The killing of the Canaanites was not genocide (an arbitrary killing based on ethnicity) but rather capital punishment (judicial execution) mandated by God for specific, extreme moral depravity. God, as the author of life, and the ultimate source and standard of morality, has the right to judge nations for their conduct.
The Canaanite culture was uniquely wicked. Specific crimes cited include: Burning children alive as offerings to the god Molech. Widespread incest, bestiality, adultery, and homosexuality. Sexual acts (both heterosexual and homosexual) were integrated into their religious worship of deities like Baal and Asherah. See John Day’s book, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament. Day is a leading scholar on this subject.
This judgment was not racially motivated. God explicitly warned the Israelites (in Leviticus 18) that if they committed these same abominations, the land would “vomit” them out, just as it did the Canaanites. Israel was eventually judged and exiled for falling into these exact practices. The command to drive out or destroy the Canaanites was intended to prevent the spiritual and moral infection of Israel. When Israel failed to fully remove the Canaanites, they were indeed “Canaanized,” adopting the same destructive practices. Critics who label this as genocide often overlook the gravity of the sins involved (particularly child sacrifice) and the theological context that God judges all people by the same moral standard.
The Canaanite culture was uniquely wicked. Specific crimes cited include: Burning children alive as offerings to the god Molech. Widespread incest, bestiality, adultery, and homosexuality. Sexual acts (both heterosexual and homosexual) were integrated into their religious worship of deities like Baal and Asherah. See John Day’s book, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament. Day is a leading scholar on this subject.
This judgment was not racially motivated. God explicitly warned the Israelites (in Leviticus 18) that if they committed these same abominations, the land would “vomit” them out, just as it did the Canaanites. Israel was eventually judged and exiled for falling into these exact practices. The command to drive out or destroy the Canaanites was intended to prevent the spiritual and moral infection of Israel. When Israel failed to fully remove the Canaanites, they were indeed “Canaanized,” adopting the same destructive practices. Critics who label this as genocide often overlook the gravity of the sins involved (particularly child sacrifice) and the theological context that God judges all people by the same moral standard.
1. Ancient Warfare Rhetoric or Hyperbole
We must not read ancient military texts with a 21st century literalist mindset. It was a specific type of Ancient Near Eastern “trash talking”.
Archaeological Steles which prove that “total destruction” was a rhetorical idiom, not literal reality.
We must not read ancient military texts with a 21st century literalist mindset. It was a specific type of Ancient Near Eastern “trash talking”.
Archaeological Steles which prove that “total destruction” was a rhetorical idiom, not literal reality.
- Merneptah Stele (13th Century BC): The Egyptian Pharaoh boasts, “Israel is laid waste, his seed is not.” (13th century BC) Obviously this was not true, Israel obviously was not destroyed.
- Mesha Stele: Mesha boasts that “Israel hath perished forever” and that he killed “all 7,000 men, boys, women… for I had devoted them to destruction.” However, we know from history and the Bible that Israel continued to exist and fight Moab. The use of idioms like “devoted to destruction” (herem) means this is a boast of a decisive military victory, not a total genocide.
The Bible itself contradicts “utterly destroyed” meaning “every last person is dead”.
- In Joshua 10:38-39, the text states that Joshua utterly destroyed Hebron and Debir leaving none remaining. Yet in Judges 1:11 (within decades of Joshua’s death) Israel must fight the armies of Hebron and Debir as if they are new enemies. It is historically impossible for a city to be totally destroyed with no survivors and yet immediately be a military threat, unless the first description was hyperbole.
- In 1 Samuel 15 & 27-30): Saul is commanded to “utterly destroy” the Amalekites (man, woman, child, infant). However, Amalekites reappear as a threat just a few chapters later (1 Samuel 27 & 30). In addition, Haman the Agagite (villain in the book of Esther) is a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag. The Bible itself doesn’t treat the “total destruction” as if it happened literally.
- Scholars, Richard Hess and Paul Copan, point out the Hebrew word for “city” (ir) in these contexts almost certainly means military citadel or administrative stronghold, not civilian population center. The civilians lived in the surrounding countryside and would flee at the first sign of war. It is thus the attack on the city (Jericho or Ai) is an attack on a military garrison (likely containing ~100 soldiers) and its political leadership.
2. Divine Judgment Against Specific Evil
The Bible portrays the Canaanite culture not just as unbelieving, but as vomit-inducingly evil. God would make the land "vomit them out" (Leviticus 18). The conquest was thus not imperialist land-grabbing or ethnic cleansing, but a one-off act of divine judicial sentence on a culture that had become morally unlivable. The key evil they are alleged to have practiced is institutionalized burning of children. Archaeologists have discovered tophets – burial grounds containing thousands of urns with the cremated remains of infants. This is proof that the Canaanite conquest was a war of spiritual significance against a demonic practice.
God said to Abraham (Genesis 15) that his descendants would not inherit the land for 400 years because "the sin of the Amorites is not yet complete." So God waited centuries, giving the Canaanites time, before authorizing judgment. It was not an over-reaction, knee-jerk militarism. We should not think of this in terms of a superpower steam rolling a weak country. Israel was the underdog battling a culture of wickedness and walled cities. We should rather think of it like a police SWAT team raiding a violent gang’s hideout to stop them from murdering innocents – an act of force that is morally justifiable because of the evil it prevents.
The Bible portrays the Canaanite culture not just as unbelieving, but as vomit-inducingly evil. God would make the land "vomit them out" (Leviticus 18). The conquest was thus not imperialist land-grabbing or ethnic cleansing, but a one-off act of divine judicial sentence on a culture that had become morally unlivable. The key evil they are alleged to have practiced is institutionalized burning of children. Archaeologists have discovered tophets – burial grounds containing thousands of urns with the cremated remains of infants. This is proof that the Canaanite conquest was a war of spiritual significance against a demonic practice.
God said to Abraham (Genesis 15) that his descendants would not inherit the land for 400 years because "the sin of the Amorites is not yet complete." So God waited centuries, giving the Canaanites time, before authorizing judgment. It was not an over-reaction, knee-jerk militarism. We should not think of this in terms of a superpower steam rolling a weak country. Israel was the underdog battling a culture of wickedness and walled cities. We should rather think of it like a police SWAT team raiding a violent gang’s hideout to stop them from murdering innocents – an act of force that is morally justifiable because of the evil it prevents.
3. Theological Consistency
The sparing of Rahab (a Canaanite prostitute) and her family demonstrates that the ban was not on the basis of ethnicity. It was on the basis of religious allegiance. A Canaanite who turned to Yahweh was spared and included in the community.
The Old Testament God is not some mean guy, but "Jesus as nice guy" is false as well because Jesus himself is the warrior judge who rides in on horseback in Revelation 19 and judges nations with a sword. A perfect God must be a holy God who is angry at evil (like child sacrifice). We shouldn't worship a God that doesn't get angry at such evil.
In the end, the judgment of Canaan points to the Cross, where God takes the judgment of sin upon Himself and gives mercy to all who will turn to Him (like Rahab).
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