20. The Lord was furious with Israel. He said, “This nation has violated the terms of the agreement I made with their ancestors by disobeying me.
21. So I will no longer remove before them any of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.
22. Joshua left those nations to test Israel. I wanted to see whether or not the people would carefully walk in the path marked out by the Lord, as their ancestors were careful to do.”
23. This is why the Lord permitted these nations to remain and did not conquer them immediately; he did not hand them over to Joshua.