John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 1. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it , etc.] The land of Canaan they were just now going into to take possession of; their introduction into which is here, as in many other places, ascribed not to themselves, or their leaders, but to the Lord as their covenant God: and hath cast out many nations before thee ; even all that were in it, the seven following: the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites ; the Canaanites were a particular nation in the land of Canaan, which had their name from Canaan himself; the rest were called from different sons of his; (see Genesis 10:15-17), the country of the Gergesenes, the same with the Girgashites, continued its name unto the times of Christ, ( Matthew 8:28), seven nations greater and mightier than thou ; more in number, and more robust in body, some being of a gigantic stature; there were ten of these nations in Abraham’s time, three of them were since sunk or swallowed up among the rest, the Kenites, and Kenizires, and the Rephaim; for instead of the Kadmonites the Hivites are here put, which seem to be the same.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-11 - Here is a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God, must have n communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. Limiting the orders to destroy, to the nations here mentioned, plainly shows tha after ages were not to draw this into a precedent. A prope understanding of the evil of sin, and of the mystery of a crucifie Saviour, will enable us to perceive the justice of God in all his punishments, temporal and eternal. We must deal decidedly with ou lusts that war against our souls; let us not show them any mercy, but mortify, and crucify, and utterly destroy them. Thousands in the worl that now is, have been undone by ungodly marriages; for there is mor likelihood that the good will be perverted, than that the bad will be converted. Those who, in choosing yoke-fellows, keep not within the bounds of a profession of religion, cannot promise themselves help meet for them.
Original Hebrew כי3588 יביאך935 יהוה3068 אלהיך430 אל413 הארץ776 אשׁר834 אתה859 בא935 שׁמה8033 לרשׁתה3423 ונשׁל5394 גוים1471 רבים7227 מפניך6440 החתי2850 והגרגשׁי1622 והאמרי567 והכנעני3669 והפרזי6522 והחוי2340 והיבוסי2983 שׁבעה7651 גוים1471 רבים7227 ועצומים6099 ממך׃4480
