Deuteronomy 20:17
But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
Moses rehearsed the laws God had given Israel before they crossed the Jordan into the promised land, and this command is part of that rehearsal. It belongs with Deuteronomy 21-22 in the morning reading for Saturday, March 13, within readings covering Deuteronomy 3-22 and Mark 10:23-13:37. In that setting, Deuteronomy 3-22 recounts Israel's experiences and God's guidance as one constant appeal to serve the Lord, to turn away from the sins that wrecked the other nations, and to exemplify Him, with greatness and continuance lying only in this. The command is bound to Moses' warning that Israel must resist being drawn away to worship other gods, guarding the wilderness church against apostasy and the worship of the sun, moon, and stars.
Israel was commanded to utterly destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites as enemies of God, as the Lord commanded, rather than keeping them as slaves. The destruction was ordered when their iniquity was full, after their wickedness had become so vile and hopeless that destruction was the only merciful course, and the destruction of the Amorites was delayed for four hundred years until that point.
The peoples were condemned for degrading idolatry, crimes, and cruel human sacrifices, including worship of Moloch compared with Aztec human sacrifice, which made them a danger to Israel's faith. God used faithful Israel as His commissioned instrument to carry out His judgments against them, to impress on Israel God's hatred of idolatry, to help preserve them in true religion, and to show that the gods trusted by the heathen were powerless beside the power of Jehovah. The command concerns Israel as God's commissioned instrument of divine judgment and does not give people a general right to take life on their own authority.
Those who share the spirit of the Canaanite peoples will also be destroyed among the wicked in the second death. The Spanish conquerors were encouraged by this scriptural precedent for conquest, though their rapacity and cruelty are not endorsed. The destruction has been applied to the Southern slaveholding population, claiming that slavery was so deeply rooted in them that it could be eradicated only by their deaths, including the deaths of women and children. The command to destroy rather than enslave the Canaanite nations is evidence that the curse on Canaan did not require personal slavery.