¹⁹ thrusting out all your enemies^(A) before you, as the Lord said.

⁵² drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places.^{(A) 53} Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.^(B)

²⁸ I will send the hornet^(A) ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites^(B) out of your way. ²⁹ But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals^(C) too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession^(D) of the land.

3 These are the nations the Lord left to test^(A) all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan ² (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): ³ the five^(B) rulers of the Philistines,^(C) all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites^(D) living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon^(E) to Lebo Hamath.^{(F) 4} They were left to test^(G) the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.

The Angel of the Lord at Bokim

2 The angel of the Lord^(A) went up from Gilgal^(B) to Bokim^(C) and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt^(D) and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors.^(E) I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,^{(F) 2} and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land,^(G) but you shall break down their altars.^(H)’ Yet you have disobeyed^(I) me. Why have you done this? ³ And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you;^(J) they will become traps^(K) for you, and their gods will become snares^(L) to you.’”