and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.

Furthermore, the Lord your God will release hornets ¹  among them until the very last ones who hide from you ²  perish.

The everlasting God is a refuge, and underneath you are his eternal arms; ¹  he has driven out enemies before you, and has said, “Destroy!”

This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth ¹  with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.” ² 

to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. ¹ 

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 

Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord and because of these detestable things ¹  the Lord your God is about to drive them out ²  from before you.

When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ¹  Girgashites, ²  Amorites, ³  Canaanites, ⁴  Perizzites, ⁵  Hivites, ⁶  and Jebusites, ⁷  seven ⁸  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

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.

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.”

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, ¹  you must not chop down its trees, ²  for you may eat fruit ³  from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! ⁴