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Michael Coogan has described such stories as etiological tales. They are attempts to
explain the fact that there are lots of Canaanite groups included in Israel; and we need to
understand and explain that reality as much as we are conveying an ideological account
in which all Canaanites are obliterated or destroyed. At the very least, these stories
raise questions about the biblical portrait or portrayal of invasion and conquest. And
at most, they illustrate the biblical writers' taste for literary subversion yet again, something
we will see over and over. The imperative of preserving a distinct identity--based
on giving up the worship of other gods or older gods and observing all that is written
in the law of Moses--is reiterated in Joshua's farewell address in Joshua 23, and in the
covenant renewal ceremony in 24. And the central idea is that there is one proper response
to God's mighty acts on behalf of Israel, and that is resolute observance of the book
of the Torah of Moses, without intermingling with the peoples that remain. So in Joshua
23:7-8: "Do not utter the names of their gods or swear by them; do not serve them or bow
down to them, but hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done this day." And verses
11 to 13: For you own sakes, therefore, be most mindful
to love the Lord your God. For should you turn away and attach yourselves to the remnant
of these nations--to those that are left among you--and intermarry with them, you joining
them and they joining you, know for certain that the Lord your God will not continue to
drive these nations out before you; they shall become a snare and a trap for you, a scourge
to your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord
your God has given you.
In 24, the Israelites are assembled at Shechem to renew the covenant, and Joshua recounts
God's mighty deeds on behalf of Israel and exhorts them to choose whom they will serve:
Yahweh, who has done all of this for them so undeservedly, or the gods of those whose
lands they are settling in. And the people are warned of God's jealousy. He demands exclusive
loyalty. He will not tolerate any deviation in the service of alien gods. The ban on intermarriage
here is quite specific. It is directed against Canaanites only, not all non-Israelites, for
a very specific reason: religious purity. Marriage with Canaanites, the people closest
to you, specifically, will lead to the worship of that spouse's god, and Israel is to show
undivided loyalty to God, or God will take the gift of the land from her as he did the
Canaanites. One last remark for you to think about. Consider
the position of the Israelites in the sixth century, the time of the final editing of
the Deuteronomistic history. The Israelites are sitting in exile in Babylon. They are
trying to make sense of the tragedy that has befallen them, the loss of their land. Consider
how a text like Joshua 23 and Joshua 24 would go a long way towards explaining their fate
while retaining faith in Yahweh. We're going to return to this when we reach the conclusion
of the Deuteronomistic history in 2 Kings.