⁵¹ “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^(A)‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ^52 (B)then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their ^[a]high places; ⁵³ you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to ^(C)possess.

⁵⁵ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be ^(A)irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. ⁵⁶ Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’ ”