So shalt thou do to all cities that are at a great distance from thee, and are not of these cities which thou shalt receive in possession.

Thus shalt thou do to all the cities which are very distant from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.

So thou dost do to all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.

So you are to do to all the towns far away, which are not the towns of these nations.

So shall you do to all the cities which are at a great distance from you, those which are not among the cities that you shall receive as a possession.

Sic facies omnibus urbibus longinquis a te valde, quae non sunt de urbibus gentium istarum.

Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities. An exception is introduced, that the Jews should not apply the common laws of war to the Canaanitish nations, with respect to whose extermination the sentence had passed. For God had not only armed the Jews to carry on war with them, but had appointed them to be the ministers and executioners of His vengeance. We have elsewhere explained that there were just causes why He would have their race and memory radically destroyed; especially since He had borne with them for four hundred years, whilst in their wicked obstinacy they had not ceased to grow worse and worse, from whence their desperate impiety was manifest. What had been said before is here, however, repeated, i e., that since that land was consecrated to God's service, its inhabitants were to be exterminated, who could do nothing but contaminate it; and therefore this would be profitable for the Israelites, lest by their wiles they should be attracted to false superstitions.

Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities [which are] very far off from thee, which [are] not of the cities of these (f) nations.
(f) For God had appointed the Canaanites to be destroyed, and made the Israelites the executers of his will, (Deuteronomy 7:1).

Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee,.... As all such were reckoned that were without the land of Israel, even all in their neighbouring nations, the Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites, Syrians, &c. for the children of Israel never went to war with any very distant nations, unless they came unto them and invaded them; nor did they seek to carry their conquests to any great distance, when the most powerful and victorious, as in the days of David and Solomon:
which are not of the cities of these nations; of these seven nations, as the Targum of Jonathan, the seven nations of the land of Canaan; all that were not of them were accounted foreign cities, and at a distance.

It was in this way that Israel was to act with towns that were far off; but not with the towns of the Canaanites ("these nations"), which Jehovah gave them for an inheritance. In these no soul was to be left alive; but these nations were to be laid under the ban, i.e., altogether exterminated, that they might not teach the Israelites their abominations and sins (cf. Deuteronomy 7:1-4; Deuteronomy 12:31). כּל־נשׁמה, lit., every breath, i.e., everything living, by which, however, human beings alone are to be understood (comp. Joshua 10:40; Joshua 11:11, with Deuteronomy 11:14).