Joshua 23:14

"And, Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which Jehovah your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, not one thing failed thereof. And it shall come to pass, that as all the good things are come upon you of which Jehovah your God spake unto you, so will Jehovah bring upon you all the evll things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which Jehovah your God hath given you. When ye transgress the covenant of Jehovah your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow yourselves down to them; then will the anger of Jehovah be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given you."

The terrible threats of these verses are based upon the words previously spoken by the Lord through Moses (Leviticus 26:14-33; Deuteronomy 28:15-68). It cannot be denied that Israel was repeatedly and effectively warned of the consequence of rebellion against Jehovah. The pity is that these warnings were totally ignored, and the plunge of Israel into idolatry was swift and compile.

Joshua, of course, foresaw the drift of Israel into open apostasy, and, therefore, he arranged a ceremony for the renewal of the covenant following this address to the leaders of Israel, a ceremony with all the qualities of the ancient suzerainty treaties prevalent in the mid-second millennium B.C. The preposterous notion that these final addresses of Joshua were the work of some seventh-century B. C. priest is RIDICULOUS. The knowledge of the exact form of these suzerainty treaties was lost for centuries, and there is no evidence whatever that the priests of Josiah's time ever heard of it. The elaborate ceremony of the suzerainty treaty closes the Book of Joshua in the following chapter.