20:16 As for the cities of these peoples that 1 the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing 2 to survive. 20:17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them 3 – the Hittites, 4 Amorites, 5 Canaanites, 6 Perizzites, 7 Hivites, 8 and Jebusites 9 – just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 20:18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship 10 their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.
1 tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is “cities.”
2 tn Heb “any breath.”
3 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “utterly.” Cf. CEV “completely wipe out.”
4 sn Hittite. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200
5 sn Amorite. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200
6 sn Canaanite. These were the indigenous peoples of the land of Palestine, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000
7 sn Perizzite. This probably refers to a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).
8 sn Hivite. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on “Horites” in Deut 2:12).
9 tc The LXX adds “Girgashites” here at the end of the list in order to list the full (and usual) complement of seven (see note on “seven” in Deut 7:1).
10 tn Heb “to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods.”