'Earlier' in the Bible

And Caleb went against the Canaanites of Hebron: (now in earlier times Hebron was named Kiriath-arba:) and he put Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai to the sword.

And from there he went up against the people of Debir. (Now the name of Debir in earlier times was Kiriath-sepher.)

So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.)

He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war.

the Israelites counterattacked. Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; they struck down about thirty men. They said, "There's no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle."