Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 20:16
However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses instructs the Israelites on the plains of Moab regarding military protocol during the conquest of Canaan. He contrasts the treatment of distant cities with the mandatory destruction of the nations within the inheritance boundary.
The words — The Hebrew word רַק (rak) translates literally as "only" or "however," functioning as a strict limiting particle. The phrase מֵעָרֵי הָעַמִּים הָאֵלֶּה (me-'arei ha-'ammim ha-'elleh) means "from the cities of these peoples."
The thread — This directive resurfaces in Joshua 11:14 as the conquest unfolds, mirrors the conditional vow in Numbers 21:2, and originates in the initial command of Deuteronomy 7:1. The textual pattern consistently links land possession with total judgment on the specified nations.
Why it lands — The text explicitly commands that no breathing creature remain in the designated cities as Israel takes the inheritance. It requires unqualified compliance with divine judgment, removing human discretion from the execution of the conquest.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Cross-references
- Joshua 11:14 The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.
- Numbers 21:2 So Israel made a vow to the LORD: “If You will deliver this people into our hands, we will devote their cities to destruction.”
- Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
- Deuteronomy 7:16 You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
- Joshua 6:17 Now the city and everything in it must be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all those with her in her house will live, because she hid the spies we sent.
- Exodus 23:31 And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
- Numbers 21:35 So they struck down Og, along with his sons and his whole army, until no remnant was left. And they took possession of his land.
- Numbers 33:52 you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
- Joshua 10:28 On that day Joshua captured Makkedah and put it to the sword, along with its king. He devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors. So he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.
- Joshua 10:40 So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.