accounts for the various instances related in the preceding chapter; where it is observed, that they could not, or did not, drive the old inhabitants out of such and such places, because they sinned against the Lord, and he forsook them, and would not assist them in their enterprises, or them to their sloth and indolence: but they shall be as thorns in your sides: very troublesome and afflicting, see Num 33:55 ; or for straits, as the Septuagint, or be such as would bring them into tribulation, and distress them, as the Targum; so they often did: and their gods shall be a snare unto you; which they suffered to continue, and did not destroy them, as they ought to have done; they would be, as they proved, ensnaring to them, and whereby they were drawn to forsake the worship of the true God, and bow down to them, as we read in some following verses.