1 Nephi 17:32-33

In verse 31, Nephi is talking about how the Lord was there for the Israelites when they were righteous. When Moses died and Joshua was to lead them to their promised land, the Lord prepared a place for them and the Israelites helped in this. They were Nephi's forefathers and commanded to drive the "children of the land" out so they could inhabit this place on the other side of the Jordan River. I wondered who the children of the land were. Nephi says that they were not righteous and that is why the Lord saw fit to allow them to be driven out. The cross-reference for verse 32 helps us with this. It refers to Exodus 34:11, which says:

"11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite."

In Numbers 33:52-53, we see a little why the Lord had wanted them to be driven out (they broke the first commandment):

"52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
53 And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it."

Then, as a third witness, we have the scripture from Joshua 24:8, which says:

"8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you."

Nephi then asks his brothers if they thought that the children of the land were righteous, and that these things would have happened because they were righteous. He answered the question himself and said that they would not have happened if they were righteous.