Or HaChaim on Exodus 23:23/אור החיים על שמות כ״ג:כ״ג

1 והביאך…והכחדתיו, "and he will bring you there…and I will cut them off." The Torah means that the Jewish people will become the insrument by means of which these nations will be cut off. Please read what I have written on Numbers 14,9 in connection with the words: "their protective shadow has departed from them (while G'd is with us)." The reason is that sanctity will suck up the nutritients (of people who are wicked) so that those lacking sanctity will remain like defeated corpses. This is the mystical dimension of Shabbat 34 "he set his eye on him and the victim turned into a pile of bones." This happened as a result of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai "sucking" up the nutrients of the body of the person who had accused him of declaring cemeteries as ritually pure.