²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than you.^(A)

³⁸ driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today.^(A)

The Consequences of Rebelling against God

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens,^(A)

⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.^(A)

²² The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.^{(A) 23} But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great panic until they are destroyed.

A Chosen People

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you^(A)— ² and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.^(B)

¹¹ “Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.^(A)

²⁷ I will send my terror in front of you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And I will send swarms of hornets^[a] in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.^{(A) 29} I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals multiply against you.^{(B) 30} Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.