The victory Israel is about to achieve will be the Lord’s doing, not Israel’s. It will be an expression of God’s grace and not of this nation’s prowess. Once again Israel is summoned to listen (9:1), as in Deuteronomy 6:4–9. They will face the giants (Anakim), of whom they were previously terrified (Deut. 1:28), but the emphatic thrice-repeated “he” in the Hebrew of verse 3 reminds them of the initial words of the Ten Commandments, “I am the Lord your God”:

“He [is the one] who goes over before you as a consuming fire” (ESV; cf. 4:24);

“He will destroy them”;

“He will subdue them before you.”

But God’s int…