּבְשֵׁם אֱלֹהֵיהֶם לֹא־תַזְכִּירוּ וְלֹא תַשְׁבִּיעוּ וְלֹא תַעַבְדוּם וְלֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָהֶם׃ - Not to come among these nations, these that remain with you; and you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow down to them.
Part of the command is "not to come among these nations." As we noted at the outset, there is an option to draw near to the nations in order to make peace with them and join with them, and thereby, as it were, to be protected from them. Yehoshua says: if you are required to keep the Torah, you are certainly meant to guard yourselves from this path and not to intermarry with the remaining nations.
Note the repetition: "among these nations, these that remain" - why does it say "these" twice? The Malbim explains: the first "these" refers to those who were conquered, and "that remain" refers to those who were not conquered, and he is speaking of both types, and therefore of both he said "these." So too in verse 12: "with the remnant of these nations, these that remain."
What is the difference between "yeter" (that which is left over) and "nishar" (that which remains)? This is a matter the Malbim has already explained several times: "yeter" is what remains by chance, superfluous, I took everything I needed and what was left over remained on its own. "Nishar" is what we left over deliberately, when I tell a person "I left you a few packages there," the meaning is that I left them intentionally. Therefore "yeter" refers to the nations we conquered, among whom we did not conquer everything either, and what remained of them remained incidentally. And "the remaining ones" (hanisharim) are those who were not conquered, and regarding them there was a deliberate intent, for the Holy One, blessed be He, left them intentionally in order to test Israel through them, as it says in Sefer Shoftim chapter 3: "These are the nations that Hashem left... to test Israel by them."
And this is a great principle for all generations: when Israel strays from the path, in each and every generation there is its own "Palestinians" who torment us. The Holy One, blessed be He, left them there in order to test us and in order to bring us back in teshuvah. This is why they are called "nisharim," because in their being left there was intent.
"And in the name of their gods you shall not mention" - through your not intermarrying with them, you will not come to the more severe prohibitions: mentioning the name of their gods; more severe than this, swearing in their name; more severe than this, "and you shall not serve them"; and more severe than this, "and you shall not bow down to them," which is one of the four services for which one is liable to death. And the essence of his words, says the Malbim, is that from the negative you can infer the positive: if you intermarry with them, you will mention the name of their gods, afterward you will swear, afterward you will serve, and afterward you will bow down.
Therefore he warns them in advance specifically about the first extreme, "not to come among the nations," because from the standpoint of the prohibition this is the relatively lightest one. Even though Chazal say that one who has relations with a non-Jewish woman is liable for it under the acronym nashgaz (niddah, shifchah, goyah, zonah) and these are very severe matters, and "she is bound to him like a dog," nevertheless there is no liability of death in this, one who has relations with a non-Jewish woman is not liable to death. But the end of the slope is idolatry, for which one is liable to stoning, the most severe of the severe. This is a slippery slope on which one can easily reach the far end, and then the exile will come and after it many troubles.
כִּי אִם־בַּיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם תִּדְבָּקוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר עֲשִׂיתֶם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה׃ וַיּוֹרֶשׁ יְהֹוָה מִפְּנֵיכֶם גּוֹיִם גְּדֹלִים וַעֲצוּמִים וְאַתֶּם לֹא־עָמַד אִישׁ בִּפְנֵיכֶם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה׃ אִישׁ־אֶחָד מִכֶּם יִרְדׇּף־אָלֶף כִּי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא הַנִּלְחָם לָכֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לָכֶם׃ - But rather to Hashem your God you shall cling, as you have done until this day. And Hashem has driven out from before you great and mighty nations, and as for you, no man has stood before you until this day. One man of you pursues a thousand, for Hashem your God, He is the One who fights for you, as He spoke to you.
The Malbim raises a difficulty: according to the other commentators who explain that "ki im" means "only," the continuation is not understood. "Only to Hashem your God you shall cling" - and what is the continuation "And Hashem has driven out from before you great and mighty nations," which is in the past tense? It would be fine if it said that if you cling He will drive out in the future, that would work; but to say "you shall cling" and then the past tense, there is no connection here. And also "one man of you pursues a thousand" does not connect to the substance of the statement.
Therefore the Malbim explains that "im" here is a conditional word, and from here onward Yehoshua begins to explain the benefit and the harm that will result from the two possibilities. For a person might say: why do I need constant wars, why should I live in a state of mortal danger and battles? Let us make a covenant with them and make peace, there is enough room in the land both for us and for them, and why should I exert myself? Yehoshua tells them: know this, if to Hashem your God you cling as you have done until this day, you have already seen the benefit with your own eyes, "And Hashem has driven out from before you great and mighty nations, and as for you, no man has stood before you until this day." And just as He did so in the past when you clung to Him, so will He do also in the future: "One man of you pursues a thousand, for Hashem your God, He is the One who fights for you." This is the benefit on the side of not intermarrying with them but rather clinging to Hashem. The Radak explains differently, that "pursues a thousand" is future used in place of past, and his intent is: one man of you pursued a thousand.
וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּם מְאֹד לְנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם לְאַהֲבָה אֶת־יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃ - And you shall guard yourselves greatly, for your souls, to love Hashem your God.
"For your souls" - for the preservation of your souls, so that your souls will endure. From here, says the Malbim, Yehoshua moves to explain the harm: you must be very careful of the danger that will come upon you if you choose the second option, to attach yourselves to the nations and make peace with them. The definition of complete love is to hate those who hate your beloved. When you love someone, you hate whoever hates him, as David HaMelech said: "Do I not hate those who hate You, Hashem, and quarrel with those who rise against You? With utter hatred I hate them, they have become enemies to me."
A person who always shows acceptance and closeness toward those who are distant, who always understands them and identifies with their difficulties, shows by this how far Hashem is from his heart. Why are you so accepting when they anger the Holy One, blessed be He, so greatly? If someone did the same thing to your father, would you still have such acceptance? If a person slapped your father, would you find merit for him and say he must have had troubles weighing on him? No, you would quarrel with him. But one must distinguish between those who act out of spite and the masses: the masses are not in the category of those who hate Hashem, but rather children who were captured, as the Chazon Ish put it, and them, on the contrary, there is reason to bring close. But the leaders who truly hate Hashem - "with utter hatred I hate them."
Up to that time things had gone well for Israel, and indeed throughout all the days of Yehoshua and the elders there was no problem. But Yehoshua is concerned: I am about to depart, what will happen here afterward? So too Moshe Rabbeinu said: "I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly" - as long as I am here it is fine, but the moment I leave, what will be? And why go far: Moshe was absent for forty days, and you do not even need forty days - six hours of "Moshe was late in coming," and the people disintegrate within hours. Therefore the concern is a real and great concern, and there is no reason to hide it. Yehoshua knows what is going through their minds, knows that the easy option is tempting, and one must confront this and explain to them why not to choose the easy one - for it is in fact much harder.
And here too, why go far: when we conquered Gaza, the easy option was to leave them, to make peace with them, or to appoint a governor and try to manage. Why? Because the whole world was in an uproar. Whereas had everything been evacuated and everyone transferred to Jordan or Egypt, the world would have been in an uproar, shouting and making noise, but it would have ended. And today we see a bone stuck in the throat, neither vomited up nor removed, and we continue and flounder; at a certain stage we thought we had struck them, and then it turned out that you think you struck them and they still want to swallow you, and the Arabs are the same Arabs and the sea is the same sea. It turns out that the "comfortable" way of "keep things quiet" is the way that in the end turns against you very harshly.
כִּי אִם־שׁוֹב תָּשׁוּבוּ וּדְבַקְתֶּם בְּיֶתֶר הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה הַנִּשְׁאָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אִתְּכֶם וְהִתְחַתַּנְתֶּם בָּהֶם וּבָאתֶם בָּהֶם וְהֵם בָּכֶם׃ - For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and intermarry with them and come among them, and they among you.
"You turn back" - you turn back from following Hashem, you turn back from His love, and you cling to the remnant of the nations. And we already said that this is impossible as long as you love Hashem, for if you love Hashem you cannot love a foreign woman; you must continue in that love, and on the contrary hate those who hate Hashem. And if you do this, says the Malbim, a double evil will come upon you: an evil from the side of nature, and an evil through providence from Him, may He be blessed. And first he mentions the natural evil.
יָדוֹעַ תֵּדְעוּ כִּי לֹא יוֹסִיף יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לְהוֹרִישׁ אֶת־הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה מִלִּפְנֵיכֶם וְהָיוּ לָכֶם לְפַח וּלְמוֹקֵשׁ וּלְשֹׁטֵט בְּצִדֵּיכֶם וְלִצְנִנִים בְּעֵינֵיכֶם עַד־אֲבׇדְכֶם מֵעַל הָאֲדָמָה הַטּוֹבָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָכֶם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃ - Know for certain that Hashem your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you, and they shall become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that Hashem your God has given you.
