Seven Nations of Canaan

Biblical Text

The expression comes from Deuteronomy 7:1. It refers to the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who lived in the land Israel was about to enter. Deuteronomy 7:1-5 calls them nations "greater and mightier than thou" and commands that they be utterly destroyed. This utter destruction is associated with the Hebrew term herem, which refers to devoting something wholly to God by destroying it. The same passage commands Israel not to make covenants or intermarry with these peoples and to tear down their altars and idols. The same seven nations also appear in Joshua 3:10 and 24:11.

The number of nations listed varies from passage to passage. Exodus 3:8 lists six, omitting the Girgashites. Genesis 15:19-21 lists ten, adding the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and others.

Background

Genesis 10:15-18 records the Hittites (Heth), Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites as descendants of Canaan, the grandson of Noah. Much about the identity of each people remains uncertain.

• Hittites: Some connect them with the Hittites of Anatolia, though scholarly judgments differ.
• Amorites: In the Bible the name is also used for the inhabitants of Canaan as a whole.
• Hivites: The people of Shechem (Genesis 34:2) and the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:7) belonged to this group.
• Jebusites: They lived in Jerusalem until its conquest by David (2 Samuel 5:6-9).
• Perizzites and Girgashites: Little is known about them.

Development Across Scripture

The conquest was not completed all at once. Judges 1 and Judges 3:5 record that these peoples remained and lived among the Israelites. In the time of Solomon, their remaining descendants were conscripted for forced labor (1 Kings 9:20-21). After the return from exile, Ezra addressed the problem of intermarriage with these peoples (Ezra 9:1).

In the New Testament, Paul, preaching in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, recounts the history of Israel. He states that God destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance (Acts 13:19). Rahab of Jericho, meanwhile, is remembered as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:31), and her name appears in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Interpretation and Debate

The command to destroy these nations is a subject of ethical debate today. Interpretations generally fall into three broad approaches:

• Reading it as God's judgment on the sins of the land's inhabitants, based on Genesis 15:16: "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
• Viewing it as hyperbolic idiom common in ancient war accounts.
• Understanding it within a framework of progressive revelation.

Scholars also disagree about the archaeological evidence for the scale and timing of the conquest. Early church writers such as Origen are known to have interpreted Joshua's conquest as a spiritual battle against evil within the believer.

In the Korean Church

In Korean church preaching, the seven nations are often likened to sins or bad habits that believers must overcome. Preachers sometimes assign a meaning to each nation's name, such as "fear" or "worldliness." Such etymological interpretations, however, have not been confirmed by scholarship and should be distinguished from what the text itself says.