The Jewish people will soon be entering the Land of Israel. Moses tells them that God will remove the Canaanites “little by little.” Why won’t this be done quickly?
Here’s what Moses told them:
22. And the Lord your God will clear away those nations before you, little by little; you may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field grow numerous upon you.
It appears that not only will God act slowly, but He’s also forbidding the Jewish people to act quickly.
What’s going on here?
God’s Original Promise
It turns out that Moses is reminding the Children of Israel of something God told them 40 years earlier.
29. I will not drive them out from before you in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against you.
30. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you are increased, and inherit the land.
(Note: In both of these verses, “drive out” is from the Hebrew “gareish.” More about that later.)
These 2 verses were spoken by God after the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
Abarbanel suggests a reason behind God’s statement.
God is telling them that conquering the Land will take time. Without some advance warning, they might have concluded that the delay was due to God’s inability to quickly drive out the Canaanites. Therefore the verse says, “Little by little I will drive them out from before you …”
Moses Restates God’s Promise
Now we understand that Moses is restating God’s promise to the generation that will enter the Land.
Let’s look at our verse more closely.
clear away – this is from the Hebrew “nashal,” not “gareish” as was written in Exodus. In a later section I will discuss a bit about these words.
Rabbi Saadia Gaon explains that God will scatter, uproot, and destroy the Canaanite nations.
Netziv in HaEmek Davar adds that it is God’s oversight to move them from place to place to reduce their strength.
God’s oversight is the concept of God working in subtle ways for the benefit of a person, or in this case, of the Jewish people.
you may not destroy them at once – Ramban explains that this is a promise that God will eventually destroy them and will send His wasps (verse 7:20) to destroy those that remain and are hidden in the Land. The majority of the those nations will be destroyed quickly, but not all of them.
Bechor Shor writes that the Jewish people have the ability to destroy them, however, it is not to their benefit to destroy them quickly.
He adds that everything that is detrimental to a person if he does it, even though he has the ability to do it, it is appropriate to label it as “you may not” or “you are not able” [Hebrew: lo tuchol].
lest the beasts of the field grow numerous upon you – Rashi is puzzled because if the Jewish people fulfill God’s will then they do not need to fear wild animals. As written in Job 5:23, “and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.”
Rashi explains that God knew that they would sin and as a result would need to fear wild animals.
Rabbi Isaac Samuel Reggio understands the verse is stating an objective fact: the Jewish people were not numerous. As Moses said a few verses earlier:
7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples.
Hence, they did not have the ability at that time to settle to all parts of the land.
Rabbi Sorotzkin explains God does not want wild beasts to be wandering freely about the land, even if they don’t harm the Children of Israel.
Drive Out Or Destroy?
In Exodus 23, God’s promise to the Jewish people is to “drive out” the nations living in Canaan.
The Hebrew word used is “gareish” (root: gimmel-reish-shin) which can be translated as dismiss, chase out, or banish.
But here in Deuteronomy 7:22 Moses says that “God will clear away those nations…”
Moses uses the Hebrew “nashal” (root: nun-shin-lamed) which is translated as dispossess, remove, drive away, or expel.
The truth is, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between these two words. In fact, Daat Mikra commentary explains that nashal means gareish!
Commanded to Destroy
But there is a command for the Jewish people to destroy the nations of Canaan.
1. When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has cast out [Hebrew: nashal] many nations before you, …
2. And when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you; you shall strike them, and completely destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
A later verse says this:
17. But you shall completely destroy them: the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord your God has commanded you.
Rambam cites this verse when he discusses the commandment to conquer the Land of Israel:
It is a positive commandment to destroy the seven nations as Deuteronomy 20:17 states: “you shall completely destroy them.”
A Subtle Commandment
It turns out the commandment is more subtle than it first appears.
We get more detail in Kings and Wars 6:1. Rambam writes, based on Deuteronomy 20:10, that any war must be preceded by an offer of peace.
In Kings and Wars 6:5, Rambam details that Joshua sent 3 messages to the nations of Canaan before the Jews entered the land.
- Message 1: Whoever wants to flee, flee now.
- Message 2: Whoever wants to surrender, make peace and do it now.
- Message 3: Whoever wants war, now is the time to fight.
Rambam discusses many details about these topics, but this article is not the place to go into more detail.
It appears to me that Exodus 23:29-30 (“gareish”) and Deuteronomy 7:22 (“nashal”) apply to Joshua’s first message.
Those who chose to stay were then offered a chance to make peace.
Those who refused to make peace were then subject to Deuteronomy 20:17, “you shall completely destroy them.”
Promise Fulfilled
Malbim points out that in Joshua 10 five Amorite kings formed a pact to fight against the Jewish people.
5. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, … gathered themselves together …
9. Joshua therefore came to them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.
10. And the Lord struck them with confusion before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon …
The kings of the south did not gather together again against the Jewish people.
Then, as recorded in Joshua 11, a similar thing happened in the north.
Even though there were some major battles, the fighting to conquer the Land of Israel also involved battles for individual cities. These battles are outlined in Joshua 10 – 12.
The result was it took 7 years of fighting.
This is a fulfillment of “God will clear away those nations before you, little by little.”
Further Reading
Deuteronomy 7:22 is included in the weekly parsha Eikev.