Quotes from C. S. Cowles

we should not be amazed that God ordered the death of the Canaanites, but rather we should stand in amazement that he lets anyone live.

Attributing the command to annihilate Canaanites to God can be partly explained by the fact that the Israelites had no concept of Satan prior to the Babylonian exile. Thus all things—life and death, sickness and health, blessing and cursing—were seen as coming directly from the hand of the Sovereign Lord (see Deut. 28; 32:39–42; Ps. 44:1–19; Isa. 13:9–16).