The reason that God will enable them to be victorious

9 “You people of Israel, listen to me! You will soon [HYP] cross the Jordan River. In the land that you will enter, there are large cities that have very high walls around them that seem to [HYP] extend up to the sky. There are people-groups in that land that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. 2 Those people are very tall and strong. Some of them are giants who are descendants of Anak. You know about them, and you have heard people say that no one [RHQ] can defeat the descendants of Anak. 3 But I want you to know that Yahweh our God will go ahead of you. He will be like a raging/roaring fire. While you advance, he will defeat and destroy them. As a result, you will quickly be able to expel some of them and kill the others, which is what Yahweh promised that you would do.

4 “After Yahweh our God has expelled them for you, do not say to yourselves, ‘It is because we are righteous that Yahweh has enabled us to capture this land.’ The truth is that it is because the people in that land are wicked that Yahweh will expel them as you advance. 5 I say again that it is not because you are righteous or because you do things that are righteous that you will enter and capture that land. It is because those people-groups are very wicked that Yahweh our God will expel them as you advance, and because he intends to do what he vowed to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would do. 6 I want you to know that it is not because you are righteous that Yahweh our God is giving you this good/fertile land. I say that because you are not righteous; you are a very stubborn [IDM] people.”