Deuteronomy 7:2

7:2 and he ¹  delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate ²  them. Make no treaty ³  with them and show them no mercy!

Deuteronomy 7:26

7:26 You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath ⁴  along with it. ⁵  You must absolutely detest ⁶  and abhor it, ⁷  for it is an object of divine wrath.

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations

20:16 As for the cities of these peoples that ⁸  the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing ⁹  to survive. 20:17 Instead you must utterly annihilate them ¹⁰  – the Hittites, ¹¹  Amorites, ¹²  Canaanites, ¹³  Perizzites, ¹⁴  Hivites, ¹⁵  and Jebusites ¹⁶  – just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 20:18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship ¹⁷  their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.

Leviticus 27:28-29

Things Permanently Dedicated to the Lord

27:28 “‘Surely anything which a man permanently dedicates to the Lord ¹⁸  from all that belongs to him, whether from people, animals, or his landed property, must be neither sold nor redeemed; anything permanently dedicated is most holy to the Lord. 27:29 Any human being who is permanently dedicated ¹⁹  must not be ransomed; such a person must be put to death.

Numbers 21:2-3

21:2 So Israel made a vow ²⁰  to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed deliver ²¹  this people into our ²²  hand, then we will utterly destroy ²³  their cities.” 21:3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, ²⁴  and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called ²⁵  Hormah.

Joshua 7:11

7:11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! ²⁶  They have taken some of the riches; ²⁷  they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions. ²⁸ 

Joshua 8:25-26

8:25 Twelve thousand men and women died ²⁹  that day, including all the men of Ai. 8:26 Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai. ³⁰ 

Joshua 9:24

9:24 They said to Joshua, “It was carefully reported to your subjects ³¹  how the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified ³²  we would lose our lives, so we did this thing.

Joshua 11:14

11:14 The Israelites plundered all the goods of these cities and the cattle, but they totally destroyed all the people ³³  and allowed no one who breathed to live.

Joshua 11:1

Israel Defeats a Northern Coalition

11:1 When King Jabin of Hazor ³⁴  heard the news, he organized a coalition, including ³⁵  King Jobab of Madon, the king of Shimron, the king of Acshaph,

Joshua 15:3

15:3 extended ³⁶  south of the Scorpion Ascent, ³⁷  crossed to Zin, went up from the south to Kadesh Barnea, crossed to Hezron, went up to Addar, and turned toward Karka.

Joshua 15:8-9

15:8 It then went up the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites on the south (that is, Jerusalem), ³⁸  going up to the top of the hill opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the Valley of the Rephaites to the north. 15:9 It then went from the top of the hill to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, extended to the cities of Mount Ephron, and went to Baalah (that is, Kiriath Jearim).

[7:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[7:2]  ² tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizes the statement. The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here. Cf. ASV “shalt (must NRSV) utterly destroy them”; CEV “must destroy them without mercy.”

[7:2]  ³ tn Heb “covenant” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “alliance.”

[7:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “come under the ban” (so NASB); NRSV “be set apart for destruction.” The same phrase occurs again at the end of this verse.

[7:26]  ⁵ tn Or “like it is.”

[7:26]  ⁶ tn This Hebrew verb (שָׁקַץ, shaqats) is essentially synonymous with the next verb (תָעַב, ta’av; cf. תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah; see note on the word “abhorrent” in v. 25), though its field of meaning is more limited to cultic abomination (cf. Lev 11:11, 13; Ps 22:25).

[7:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “detesting you must detest and abhorring you must abhor.” Both verbs are preceded by a cognate infinitive absolute indicating emphasis.

[20:16]  ⁸ tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is “cities.”

[20:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “any breath.”

[20:17]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “utterly.” Cf. CEV “completely wipe out.”

[20:17]  ¹¹ 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.).

[20:17]  ¹² sn Amorite. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[20:17]  ¹³ 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.

[20:17]  ¹⁴ sn Perizzite. This probably refers to a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[20:17]  ¹⁵ 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).

[20:17]  ¹⁶ 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).

[20:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods.”

[27:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Surely, any permanently dedicated [thing] which a man shall permanently dedicate to the Lord.” The Hebrew term חֵרֶם (kherem) refers to things that are devoted permanently to the Lord (see the note on v. 21 above).

[27:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “permanently dedicated from among men.”

[21:2]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative with the verb: They vowed a vow. The Israelites were therefore determined with God’s help to defeat Arad.

[21:2]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text has the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of נָתַן (natan) to stress the point – if you will surely/indeed give.”

[21:2]  ²² tn Heb “my.”

[21:2]  ²³ tn On the surface this does not sound like much of a vow. But the key is in the use of the verb for “utterly destroy” – חָרַם (kharam). Whatever was put to this “ban” or “devotion” belonged to God, either for his use, or for destruction. The oath was in fact saying that they would take nothing from this for themselves. It would simply be the removal of what was alien to the faith, or to God’s program.

[21:3]  ²⁴ tc Smr, Greek, and Syriac add “into his hand.”

[21:3]  ²⁵ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject, and so here too is made passive. The name “Hormah” is etymologically connected to the verb “utterly destroy,” forming the popular etymology (or paronomasia, a phonetic wordplay capturing the significance of the event).

[7:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “They have violated my covenant which I commanded them.”

[7:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “what was set apart [to the Lord].”

[7:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and also they have stolen, and also they have lied, and also they have placed [them] among their items.”

[8:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “fell.”

[8:26]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Joshua did not draw back his hand which held out the curved sword until he had annihilated all the residents of Ai.”

[9:24]  ³¹ tn Heb “your servants.”

[9:24]  ³² tn Or “we were very afraid.”

[11:14]  ³³ tn Heb “but all the people they struck down with the edge of the sword until they destroyed them.”

[11:1]  ³⁴ map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.

[11:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he sent to.”

[15:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “went out.”

[15:3]  ³⁷ tn Or “the Ascent of Scorpions” (עַקְרַבִּים [’aqrabbim] means “scorpions” in Hebrew).

[15:8]  ³⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.