Deuteronomy 20:16-18

Laws Concerning Warfare

16 But u in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but v you shall devote them to complete destruction, 1 the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that w they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you x sin against the Lord your God.

  1. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 7:1 - 2
    When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves.
    Numbers 33:52
    Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.
    Joshua 11:14
    And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the people of Israel took for their plunder. But every man they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed.
  2. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 7:2
    And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
  3. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 7:4
    For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
    Deuteronomy 12:30 - 31
    Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? - that I also may do the same.
    Deuteronomy 18:9
    When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
  4. Cross References
    Exodus 23:33
    They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.