If you think, “These nations are more numerous than I – how can I dispossess them?”

then he ¹  will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

He, ¹  the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.

When the Lord your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land. ¹ 

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ¹  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

Then ¹  he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor. ²  You will ³  be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he has said.

“(For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations as we traveled.

Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ¹  all about?”

Do not think to yourself after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my own righteousness the Lord has brought me here to possess this land.” It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you.

It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, ¹  that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he ²  made on oath to your ancestors, ³  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

You must by all means destroy ¹  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ² 

After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.”

When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,”

Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things.

“When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ²  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

As for the Lord your God, he is about to cross over before you; he will destroy these nations before you and dispossess them. As for Joshua, he is about to cross before you just as the Lord has said.

Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ¹