Will clear away these nations before you: God will drive them out as the Israelites advance (see verse 1).

Little by little: this means God will do this gradually, not all at once. The reason for this strategy is given in the following statement.

You may not make an end of them at once: that is, “… not finish them off immediately.” This would upset the balance of nature (the ecological balance). Exo 23.29-30 has a fuller statement of the matter. If all the native peoples of Canaan were killed, there would be an unusual increase in the number of wild animals, which would be a danger for the Israelites. Instead of at once here, Exo 23.30 has “in one year.”

Wild beasts may be expressed as “forest [or, jungle] animals” in many languages, or “nondomestic animals” in others.

Good News Translation is a helpful translation model for this verse, as is Contemporary English Version:

• As you attack these nations, the LORD will force them out little by little. He won’t let you get rid of them all at once—if he did, there wouldn’t be enough people living in the land to keep down the number of wild animals.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .