55 “‘If, though, you do not drive the inhabitants of the land away from before you,+ those whom you allow to remain will be as irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land where you will dwell.+

2 Remember the long road that Jehovah your God made you walk these 40 years in the wilderness,+ to humble you and to put you to the test+ so as to know what was in your heart,+ whether you would keep his commandments or not.

12 “But if you should turn back at all and stick to what is left of these nations that remain+ with you and you form marriage alliances*+ with them and associate with them and they with you, 13 you should know for sure that Jehovah your God will not continue to drive out* these nations for you.+ They will become a trap and a snare and a scourge on your flanks+ and thorns in your eyes until you have perished from this good land that Jehovah your God has given you.

4 They served as a means of testing Israel to determine whether Israel would obey Jehovah’s commandments that he had given their fathers through Moses.+