Deuteronomy 7:23-25

7:23 The Lord your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic ¹  until they are destroyed. 7:24 He will hand over their kings to you and you will erase their very names from memory. ²  Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them. 7:25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent ³  to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 20:16-17

Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations

20:16 As for the cities of these peoples that ⁴  the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing ⁵  to survive. 20:17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them ⁶  – the Hittites, ⁷  Amorites, ⁸  Canaanites, ⁹  Perizzites, ¹⁰  Hivites, ¹¹  and Jebusites ¹²  – just as the Lord your God has commanded you,

Exodus 23:32-33

23:32 “You must make no covenant with them or with their gods. 23:33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare ¹³  to you.”

Exodus 34:12-16

34:12 Be careful not to make ¹⁴  a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare ¹⁵  among you. 34:13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. ¹⁶  34:14 For you must not worship ¹⁷  any other god, ¹⁸  for the Lord, whose name ¹⁹  is Jealous, is a jealous God. 34:15 Be careful ²⁰  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ²¹  they prostitute themselves ²²  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ²³  you will eat from his sacrifice; 34:16 and you then take ²⁴  his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.

Numbers 33:52-56

33:52 you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, ²⁵  and demolish their high places. 33:53 You must dispossess the inhabitants of the land and live in it, for I have given you the land to possess it. 33:54 You must divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. To a larger group you must give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group you must give a smaller inheritance. Everyone’s inheritance must be in the place where his lot falls. You must inherit according to your ancestral ²⁶  tribes. 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living. 33:56 And what I intended to do to them I will do to you.”

¹ tn Heb “he will confuse them (with) great confusion.” The verb used here means “shake, stir up” (see Ruth 1:19; 1 Sam 4:5; 1 Kgs 1:45; Ps 55:2); the accompanying cognate noun refers to confusion, unrest, havoc, or panic (1 Sam 5:9, 11; 14:20; 2 Chr 15:5; Prov 15:16; Isa 22:5; Ezek 7:7; 22:5; Amos 3:9; Zech 14:13).

² tn Heb “you will destroy their name from under heaven” (cf. KJV); NRSV “blot out their name from under heaven.”

³ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abhorrent; detestable”) describes anything detestable to the Lord because of its innate evil or inconsistency with his own nature and character. Frequently such things (or even persons) must be condemned to annihilation (חֵרֶם, kherem) lest they become a means of polluting or contaminating others (cf. Deut 13:17; 20:17-18). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:315.

⁴ tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is “cities.”

⁵ tn Heb “any breath.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “utterly.” Cf. CEV “completely wipe out.”

⁷ sn Hittite. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

⁸ sn Amorite. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

⁹ sn Canaanite. These were the indigenous peoples of the land of Palestine, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

¹⁰ sn Perizzite. This probably refers to a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

¹¹ 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).

¹² 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).

¹³ tn The idea of the “snare” is to lure them to judgment; God is apparently warning about contact with the Canaanites, either in worship or in business. They were very syncretistic, and so it would be dangerous to settle among them.

¹⁴ tn The exact expression is “take heed to yourself lest you make.” It is the second use of this verb in the duties, now in the Niphal stem. To take heed to yourself means to watch yourself, be sure not to do something. Here, if they failed to do this, they would end up making entangling treaties.

¹⁵ sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.

¹⁶ tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “bow down.”

¹⁸ sn In Exod 20:3 it was “gods.”

¹⁹ sn Here, too, the emphasis on God’s being a jealous God is repeated (see Exod 20:5). The use of “name” here is to stress that this is his nature, his character.

²⁰ tn The sentence begins simply “lest you make a covenant”; it is undoubtedly a continuation of the imperative introduced earlier, and so that is supplied here.

²¹ tn The verb is a perfect with a vav consecutive. In the literal form of the sentence, this clause tells what might happen if the people made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land: “Take heed…lest you make a covenant…and then they prostitute themselves…and sacrifice…and invite…and you eat.” The sequence lays out an entire scenario.

²² tn The verb זָנָה (zanah) means “to play the prostitute; to commit whoredom; to be a harlot” or something similar. It is used here and elsewhere in the Bible for departing from pure religion and engaging in pagan religion. The use of the word in this figurative sense is fitting, because the relationship between God and his people is pictured as a marriage, and to be unfaithful to it was a sin. This is also why God is described as a “jealous” or “impassioned” God. The figure may not be merely a metaphorical use, but perhaps a metonymy, since there actually was sexual immorality at the Canaanite altars and poles.

²³ tn There is no subject for the verb. It could be rendered “and one invites you,” or it could be made a passive.

²⁴ tn In the construction this verb would follow as a possible outcome of the last event, and so remain in the verbal sequence. If the people participate in the festivals of the land, then they will intermarry, and that could lead to further involvement with idolatry.

²⁵ tn The Hebrew text repeats the verb “you will destroy.”

²⁶ tn Heb “of your fathers.”