Question

Why did God command the killing of Canaanite civilians, not just soldiers?

Studied by claude-opus-5-5 · asked once

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The text gives its own reasons: the Canaanites' long-standing practices, including child sacrifice (Genesis 15:16; Leviticus 18:24-28; Deuteronomy 12:31), and the danger that Israel would take up their worship (Deuteronomy 20:18). It does not explain why children were included. Christians and Jews disagree about how literally the "leave nothing alive" language should be read and how it fits with God's character.

What the text says

The Bible itself makes the soldier/civilian distinction, then sets it aside for one case. Deuteronomy 20:10-15 is Israel's ordinary law of war. A city must first be offered peace. If it refuses and is besieged, only the men are to be killed, and "the women, the children, the livestock" are spared. Verses 16-18 then make an exception for the cities of "the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites": "you must not leave alive anything that breathes." So the question you are asking is the question the text itself raises. Total war was not Israel's normal practice. It was a specific command about a specific land.

The reasons the text gives:

  • Accumulated wrongdoing. God tells Abraham the land will not be given for four generations, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Genesis 15:16). Leviticus 18:24-28 says the land "vomited out" its inhabitants for the practices listed in that chapter, and Deuteronomy 12:31 names the burning of "their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods."
  • Religious contamination. "Otherwise, they will teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods" (Deuteronomy 20:18; compare Deuteronomy 7:3-4).
  • Not Israel's merit. "It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God is driving them out before you," and not because of Israel's righteousness (Deuteronomy 9:4-5).
  • The same standard applies to Israel. If Israel behaves the same way, the land will vomit them out too (Leviticus 18:28; Deuteronomy 8:19-20). An Israelite town that turns to other gods falls under the same ban (Deuteronomy 13:12-18).

Features of the story that complicate a simple reading. The Canaanite Rahab and her family are spared and live in Israel (Joshua 2; 6:25). The Hivites of Gibeon make peace and survive (Joshua 9). The Israelite Achan and his household are destroyed under the ban (Joshua 7). So the line is not drawn purely by ethnicity. Much of the language is about driving out or dispossessing rather than killing: "little by little I will drive them out" (Exodus 23:28-30). Summary statements that Joshua "left no survivors" (Joshua 10:40; 11:14) sit next to accounts of Canaanites who remain in the land (Joshua 15:63; 16:10; Judges 1:21-36). Similar sweeping language appears in other ancient Near Eastern war records.

What the text does not do is explain why infants and young children were included. It treats the command as God's judgment and right, and leaves that particular question unanswered. Honest readers in every tradition have found it one of the hardest passages in scripture. The Bible also contains its own voice of protest and divine reluctance: "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11), and God's concern for Nineveh's "more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left" (Jonah 4:11).

Where readers differ

A unique act of divine judgment

God alone gives and takes life, and every human death is ultimately in his hands. Here he used Israel as his instrument after centuries of patience (Genesis 15:16), against a culture the text describes as practising child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:31; Leviticus 18:24-28). It was limited to one time and place, was never a general licence, and was applied to Israel too when Israel did the same things (Leviticus 18:28; Deuteronomy 13:12-18). On this view, children who died were judged with their society much as they die in natural disasters, and their final state rests with a just God.

Genesis 15:16Leviticus 18:24Deuteronomy 9:4Deuteronomy 20:16Deuteronomy 12:31

Hyperbolic war language; the aim was dispossession

Ancient conquest accounts routinely claimed total annihilation in stock phrases, for example the Moabite Mesha Stele. Within the Bible, 'no survivors' (Joshua 10:40) stands beside many surviving Canaanites (Judges 1). Deuteronomy 7:2-3 forbids intermarriage with the same peoples it says to destroy, which assumes they would still be around. Exodus 23:28-30 describes gradual driving out. On this reading the command targeted fortified military and cult centres and the removal of Canaanite worship, not the literal killing of every non-combatant.

Exodus 23:28Deuteronomy 7:2Joshua 10:40Joshua 15:63Judges 1:21

Progressive revelation or accommodation, read in light of Christ

God worked with Israel within the moral world of the ancient Near East and revealed his character more fully over time, finally in Jesus. Jesus tells his followers to love their enemies (Matthew 5:43-45) and rebukes disciples who want to call down fire on a village (Luke 9:54-55). Some in this camp hold that the texts record Israel's real but limited understanding of God's will. Others, following an old tradition of reading these chapters spiritually, take them chiefly as figures of the war against sin. The New Testament never commands such warfare.

Matthew 5:43Luke 9:54Hebrews 1:1Ezekiel 33:11

Classical Jewish interpretation: peace was offered first, and the law no longer applies

Rabbinic tradition (Jerusalem Talmud Shevi'it 6:1; Maimonides, Laws of Kings 6:1-5) holds that the offer of peace in Deuteronomy 20:10 applied to the Canaanite nations too. Joshua is said to have sent messages offering peace, departure or war, and only those who chose to fight were destroyed. Joshua 11:19-20 is read as confirming that the cities chose war. The Mishnah (Yadayim 4:4) adds that since the Assyrians mixed the nations, these peoples can no longer be identified, so the command has no present-day application.

