"To understand why Jehovah told Israel to wipe out the Canaanites, one needs to understand Canaanite religion and customs.
On the sacrifice of children:
At the heart of Canaanite religion was sex in all its perversions. The land was polluted with indescribable immorality. They were hopelessly lost and incurable. To illustrate:
The first chapter of Romans vs. 18. describes these early people. One might wonder why Jehovah spared them so long. If the gods to whom they "looked up" were doing these things, how low must the people have fallen? Can any man rise higher than his gods, especially when he has fabricated those gods in his own mind and described them in his literature?"
AncientDays
On the sacrifice of children:
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto demons, And shed innocent
blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. (Psalms 106:37,38)
When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, where thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land, Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after they are destroyed from before thee, ... For even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods. (Deuteronomy 12:29-31.)
At the heart of Canaanite religion was sex in all its perversions. The land was polluted with indescribable immorality. They were hopelessly lost and incurable. To illustrate:
And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord. *Thou shalt not lie with
mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. *Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you. And the land is defiled; therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and mine ordinances, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, who were before you, and the land is defiled); That the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. (Leviticus 18:21-28)
The first chapter of Romans vs. 18. describes these early people. One might wonder why Jehovah spared them so long. If the gods to whom they "looked up" were doing these things, how low must the people have fallen? Can any man rise higher than his gods, especially when he has fabricated those gods in his own mind and described them in his literature?"
AncientDays
