But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God. -Deuteronomy 20:16-18Perhaps nothing has caused more controversy than the decimation of whole cities and inhabitants in the land of Canaan by the Israelites. Men, women, and even children were instructed to be killed, but was it justified? I will address this issue head on and give a little understanding as to why this was done, but first a little background information is needed.
It should be noted that God had originally given the land of Canaan to Abraham and his decedents as an everlasting possession:
“Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Gen 17:1)
Abraham's grandson Jacob, also known as Israel, was living in the land God promised His people when a severe famine hit the entire region. Jacob was forced to move south to Egypt, where his son Joseph was second in command in all of Egypt. They would stay in Egypt for 400 years until Mosses led them out. They wondered the desert for an additional 40 years until they finally retook possession of the land of Canaan aka the Promised Land. In this regard, the Canaanites were squatting on land that did not belong to them, and were forcefully evicted. But why did God command them to utterly destroy all the inhabitants? There are three primary reasons:
As a form of judgement:
Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; but [it is] because of the wickedness of these nations [that] the LORD is driving them out from before you. (Deu 9:4)
When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you [anyone] who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, [or one] who practices witchcraft, [or] a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things [are] an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. (Deu 18:9-12)
“But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Gen 15:16)God makes it clear they were to be destroyed because of their wickedness. The inhabitants that lived in that land were the worst of the worst. Among the many evil acts they committed were burning their babies alive to the fire god Molech, while they chanted to drown out the screams. According to Halley’s Bible Handbook “Under the debris, in this ‘High Place,’ Macalister found great number of jars containing the remains of children who had been sacrificed to Baal. The whole area proved to be a cemetery for new-born babes. Another horrible practice was that they called ‘foundation sacrifices.’ When a house was built, a child would be sacrificed, and its body built into the wall, to bring good luck to the rest of the family. Many of these were found in Gezer. They have been found also at Megiddo, Jericho and other places.” Halley’s Bible Handbook, by Henry H. Halley; Joshua, Chapters 23,24, pg. 166; 1965 Edition
Everyone in the region heard about what happened to Pharaoh when the Israelites left Egypt (Jos 9:9). They had 40 plus years to repent and change there ways, and would have been spared like Nineveh. God never brings judgement without first giving the people a period of time to repent. However, they chose not to, and God used the Israelites as a form of judgement against them. God has often times used men as his instrument of judgment in this way. Later in Israel's history God raised up the Assyrians and the Babylonians as judgment against Israel and Judah, respectively.
To prevent them to turning to their gods:
They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For [if] you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. (Exd 23:33)
You shall have no other gods before Me. (Deu 5:7)
Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. (Jdg 10:13)
God had forewarned them that there would be consequences if the inhabitants in Canaan were not completely eliminated. One consequence is they would turn them to their gods and engage in all the detestable things that brought destruction on these nations in the first place (Deu 12:31). This eventually did happen because Israel didn't destroy everyone as they were commanded. While it seems harsh to kill everyone, God knew the consequences if they didn't.
God was not being egotistical when He said not to worship other gods, but it was to protect them. When they served other god's they were breaking God's covenant with them, which they had agreed to on many occasions. When this happened they were out of God's protection and provision, and bad would and did happen. This leads us to the final reason.
To prevent future hostility:
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain [shall be] irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover it shall be [that] I will do to you as I thought to do to them. (Num 33:55-56)
And it came to pass when all the kings who [were] on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon--the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite--heard [about it], that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. (Jos 9:1-2)The Canaanites were hostile to Israel, and in several instances attacked Israel first. Sihon King of Hesbon attacked Israel when all Israel wanted to do was pass through their land in peace (Deu 2:26-35). As a result, his cities were razed and every man, woman, and child was put to the sword. The same thing happened with Og King of Bashan, when he attacked Israel at Edrei (Deu 3:1-7). Joshua 11:19 says not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites. Only the Hivites living in Gibeon made a peace treaty with Israel, though in a deceitful way, and were spared because of it (Jos 9).
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Final conclusion:
Often we look at history from the lens of our 21st century perspective. We try to judge ancient societies by modern day standards, but we forget it took us thousands of years to get where we are now. Change didn't happen over night. The ancient world was a vastly different world where violence was the norm, and life was cheap.
The conquest of Canaan while violent and harsh, was necessary for the aforementioned reasons. However, it should be noted that the conquest of Canaan lasted for a limited period of time, only about seven years. It may seem harsh by modern standards but remember they were a hostile people whose religious practices included human sacrifice, sexual perversions (Lev 18), and self mutilation (1 Kings 18:28). God is a God of love, but He is also a judge. The Israelite were used as a form of judgment just as the Assyrians and Babylonians would later be used as judgement against Israel and Judea for their wickedness. Thankfully we live in an age of grace, and not of judgment.
