Deuteronomy 9:3

3. Understand therefore It is better not to render the verb as an imperative. It should be read in connexion with the first verse. Thou art to pass over Jordan at this time, and thou shalt know this day that Jehovah thy God, he that goeth before thee, a consuming fire, he will destroy them. So shalt thou drive them out. Some critics, as Knobel and Colenso, write as if the speaker, in the ardour of his discourse, had forgotten that he had earlier said, Thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee, (Deuteronomy 7:22.) There the thought expressed is that the whole land is not at one fell blow to be depopulated. Here the speaker has in mind those whom they are to meet in battle. Over them they are to have overwhelming victory.