Could this not be a metaphor for how we should treat sin in our own lives? Drive it out, seek to let no remnant remain. Don’t make a place for it or it will constantly nag.
Numbers 33:55 ESV
[55] But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.
