Absolute faithfulness to God alone and the absolute ban on compromise with pagan religions of the other nations is an obvious obligation resulting from Israel's total commitment to her God. This is referred to in chapters 6: 14-15, 7: 2-6 and 7: 24-26. But we cannot ignore the harshness of these words:

'Destroy every nation that the Loan your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal' (7: 16).

'When the LORD your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy' (7: 2).

In the next chapter we shall look at what is known of the religion of the Canaanites, the main group of people inhabiting Canaan before the conquest by the Israelites, and we shall see why it was to be necessary for the Israelites to reject and destroy everything connected with Canaanite religion if they were to remain faithful to their own faith and way of life. But it seems barbarous that the Canaanite people should be destroyed as well. To understand this attitude we have to see it against the background of the time.

Amongst the peoples of the ancient Middle East, war was linked with religion. No leader would take his warriors into battle without being convinced that he had the approval and support of the god or gods of his people. We have already seen the Israelite understanding of God as the God of their victories against those who tried to oppose them; God, not their own human strength, defeated the Amalekites who attacked them in the desert, and God will defeat the enemies whom they will confront in Canaan. The enemies of Israel were the enemies of God; in their defeat their false gods fell before the one God. The gods of Canaan and their worshippers had to be obliterated from the sight of the one God. Their destruction was understood as a sacred duty. The Hebrew word herem, used for this total destruction of people and their things, has the idea of consecrating what is destroyed to God. In the sacrifice of the burnt-offering, the whole animal was destroyed by burning, removing it completely from the possession of man and offering it wholly to God. In the act of the herem, there is a similar idea. Victory over the gods of Canaan must be offered to God.

The words of Jesus in Luke 6: 27-'Love your enemies '-are in sharp contrast to the passages we have noted in Deuteronomy 7, but in their earlier years as a community, the Israelites were faced with a fight for survival. Against the background of their time and situation, the idea of the herem is understandable. As they prepared to attack the walled cities of Canaan, the Israelites needed to be completely convinced that they were fighting in the strength of their God, and would defeat the Canaanites.