"Know for certain," explains the Malbim: you yourselves will know this, you will see it on your own, that Hashem will no longer drive out the nations, and from this you will know that they will become for you a snare and a trap. "A snare and a trap" - in spiritual matters, that they will cause you to stumble and to sin. "A scourge in your sides" - when an enemy comes from the side, these peoples will turn against you. "And thorns in your eyes" - that even in a time of quiet they will prick your eyes with jealousy, with hatred and with enmity.
And this is literally like words of prophecy. "A scourge in your sides" - this is exactly what happens with the Palestinians: we had a member of Knesset from the Arab parties who simply ranges the missiles from Lebanon, telling them exactly where to strike and where to aim. Today he is no longer here, he managed to flee in the meantime, but he is one of those whom the High Court approved and said must be in parliament. And another famous leader, and all the rest - we know what happens at the moment of reckoning and on which side they take hold. This is "a scourge in your sides": when an enemy comes upon you from the side, those you left inside and did not evacuate will be against you. And "thorns in your eyes" - even when there is quiet you will see the Arab envying you, hating you and standing against you even if he does nothing, and all the more so in our days when we see them rising up and acting.
"Until you perish" - by way of nature, says the Malbim, for it is impossible that there be complete love and a true covenant between you. The Holy One, blessed be He, engraved this into reality: "It is a known law that Esav hates Yaakov" - this is like a law given to Moshe at Sinai, something engraved into nature, and likewise "behold, a people that dwells alone." To think that we will get along with the nations - the Jews of Europe thought this way before the terrible and dreadful Holocaust, and we see what the results were; and we too in our days thought we could get along with the peoples around us, and we saw the results. The verse comes to teach that from the side of nature it is impossible that there be complete love and a true covenant between you, and therefore it is very dangerous to form ties with them and to think that one can live with them in peace. Even from a natural standpoint this is not the way.
Rashi explains "and to be a scourge in your sides": they will roam about to plunder and despoil your surroundings. They themselves will come and roam through your sides, and this is exactly what happens today: the "Southern Law" and all that accompanies it, the Bedouin and the Palestinians, the thefts from the farms, the damages, the protection rackets, all of these are "they will roam about to plunder and despoil your surroundings."
And "as thorns" Rashi explains as a term for camps. And where do we find that thorns mean camps? In the book of Yechezkel: "And they shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wheels, and with an assembly of peoples, buckler and shield and helmet" - camps will come against you. And the term "tzinah" (buckler) is the name of the shield that surrounded a person on three sides, as in "You surround him with favor as with a shield" which means You encircle him, and as in "Now Shaul and his men were encircling David" - encircling meaning surrounding. For the camp surrounds those it comes to attack, just as the buckler and shield surround the person. And according to this, "and as thorns in your eyes" - there will be camps that come to strike you in your eyes.
וְהִנֵּה אָנֹכִי הוֹלֵךְ הַיּוֹם בְּדֶרֶךְ כׇּל־הָאָרֶץ וִידַעְתֶּם בְּכׇל־לְבַבְכֶם וּבְכׇל־נַפְשְׁכֶם כִּי לֹא־נָפַל דָּבָר אֶחָד מִכֹּל הַדְּבָרִים הַטּוֹבִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם עֲלֵיכֶם הַכֹּל בָּאוּ לָכֶם לֹא־נָפַל מִמֶּנּוּ דָּבָר אֶחָד׃ - And behold, I am going today the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and with all your soul that not one thing has failed of all the good things that Hashem your God spoke concerning you. They have all come to you, not one thing of it has failed.
Until now he spoke of the natural harm, and from here on of the harm that will come through providence. The Holy One will punish you for drawing close to the nations, and Yehoshua brings a proof from the good promises that Hashem promised them and which were fulfilled: just as the good things were fulfilled, so too the evil things that were spoken to you will be fulfilled. "Behold, I am going the way of all the earth," and nevertheless you will have providence from the Holy One.
And note: providence is not only for good, but also for harm. When the people of Israel are under providence, the moment there is a deviation from the path there is a slap, and this itself shows the greatness of the providence. Where did they receive the slaps most quickly? In the wilderness, because in the wilderness the providence was the most immediate, day by day the manna came down, day by day the well was with them, day by day the pillar of cloud. And consequently every small complaint causes a thousand men to fall here, several thousand here, twenty four thousand here. When providence is close, the responses are immediate. And Yehoshua says to them: you will be under Hashem's providence both for good and for harm, for the promises that the Holy One promised were not spoken to me privately but to the people, and therefore my death does not nullify them. Take an example from the good promises, and learn from it about the evil promises.
