Deuteronomy 9:1,2 - Hear O Israel

9:1

We now come to more warnings about the dangers they will face in the Promised Land, and these dangers are both external and internal, with the latter being the most serious. They would go to “dispossess nations greater and stronger than you”. The odds would seem to be stacked against them. “With large cities that have walls up to the sky”. This is another example of a warning against taking the Bible over literally. It is a use of hyperbole, it does not literally mean that the walls reached up to the sky, just that the walls were massive.

9:2

So the cities themselves would seem to be impregnable, but the people would also be fearsome. They were occupied by the Anakites, who had a terrible reputation. “You know about them and have heard it said ...” The common wisdom was that they could not be defeated. We need to beware of taking on board common knowledge. Such knowledge usually ignores God, and will ultimately prove to be nonsense.