You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you are dispossessing served their gods: on the high mountains and on the hills and under every leafy tree.
English: “That you are dispossessing them” — Scripture teaches that you must not act as they acted, for if you do, others will come and dispossess you.
On the daf / in context: The reason the nations are being driven out is their idolatry; the same consequence will befall Israel if they adopt the same practices.
Type of Learning
Derash on the verse (Sifrei) — the moral implication of the dispossession.
What Is Learned
Israel must not imitate the idolatrous practices of the nations, lest they themselves be dispossessed.