QUOTE : Canaanites because of their gods and abominable practices. They were to devote the peoples of Canaan to complete destruction and to show them no mercy. This was called herem, a holy ban on idolatry and its insidious effects. But the way of man is to find loopholes to satisfy his appetite. And the loophole in this case was the fact that Yahweh named the seven nations of Canaan that they were to clear away. These were the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.