Deuteronomy 4:38

4:38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 7:1-2

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ²  Girgashites, ³  Amorites, ⁴  Canaanites, ⁵  Perizzites, ⁶  Hivites, ⁷  and Jebusites, ⁸  seven ⁹  nations more numerous and powerful than you – 7:2 and he ¹⁰  delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate ¹¹  them. Make no treaty ¹²  with them and show them no mercy!

Deuteronomy 7:22-23

7:22 He, ¹³  the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you. 7:23 The Lord your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic ¹⁴  until they are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 9:1

Theological Justification of the Conquest

9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 9:5

9:5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, ¹⁶  that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he ¹⁷  made on oath to your ancestors, ¹⁸  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus 23:27-30

23:27 “I will send my terror ¹⁹  before you, and I will destroy ²⁰  all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs ²¹  to you. 23:28 I will send ²²  hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you. 23:29 I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals ²³  multiply against you. 23:30 Little by little ²⁴  I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

Exodus 34:11

34:11 “Obey ²⁵  what I am commanding you this day. I am going to drive out ²⁶  before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

[4:38]  ¹ tn Heb “(as) an inheritance,” that is, landed property that one can pass on to one’s descendants.

[7:1]  ² sn Hittites. 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.).

[7:1]  ³ sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ⁴ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ⁵ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, 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.

[7:1]  ⁶ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ⁷ sn Hivites. 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 the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ⁹ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[7:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “covenant” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “alliance.”

[7:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 7:19.

[7:23]  ¹⁴ 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).

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fortified to the heavens” (so NRSV); NLT “cities with walls that reach to the sky.” This is hyperbole.

[9:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “uprightness of your heart” (so NASB, NRSV). The Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”), though essentially synonymous here with יֹשֶׁר (yosher, “uprightness”), carries the idea of conformity to an objective standard. The term יֹשֶׁר has more to do with an inner, moral quality (cf. NAB, NIV “integrity”). Neither, however, was grounds for the Lord’s favor. As he states in both vv. 4-5, the main reason he allowed Israel to take this land was the sinfulness of the Canaanites who lived there (cf. Gen 15:16).

[9:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[23:27]  ¹⁹ tn The word for “terror” is אֵימָתִי (’emati); the word has the thought of “panic” or “dread.” God would make the nations panic as they heard of the exploits and knew the Israelites were drawing near. U. Cassuto thinks the reference to “hornets” in v. 28 may be a reference to this fear, an unreasoning dread, rather than to another insect invasion (Exodus, 308). Others suggest it is symbolic of an invading army or a country like Egypt or literal insects (see E. Neufeld, “Insects as Warfare Agents in the Ancient Near East,” Or 49 [1980]: 30-57).

[23:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “kill.”

[23:27]  ²¹ tn The text has “and I will give all your enemies to you [as] a back.” The verb of making takes two accusatives, the second being the adverbial accusative of product (see GKC 371-72 §117.ii, n. 1).

[23:28]  ²² tn Heb “and I will send.”

[23:29]  ²³ tn Heb “the beast of the field.”

[23:30]  ²⁴ tn The repetition expresses an exceptional or super-fine quality (see GKC 396 §123.e).

[34:11]  ²⁵ tn The covenant duties begin with this command to “keep well” what is being commanded. The Hebrew expression is “keep for you”; the preposition and the suffix form the ethical dative, adding strength to the imperative.

[34:11]  ²⁶ tn Again, this is the futur instans use of the participle.