all the inhabitants of the hill-country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allot you it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you.
1. God never absolutely, i.e., unconditionally, promised to put them in possession of this land. The promise of their possessing the whole was suspended on their fidelity to God. They were not faithful, and therefore God was not bound by his promise to give them any part of the land, after their first act of national defection from his worship.