Only six of the seven Canaanite nations are mentioned here; the Girgashites are missing from the list. This is because the first six Canaanite nations personified the six unrectified emotions of the animal soul, while the Girgashites personified the animal soul’s drive to express these unrectified emotions in thought, speech, and action. When we rectify the six emotions of our animal soul, we will not have to worry about combating any drive to express them.
But until this process is complete, we must control our faculties of thought, speech, and action in order to ensure that they serve only holy purposes and not those of the six unrectified emotions of our animal soul. The next verse therefore enjoins us to “beware, lest you make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.”1
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