Deuteronomy 20:10Joshua 11:19Joshua 9:15

The words it turns on

  • חָרַם ḥāram (חָרַם)

    To devote something irrevocably to God by removing it from human use and possession. In war this meant it could not be taken as plunder, captives or slaves, and usually that it was destroyed.

    Drift: English 'utterly destroy' captures the outcome but loses the religious sense of 'devote to the LORD' or 'place under the ban'. It also hides why plunder was forbidden (Joshua 7).

  • חֵ֫רֶם ḥērem (חֵרֶם)

    The 'ban': something or someone devoted to God. The same word is used for devoted gifts to the sanctuary (Leviticus 27:28).

    Drift: It is often flattened into 'destruction' or modern 'genocide'. The biblical category is religious and covenantal, not ethnic, which is why Rahab is spared and the Israelite Achan is not.

  • יָרַשׁ yārash (יָרַשׁ)

    To take possession of, inherit, or dispossess, often by driving the occupants out.

    Drift: Translations vary between 'drive out', 'possess' and 'destroy'. Many conquest verses speak of dispossession rather than killing, a distinction that matters to the hyperbole view.

  • נְשָׁמָה nəšāmâ (נְשָׁמָה)

    Breath. In Deuteronomy 20:16 and Joshua 10:40 the phrase is 'everything that breathes', i.e. every living being.

What the Bible doesn't say

The Bible does not explain why children and infants were included, and it does not say whether every Canaanite was in fact killed. Its own narratives suggest many were not. It never repeats the command for any later people or era, and the New Testament nowhere instructs believers to wage such war. How much of the conquest happened as described is also debated by historians and archaeologists. Traditions legitimately differ on whether to read the "leave nothing alive" language literally, hyperbolically or spiritually, and on how it fits with the character of God revealed in Christ.

Key verses

  1. Deuteronomy 20:16

    However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.

    The command itself, with the reason given: 'so that they will not teach you' their practices.

  2. Deuteronomy 20:10

    When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace.

    The normal law of war, which spared women and children and shows the Canaanite command was an exception.

  3. Genesis 15:16

    In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

    Judgment is delayed four generations because 'the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete'.

  4. Leviticus 18:24

    Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.

    The land 'vomits out' its inhabitants, with the same warning given to Israel.

  5. Deuteronomy 9:4

    When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

    The conquest is framed as judgment on the nations, not a reward for Israel's goodness.

  6. Deuteronomy 12:31

    You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

    Names child sacrifice as one of the practices being judged.

  7. Exodus 23:28

    I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.

    Describes gradual 'driving out', not only killing.

  8. Joshua 6:25

    And Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her father’s household and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. So she has lived among the Israelites to this day.

    Rahab the Canaanite and her family are spared and join Israel.

  9. Joshua 11:19

    No city made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites living in Gibeon; all others were taken in battle.

    Notes that only Gibeon made peace, which Jewish readers take as evidence that peace was possible.

  10. Judges 1:21

    The Benjamites, however, failed to drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the Benjamites.

    Many Canaanites remain in the land, which complicates 'no survivors' summaries such as Joshua 10:40.

  11. Ezekiel 33:11

    Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

    God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Common points of confusion
The Bible teaches that killing enemy civilians is generally acceptable in war.
Israel's standing law of war spared women and children (Deuteronomy 20:14). The Canaanite command is presented as a one-time exception for a specific land, and the New Testament gives no such command.
The command was purely ethnic: Canaanites were killed simply for being Canaanites.
The reasons given are religious and moral (Deuteronomy 20:18; Leviticus 18:24-28). Canaanites such as Rahab and the Gibeonites were spared, and Israelites like Achan, or a city that turned to idols, fell under the same ban (Joshua 7; Deuteronomy 13:12-18).
The text says Israel actually wiped out every Canaanite.
Alongside the summary claims of total victory, Joshua and Judges repeatedly record Canaanites who remained in the land (Joshua 15:63; 16:10; Judges 1:27-33).
Numbers 31 (Midian) and 1 Samuel 15 (Amalek) are part of the Canaanite command.
Midian and Amalek were not Canaanite nations. Those are separate episodes with their own stated reasons (Numbers 31:16; 1 Samuel 15:2), though readers often discuss them together.

Sources: Berean Standard Bible (verse quotations) · Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (H2763, H2764, H3423, H5397) · Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, entries ḥāram / ḥērem · Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, article 'ḥāram' · Jerusalem Talmud, Shevi'it 6:1 · Mishnah Yadayim 4:4 · Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 6:1-5 · Origen, Homilies on Joshua · The Mesha Stele (Moabite inscription, 9th century BC) · Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan, Did God Really Command Genocide? (2014)

Discussion

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