"They have all come to you" - not even one thing is missing. And why does he add "not one thing of it has failed"? Rather, there is an addition here: not only did all the promises come, that is, if we say the whole is a hundred, all one hundred came, but also each and every unit of the hundred came in its completeness and nothing was lacking from it, not even a part of it. Everything came in its number and everything came also in its quality.
וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר־בָּא עֲלֵיכֶם כׇּל־הַדָּבָר הַטּוֹב אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲלֵיכֶם כֵּן יָבִיא יְהֹוָה עֲלֵיכֶם אֵת כׇּל־הַדָּבָר הָרָע עַד־הַשְׁמִידוֹ אוֹתְכֶם מֵעַל הָאֲדָמָה הַטּוֹבָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָכֶם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃ - And it shall be, that just as every good thing has come upon you that Hashem your God spoke to you, so will Hashem bring upon you every evil thing, until He has destroyed you from off this good land that Hashem your God has given you.
The Malbim says: learn from this and understand, that just as the good thing came upon you, so through that very same providence the evil thing will come upon you when you deviate from the path. Just as "If you walk in My statutes" was fulfilled in you, so "And if you reject My statutes" will be fulfilled. And even though according to nature it would have been fitting for you to remain in existence, this will not help, for through Hashem's providence His anger will burn against you and you will have no existence, "and you will perish quickly" by the hand of Hashem. And the punishment of the Holy One, the Malbim says, is not tied to time and nature and their causes: it may be that from the standpoint of nature everything should be excellent, and nevertheless, if a punishment from Hashem is due to you, the Holy One will bring it even though it is, as it were, contrary to nature, for it comes through providence.
And therefore, corresponding to what he said earlier "until you perish," which is from the standpoint of nature - that over time you will perish because these nations will rise against you - he adds here "until He has destroyed you," for here it speaks of a destruction and annihilation through providence, by the hand of Hashem and not according to nature. And by the way, "otam" (them) is not the logical form of the word, which should have been "etchem," and the Radak brings that the aleph has a cholam, and likewise "and He created otahen," "they shall judge otaham" - so there is such an expression, even though ordinarily one says "etchem."
There is another difference between the coming of good and the coming of evil: when the Holy One, blessed be He, promises something good, the very speech is the completion of the matter - He spoke and it came to be, and the good arrives on its own following the divine word. But when He says that evil will come, this is not a decree but always conditional: if you do evil, evil will come. From a promise of good the Holy One, blessed be He, never retracted, except one time - "and mark a tav upon the foreheads of the men." On this foundation the Rambam writes that when we test a prophet, we do not test him with something evil: if he said a calamity would come, and by this he sought to prove that he is a true prophet, and in the end the calamity did not come, this is no proof that he is a false prophet, for Hashem relented of the evil. But if he said good would come, we do not say that Hashem relented of the good, for every promise of good that the Holy One, blessed be He, promised He fulfills.
Therefore regarding the good it says "as every good thing came upon you" - for it comes on its own, and regarding the evil it says "so will Hashem bring" - for it does not come on its own but requires bringing, since the mere statement does not yet mean that the evil will be. The statement is not the onset of the evil, but the creation of an option: that if you do not walk in the right way, the evil will be forced to actually come.
בְּעׇבְרְכֶם אֶת־בְּרִית יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה אֶתְכֶם וַהֲלַכְתֶּם וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶם לָהֶם וְחָרָה אַף־יְהֹוָה בָּכֶם וַאֲבַדְתֶּם מְהֵרָה מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָכֶם׃ - When you transgress the covenant of Hashem your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of Hashem will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from off the good land which He gave you.
Here, take note, it is written "which He commanded you" (asher tzivah etchem) - and this is the correct expression, and not "otchem" as in the previous verse. In this verse Yehoshua explains when and in what manner all this will come: when you transgress the covenant of Hashem which He commanded you, when you serve other gods and bow down to them - then the anger of Hashem will burn against you and you will perish from off the good land.
Yehoshua, at the end of his days, sets the people before only two paths: to cleave to Hashem and complete the dispossession of the nations, or to make a covenant with them and mingle among them. The first path is guaranteed eternal divine assistance - "Hashem your God is the One who fights for you," and one man will chase a thousand. The second path, seemingly the easier one, carries within it a double evil: a natural evil, that it is impossible to have a covenant of truth and complete love with those in whom hatred is engraved, and they will become a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes; and a providential evil, that just as all the good promises were fulfilled in their entirety, so the evil thing will come, even contrary to nature. Therefore Yehoshua concluded his words: it is very worthwhile for you to walk in the good path and cleave to Him, and then all the good promises will come upon you.