Deuteronomy 20:16-17

Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations

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,

Leviticus 27:28-29

Things Permanently Dedicated to the Lord

27:28 “‘Surely anything which a man permanently dedicates to the Lord ¹⁰  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 ¹¹  must not be ransomed; such a person must be put to death.

Numbers 33:52

33:52 you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, ¹²  and demolish their high places.

Joshua 6:17-25

6:17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, ¹³  except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies ¹⁴  we sent. 6:18 But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for the Lord. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster. ¹⁵  6:19 All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord. ¹⁶  They must go into the Lord’s treasury.”

6:20 The rams’ horns sounded ¹⁷  and when the army ¹⁸  heard the signal, ¹⁹  they gave a loud battle cry. ²⁰  The wall collapsed ²¹  and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. ²²  6:21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, ²³  including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys. 6:22 Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, “Enter the prostitute’s house ²⁴  and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.” ²⁵  6:23 So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside ²⁶  the Israelite camp. 6:24 But they burned ²⁷  the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house. ²⁸  6:25 Yet Joshua spared ²⁹  Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, ³⁰  and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel ³¹  to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. ³² 

Joshua 8:24

8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the men ³³  of Ai who had chased them toward the desert ³⁴  (they all fell by the sword), ³⁵  all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it.

Joshua 9:24

9:24 They said to Joshua, “It was carefully reported to your subjects ³⁶  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 ³⁷  we would lose our lives, so we did this thing.

Joshua 10:28

Joshua Launches a Southern Campaign

10:28 That day Joshua captured Makkedah and put the sword to it and its king. He annihilated everyone who lived in it; he left no survivors. He did to its king what he had done to the king of Jericho. ³⁸ 

Joshua 10:40

10:40 Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the lowlands, ³⁹  the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded.

Joshua 11:11-12

11:11 They annihilated everyone who lived there with the sword ⁴⁰  – no one who breathed remained – and burned ⁴¹  Hazor.

11:12 Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword, ⁴²  as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded.

[20:16]  ¹ tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is “cities.”

[20:16]  ² tn Heb “any breath.”

[20:17]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn Perizzite. This probably refers to a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[20:17]  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).

[20:17]  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).

[27:28]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “permanently dedicated from among men.”

[33:52]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text repeats the verb “you will destroy.”

[6:17]  ¹³ tn Or “dedicated to the Lord.”

[6:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “messengers.”

[6:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Only you keep [away] from what is set apart [to the Lord] so that you might not, as you are setting [it] apart, take some of what is set apart [to the Lord] and make the camp of Israel set apart [to destruction by the Lord] and bring trouble on it.”

[6:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it is holy to the Lord.”

[6:20]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “and the people shouted and they blew the rams’ horns.” The initial statement (“and the people shouted”) seems premature, since the verse goes on to explain that the battle cry followed the blowing of the horns. The statement has probably been accidentally duplicated from what follows. It is omitted in the LXX.

[6:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the people.”

[6:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”

[6:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”

[6:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “fell in its place.”

[6:20]  ²² tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”

[6:21]  ²³ tn Heb “all which was in the city.”

[6:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the house of the woman, the prostitute.”

[6:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore on oath to her.”

[6:23]  ²⁶ tn Or “placed them outside.”

[6:24]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

[6:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the treasury of the house of the Lord.” Technically the Lord did not have a “house” yet, so perhaps this refers to the tabernacle using later terminology.

[6:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “kept alive.”

[6:25]  ³⁰ tn Heb the house of her father.”

[6:25]  ³¹ tn Or “among the Israelites”; Heb “in the midst of Israel.”

[6:25]  ³² map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[8:24]  ³³ tn Heb “residents.”

[8:24]  ³⁴ tn Heb “in the field, in the desert in which they chased them.”

[8:24]  ³⁵ tc Heb “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed.” The LXX omits the words, “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword.” They may represent a later scribal addition.

[9:24]  ³⁶ tn Heb “your servants.”

[9:24]  ³⁷ tn Or “we were very afraid.”

[10:28]  ³⁸ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[10:40]  ³⁹ tn Or “foothills”; Heb “the Shephelah.”

[11:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and they struck down all life which was in it with the edge of the sword, annihilating.”

[11:11]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “burned with fire”; the words “with fire” are redundant in English and have not been included in the translation.

[11:12]  ⁴² tn Heb “and he struck them down with the edge of the sword, he annihilated them.”