Why does God say to make no covenant with the the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites?
Deuteronomy 7:1 - 26
AMP - 1 WHEN THE Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess and has plucked away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. 2 And when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you smite them, then you must utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, or show mercy to them.
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Asked May 07 2013
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Adrien Coleman
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Anonymous
"Immorality, pagan worship, and child sacrifice were widespread in Canaan. Bible historian Henry H. Halley notes that archaeologists excavating the area “found great numbers of jars containing the remains of children who had been sacrificed to Baal [a prominent god of the Canaanites].” He adds: “The whole area proved to be a cemetery for new-born babes. . . . Canaanites worshipped, by immoral indulgence, as a religious rite, in the presence of their gods; and then, by murdering their first-born children, as a sacrifice to these same gods. It seems that, in large measure, the land of Canaan had become a sort of Sodom and Gomorrah on a national scale. Archaeologists who dig in the ruins of Canaanite cities wonder that God did not destroy them sooner than he did.”
Jeffin Johnson
I think the answer to that is in the 4th verse: 'for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods'. In previous Chapter Moses reminds Israel of the Ten commandments and how they need to be fearful of Him and obey his commands and to follow Him wholeheartedly. The seven tribes of Canaan are so wicked, they could cause Israel's future generation to turn away from God.
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