Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ¹  that your descendants will be strangers ²  in a foreign country. ³  They will be enslaved and oppressed ⁴  for four hundred years.

Come, let’s deal wisely ¹  with them. Otherwise ²  they will continue to multiply, ³  and if ⁴  a war breaks out, they will ally themselves with ⁵  our enemies and fight against us and leave ⁶  the country.”

The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks ¹  of the Jordan.” ² 

And early ¹  in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, ²  saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, ³  for we have sinned.” ⁴ 

So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger, ¹  and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now ²  we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country. ³ 

Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the Lord our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.

However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok, ¹  the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer ¹  by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites. ² 

“Go up to this Abarim ¹  hill country, to Mount Nebo (which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho ² ) and look at the land of Canaan that I am giving to the Israelites as a possession.

She told them, “Head ¹  to the hill country, so the ones chasing you don’t find you. ²  Hide from them there for three days, long enough for those chasing you ³  to return. Then you can be on your way.”

They went ¹  to the hill country and stayed there for three days, long enough for those chasing them ²  to return. Their pursuers ³  looked all along the way but did not find them. ⁴ 

When the news reached all the kings on the west side of the Jordan ¹  – in the hill country, the lowlands, ²  and all along the Mediterranean coast ³  as far as ⁴  Lebanon (including the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites) –

The men of Gibeon sent this message to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, “Do not abandon ¹  your subjects! ²  Rescue us! Help us! For all the Amorite kings living in the hill country are attacking us.” ³ 

Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the lowlands, ¹  the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded.

I will drive out before the Israelites all who live in the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, ¹  all the Sidonians; you be sure to parcel it out to Israel as I instructed you.” ² 

The land allotted to Joseph’s descendants extended from the Jordan at Jericho ¹  to the waters of Jericho to the east, through the desert and on up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel. ² 

The whole hill country ¹  will be yours; though it is a forest, you can clear it and it will be entirely yours. ²  You can conquer the Canaanites, though they have chariots with iron-rimmed wheels and are strong.”

Their northern border started at the Jordan, went up to the slope of Jericho ¹  on the north, ascended westward to the hill country, and extended to the desert of Beth Aven.

The Lord was with the men of Judah. They conquered ¹  the hill country, but they could not ²  conquer the people living in the coastal plain, because they had chariots with iron-rimmed wheels. ³ 

She would sit ¹  under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel ²  in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled. ³