Unconquered Canaanite Nations

3 Here’s a list of nations that the Lord caused to remain in order to test Israel (that is,^[a] everyone who had not gained any battle experience in Canaan) ² only so that successive Israeli generations, who had not known war previously, might come to know it by experience. ³ These nations included^[b] the five lords of the Philistines, all of the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. ⁴ They remained there to test Israel, to reveal if they would obey the commands of the Lord that he issued to their ancestors through Moses.

Othniel, Israel’s First Judge

⁵ The Israelis continued to live among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, ⁶ taking their daughters as wives for themselves, giving their own daughters to their sons, and serving their gods.