¹⁹ thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

⁵² you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places.^{(A) 53} You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.

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.

Nations Remaining in the Land

3 Now these are the nations that the Lord left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of war in Canaan^{(A) 2} (it was only for successive generations of Israelites, to teach war to those who had no experience of it): ³ the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.^{(B) 4} They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord that he commanded their ancestors by Moses.^(C)

Israel’s Disobedience

2 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.^{(A) 2} For your part, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. See what you have done!^{(B) 3} So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become adversaries^[a] to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”^(C)