“‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.

I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.

You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.

But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say,

From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.

“God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. They devour hostile nations and break their bones in pieces; with their arrows they pierce them.

Balaam’s Fifth Message

Then Balaam saw Amalek and spoke his message: “Amalek was first among the nations, but their end will be utter destruction.”

This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Driving Out the Nations

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?”

The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.

Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.

It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.

Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.

The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,

and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.”